First Dromore Presbyterian Church, 3 Diamond Road, Dromore, Co Down, BT25 1PQ

First Dromore Presbyterian Church is a free-standing Gothic Revival stone church dated 1915, located on the east side of Diamond Road at the southern edge of Dromore, in the townland of Drumboneth. It was designed by Belfast-based architect Samuel Stevenson (1859–1924), who predominantly worked on industrial and commercial buildings but designed a small number of Presbyterian churches, of which this is one. The builder was a Mr. John Graham. According to the Irish Builder, construction took place between 1914 and 1915; the church was dedicated on 7th November 1915 and the total cost was £4,500. It was designed to accommodate a congregation of 800 persons.

ARCHITECTURE

The building is rectangular in plan and gable-fronted, set on an east–west axis, with flanking lower stair-wings to the front and a two-storey chapter house to the rear. The roof is pitched natural slate with crested terracotta ridge tiles, raised stone skews, and pinnacles to the gables, with a chimneystack to the east. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods run on projecting eaves. The walls are random-coursed, rock-faced stone on a chamfered plinth, with freestone dressings and buttresses that have stone pinnacles and offsets. The stair-wings carry a carved blind-arcaded Gothic stone parapet with pinnacles. All windows are lattice leaded-and-stained glass lancets set in stone surrounds with chamfered sills.

The west-facing principal elevation comprises a double-height gabled vestibule flanked by the lower stair-wings. Above, five diminishing Gothic lancets are arranged in a cinquepartite composition, with cusped L-tracery to the central pane, all in stone surrounds over an offset platband. At ground floor level are paired Gothic portals, slightly inset, with carved stone semi-engaged half-columns bearing acanthus leaf capitals. The nine-panelled timber doors are divided by a stone shaft with a carved Gothic niche rising to impost level. A datestone above the doors reads "1915". Each stair-wing has two lancets at different heights, surmounted by a quatrefoil with hood mould.

The north elevation has five evenly spaced sets of tripartite lancets divided by single lancets; the stair-wing to the right has one window at gallery level and paired windows at ground floor. The south elevation mirrors this arrangement, with five evenly spaced sets of tripartite lancets and a stair-wing to the left with one window at gallery level and paired windows at ground floor. The east (rear) elevation is abutted to the right of centre by the two-storey chapter house with its tall chimneystack. This elevation has irregular fenestration and a timber-sheeted entrance door. The chapter house has three windows to its north elevation and four to its south elevation, with pointed arch heads at first floor and square heads at ground floor.

INTERIOR

The original proportions and Gothic Revival interior survive intact, retaining the original polished timber pews, pulpit, and gallery.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

This is the third Presbyterian meeting house to have been built on this site. The congregation was established in 1660, and initially met in local houses and barns before the first meeting house was constructed around 1670. The original thatched building was replaced by a new stone structure in 1727, described in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1837 as "a stone building, roughcast and whitewashed" measuring 80 feet by 40 feet, with a capacity of 1,200 — some 400 more than the current church.

The congregation's history includes a significant theological split. In 1724, Alexander Colville, son of the former minister, was appointed preacher; as he did not subscribe to the Westminster Confession and reaffirmed the congregation as a non-subscribing church, the congregation divided around 1725. The majority left and formed the First Presbyterian Church (Non-Subscribing) on Rampart Street in Dromore. The minority remained at the original site and continued as an orthodox Presbyterian congregation in adherence with the General Synod of Ulster.

The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 depicted the second meeting house as a T-shaped building on the current site, and the contemporary Townland Valuations valued it at £7 1s. Between 1815 and 1837 the meeting house was extended and a Sunday School added to the north, after which the site was revalued at £24 (a joint value incorporating the school). The second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1859 records that the extension work resulted in the meeting house becoming cruciform in plan. The second meeting house continued in use as a place of worship until the early 20th century, when it was demolished in 1914 to make way for the current building.

First Dromore also erected a National School building in the late 1860s. This school continued until 1932 when it was transferred to the Down County Regional Education Committee, and in 1936 merged with the schools of the Cathedral and the Non-Subscribing congregation to form the Central Primary School on Banbridge Road. The school building was demolished around 1959 and replaced by the current modern red-brick church hall, which opened in 1960 and was later extended in 1979.

The current church first appeared on the fourth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1919–20, depicted as a rectangular building on the same site as its predecessor. Despite its construction in 1914–15, the Annual Revisions continued to jointly value the church and school at £24 until valuations ended in 1930, with no subsequent alteration to the assessed value recorded. The church was listed in 1977. A new Manse was erected in 2002. In 2010 the congregation, then standing at around 250 families, celebrated the 350th anniversary of its establishment in 1660.

SETTING AND BOUNDARY TREATMENT

The church stands at the southern edge of Dromore, surrounded by late 20th century housing developments. It is raised on the brow of a hill, with lawned ground to two sides and a graveyard to the south. A modern red-brick church hall of around 1960 stands to the north, with a tarmacadam parking area. The front boundary to the road is a rendered wall with coping stones, with an original alcoved entrance at the centre comprising arrowhead metal gates and railings supported by square cast-iron piers surmounted by ball finials. The graveyard contains a variety of headstones, the earliest visible inscription dating from 1819.