Drumgooland Presbyterian Church, Cloghskelt, Banbridge, County Down, BT32 5AT

Drumgooland Presbyterian Church

Drumgooland Presbyterian Church is an unusual early 19th century rural Presbyterian meeting house, built around 1834–35 and situated on an exposed, elevated site at the crossroads of the Drumgooland and Cloughskelt Roads in Cloghskelt townland. It is of particular historical significance as one of the first Burgher Seceder congregations in Ireland, with origins in the mid-18th century. The building retains much of its historic fabric and character, and is a good example of its type, though its setting has been somewhat compromised by the loss of original landscaping and the remodelling of the church hall.

Architecture and Exterior

The church is built on a symmetrical lateral plan, five gables wide, with a central projecting entrance porch. The multi-pitched roof is covered in natural slate, with simple projecting rendered eaves and ogee-profile cast-iron rainwater goods. The walls are finished in unpainted ruled-and-lined cement render, with stepped quoins to the principal elevation and plain banding to the porch. There is no plinth, and the corners are finished with pointed granite pinnacles.

Windows throughout are generally pointed-arched, all now fitted with uPVC glazing, and have slightly projecting masonry cills. The windows on the principal elevation are additionally ornamented with hood moulds.

The principal elevation faces east and is symmetrically composed across five gables around the projecting central porch. It is retained by a bank, with additional support from a retaining wall to the right side. Each gable contains a single window. The porch features a simple raking cornice to its gable over a plain frieze, forming a pediment inset with a circular motif. Below this are two lancet windows with rectangular panels beneath. The entrance is accessed by twin curving concrete staircases on ruled-and-lined rendered plinths, with simply detailed arcaded curved balustrades terminating in square piers, and cast-iron half-standards to the balustrade. The staircases lead to timber-sheeted replacement doors with modern lattice-glazed overlights. An undercroft beneath the porch is accessed by a timber-sheeted door. The south elevation has two windows, with the left-hand one converted to provide DDA-compliant access. The north elevation has a window to each side. The rear elevation is otherwise plain, with a single window to each gable, though the centre is abutted by a modern gabled extension of no architectural interest.

Interior

The church retains a noteworthy interior with much historic fabric and character surviving, though detailed descriptions of specific internal features are not recorded.

Setting

The church overlooks a rural road from the top of a sloping site, commanding views to the High Mournes to the east and the Dromara Hills to the south. It is surrounded by an expanse of tarmac. To the north lies a burial ground, and to the north-east a heavily renovated single-storey church hall, which replaced an earlier schoolhouse demolished in the mid-20th century. A late 20th century bungalow stands to the south-east of the site.

The site boundary to the road is formed by a rendered boundary wall with cast-iron gates supported on plain rendered piers with pyramidal granite caps; a secondary entrance has steel gates. The rear of the site is bounded by a rubble drystone wall. The church hall is accessed from the road through a wrought-iron gate on circular rendered piers with conical caps.

Historical Background

The congregation at Drumgooland dates from the mid-18th century, when a number of local families sought a more evangelical form of worship in contrast to what they regarded as the restrictive ritualism of mainstream Presbyterianism of the time. They associated themselves with the Burgher Seceders of Scotland, a movement established in the 1730s. The Scottish Burgher Seceders sent the Reverend Thomas Mayne to Drumgooland, and he was ordained as minister of the congregation on 20 June 1749, making him the first Burgher minister to settle in an Irish congregation.

An earlier meeting house stood on the same plot of land, shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833–34, positioned some metres to the east of the present building. This was presumably the building used by the congregation from the 18th century. The Townland Valuations were carried out during the interval between the demolition of this earlier building and the construction of the current church, so the site was not captured in those valuations. The current church was constructed and dedicated in 1834, opened on 16 July 1835, under the oversight of the Reverend Thomas Mayne Reid — grandson of the original Reverend Thomas Mayne, who had died in 1806 and been succeeded by his grandson in 1808. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of the period described the new building as "a plain, slated, rectangular building in good repair, 60 feet long and 46 feet broad." The Reverend Mayne Reid served the congregation until 1852, during which time he was appointed Clerk of the Secession Synod (1826–40) and Joint Clerk of the General Assembly (1840–68). Upon his retirement, his son the Reverend John Reid took charge.

In Griffith's Valuation of 1862, the church and a sexton's house (since demolished) were valued together at £17 10s, while the schoolhouse — which predated the current church — was valued at £2 10s. Both valuations remained unaltered through to the end of the Annual Revisions in 1929. Drumgooland Presbyterian Church operated independently until 1 December 1937, when it was united with the congregation of Kilkinamurry. The church was listed in 1977. It continues to be used as a Presbyterian place of worship, with a membership of around 150 families.