St Patrick's RC Church, Church Road, Castlederg, Co Tyrone, BT81 7XZ

St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church is a detached double-height church built around 1840, situated on the north side of Church Road in Castlederg, County Tyrone. A memorial stone above the main tower door records that the church was begun in 1840, dedicated in 1844, and enlarged in 1856, when the tower was added. It was built on the site of an earlier church, and the listing extends to the church itself, the front wall, gates, and an outbuilding.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The site's history is well documented. The first Ordnance Survey map of 1833 shows a simple rectangular Roman Catholic Chapel on this spot. By the 1853 edition, this had been replaced by a new church, also described as a Roman Catholic Chapel, with a sacristy projecting from the western elevation and a graveyard noted alongside it. The Townland Valuations of 1828 to 1840 value the old Roman Catholic Chapel at £3 17s; this entry is then deleted and the new chapel valued at £28 18s, with recorded dimensions of 88 by 34 by 20 feet for the chapel itself, 14 by 21 by 15 feet for the sacristy, and 15 by 16 by 50 feet for what was evidently a tower that had disappeared by the time of the 1853 map. A replacement tower appears on the 1907 Ordnance Survey map, consistent with the 1856 date recorded on the building. Griffith's Valuation records the chapel at £18, with 15 shillings for the yard. By 1907 the church is captioned as St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church. The Annual Revision Records note that the land belongs to Sir Robert A. Ferguson Bt., though no significant changes are recorded during that period. A nearby property captioned "Derg Lodge" on the 1853 map as the property of Sir Robert Ferguson Bt. appears on the 1907 map as the Parochial House; this building has since been demolished and replaced by a new Parochial House built around 2005.

The Ordnance Survey Memoirs describe the earlier church that preceded the current building: "A Roman Catholic Chapel, situated in Aghyaran townland; it was built in 1799, and the cost, which cannot be correctly ascertained, was defrayed by the parishioners. It is a plain thatched building 120 feet long and 24 broad, affording accommodation for 900 persons. The average attendance is from 700 to 1,000. For the better convenience of the Roman Catholics living in the southern parts of the parish, mass is held in a small glen in Aghalougher townland, at which place, there is no chapel but a small shed for an altar."

According to the parish website, until Father James O'Kane served as Parish Priest from 1894 to 1897, there were no seats on the floor of the church. He had approximately half of it seated and removed a wooden pulpit that had stood inside the altar rails. His successor, Father McConelogue, Parish Priest from 1897 to 1933, had the remainder of the church seated. The gallery seats had originally been the private property of different parish families; Father McConelogue subsequently made them common property. Following repeated condemnations of the roof as unsafe by more than one engineer, a major programme of renovation works was carried out in the summer of 1927 under the direction of Mr William Doherty, Architect, Derry, with the building work undertaken by Messrs. Sweeney, Builders and Contractors, of Strand Road, Derry. The works included a new roof and ceiling, a new sacristy, a new sanctuary in Carrara marble — comprising the high altar, side altar, and altar rails — new timber floors throughout the church, new concrete floors in the tower, and stained glass windows. The road wall, entrance gates, and the retaining wall behind the church were also newly built at this time. The marble altars, one of the holy water fonts, and the stained glass windows were donated by parishioners at home and abroad. Excluding donations, Messrs. Sweeney were paid £8,478 0s 0d for materials, labour, and a ten per cent fee. The renovated church was dedicated by the Most Reverend Bernard O'Kane, Bishop of Derry, on 8th December 1928.

EXTERIOR

The church is rectangular on plan, with a three-stage tower at the east end and a sacristy at the west. The roofs are covered in pitched natural slate with blue and black clay ridge tiles, saddleback stone verges, and cross-gabled ends. Rainwater goods are cast-iron with an ogee profile, supported on a Lombard frieze.

The walls are smooth rendered with stepped masonry quoins and a projecting chamfered plinth. Windows throughout the nave are pointed-arched, with Y-tracery and chamfered mullions, filled with stained glass and external secondary glazing, all set within stepped chamfered surrounds with moulded hoodmoulds and label stops, and splayed moulded cills. The south elevation of the nave is five windows wide, as is the north elevation.

The principal elevation faces east and is abutted at its centre by the three-stage tower. The sections of the east wall visible on either side of the tower each contain a stained glass oculus set within a smooth rendered surround surmounted by a hoodmould with label stops.

The tower itself is built in roughly coursed squared-and-snecked rubble, with angle buttresses and offsetting. Entrances to the church are in both the north and south elevations of the tower: these are rebated, pointed-arched openings with hoodmoulds and label stops, fitted with replacement double-leaf timber sheeted doors and stained glass fanlights over. The door at the south elevation is surmounted by a blank stone shield plaque, from which the central panel or datestone has been removed. The second stage of the tower has a keyed oculus with lattice glazing to each elevation. The third stage has paired pointed-arched timber louvred belfry openings to each elevation. The tower terminates in a parapet with three carved merlons to each elevation; the central merlon of each face is surmounted by a stone-carved Celtic cross, while the flanking merlons contain pointed-arched-headed panels.

The west gable is abutted at its centre by the single-storey sacristy, which is detailed to match the nave. The exposed section of the west gable contains two pointed-arched louvred openings and a cross finial at the apex. The sacristy itself follows the same detailing as the nave, with stained glass pointed-arched windows except where noted. Its south elevation contains an entrance at the left and a pointed-arched stained glass window at the right. The entrance is via a replacement timber sheeted door within a stepped surround and hoodmould, accessed by three masonry steps. The west elevation of the sacristy is blank, and the north elevation contains two windows.

INTERIOR

The interior has been partially altered, but original details survive including the Y-tracery windows and the panelled ceiling.

SETTING AND BOUNDARY FEATURES

The church sits on a roadside plot with a graveyard to the north. The southern boundary is formed by a roughcast rendered wall with moulded saddleback coping. Pedestrian access from the west is through a wrought-iron gate supported on square smooth rendered piers with saddleback coping. Vehicular access from the east is through cast-iron gates supported on smooth rendered, chamfered octagonal piers with pointed octagonal caps. A stone font is located at the south-east corner of the site.

To the south of Church Road lies a car park and former outbuildings. The outbuilding at the west has rubble stone walls, dressed stone quoins, two circular openings on the east and west elevations, and a natural slate roof; the east elevation retains its original metal circular windows. This outbuilding is accessed through plainly detailed cast-iron gates on concrete piers.

Despite the refurbishments carried out to both the exterior and interior, the church remains a fine example of early Victorian church architecture and makes a positive contribution to the built heritage of the local area.