Our Lady of the Assumption, 31 Cullycapple Road, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT51 4AR

Our Lady of the Assumption is a free-standing, double-height rural Roman Catholic church built in 1898 in the Gothic style, located on the south side of Cullycapple Road, south of Coleraine. Designed by Belfast-based architect John J. O'Shea (1871/72–1919), it is a well-preserved example of late-Victorian ecclesiastical architecture, retaining fine original late-19th-century glazing and displaying proportions and detailing typical of the period. The church makes an important contribution to the historic rural landscape of the Coleraine district and holds significant social and local importance to the surrounding community.

PLAN AND EXTERNAL FORM

The building has a rectangular plan with a projecting gabled porch to the north, a chancel to the east, and a single-storey gabled sacristy to the south. The walling is uncoursed squared basalt stone with sandstone dressings, a sandstone plinth course, and buttresses with a sandstone offset. Angle buttresses reinforce the porch. A sandstone string-course runs at mid-height and at the apex of the gable.

The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with blue/black angled ridge tiles, alternately crested, raised sandstone verges and kneelers, trefoil gablets, and iron Celtic cross finials to the gables. The chancel has a hipped natural slate roof with leaded ridges and hips and its own iron Celtic cross finial. Rainwater goods are cast-iron ogee gutters on cavetto-moulded sandstone brackets with square downpipes.

Windows throughout are leaded-and-stained glass cusped lancets set in chamfered reveals with sandstone blocked surrounds.

PRINCIPAL (NORTH) ELEVATION AND PORCH

The principal elevation faces north. The nave is lit by three lancet windows divided by buttresses. At the far right, a projecting gabled porch carries a moulded sandstone plaque over the entrance door inscribed "CHURCH / OF OUR LADY / OF THE / ASSUMPTION / A.D. 1898". The entrance is a pointed-headed double-leaf door of timber-sheeted construction with cast-iron strap hinges and a cast-iron handle, set in a chamfered sandstone reveal with a blocked surround. Above the door is a hood mould with square stops and blackstone voussoirs. The entrance is reached by two stone steps with modern metal handrails. The porch is lit by windows at its left and right cheeks.

EAST AND SOUTH ELEVATIONS

The east gable is abutted by the lower chancel, which is lit by a window to three facets. To the south of the chancel is the single-storey gabled sacristy, which has a tall chimneystack and projecting chimneybreast on the east elevation. The sacristy opens to the west via a timber-sheeted door with a transom light over, accessed by three stone steps. To the left of this door are two replacement timber windows in chamfered reveals with flush sandstone sills. The south gable of the sacristy is blank. The south elevation of the nave is lit by four evenly spaced windows divided by buttresses. Attached to the nave wall in the right bay is a modern boiler with a square rendered chimneystack.

WEST GABLE

The west gable has a pointed-headed vented opening at the apex above two plate tracery windows, each comprising paired cusped lancets with quatrefoils over. Below these tracery windows are three small quatrefoil leaded-and-coloured glass openings set in sandstone surrounds.

INTERIOR

Architectural historian Alistair Rowan described the interior as having an elaborate double-pitched pine ceiling with trusses, noting it as "Fine" (Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster, 1979).

MATERIALS

Basalt is the principal building stone, with locally produced sandstone also incorporated in the masonry. The roof is natural slate, and the windows are leaded-and-stained glass cusped lancets.

SETTING

The church sits on a large rectangular plot to the south side of Cullycapple Road in an unspoiled rural setting. It is lawned on all sides and bounded by mature hedgerow and trees along the road frontage and the surrounding farmland. A graveyard lies to the south, containing a variety of headstones. The entrance from Cullycapple Road is framed by rock-faced blackstone and sandstone entrance walls and gate piers with polygonal pointed caps supporting ornate cast-iron gates with cross finials. A tarmacadamed car park occupies the opposite side of Cullycapple Road.

HISTORY

Our Lady of the Assumption was the second Catholic church to be constructed in the parish of Aghadowey. The first chapel, a T-shaped structure recorded on the first edition Ordnance Survey maps of 1831–32, stood to the south of the current site in the neighbouring townland of Mullaghinch, on the west side of the Mullaghinch Road. According to Lewis's Topographical Dictionary (1837), the origins of Christianity in Aghadowey parish stretch back to the 7th century, when St. Goarcus founded a religious institution as an offshoot of the main abbey he established at Agivey. By the 1830s the Mullaghinch chapel formed part of the ecclesiastical district of Killowen. The second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1849–53 showed no change to the layout of that building, and Griffith's Valuation of 1858 valued it at £8, noting that the church ground was leased to the congregation by the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers, who had been granted the parish under the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century.

The current plot of land on Cullycapple Road was purchased from the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers in 1897 for £222. The Irish Builder records that construction of the new church commenced in 1898 and that the building was opened in the summer of 1901, when it was dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption; a datestone on the building is inscribed 1898. The original Mullaghinch chapel continued in use as a place of worship until around the turn of the 20th century.

The architect, John J. O'Shea, had been apprenticed to Belfast architect Mortimer H. Thomson and took over Thomson's practice following his death in 1894. O'Shea worked primarily on the construction and extension of Catholic churches throughout his career. On completion, the rateable value of the church was set at £60, a figure maintained by the cancellation of Annual Revisions from 1929. The church was first depicted on Ordnance Survey maps in 1904–05, which also recorded a single-storey Presbytery cottage to the north-east along Cullycapple Road. This cottage predates the church and was constructed in the mid-Victorian period; the second edition Ordnance Survey map indicates it was originally built as a gate lodge to Mullaghmore House, located to the south of the church and now demolished.

The 1901 Census recorded that the Catholic Curate of the parish was the Reverend Bernard O'Loughlin (aged 50), residing at the Presbytery with his sister Rose. By 1918, Ulster Town Directories noted that the curacy had passed to the Reverend W. Gowan. There has been no discernible alteration to the layout of the church or its adjoining graveyard since its construction in 1898–1901. In 1935, the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland raised the rateable value to £127. The Second General Revaluation, which commenced in 1956, slightly reduced this to £116, at which it remained by 1972. The church suffered damage in an arson attack in 1987 and subsequently underwent restoration work. It continues to be used as a place of worship for the Catholics of Aghadowey Parish.