Christ Church, Bell Road, Urney, Strabane, Co Tyrone, BT82 9RS

Christ Church is a Gothic Revival Church of Ireland building built in 1868 to designs by the celebrated architects Welland and Gillespie. The church stands on the east side of Bell Road in a rural churchyard setting with mature trees to the west, bounded by rubble walling with rubble coping and accessed through a pair of square sandstone pillars on splayed plinth surmounted by gabled mansard coping with carved quatrefoil motif, supporting a pair of painted decorative iron gates. A secondary pedestrian access to the north-east is provided through a pair of plain sandstone pillars supporting a cast-iron gate.

The building is a double-height composition consisting of a central nave with a canted five-sided chancel to the east, a double-gabled transept to the north, a gabled outshoot to the south, a gabled vestry to the south-east, a single-storey gabled porch to the west, and a square tower abutting the transept to the west. A recent flat-roofed boiler house at basement level has been added to the south-west, accessed via concrete steps enclosed within a concrete retaining wall.

The walls are constructed of roughly coursed rubble over a stepped plinth with ashlar sandstone quoins and sill course, enriched by diagonal buttresses with offsets. The pitched roof is clad in natural slate with raised sandstone verges featuring trefoil finials over corbelled kneelers. Decorative square chimney-stacks with trefoil perforations sit on the south and west gables.

The church is richly detailed throughout. Windows are pointed-arched-headed with sandstone tracery containing leaded lattice lights in stepped sandstone surrounds surmounted by hood moulds with label stops and rubble voussoirs. The principal west-facing gable is particularly ornate, containing a circular rose window with leaded stained glass surmounted by hood moulding and rubble voussoirs, with a blind chamfered pointed-arched-headed window to the apex. The gable is abutted at ground floor by the porch, which features a gabled half-dormer containing a narrow window flanked by buttresses with gablets. The cusped pointed-arched-headed entrance contains double-leaf vertically sheeted timber doors within a rebated sandstone surround flanked by colonettes and surmounted by hood moulding.

The north elevation displays the nave with a single window to the right, abutted to the left by the double-gabled transept. Each gable, separated by a buttress with gablet, contains a single window, with a blind chamfered pointed-arched-headed window to the apex and a single stained glass window to the east elevation. The two-stage tower dominates the centre of this elevation. Its first stage contains a pointed-arched-headed vertically-sheeted entrance door within a cusped chamfered sandstone surround with decorative stop and hood moulding, surmounted by a narrow square-headed recess in sandstone surround. A narrow window with a recess appears on the west elevation. A moulded string course marks the transition to the belfry stage, which has colonettes to the corners and pointed-arched-headed louvred openings surmounted by hood moulds on each elevation. The tower is topped by a splay-footed spire with lucarnes and trefoil perforations.

The east elevation is abutted by the canted chancel. Each cheek, separated by buttresses with offsets and gablets, contains a reticulated bar tracery leaded stained glass window surmounted by hood moulding. The south elevation comprises a two-window-wide nave to the left, abutted at centre by the gabled outshoot containing a single leaded stained glass window with a small chamfered pointed-arched-headed aperture to the apex. To the right sits the gabled vestry containing a single window, a small chamfered pointed-arched-headed aperture to the apex, and a narrow square-headed window at low level. The west elevation of the vestry contains a square-headed vertically sheeted entrance door surmounted by a pointed-arched-headed spandrel supported on corbels, containing a plain glazed oculus with hood moulding.

The composition has been enhanced by the addition of leaded stained glass windows throughout, including a window dated 1894 inscribed "Suffer the little Children" by A.L. Moore to the south. Recent restoration has revealed the original character of the façade. The roof features replacement cast-iron gutters and square downpipes with decorative fleur-de-lys ties.

A monument taken from the old church is preserved within: a draped urn in marble with bay leaf garland dedicated to William Maxwell (1789). The church first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1905. Valuation records from 1868 list the addition of 'Church (in progress) and land', valued at £50 and marked as exempt.