Former Presbyterian Meeting House, 21 Priestland Road, Bushmills, Co Antrim, BT57 8QP

Former Presbyterian Church Hall, 21 Priestland Road, Bushmills, County Antrim

This late-Victorian former church hall was built in 1895 to serve the congregation of Dunluce Presbyterian Church, situated on the west side of Priestland Road in the townland of Glebe, just outside the village of Bushmills. The architect is unknown. It is a well-proportioned rendered building with a T-shaped plan, a stuccoed principal elevation and a natural slate pitched roof with black clay roll-top ridge tiles. A large extension projects to the north-west, with further ground-floor projections to the south-west and north-east. The building is not listed but retains architectural interest through its consistency of detailing and massing.

Exterior

The principal elevation faces south-east and is finished in smooth painted render, while the remaining elevations are rough-cast render. The south-east front is two storeys, with a projecting three-bay gable-end at its centre. The central bay contains an original round-headed entry doorway fitted with a pair of vertically sheeted timber doors, above which is a Y-tracery window with two vertical lights and metal glazing bars, and a plain carved roundel at the apex carrying a wall-mounted light fitting. To either side of this central bay, tall narrow round-headed metal casement windows with moulded surrounds flank the gable. The elevations to either side of the gable-end also have round-headed metal casement windows with moulded surrounds. On the left side there is a square-headed doorway with a rendered painted surround, containing a vertically sheeted painted timber door, accessed via a ramp with a galvanised metal handrail. On the right side, a single-storey outshot contains a further square-headed doorway with a matching rendered surround and vertically sheeted painted timber door. Painted corner quoins mark both sides of the gable-end.

The south-west side elevation overlooks a disused car park accessed just off Priestland Road. Its projecting two-storey gable-end has a flat-roof outshot at ground-floor level, with two square-headed rectangular windows above it, and three tall rectangular square-headed timber casement windows at first-floor level. At the gable apex there is a round-headed louvred opening with a squat rendered chimney stack above. Painted corner quoins decorate the gable-end. To the right (the main hall section), two tall narrow round-headed metal casement windows with metal glazing bars and moulded surrounds sit on a painted plinth; the right-hand window is partially concealed by timber ply boarding. To the left, a projection has a deep slated part-mansard roof with blank rendered walling.

The north-east elevation overlooks the Dunluce Manse to the north. Its projecting two-storey gable-end has a flat-roof outshot containing a painted timber 1-over-1 sliding sash window, a round-headed louvred opening at the gable apex, and painted corner quoins. To the left of this gable-end, two tall narrow round-headed metal casement windows with metal glazing bars and moulded surrounds sit on a painted plinth. The north-west rear elevation is largely obscured by overgrowth; where visible, it has a plain rendered finish. Rainwater goods throughout are uPVC. A small rendered chimney stack sits on the south-west gable.

Setting

The hall stands behind a low concrete boundary wall on the south-east side, with the main entrance accessed directly from Priestland Road through a pair of painted decorative iron gates hung between concrete pillars. An extensive disused car park lies to the south-west, also accessed from Priestland Road. The building sits to the west of Priestland Road, south of the Dunluce Manse and directly opposite Dunluce Presbyterian Church, with the River Bush to the west.

Historical Background

The congregation of Dunluce Presbyterian Church was first formed in the late 1740s by a minority group formerly of Billy congregation (Bushmills Church), who refused to relocate to a new site on the east side of the River Bush and instead built a first meeting house in the townland of Mill Walk around 1750. By 1835, when the Ordnance Survey Memoirs recorded the area, Presbyterianism was the dominant denomination in the parish. The 1834 census counted 2,322 Presbyterians against 532 Episcopalians, 571 other Dissenters and 179 Roman Catholics. The current church building was constructed between 1845 and 1846 to designs by Charles Lanyon. Griffith's Valuation of 1859 set the church's value at £22, exempt from taxation, a figure that remained unchanged through the Annual Revisions from 1859 to 1929. In 1860 a gallery designed to hold 230 people was added. A two-storey manse followed in 1875, and the church interior was completely refurbished in 1892.

The church hall in the townland of Glebe was built contemporaneously with that interior refurbishment, using the congregation's remaining funds. A first hall was erected on this site in 1893 but was destroyed by a storm in 1894. The hall was rebuilt and officially opened in 1895. The Annual Revisions initially described the building as a "mission hall" and valued it at £10. It first appeared on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1904, which shows the T-shaped layout and captions the building as "Dunluce Lecture Hall." Dunluce Presbyterian Church itself was listed in 1977.

The hall continued in use until around 2004, when it was abandoned following growing concerns about children crossing the increasingly busy Priestland Road to attend Sunday school. A new modern hall was subsequently built on the south-east side of the church, on the same side of the road. By 2006, the congregation of Dunluce Presbyterian Church comprised 220 families.