Christ Church, Main St., Castlerock, Coleraine, Co.Londonderry

Christ Church, Castlerock

Christ Church is a free-standing, double-height Parish church built in the Victorian Gothic style around 1870, to designs by Frederick William Porter, architect and surveyor to the Clothworkers' Company on whose estates the church was built. The supervising architect was William Hunter. It stands on the south side of Main Street in the centre of Castlerock, County Londonderry, and is listed along with its boundary wall and gate piers.

Historical Background

The church was built as part of the broader development of Castlerock as a seaside resort, which had been set in motion by the opening of a railway halt in 1853. The railway company actively promoted the area by offering cheap tickets to those who would build or buy villas, transforming what had previously been open countryside into a popular bathing resort. Once the expanding Episcopal congregation had outgrown St Paul's in Articlave, a new church was felt to be necessary. While the building was being completed, the congregation used the nearby bathing lodge, Rock Ryan, as a place of worship.

Sir Henry Hervey Bruce, the local landlord, took a particular interest in the development of Castlerock and was instrumental in the building of Christ Church, offering an endowment towards its construction. Pews in the north transept were reserved for members of the Clothworkers' Company, and those in the south transept for Sir Hervey Bruce and his family. The contractors were George and Robert Ferguson, and the total cost was said to be £3,000, not including the cost of a handsome parsonage built at the same time.

The church was built of local granite with white Glasgow sandstone trimmings. The internal walls were lined with Belfast brick, with a gap between the lining and the outer stone to protect against damp. Although some found the brick not entirely to their taste, it was said to have a favourable effect on the tone of the organ and the choir. The nave passages were laid with red and black Staffordshire tiles, and Maw's encaustic tiles were used in the chancel. Lady Bruce paid for stained glass windows in the chancel, one of which commemorated her late uncle, General Sir Arthur Benjamin Clifton. A Caen stone pulpit was presented by Sir John Musgrove Baronet, a member of the Clothworkers' Company, and two Glastonbury chairs were presented by Lady Bruce, who had carved them herself. The pews and roof were of stained memel timber, and a Scottish freestone font was placed in the west of the building. The incumbent, Reverend James Armstrong, assisted with the carving of the oak reading desk.

The church was consecrated on 21st September 1870 by the Lord Bishop of the Diocese. A consecration hymn was written for the occasion by Mrs Alexander — writer of "All Things Bright and Beautiful" and "Once in Royal David's City" — who was the wife of the Lord Bishop. The service was attended by numerous local gentry and clergy, who were entertained at Downhill afterwards by Sir Hervey and Lady Bruce. The Belfast Newsletter noted the "picturesque marine beauty" of Castlerock and predicted it would "year by year grow into importance and size." The church was urgently needed to cater for the large number of visitors during the summer months.

The church was provided with a Gray and Davidson organ, which the incumbent, Reverend Armstrong, played himself, being an "excellent musician," so that no separate organist was required. The bellows of the organ were originally driven by a water engine using a cistern situated behind the terrace known as the "Twelve Apostles" on the hill behind the church. When water was short, as it often was, the organ had to be pumped by hand; the pump is still in existence. The water engine was later refurbished by Harry Caskey and can be seen in the church.

F. W. Porter was a London architect who built for the Clothworkers' Company, and Christ Church is described as his most distinguished design, typical of the High Victorian interpretation of the Early English Gothic style. The sombre atmosphere of the chancel is thought to reflect the influence of Pugin, an impression heightened by the exceptionally high quality of the church furniture — including candelabra, lectern, altar rail and pulpit, tiles, organ pipes, and richly hued stained glass windows. Porter's original drawings, held by the Representative Church Body, show that the building was constructed exactly as conceived and has undergone little alteration since.

In 1891, eight bells by Messrs Taylor and Co of Loughborough were fitted in the bell tower as a memorial to Sir Hervey and Lady Bruce. In the same year, a triple lancet window by Wailes and Strang of Newcastle-on-Tyne, in memory of Lady Bruce, was inserted in the west elevation. A watercolour painted by Lady Ellen Bruce around 1907 shows Christ Church before the present clock was inserted in the spire. The clock was made by W. Potts and Sons Ltd of Leeds and was installed in 1909. The clock and its faces were restored in 1997 at a cost of £4,500, and the bells were also restored in the same year at a cost of £3,500. The church was listed in 1977. In 1978, windows were replaced in the tower, vestry and organ loft. In 2012, a ramp was provided at the front porch.

Exterior

The church is built of uncoursed, rock-faced blackstone on a battered plinth, with sandstone quoins, sandstone kneelers and finials to the gables, a sandstone string course at sill and lintel level, and buttresses rising to sandstone offsets. The plan is rectangular with an apsidal east end, north and south transepts each having square-plan abutments to the east, and a square-plan bell-tower with a broach spire at the northwest corner. The pitched roof is of natural slate with angled ridge tiles, and cast-iron ogee rainwater goods sit on bracketed sandstone eaves.

Windows throughout are a variety of leaded and stained glass lancets set in sandstone surrounds with chamfered sills and blackstone voussoirs. Bipartite cusped plate tracery windows appear to the chancel, and cusped lattice lancets to the tower.

The Bell Tower

The two-stage, square-plan bell-tower has an ashlar broach spire rising from bracketed overhanging eaves with dog-tooth detail to a narrow stone fascia and carved gargoyles to each corner. The spire is topped by a metal finial and has an openwork clock face at each side, dating from 1909. The ground floor stage has gableted angle buttresses, and clasping buttresses rise from the string course between the two stages.

The belfry stage has double inset lancets with chamfered sandstone surrounds featuring semi-engaged colonettes and louvred openings. The lower stage is double height; the west face has cusped lattice lancets over a rectangular window, and the north and east faces each have a sandstone doorcase. The east face has timber-sheeted double-leaf doors set in a chamfered surround, accessed by a single stone step and surmounted by a hood mould with carved stops. The fixed sandstone tympanum above carries dog-tooth ornamentation incised with groups of three circles, supported on two sandstone corbels. The north face serves as the main entrance and has replacement double-leaf timber doors in a chamfered reveal, matching the arrangement of the east entrance. The door is flanked by semi-engaged colonettes and surmounted by a fixed sandstone tympanum inscribed "AD 1870," detailed in the same manner as that on the east face.

Nave and Transepts

The north nave elevation has two lancets divided by a buttress. The north transept has three staged lancets and a trefoil oculus to the apex of the gable. The right cheek of the transept is blank; the left cheek is abutted by the square-plan vestry abutment, which has a hipped roof and a timber-sheeted door in a shouldered sandstone surround with a heavy cast-iron handle, accessed via four stone steps. Two square-headed lattice windows appear to the east elevation of the vestry.

The south nave elevation has three lancets divided by buttresses. The south transept has three staged lancets and a trefoil oculus to the apex of the gable. The left cheek of this transept is blank, and the right cheek is abutted by a square-plan abutment matching that on the north side, with rectangular windows to its south and east elevations.

The apsidal east end has a plate tracery window to each face. The west gable has three staged lancets with a trefoil oculus to the apex of the gable.

Setting

The church is set within a square plot on the south side of Main Street, with lawned ground on all four sides. The plot is enclosed by a rubble blackstone boundary wall, with two sets of ashlar sandstone piers to the north, each having chamfered pointed caps and supporting replacement timber gates. To the east is a modern church hall; to the south is a 20th-century housing development.