First Presbyterian Church, 11 Stonard Street, Moneymore, Magherafelt, Co Londonderry, BT45 7PW

First Presbyterian Church, Moneymore

A substantial late Georgian classical temple-form meeting house, erected in 1821-1823 and designed by Jesse Gibson, a noted architect of the period. The building replaced an earlier Presbyterian meeting house on Conynghan Street. The foundation stone was laid on 10 July 1821 under the patronage of the Worshipful Company of Drapers, with William Moore as minister. Though originally described in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs as "stone finished", the building now has smooth rendered walls, a treatment considered appropriate to its classical aesthetic.

The church is a three-bay-wide hall with a gabled south-facing entrance façade and extends four bays deep, with a hipped two-storey rear projection containing a gallery. The south elevation features a central square-headed doorway with moulded architrave, two steps, and a pair of four-panelled fielded doors beneath a fanlight of twelve small panes. A single boot scraper is present. Flanking the doorway are segmental-headed windows with plain narrow surrounds and cills, each subdivided into twenty small panes. The first floor contains three semi-circular-headed windows arranged symmetrically, with plain narrow surrounds and cills, subdivided into thirty-one small panes with semi-circular top astragals. The gable is articulated by a pediment with plain defining band and a central louvred oculus with plain narrow surround. Rusticated quoins, a plain plinth, and smooth rendered and lined walls frame the composition. The quoins, plinth, and pediment mouldings are painted, probably over sandstone.

At the south-east corner of the plinth is a foundation stone inscribed: "The foundation stone of this meeting house was laid July 10 1821 For Nathaniel Stonard and William Hammond, Esquires The Deputation from The Worshipful Company of Drapers By the Reverend William Moore Minister Samuel Weddell Esquire Master", the last line being undecipherable.

The west elevation comprises a four-bay-long block with a lower one-bay adjunct to the north, slightly set back. At ground floor level are four segmental-headed windows with plain architrave band and cill, equally spaced and subdivided into twenty small panes. Above these are taller semi-circular-headed windows, centred over those below, each containing thirty-one small panes and similar architraves. Rusticated quoins, plinth, smooth rendering, and linear detailing frame both sides of this elevation. The adjunct bay contains a central semi-circular-headed doorway with a five-panelled door and a fanlight subdivided into small panes consistent with the window treatment. Above the door is an oculus divided horizontally and vertically into nine panes. The main roof to the high block is gabled and slated with thin barges; the adjunct roof is hipped and slated with plain hip tiles. Eaves overhang, ogee extruded aluminium guttering, and two similar downpipes are present.

The north elevation has a pedimented gable with glazed oculus. The adjunct displays two segmental-headed windows placed centrally and arranged vertically, each with twenty small panes and plain architrave band and cill. Against the north gable is a lean-to structure containing a store and boiler room with a dipped roof; the boiler room sits at lower floor level with internal steps. Three single doors provide access. The walls are smooth rendered and unpainted and unlined. Two narrow windows of later insertion light ground floor toilets. Some original trunk heads bearing the date 1821 remain. The east elevation is similar to the west elevation, with plaster unlined.

The church stands freestanding within a graveyard and forms a pleasing vista from Bridger Street. The extensive graveyard lies to the west, while to the north, where the site has been extended, is a large carpark. On the west side is a random rubble grey stone wall; to the north, a white limestone rubble wall reinforced in several places with hefty brick buttresses. Along Stonard Street is a low wall with railing, vehicular and pedestrian gates each flanked by substantial rusticated piers. The site contains several coniferous and broad-leaf trees.

The Ordnance Survey Memoirs records that the building was erected by the Drapers' Company in 1823 at a cost of four thousand pounds. The site had been cleared during the Deputation's visit in 1818. It was decided that "all doors, windows and joinery made up in London". Jesse Gibson, the architect, retired in 1822 owing to gout; George Bridger, Clerk of Works and Contractor, likely oversaw completion of the structure. W J Booth became company architect in 1822. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs describes the building as "a substantial, stone finished square building, 76 and a half feet long and 50 feet wide. A spacious gallery extends along 3 sides of the building and it is otherwise neatly and comfortably fitted up". The site was originally "a pretty enclosure tastefully planted with evergreens" and "the side fronting the street secured by a neat cast iron railing". The site was extended recently to the rear.