St John's Church, Rectory Road, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry

St John's Church is a free-standing hall-and-tower type parish church in the Gothic style, built between 1825 and 1826 and located on the south side of Rectory Road east of Coleraine. It is a modest but well-proportioned example of an early nineteenth-century rural parish church, and was constructed as a Board of First Fruits church in the later English style. The building cost £900 Irish currency and was completed on a site with ancient origins; foundations of an earlier church dating from the reign of James I remained visible in the 1830s, about 35 yards south of the present building.

The church is of rectangular plan with a semi-engaged two-stage square tower to the west and chancel and vestry to the east. The walling is ruled smooth render with diagonal buttresses and offsets to the tower, rising to a stone castellated parapet with corner pinnacles. A string-course divides the tower stages. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with angled ridge tiles and raised masonry verges, with plastic rainwater goods on projecting eaves.

The west-facing gabled front features the semi-engaged tower at its centre. The tower is stepped and has louvered lancets with hood moulds to the second stage on all four sides. The first stage has a lancet to the west face and opens to the north with a replacement double-leaf timber door surmounted by a fixed timber tympanum in a chamfered reveal with hood mould. Above the door is an inscribed marble plaque in a moulded sandstone surround, reading "ONE LORD, ONE FAITH, ONE BAPTISM / ONE GOD AND FATHER OF ALL / EPH. IV.5.6".

Windows throughout are a variety of leaded-and-stained glass lancets dating from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (unless otherwise stated), with chamfered reveals and sills surmounted by hood moulds. The west face of the tower has a diamond metal lattice lancet with plain glass. The north elevation of the nave is lit by three windows. The east gable is abutted by the lower chancel, which features a staged three-light mullioned lancet window. To the right is the gabled vestry with raised quoins and a rendered chimneystack to the gable. The west elevation has a replacement timber-sheeted door accessed by two stone steps, and a square-headed late twentieth-century hardwood casement leaved-and-stained glass window to the east. The south elevation mirrors the north.

The interior is well finished with a roof supported by visible cast-iron rafters. The original seating comprised 24 pews, each accommodating six persons for a total capacity of 144 people. Four pews at each end were boarded at the back and enclosed with doors. At least one of the stained glass windows is by Clokey of Belfast. A monument to Reverend Thomas Cupples, the rector during whose incumbency the church was built, was installed after his death in 1854. The sculptor, Francesco Ceccarini, was a native of Rome who later lived in London and Belfast.

The church sits on a large square plot bounded to the north by a high roughcast rendered wall with concrete coping. The entrance features two circular piers with pointed caps supporting replacement steel gates, with a replacement steel stile and a small slated roughcast-rendered shed to the left of the entrance. An early nineteenth-century cemetery lies to the west containing a variety of headstones and tombs, some dating back to the seventeenth century; the graveyard was extended in 1986 when a modern cemetery was added to the south, accessed by a steel latch gate.

The church retains much of its original character and is situated in an unspoiled rural setting opposite the former Rectory. The early nineteenth-century cemetery and original boundary walls and entrance further enhance the setting, with which the Rectory has group value. The graveyard contains significant historical interest, including tombstones dating to the seventeenth century and the recorded grave of Jane Wilson, wife of James Stirling of Knockenkeragh, who died 18 November 1699. Elizabethan coins of sixteenth-century date have been found in the graveyard, reflecting the Highland custom of throwing a piece of money into new burial ground to take possession.

The church was listed in 1977 and remains of significant social importance and local interest, making an important contribution to the architectural character of the Coleraine district.