Methodist Church, Epworth, Railway Street, Strabane, BT82 8DU

Methodist church built around 1900, located on the south side of Railway Street in Strabane. The building is rectangular in plan with a gabled entrance porch at the east and an attached double-height church hall at the south, built around 1930.

The church is designed in a simple Gothic Revival style. The roof is pitched with natural slate and blue-black clay ridge tiles, raised stone verges, and replacement uPVC rainwater goods. The walls are ruled-and-lined rendered, with exposed squared-and-snecked stone on the principal north elevation only.

The windows are pointed-arched-headed with multi-pane metal frames and leaded stained glass, set within masonry rendered cills. The road-facing north elevation comprises paired buttresses with offsetting flanking a central wide Gothic-arched window with complicated tracery and original leaded stained glass. The outer corner buttresses are capped by stone cross finials. The left east elevation is abutted on its right by the single-storey gabled entrance porch, with smooth rendered walls and a north elevation matching the church's main elevation. The entrance at north is accessed through double-leaf pointed-arched-headed timber sheeted doors within a stepped stone surround and three stone steps. A single window is at the south. The exposed section contains three windows at left. The south gable is abutted by the double-height church hall, built around 1930. The right west elevation is five windows wide, each divided by buttresses with offsetting.

The attached church hall, built around 1930, is rectangular in plan with a single-storey flat-roof extension at the west. The roof is natural slate with red terracotta ridge tiles, timber eaves board, and uPVC rainwater goods. The walls are roughcast rendered, and windows are round-arched-headed timber-framed with frosted glass. The west elevation is abutted by the single-storey extension. The exposed left section contains a single window. The south gable contains a plainly detailed Venetian-style window. The east elevation is five windows wide. The extension is accessed at the north via double-leaf pointed-arched-headed timber sheeted door at the re-entrant angle with the main church. The west elevation of the extension contains seven replacement square-headed timber casement windows. The right cheek contains a replacement timber fire escape door accessed by four masonry steps and mild-steel handrail.

The church stands in a churchyard within a small urban site set back from the general building line in Railway Street. A small rubble stone wall bounds the front of the site on the east. Access to the north forecourt is via a pair of decorative cast iron gates. The forecourt is enclosed by similarly detailed cast iron railings on rendered plinth walling.

The church first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1905. The Irish Builder announced on 1 January 1901 that "A Methodist new church has been built and is about to be opened at Strabane. The old Methodist church in that town had long been condemned and the new erection will prove a great boon to the congregation." The construction followed the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in 1869, after which Methodists no longer felt obliged to maintain ties with the established church. Additionally, the Primitive and Wesleyan sects of Methodism were reunited in 1878. The Primitive congregation of Strabane, which had previously occupied a chapel in Barrack Street sold in 1880, and the Wesleyan congregation, which used a church in Patrick Street, combined in this new building. The church opened on Friday 7 December 1900, built on a site on Railway Road rented from the Duke of Abercorn at a cost of £1200. Buttresses were added in 1920. The church halls were built in 1932 at a cost of £420. In 1953, Rev. R.L.M. Waugh, serving on the Strabane circuit, was elected president of the Methodist Church in Ireland, the highest official honour ever accorded to a minister in the Strabane circuit.

Following the flooding of Strabane town centre on 21 October 1987, when the Methodist Church was flooded to a depth of over six feet, restoration works included improvements such as the installation of a screen at the back of the church to create a larger reception area.