Ballinderry Middle Church, Lower Ballinderry Road, Brakenhill, Glenavy, Crumlin, County Antrim, BT28 2JH

Gable-fronted double-height rendered church, dated 1668. Rectangular on plan facing west, set on an elevated site on the south side of Ballinderry Road Lower with a lych gate erected c.1902. Extensively restored and modified c.1902, including the replacement of the roof, the addition of a bell-cote, gallery and external steps. Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles set behind slightly raised moulded stone coping to either gable end and terminated in sandstone gable shoulder stones and carved skew corbels. Replacement iron guttering on iron brackets to exposed timber rafter feet and iron downpipes. Dry dash rendered walling. Square-headed window openings, modified c.1902, with timber-framed multi-pane arched fixed-pane lights having bulls-eye glazing. Gabled front west elevation is surmounted by a plain rendered bell-cote with sandstone coping, a square-headed bell arch with cast-iron bell and date stone below inscribed; '1668 1902'. A pair of oculi with spoked iron windows light the gallery to the upper level. Central square-headed door opening with moulded timber architrave surround on masonry plinth blocks housing a segmental-headed opening with a pair of raised and fielded timber panelled doors with iron furniture. North nave elevation is three windows wide and abutted to the west end by a stone staircase with rubblestone coping and arches below giving access to the gallery via a square-headed door opening with recessed diagonally-sheeted timber door adorned with decorative iron furniture. East gable has a single square-headed east window with five arched lights and a single transom. South nave elevation is two windows wide. Setting: Set on an east west axis on the south side of Ballinderry Road Lower on a landscaped elevated site containing many stone and marble grave markers and box-tombs dating from the late seventeenth-century to the present. Bitmac footpath leads from the front entrance to the lych gate. Lych gate erected c.1902, having a pitched terracotta tiled roof with terracotta ridge comb tiles, king-post trusses to the front and rear with arched trusses within, all supported on timber posts and a low rendered wall with sandstone saddle-back coping and pair of decorative sheeted timber gates with turned squat balusters. The cross member of the front truss has carved raised lettering stating; 'I.Am.The.Resurrection.And.The.Life'. To the east the vehicular entrance has a set of unusually designed cast and wrought iron gates supported on intricately detailed cast iron pillars. Roof Natural slate RWG Iron Walling Dry-dash render Windows Fixed-pane arched multi-pane