Armoy Presbyterian Church, Church Road, Armoy, Ballymoney, County Antrim

Armoy Presbyterian Church is a two-storey Presbyterian church with tower, originally built in 1841 and substantially extended and embellished in 1903, possibly to designs by architect Vincent Craig. The remodelling gave the building its present character, which draws vaguely on Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau influences. The exterior is the principal architectural interest; the interior, though largely original, is of comparatively less note. The church sits between Church Road and Drones Road on the south side of the village of Armoy, with a graveyard to the north and east and a large car park to the south.

The symmetrical front (west) elevation is built in semi-coursed squared basalt rubble with raised lime mortar pointing, and a sandstone-like composite stone used for dressings to openings, quoins, buttress caps and similar details. At the centre of the elevation is a shallow bay that rises above the gable to form a short square tower. This bay was originally a freestanding tower with three exposed faces, but during the 1903 remodelling the front gable line was brought forward so that the tower became largely integrated with it. The lower stage of the bay is broader and has tall but relatively shallow buttresses. Low walls extend from these buttresses to support a lych-gate-like open porch with an oversailing slated roof, moulded barges with end panels, an incised tie-beam and a torch-bracket-like finial. Within the porch is a flat-arched doorway fitted with a panelled timber door. Directly above the porch is a relatively small pointed arch window with leaded glazing. A moulded string course separates the lower and upper stages of the bay. The upper stage is slightly narrower and has in-and-out quoins. Just above the string course at the base of this stage is a small date panel reading "Founded 1762 Rebuilt 1841". Above roof level, where the bay becomes a tower proper, there is a pointed arch window to the north, south and west faces, each with a three-pane timber frame and patterned glazing. The tower is finished with a short, slender lead-clad spire bearing a decorative ship weathervane. The spire is set behind an open parapet with octagonal finial-like corner piers and a four-centred arch between them. To either side of the central bay, on the main gable, is a three-light window with a cusped head and leaded panes to each light, divided by stone mullions, with a triangular relieving arch above each window. The gable ends have buttresses with small end piers to the gable coping.

A small portion at the left-hand end of the south face — the section added in 1903 — is finished to match the front gable. This portion is framed by two tall buttresses, and between them is a tall, almost full-height canted bay with a slated hipped roof and a high-level window made up of three tall flat-arched lights with timber frames and leaded glazing. The remainder of the south face is finished in dry dash render with a cement render base course, and has three tall narrow segmental-headed windows with Perpendicular-style tracery and plain cement render surrounds. The left-hand window is slightly taller than the others and incorporates decorative panels that conceal the line of the gallery floor. Large rubble-built buttresses are set between the windows, with a taller buttress to the right-hand side. The right-hand edge of the south face reverts to rubble finish, matching the front gable. The north face of the church mirrors the south face.

At the east gable there is a full-width single-storey projection at ground floor level. This projection is gabled to the centre with flat-roofed flanking sections, and is finished in dry dash render with a cement render base course and wall edging, and concrete coping to the parapet. The east face of this projection has nine windows arranged symmetrically in three groups of three, with the central group being larger. All nine windows have metal frames with leaded panes, cement render surrounds and bevelled concrete cills. On the south face of the projection is a flat-arched doorway with a moulded surround and panelled timber door; on the north face is another doorway with a cement render surround and timber door, alongside two windows matching the smaller windows on the east face. The main east gable above is finished in dry dash render with full-height projecting rubble piers at the wall edges. Two high-level windows similar to those on the main north and south faces appear here but are much shorter, with a moulded string course following the outline of their heads in the manner of a drip moulding. The main roof is gabled and slated, with an overhang at the east gable supported on large timber brackets. Rainwater goods consist of cast-iron gutters on distinctive curled wrought-iron brackets with square downspouts. The gabled section of the projection roof is covered in an artificial slate, with asphalt to the flat portions.

The church forecourt is surfaced in tarmac, as are the narrow paths to the north and south of the building. The forecourt and paths are enclosed by a relatively low rendered wall with a broad pedestrian gateway to the west, formed by square rendered piers with pyramidal caps and decorative wrought-iron gates.

The date stone on the front of the building indicates that the Presbyterian congregation of Armoy was founded in 1762, and an original church or meeting house was likely built at around that time. By 1835 the Ordnance Survey Memoirs described this original structure as "a very old building 64 feet long by 21 feet wide… not in good repair or sufficiently commodious," noting that it was due to be demolished and replaced. The replacement church duly followed in 1841, a roughly square gabled structure with a two-stage pinnacled tower to the front. The building survived in this form until 1903, when it was extended and remodelled. Photographic evidence indicates that this work involved the construction of a new front gable in line with the tower, the addition of the spire, parapet and open porch, and the application of fashionable Art Nouveau-influenced detailing throughout. The work has been attributed to Vincent Craig on stylistic grounds, the building being considered indicative of his manner, though no documentary evidence has been found to confirm his involvement. The session room projection at the east end also appears to date from 1903, but its present detailing suggests it was extensively renovated in the mid-20th century.