Derg Parish Church, 13 Main Street, Castlederg, Co Tyrone, BT81 7AY

Derg Parish Church (Church of Ireland), 13 Main Street, Castlederg, Co Tyrone

This is a detached, double-height Church of Ireland parish church dating from 1731, set back from the west side of Main Street, Castlederg. It is one of the earliest and most important buildings in this rural town. The listing extends to the church itself, the front boundary wall, and the gates and railings.

HISTORY

A church on this site was destroyed by Phelim O'Neill in 1641 and remained in ruins until 1731, when the present building was erected by Hugh Edwards of Castle Gore. According to Diocesan records the parish was later amalgamated with Termonamongan in 1971. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs describe the building as it existed in the earlier 19th century: "The only church in the parish is situated in the town. It is a plain stone building with a square tower and low steeple. It was rebuilt in 1735. The cost, which was paid by subscription, is not known. The body of the church is 56 feet long and 28 feet broad, and is neatly fitted with pews, affording accommodation for 260 persons. The average attendance is 220." A church history leaflet notes that the original 1731 building was simple in form, consisting only of the present nave with a gallery at the rear entered by a stairway from the porch, with no chancel; the communion table, reading pew and pulpit were probably grouped at the east end, and there were only three windows in the south wall.

The Townland Valuation of 1828–40 records a Protestant church and sexton's house valued at £10. By Griffith's Valuation the church, sexton's house and graveyard were valued at £16, with the yard separately valued at £2. In 1872 the valuation was revised upward to £23 on account of an addition, which almost certainly refers to the construction of the north aisle. The church first appears on the 1833 Ordnance Survey map as a simple rectangular structure labelled "Church" and "Church Yd". The tower, though present at that time, is not clearly visible on the 1833 map — probably because it extended almost the full width of the church — but it is visible on the Griffith's Valuation Town Plan of around 1856–64. By the 1905 Ordnance Survey map, the plan had changed considerably, with additions to the west, north and east.

The north aisle was built in 1866 by the architects Welland and Gillespie, following the great Irish religious revival. The gabled chancel to the east and the single-storey lean-to extension with cat-slide roof were both added in 1896. A major interior renovation took place in the late 1950s, evidenced by doors from the porch to the nave dated 1957, and stained glass windows to the south of the nave, in the porch, and in the entrance doors, all dated 1959. A single-storey flat-roofed vestry extension to the north-west was added in 1971 to commemorate the connection of the Ferguson and Smyly families with the parish since the purchase of land in Castlederg by John Ferguson, Apothecary, of Strabane; the tiled floor of the porch was also replaced at this time. The timber panelling in the porch was replaced in 1999.

EXTERIOR

The church consists of a rectangular nave with a square tower to the west — possibly built on the remains of an earlier 17th-century tower — a north aisle added around 1870, a gabled chancel to the east and a single-storey lean-to extension with cat-slide roof both added around 1905, and a single-storey flat-roofed vestry extension to the north-west dated 1971, of little architectural interest.

Roofs are pitched natural slate with blue/black clay ridge tiles, raised stone verges, bead-moulded kneeler stones, and exposed timber rafter-ends to the north aisle. Chimney-stacks rise from the gables. The inclusion of a chimney-stack to the north aisle — evidently retained and built around when the lean-to was added — helps date that later phase of construction. Rainwater goods are replacement cast-iron ogee-profile gutters and square downpipes.

Wall materials vary by phase. The nave walls are ruled-and-lined render with chamfered quoins over a projecting plinth; the tower is roughcast. The north aisle is roughly coursed rubble with ashlar sandstone quoins, while the chancel is squared-and-snecked rockfaced sandstone with ashlar quoins. Windows throughout are round-arched-headed, containing leaded stained glass, surmounted by a hood mould with moulded stops and sandstone sills; windows to the north aisle have stepped sandstone surrounds with chamfered sills but no hood moulding.

The principal elevation faces south and is five windows wide. The west gable is abutted at its centre by a stepped two-stage square tower. The tower's south elevation contains replacement round-arched-headed double-leaf timber panelled doors set in a sandstone architrave, flanked by replacement sandstone columns surmounted by a frieze. The frieze carries the Latin inscription: DOM HUGO EDWARDS ARMIGR ÆDEM HANC SACRAM SUIS PLERUM QUE SUMPTIBUS REÆ DIFFICANDUM CURAVIT ANNO DOM MDCCXXXI IN QUOD PINMET LAUDABILE PROPOSITUM RITE REVERENDUS HENRICUS DOWNES DD EPISCOPUS DERRENSIS ET REVERENDUS ROBERTUS DOWNES AM PAROCHUS AULIQUE MUNIFICENTIAM SUAM LIBERE CONTULERUNT — translating as: "In the year 1731 Hugh Edwards provided through his own resources for the rebuilding of this Holy Edifice, into which holy and praiseworthy work the Right Reverend Henry Downes, D.D., Bishop of Derry, and the Reverend Robert Downes, M.A., Rector, and other excellent men freely contributed of their wealth." Above this is a broken pediment containing a Coat of Arms. The tower's second stage contains a single round-arched-headed louvred opening to each elevation and is finished with a crenellated parapet with stone finials at the corners. The tower elevation is abutted to the left by the gabled aisle, which features a sandstone tracery rose window surmounted by a hood mould with label stops and rubble voussoirs, and is abutted at ground-floor level by the lean-to extension.

The north elevation is five windows wide, corresponding to the north aisle, and is abutted to the left by the lean-to extension, which contains a single square-headed window. A stepped ashlar chimney-stack rises from the party wall with the aisle. The west elevation contains a single window. The east elevation contains a round-arched-headed vertically-sheeted timber door in a bead-moulded architrave, surmounted by a stained glass oculus.

The east gable is abutted at its centre by the gabled chancel, which contains a large pointed-arched-headed window with geometrical tracery, surmounted by a hood mould with decorative label stops and rubble voussoirs. The south elevation of the east gable carries a wall-mounted memorial plaque dated 1759. To the right of the chancel, a rubble buttress separates it from the gabled aisle, which contains a large pointed-arched-headed window with plate tracery, surmounted by a hood mould with label stops and rubble voussoirs.

INTERIOR

The 1731 nave and the later north aisle are stylistically distinct from one another. The north aisle, built after the Irish religious revival, is notably more sophisticated in its detailing than the plain original nave, with features such as the exposed timber rafter-ends to the eaves and decorative label stops. A major renovation of the interior took place in the late 1950s. There are memorials within the church to the Edwards, Hamilton, Smyly and Ferguson families.

SETTING AND BOUNDARY

The church sits within a churchyard containing grave markers dating from the early 18th century to the present day; the oldest tombstones in the graveyard date to 1689. The site is bounded to the east along the Main Street frontage by a rubble plinth wall with stone coping surmounted by cast-iron railings. Access is through smooth rendered square pillars supporting pairs of cast-iron gates at the north-east and a single gate at the south-east. To the north-east, accessed directly from the street, is a four-bay two-storey roughcast and red brick parochial hall, largely modernised.