St Patrick's RC Church, Castlefin Road, Churchtown TL, Castlederg, Co Tyrone, BT81 7BT

St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, Castlefin Road, Castlederg, County Tyrone

St Patrick's is a free-standing, double-height, street-fronted Roman Catholic church built in stone and render, with its origins in a building of around 1846. It was substantially extended and remodelled in the Gothic Revival style in the 1870s, a tower and broached spire were added between 1886 and 1888, and the whole building was thoroughly refurbished and rededicated in 1997. The result is an impressive, well-detailed and well-proportioned public building of cruciform plan, presenting a convincingly late Victorian Gothic character both inside and out, despite the earlier core concealed within its fabric.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The first Catholic chapel serving this community stood in the neighbouring townland of Castlesessagh, built around 1790. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs record it as 80 feet long and 25 feet wide, capable of accommodating around 500 people, though the average attendance already exceeded its capacity. The cost of the original building and later additions — around £200 — was initially met by a Mr Gilly McHugh of Castlederg and subsequently recovered through voluntary subscriptions. The 1833 Ordnance Survey map shows this chapel about a quarter of a mile from the present site. A church on the current site first appears on the 1853 Ordnance Survey map, captioned simply "R C Chapel", and was first dedicated on 8 October 1846 by the retired Bishop McLaughlin. By the time of the 1905 third edition Ordnance Survey map, the church had assumed an entirely new plan. Griffith's Valuation had recorded a chapel and graveyard at a combined value of £20 15s; by 1877, following complete remodelling, this valuation was revised upward to £40.

The present church of St Patrick was dedicated on Sunday 8 October 1876 by the Most Reverend Dr Francis Kelly, Bishop of Derry from 1849 to 1889, at a total cost of £3,000. The tower and spire were added between 1886 and 1888. The bell was cast by J. Murphy of Dublin in 1888. By the 1970s the building had become too costly to repair and maintain, and a new church dedicated to St Eugene was built and opened in May 1978. That building in turn fell into disrepair, and the decision was taken to refurbish the original St Patrick's instead. The church was rededicated on 11 May 1997 by the Bishop of Derry, the Most Reverend Seamus Hegarty DD.

The architectural historian Alistair Rowan has noted that the interior plan — with an arcade across the transepts ending in small side chapels flanking the chancel — is one much associated with the architect E. J. Toye. Rowan also records that stone fonts were salvaged from the first Catholic church of 1790 to 1846.

The nave of the 1846 building survives within the fabric of the present church, identifiable by the roughcast render wall finish and sandstone window surrounds at the west end. The 1997 restoration involved complete re-roofing, the addition of a single-storey gabled wing to the west gable containing toilet facilities, and a further projection with an attached entrance lobby to the north nave, both executed in stone to match the existing fabric. Some stained glass from the earlier building was partially salvaged and incorporated into modern stained glass during this work. All flooring and joinery appears to date from the 1997 refurbishment.

EXTERIOR

The church is situated on the east side of Castlefin Road, with the east chancel gable fronting directly onto the road. The building is cruciform in plan, with a three-stage tower and broached spire to the south added around 1885, and a vestry to the south-east added around 1875. An ancillary wing was added to the west gable and a further entrance porch to the north as part of the 1990s works.

The roof is finished in replacement natural slate with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles. All gables have stone ashlar skewputts with offsets, gableted and corbelled kneeler stones, and are surmounted by stone Celtic cross finials. Rainwater goods consist of replacement ogee-moulded metal guttering fixed to plastic fascia, with metal downpipes.

The walling of the later extensions is random rock-faced stone with dressed quoins and a dressed splayed plinth course. The earlier body of the church to the west is finished in replacement roughcast lime render with dressed soldier quoins and simulated render quoin-work designed to match the in-and-out stonework of the later additions. The most recent extensions are built in rough-hewn stone walling with quoins and openings formed in machine-cut sandstone ashlar.

