Ballycairn Presbyterian Church, 49 Ballylesson Road, Shaws Bridge, Belfast, County Down, BT8 8JT

Ballycairn Presbyterian Church, 49 Ballylesson Road, Shaw's Bridge

This is a double-height Presbyterian church of coursed rockfaced rubble basalt with red sandstone dressings, built in 1925–26 with some Gothic Revival influence. It stands to the west side of Ballylesson Road in the townland of Ballycowan, Lisburn, and is rectangular on plan. A single-storey extension was added to the rear west gable around 1975. The building is notable for its particularly good stone detailing, impressive interior with many surviving original features, and a setting enhanced by decorative stone walling and cast-iron gates at the road entrance.

Exterior

The roof is pitched natural slate with crenellated clay ridge tiles and a small copper belvedere at the centre of the ridge. The east principal gable has skewing coping surmounted at the eaves and centre by decorative stone pinnacles, with painted cast-iron gutters on a projecting cornice. The walls are of coursed rockfaced rubble stone with red sandstone stepped quoins and a chamfered plinth. Angle buttresses with offsets are present on the north, east and south elevations.

The windows throughout have double chamfered mullions containing lattice glazed leaded lights and transom lights, set within chamfered sandstone reveals and sills. They are two-light (di-partite) at the east and west and three-light (tri-partite) at the north and south elevations.

Principal Entrance (East Gable)

The principal entrance faces east. It consists of two timber panelled sliding doors recessed within a four-centred arched chamfered ashlar surround, with a hood mould with label stops and stepped chamfered quoins. The doors are surmounted by a lattice glazed leaded fanlight. Seven steps lead up to the entrance, retained on either side by a stone plinth wall with cast-metal handrails.

Directly above the entrance is a three-light tracery window with cusped lights. The entrance is flanked on each side by a two-light window, each surmounted by a lattice glazed quatrefoil contained within an ashlar surround and hood mould with label stops.

Foundation Stones

Five foundation stones, all laid on 4th April 1925 by prominent local figures, are set into the principal facade. On the left angle buttress: "THIS STONE WAS LAID BY / LADY McCULLAGH / WHITEABBEY / 4TH APRIL 1925". Above the plinth to the left of the entrance are two further stones: "THIS STONE WAS LAID BY / M.L. McMORDIE C.B.E, / BELFAST, / 4TH APRIL 1925" and "THIS STONE WAS LAID BY / W. MOORE KNOX ESQ. / BELFAST / 4TH APRIL, 1925". Above the plinth to the right of the entrance: "THIS STONE WAS LAID BY / H.C. MONTGOMERY / IN MEMORY OF HIS BROTHER / T.W. MONTGOMERY / 4TH APRIL, 1925." On the right angle buttress: "THIS STONE WAS LAID BY / THE LADY MAYORESS OF BELFAST / LADY TURNER / 4TH APRIL 1925". Lady Dixon, benefactor to the city through Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park, is also among the important local people commemorated in the principal facade.

North and South Elevations

The south elevation is five windows wide, with the easternmost being a single chamfered mullion window. Each bay is divided by angle buttresses with offsets, with no buttress at the west corner. The north elevation is detailed in the same manner as the south.

West Gable and Later Extension

The west gable is abutted by the single-storey extension of around 1975, which added choir and minister's rooms. The exposed section of the original west gable is blank. The extension has a pitched roof of artificial slate, metal rainwater goods, and timber fascia and eaves boards. Its walls are stretcher bond grey brick, and windows are timber casement with projecting concrete sills. The west gable of the extension has a central modern entrance door with a sidelight, surmounted by a slated hipped canopy, with a window to the attic and further windows to the left and right. The entrance is accessed by a concrete ramp with a mild steel handrail. The south elevation of the extension has three equally spaced windows; the north elevation has a door at the right and two windows at the left.

Setting

The church is set adjacent to a large cemetery. The entrance from the road is marked by concave coursed rockfaced rubble stone walls with chamfered ashlar sandstone coping and painted cast-iron railings. The central piers are of similar construction, with square pyramidal caps — the right-hand pier bearing the number 43 — and support double-leaf painted cast-iron gates. A church hall to the north, built around 1969, is not of special interest.

History

Ballycairn Presbyterian Church was built in 1925–26, replacing an earlier meeting house that had stood to the south in the neighbouring townland of Ballycarn. The original congregation came into being around 1830 as a result of a schism at Drumbo Presbyterian Church — itself built around 1790 — over the appointment of a new minister. The splinter congregation erected a new meeting house in Ballycarn, which the Ordnance Survey Memoirs described as "a fine meeting house of the plainest architecture and situated in the centre of a small plantation." It measured 60 feet by 40 feet and could hold 400 people, though average attendance was around 200. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834 depicts the original Meeting House as an oblong building less than half a mile east of Drumbo; by the second edition of 1858 a graveyard to the east and an outbuilding to the north had been added. Griffith's Valuation of 1861 records the outbuilding as a Sexton's House, with the entire site valued at £23 10s. and let by Robert Batt, occupant of Purdysburn House.

The founding minister was the Rev. Adam Montgomery, who served from 1830 until his death in 1888. By 1882 Drumbo Presbyterian had built a new church building, and Ballycairn's congregation began to shrink, the original reasons for the separation fifty years earlier having largely been forgotten. To stimulate growth, Rev. Montgomery's successor, the Rev. G. Duncan, built a second hall in the neighbouring townland of Ballylesson in 1905. The original meeting house at Ballycarn continued to decline and fall into disrepair, and was finally demolished in 1920. Duncan's own successor, the Rev. Samuel James Clarke, constructed the present church in the townland of Ballycowan in 1925–26. During construction, a marble memorial erected in 1893 to the memory of the Rev. Montgomery was salvaged and installed in the vestibule of the new building.

The church was first opened in 1926. In 1929, Mrs Mary Montgomery — daughter-in-law of the founding minister — was appointed as the first woman ever to be elected elder in Ireland, making the building of significant social and historic importance. The church hall, named the Montgomery Hall, was added in 1969, and the western extension followed around 1975. The building continues to be used as a place of worship.

The original manse serving the earlier Ballycarn church was built between 1891 and 1901 and survives as a private dwelling. It is a separately listed building. The original meeting house in the townland of Ballycarn has been demolished and a modern dwelling built over the site, though a portion of the original graveyard survives.