St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, 98 Loup Road, Moneymore, Magherafelt, BT45 7ST

St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church

St Patrick's is a mid-19th century Roman Catholic church built in 1861 for Reverend Patrick Quinn, located at the western edge of Moneymore village. It is a substantial building of masonry construction in the Gothic Revival style, comprising a nave, two aisles, an apsidal chancel, and a western tower positioned in the angle between the nave and the south aisle. The church is well proportioned with minor ornamental elements appropriate to the style. Although it has undergone some interior alterations that detract from its original appearance and have changed its original spatial arrangement, it remains a significant example of its type. The prominent and highly visible tower gives the building considerable local presence and it holds special local interest and considerable social and cultural importance.

The church stands set back from the public road within its own grounds. The walls are constructed of polygonal blackstone rubble with smooth sandstone dressings to openings, a projecting plinth, buttresses, and shaped sandstone corbels to the eaves course. Angle buttresses occur at the corners of the tower and at the corners of the aisles. The roofs are of Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses, with cast iron rainwater goods comprising moulded gutters and square section downpipes with trefoil-ended fixing brackets.

The south elevation displays the south aisle with the tower at its left end. The main entrance, facing south, is located in the base of the tower and comprises a pair of double-leaf Gothic arched timber boarded doors with large scrolling ironwork hinges, set in a stop-chamfered Gothic arched surround surmounted by a drip moulding with plain block stops. The entrance is approached by two concrete paved steps combined with a ramp and modern ironwork railing. The south aisle is lit by tall narrow Gothic arched lancets containing tinted leaded glazing with stained glass motifs, set in irregular sized block surrounds.

The tower is divided into two stages by a moulded stringcourse. The lower stage contains the main entrance with a pair of small narrow lancet windows appearing higher up, each with drip mouldings and leaded glazing. The upper stage is pinnacled and crenellated, with timber louvre boards in a Gothic arched opening containing geometric tracery. The pinnacles are surmounted by plain crosses. The east face of the lower stage contains two small lancets. The west face of the lower stage contains a narrow lancet at the bottom, with a quatrefoil marble datestone of 1861 in a circle above it, and a pair of quatrefoil windows above that, one with plate glass and the other with leaded glazing.

The west elevation comprises the two gables of the nave. The nave gable contains a doorway similar to that of the tower, with a three-light geometric bar-traceried window above it, glazed with tinted leaded glazing and stained glass motifs. It rests on a moulded stringcourse and is surmounted by a drip moulding with plain block stops. In the apex of the gable is a small trefoil opening to ventilate the roof space. This gable is surmounted by a stone wheel-cross. The north aisle gable contains a two-light window with quatrefoil plate tracery, surmounted by a drip mould and containing plain leaded glazing. The apex contains a trefoil vent and is surmounted by stone cresting ornamented with a small fleur-de-lys motif carved in stone.

The north elevation displays the north aisle with a lower gabled sacristy projecting at the left end. The north aisle is lit by six windows similar to those of the south aisle. The sacristy gable contains a projecting chimney breast carrying a square chimney of regular coursed ashlar sandstone. The west side of the sacristy contains one small lancet window without a drip moulding and a Gothic arched doorway with drip moulding containing a ledged timber door, approached by a flight of six stone steps. The east side of the sacristy contains two lancets similar to the western lancets, with a rectangular timber sheeted door in the plinth area, which is deep enough to accommodate a basement due to the slope of the ground.

The east elevation comprises the curved apse of the nave flanked by the gables of the aisles. The apse wall is of slightly battered form with a semi-conical slated roof and contains five small lancets without drip mouldings, containing stained glass. The aisle gables contain two-light plate traceried windows similar to that of the west end of the north aisle, but without drip mouldings. They also have trefoil vents in the apex and are surmounted by ornamented stone gable cresting.

The church is approached from the main road to the south by a tarmac driveway which expands to the west to form a small car park and extends around the perimeter of the church as a path. To the south and west the grounds are laid out as lawns. To the north they form a graveyard. The boundary to the south is formed by a low rubble stone wall containing the main gateway, which comprises a pair of scrolling ironwork gates set in plain rubble stone piers. Boundaries elsewhere are formed mainly by hedges.