St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, 15 Chapel Lane, Gortin, Co Tyrone, BT79 8ND

St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church

A detached double-height Gothic Revival Roman Catholic Church, dated 1898, designed by E.J. Toye of Derry and located to the east side of Chapel Lane in Gortin. The church is a well-conceived design with fine detailing and represents a good example of late Victorian ecclesiastical architecture typical of the region.

The church is cruciform in plan, consisting of a central nave, north and south transepts, and a canted chancel to the east, flanked by double-height gable returns. A square tower rises to the north-west, with a single-storey lean-to porch to the south at the re-entrant angle with the transept, and a single-storey sacristy to the north-east.

The walls are constructed of squared-and-snecked rock-faced rubble with sandstone quoins set over a projecting plinth. Angle buttresses with offsets provide structural articulation. The roofs are pitched natural slate with clay crested ridge tiles over corbelled sandstone eaves courses; raised stone verges with gablets on moulded kneelers carry openwork stone cross finials to the gables. The sacristy roof is hipped natural slate.

The principal west-facing gable contains a central single-storey projecting gabled entrance flanked by square piers with cross gable coping and cross finial. The entrance doorway comprises replacement double-leaf vertically sheeted timber doors in a gothic double rebated surround with colonnettes, set beneath a carved sandstone spandrel panel inscribed "ECCE SALVADOR MUNDI". A moulded cornice with diapering runs to the apex. The entrance is flanked at either side by single gothic windows. A string-course carved with a gothic-headed colonnade ornaments the upper level. The central feature is a rose window in a round-arched-headed double rebated ashlar sandstone recessed bay surmounted by hood moulding with carved stops; a trefoil opening (similarly carved) rises to the apex. A buttress to the right is surmounted by a square finial containing gothic apertures supported by columns to each elevation.

To the left of the principal gable rises a three-stage tower. The first stage contains a granite datestone surmounted by a gothic window, with single windows to the north and east elevations. A moulded string-course marks the second stage, which features a cusped gothic niche containing a statue of St Patrick supported on a corbelled bracket beneath a gabled hood moulding with crockets and finial. A pair of quatrefoil windows rises above, with a pair of windows to the north and a single window to the east. A moulded string-course separates the ashlar bell stage, which contains a pair of chamfered gothic louvred openings to each elevation. The tower is surmounted by a broached octagonal spire.

Windows throughout the church are cusped gothic form, containing leaded stained glass in stepped sandstone surrounds with rubble voussoirs, set beneath hood mouldings with carved stops. The north elevation displays a two-window-wide nave at the centre, with the tower abutting at the right and a gabled transept to the left containing two pairs of plate tracery windows surmounted at the centre by a rose window with hood mould and a trefoil to the apex. A single-storey lean-to projection at ground floor left contains three quatrefoil windows. The sacristy abuts at ground floor left with two square-headed windows with leaded stained glass to its south elevation; a square-headed window is flanked at the right by a chamfered sandstone shouldered entrance opening containing a replacement square-headed vertically sheeted timber door; two square-headed windows face east.

The east elevation comprises a canted chancel to the centre with a pair of gothic windows (without hood mouldings) to the left and right cheeks set over shared rubble voussoirs. A round-arched-headed ashlar sandstone recessed bay surmounted by hood moulding contains a rose window. Double-height gabled returns flank the chancel to left and right, each containing a pair of windows as detailed.

The south elevation shows a three-window-wide nave to the left, with the third window abutted at ground floor by a porch containing a shouldered entrance with replacement vertically sheeted timber door and a single square-headed window to the west. A gabled transept similar to the north elevation abuts at the right.

The cast-iron rainwater goods remain in situ.

The church stands within a churchyard with a carpark to the west. Memorial stones to the south mark the graves of previous parish priests. The site boundary to the road at the west is marked by rubble walling with concrete saddleback coping, with access through a pair of square sandstone piers with pyramidal coping. A rubble boundary wall runs to the south, with hedging and rubble walling at the north marking the boundary with the parochial house. Access to the north is through a pair of sandstone piers supporting a wrought-iron gate. A graveyard lies to the north of Chapel Lane. A recent hall, constructed circa 2007, stands to the north-east.

Historical Context

The church was constructed following the demolition of the Gortin Union Workhouse that previously occupied the site (shown on the 1854 Ordnance Survey map). Valuation Revisions record the deletion of the Union Workhouse in 1892, with a temporary RC chapel and yard added to the valuation in 1893, valued at £10. A contemporary note records the building "now used as a temporary chapel by Father Healy". The building valuation increased to £70 by 1903, when the word "temporary" was removed. The foundation stone is dated 1898, with the interior finished by April 1902. The church was first shown on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1905–6, captioned "St Patrick's RC Church". The graveyard exemptions date from 1892.

A contemporary newspaper article from the Tyrone Constitution of February 1894 records Reverend Francis Healy, PP Gortin, lamenting that he was engaged in collecting subscriptions for a new Catholic Church in Gortin, noting that "lately a temporary place of worship had been provided in one of the large rooms of the old workhouse buildings". The article records that Mr Patrick McCallagh had purchased the building and site for the church. The parochial house was first shown on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1905–6; an earlier entry from 1892 refers to a "house, office and land" valued at £10, occupied by Reverend Adrian White. A house leased from Reverend Francis Healy was added in 1912, valued at £20 (increased to £25 in 1913), with Reverend Healy recorded as occupier in 1913 and the lessor revised to the most Reverend D. McHugh.

The original character of the church survives intact in its proportions, craftsmanship, and fine interior, with particular merit in the stonework such as the label-stops and carvings, and in the fine leaded stained glass rose windows.