St Patricks Church, Kilrea, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT51 5QU

St Patrick's Church of Ireland, Kilrea

St Patrick's Church is a free-standing, symmetrical double-height ashlar sandstone Church of Ireland building, constructed between 1841 and 1842 to replace the previous parish church, the ruins of which survive within the burial ground to the north-east. It was designed by George Smith, architect to the Worshipful Company of Mercers', though records held by the Mercers' Company indicate that Smith's partner and pupil William Barnes was largely responsible for the design and erection of the building. The contract was undertaken by James Little and Sons of London, who received £3,739 of an approximate total construction cost of £6,000. The church is prominently sited at the southern end of Church Street, forming a closing vista from Kilrea's central Diamond to the north, and sits within a lawned burial ground enclosed by rubble stone walls.

The building is rectangular on plan and blends Gothic and Romanesque styles, representing an early application of Romanesque motifs and detailing. The roof is pitched slate with grey angled ridge tiles, ogee cast-iron rainwater goods over profiled masonry brackets, rounded downpipes, some concealed gutters with decorative cast-iron hoppers, and masonry eaves on similar brackets to the gables. Walling throughout is ashlar sandstone with an offset plinth and angle buttresses. Windows are generally replacement leaded stained glass, comprising groups of three graded round-headed lights with chamfered mullions, splayed sills, and a continuous label mould with foliated label stops. All windows have aluminium storm glazing installed.

The principal elevation faces north and is dominated by a three-stage tower projecting from the north gable, with set-back buttresses and parapetted square projections flanking and rising to the first stage. The tower's recessed, round-headed doorway features a chevron motif to the surround and billet mouldings to the architrave, supported on Norman-esque columns with pedestals. A billet course marks the second stage, which has a central round-headed window largely glazed with lattice panes, its similar columns supporting a roll-moulded architrave surmounted by a label mould with carved heads to the label stops. An in-stepped cap, supported by profiled masonry brackets, rises to an octagonal upper stage with gables and figurative carved heads. The four principal faces of the octagonal stage have round-headed louvred openings with similar columns and chevron architraves, each surmounted by a circular moulding with label and figurative stop moulds. The opening facing the main elevation contains a black clock face with gilded hands and Roman numerals — the town clock, inserted into the tower in 1842 under a contract carried out by J.T. Paine. The tower is finished with an octagonal ashlar stone spire. The main doorway has a replacement timber sheeted square-headed door with decorative contrasting hinges, and a diminutive window to each side with similar surrounds. The left and right cheeks of the north elevation contain similar doors with plain chamfered surrounds and label moulds with foliated label stops. The remaining north gable is blank.

The east elevation has three equally spaced window groups separated by offset buttresses. The west elevation mirrors the east. The south elevation has an archivolt to a circular louvred vent, and a projecting gabled chancel below with a large window to the centre and carved heads to the label stops. A single-storey flat-roofed extension abuts the chancel and the re-entrant angle on the right side. The left bay of this extension is of the same stone construction as the main church; the right bay is ruled and lined rendered and was added at a later date during the late 19th century. Both bays have continuous parapets and a string course. Two windows are present on the south elevation: the left has cast-iron tracery matching that on the tower window, with carved heads to the label stops; the right is similar but with simple lattice tracery and plain pyramidal label stops. The right cheek has a similar window to the centre, along with a timber sheeted door with vent holes that intersects the plinth course and is accessed below ground level via stone-tiled steps with a winder, descending from south to north. The left cheek has a similar doorway to the square bays of the north cheeks.

The gabled chancel projects from the main south gable. An additional flat-roofed vestry, dating from the late 19th century, abuts to the south and south-east re-entrant angle. Despite some exterior and internal elements having been renovated in recent years, the architectural fabric is largely intact and the interior is well preserved. In 1862, William Barnes also carried out work to the organ loft.

The church occupies the southern termination of Church Street at its junction with Lisnagrot Road and Moneygran Road. A bitumen path encircles the building, leading to the main entrance gates onto Church Street. The burial ground contains the overgrown, elevated ruins of the previous parish church to the north-east. The site is enclosed by a rubble stone wall to the rear; the curved wall to the remainder is roughly hewn, coursed and squared with saddleback copings, some of which are replacements to the east. A pedestrian cast-iron gate stands to the north-east. The central cast-iron entrance gates are supported by two large rendered square piers topped by offset pyramidal caps with an interlocking circle motif to the upper faces. Decorative alternating cast-iron balusters flank the stone entrance steps, surmounted by replacement curved metal handrails.

The stone used for the church was sourced from Altmover, near Dungiven, rather than from the nearby Movanagher quarry that supplied most of the other stone construction in Kilrea town. The building is first shown on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1853, captioned "Church", with the previous church depicted and noted as being in ruins. In Griffith's Valuation of 1856, the church and graveyard were valued at £34 19s 7d, occupied by a Reverend J.H. Millen, and the valuation incorporated the chancel, vestry and tower, as well as three other additional structures. By 1864 the building was valued at £66 in the Annual Revisions. By the time of the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1905, the church had become known as St Patrick's Church.

The previous church on the site was described as an ancient building pre-dating 1622. It was ruinous by 1654 and rebuilt during the late 17th century, initially serving as a chapel of ease to the parish of Tamlaght O'Crilly before becoming the parish church of Kilrea. By 1836 it could accommodate 120 people and was rectangular in form with twelve-foot-high stone walls, three windows to each side of the nave, and an old belfry to the west containing a bell donated by the parish Rector, Reverend Clutterbuck, in 1666. Despite extensive repair following a fire in 1800, the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1830 to 1839 recorded the roof as being in poor condition.

The church is a direct expression of the Mercers' Company's ambitious mid-19th-century programme of improvements to Kilrea. During the Plantation of Ulster, the Worshipful Company of Mercers', a principal Livery Company of the City of London, took control of an estate of 33.5 square miles centred on the districts of Kilrea and Movanagher in County Londonderry. By the mid-17th century the estate had been let to nominated individuals, many of whom were absentee landlords, and it fell into severe decline. Following the death of the final tenant, Alexander Stewart, in 1831, the Mercers' took direct repossession and made Kilrea the capital of their proportion. In the ensuing decades the Company pursued an ambitious scheme of improvements to raise productivity, general welfare, and the appearance of the estate, with particular focus on Kilrea town. George Smith and William Barnes were appointed as architects to the Company and produced a cohesive development plan for the town, with public buildings largely funded by the Company. It was noted in 1836 that the Mercers' Company offered £1,000 toward the construction of a new church, though the project was postponed due to insufficient funds from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners before proceeding to completion in 1842.