First Castlederg Presbyterian Church, Garvetagh Road, Castlederg, Co Tyrone, BT81 7QA

First Castlederg Presbyterian Church

A Gothic Revival Presbyterian church built in the 1890s, located on the east side of Garvetagh Road in Castlederg. The church was constructed to replace an earlier meeting house of 1739, which still stands opposite and now serves as the church hall. The building is a substantial structure of good proportions and style, retaining most of its original features both internally and externally. It is a significant landmark in its rural setting and an important example of local ecclesiastical architecture.

The church consists of a rectangular nave with gabled transepts to the north and south, an engaged square tower to the north-west, a cat-slide roof over a store to the south-west, and a single-storey minister's room to the east. The roof is pitched natural slate with terracotta ridge tiles over corbelled eaves; the principal gable has a raised painted masonry verge on moulded kneelers with a terracotta finial. The walls are painted roughcast over a projecting plinth with smooth rendered coping and diagonal buttressing to the corners.

The principal elevation faces west. The central gable features a pointed-arched-headed rebated opening in a stepped surround surmounted by a hood mould with label-stops, containing square-headed double-leaf vertically-sheeted timber entrance doors with a stained glass fanlight. On either side of the doors is a single pointed-arched-headed window with chamfered stepped painted sandstone surround containing leaded stained glass. At gallery level, a moulded sill course runs beneath a large pointed-arched-headed window with geometric tracery, surmounted by a hood mould with decorative label-stops. A small pointed-arched-headed louvred opening sits in the apex, with lateral buttressing to the corners.

The two-stage square tower abuts the left side of the principal elevation. The first stage contains a single window on each elevation. A moulded string course separates the first stage from the broached second stage, which contains trefoil oculi to the cardinal points. A moulded string course runs below the crenellated parapet, above which rises a squat octagonal spire.

The store abutting the right side of the principal elevation contains a single trefoil window in a smooth painted surround. The north elevation consists of three windows across the nave, separated by buttresses, abutted on the left by a gabled transept containing a group of three windows with a larger window to the centre, and abutted on the right by the tower. The west elevation is partially covered by the minister's room; the exposed section at gallery level contains an oculus window surmounted by a small pointed-arched-headed louvred opening. The minister's room, which has a hipped roof over roughcast corbelled eaves, contains three windows. Its north elevation has a chamfered Tudor-arched-headed entrance opening with a diagonally-sheeted timber door at the right and a single window at the left. The south elevation contains a single window. The south elevation of the main church is four windows wide, separated by buttresses, and is abutted on the right by a gabled transept detailed as the north transept.

All windows are pointed-arched-headed in chamfered stepped painted sandstone surrounds containing leaded stained glass. The roof is covered in natural slate with replacement cast-iron ogee-profile gutters and round downpipes.

To the north-east is a single-storey pitched roughcast outbuilding. The church is set within a modern churchyard with a carpark to the south. The site is bounded to the road at the north and south-west by roughcast walling, with access through a pair of square pillars supporting modern steel gates. To the west, a roughcast plinth wall surmounted by cast-iron railings runs along the front of the church, with access through cast-iron pillars supporting a pair of cast-iron gates. The site is bounded to the south by rubble walling and to the east by hedging.

Historical Background

The church first appears on the 1905 Ordnance Survey map captioned "Presb Ch", though a meeting house is marked on the first edition map of 1833 nearby. Annual Revision records dating from 1862 to 1929 do not record the church, though there is an allusion to it. A fieldbook entry from 1898-1915 records that the old meeting house was then being used as a hall, with its value consequently lowered. A marginal note states "Old yard and stabling still used with new church", suggesting that the church was built in the 1890s to 1900s. The ornate styling and stylised crenellated tower support a dating to this period. The plan form, consisting of nave, transepts and minister's room, appears to have been built simultaneously, judging by the similarity in materials and detailing.

The architect is attributed to John McIntyre of Letterkenny, though earlier survey information dated the church to 1894 and attributed it to Vincent Craig. The old meeting house bears a datestone of 1739.