The windows to the nave are double-height trefoil-headed lancets formed in chamfered sandstone with in-and-out quoin surrounds and flush splayed sills — two bays to the south nave and three to the north. Three lancets to the upper part of the west gable are repeated on a larger scale in the gables of both the north and south transepts. The east chancel gable carries a large pointed-arched window formed in chamfered sandstone ashlar with a hood moulding, square label stops, and a flush stone relieving arch. This window contains geometric tracery in sandstone, comprising five trefoil-headed lancets and three roundels, all glazed with stained glass.

The road-fronting east elevation presents the double-height chancel gable as its centrepiece. Within the re-entrant angle between the chancel and the north transept sits a lean-to side chapel, set slightly back, with a pointed-arched sandstone panel containing a cinquefoil stained glass window. In the corresponding re-entrant angle to the south, the street-fronted vestry has a tall chimney forming a breakfront flanked by trefoil-headed lancet windows. The vestry chimney rises from the east gable and has a decorative round stone pot with offsets forming a breakfront to that elevation.

The south elevation reads from right to left as follows: the single-storey two-bay vestry, then the double-height gabled south transept, then the three-stage tower set slightly back and containing the main entrance, and finally the two remaining bays of the south nave to the left of the tower. The vestry has a square-headed window opening formed in chamfered sandstone ashlar with three rectangular leaded lights and two stone mullions, and a square-headed door opening also in sandstone ashlar with chamfered reveals, a narrow leaded sidelight, and an inset vertically-sheeted timber door.

The square-plan tower is built in coursed and snecked rock-faced stone with dressed quoins and angled buttresses to the lower stages with offsets. The broached spire is formed in dressed ashlar stone, surmounted by a stone finial and cross, with four lucarnes to its lower part. The bell stage is defined by a moulding at the base of the spire, which is repeated at the base of the bell stage itself. Each of the four faces of the bell stage has a pair of pointed-arched openings with hood mouldings, square label stops, and trefoil-headed openings fitted with timber louvres. The corners of the bell stage have angled piers with offsets. The middle stage of the tower carries a pair of roundels on the west elevation, and on the south elevation a trefoil-headed niche with a gabled canopy and finial containing a replacement stone effigy of St Patrick. The lower stage has a pair of lancets to the west elevation, and to the south elevation the main entrance doorway: a pointed arch with cavetto hood moulding, square label stops, deeply moulded jambs with a pair of colonettes, a replacement double-leaf vertically-sheeted door, and a stone step. A free-standing font stands to the left of this entrance, consisting of a marble bowl on a pink marble urn set on a limestone base.

The double-height west gable is rendered and has a roundel at the apex containing a quatrefoil glazed opening. The single-storey gabled ancillary building added in the 1990s is built to the centre of this gable in rubble stone with machine-cut quoins, skewputts, and openings. It has a square-headed door opening with a sidelight formed in sandstone, giving access to the west end of the church through double-leaf vertically-sheeted timber doors.

The north side elevation has a lean-to side chapel to the left, set slightly back from the double-height gabled north transept, with all details matching those on the south side. The three-bay rendered nave is interrupted by the recently built gabled structure with chimney — constructed in rubble stone with machine-cut quoins — which abuts the nave and is attached to the side of the transept by a flat-roofed entrance porch built in machine-cut sandstone. This porch has a square-headed door opening with double-leaf vertically-sheeted timber doors.

SETTING

The church is set within a substantial graveyard to the north, enclosed by a rubble stone wall along the road frontages to the east and north. The earliest recorded grave markers are dated to the 1850s. The east chancel gable fronts directly onto Castlefin Road, with a replacement steel gate abutting the vestry and the adjoining listed stone terrace of dwellings. There is a paved area to the south side and paved footpaths encircling the entire church. To the north of the graveyard stands a 1970s building that served as a replacement church for approximately twenty years and is currently empty.

The church occupies a significant position at the end of the listed stone terrace and historically marked the northern boundary of the town before recent suburban expansion. The open space of the graveyard preserves this sense of demarcation, providing both a dramatic view of the church from the north and a spacious and appropriate setting for the building.