First Cookstown Presbyterian Church, 71 James Street, Cookstown, Co Tyrone, BT80 8AE

First Presbyterian Church, Cookstown is a two-storey classical style Presbyterian church built in 1841, prominently positioned on a rise on the west side of James Street in the centre of the town. The building is sandstone-faced to its gabled front elevation and is extended to the rear by large session room and hall projections. Despite alterations at the west end, the church retains a solid and sober character with a well-preserved interior, and has group value with the adjacent listed manse to the southeast.

The church is essentially rectangular in plan and faces directly east. The front elevation is finished in sandstone and is composed with classical formality. At ground floor level, a large flat-arched doorway sits at the centre, fitted with recent replacement panelled timber double doors, a timber panel above, and plain timber jambs. The doorway is reached by a shallow splayed flight of stone steps, with a disabled access ramp to the south side and recent metal handrails. The doorway is flanked by relatively plain square pilasters rising to frieze level. At each outer edge of the elevation there is an identical pair of double pilasters, and between each outer pair and the doorway there is a window with a moulded sandstone surround and dripstone, filled with replacement leaded patterned glazing dating from around the 1930s. Directly above each window, and above the doorway, there is a large recessed panel with a moulded surround. The elevation is finished with a frieze and tympanum: the frieze is traversed by a moulded string course, and the tympanum has a moulded surround.

The north and south facades of the main body of the church are finished in lined unpainted cement render. Each has four windows and one blind window at ground floor level, and five windows at first floor level. All windows are set within full-height semicircular-headed recesses. The ground floor windows are smaller with flat-arched heads, while the larger first floor windows have semicircular heads. All are filled with glazing similar to that on the front elevation. The gabled roof of the main body is covered in asbestos tiles with a slight overhang and plain bargeboards to the rear.

To the west end of the main church building there are two gabled extensions, both finished in unpainted lined cement render. The extension directly attached to the main building is two-storey, though it may originally have been single-storey: its roof does not follow the same pitch as that of the main building, and all internal detailing is from around the 1930s. On the ground floor of the south facade of this section there is a small lean-to open porch containing a recent panelled timber and glazed door, with a partly glazed door-like sidelight to its left. To the left of the porch is a flat-arched window with glazing matching the ground floor windows of the main building, and two further windows of the same type at first floor level. The north facade of this section has two first floor windows matching those on the south facade. At ground floor level there are three smaller flat-arched windows: the two to the left are identical, with glazing matching the south facade, while the broader window to the right has a recent timber frame with awning-style openings. The roof of this section is covered in asbestos slates with a very slight overhang at the gable and plain bargeboards. Internal evidence suggests there may once have been a chimney to this section.

The westernmost extension is single-storey, or one-and-a-half storeys, and is slightly broader than the rest of the building, built into rising ground on its west side. It appears to be of relatively recent construction, with recent doors and window frames throughout. The south facade has two flat-arched windows with glazing similar to the main section of the building. On the north facade, to the left, there is a flat-arched doorway with a recent timber door and two-pane fanlight. On the west-facing gable, a high-level doorway with a timber door is positioned to the centre-left and is reached by a short flight of concrete steps with a simple metal handrail. To the right, set at a lower level, are two squat windows with timber frames. The roof of this section is covered in an artificial slate with plain narrow bargeboards. Rainwater goods throughout the building are a mixture of cast iron and uPVC.

The grounds in front of the church consist of a well-kept lawn with some small trees, intersected by a central pathway largely surfaced in tarmac. There are long narrow lawns to the north and south sides of the church. The ground to the west and the pathways immediately surrounding the church on all sides are covered in tarmac. A broad flight of stone steps to the north side of the church, along the pathway, provides access to the higher ground to the west and the large hall beyond. The church grounds are enclosed from the street to the east by a rendered wall with stone coping and decorative cast-iron railings. The wall contains a pedestrian gateway with rusticated sandstone pillars topped with decorative lamps, and decorative cast-iron gates.

The listing extent covers the church, the boundary walling, the gates and the railings.

Historical background

The congregation was formed in 1646 and originally met at a building in Coolreaghs at the south end of the town. After 1701 it met at Scotstown, now part of the Killymoon golf course. A church was built on the present site in 1764, and the current building replaced it in 1841. The 1857 Ordnance Survey map shows the present building with a small projection to the rear, along with the manse and its outbuildings. The manse may have been built at the same time as the church, though its bay windows, if original, suggest it could be slightly later, perhaps around 1855. The large hall to the rear of the church was built in or around 1875 by the Reverend Hamilton Brown Wilson. The pipe organ was installed in 1907, in memory of the Reverend Brown Wilson. The patterned glazing to most of the windows and the detailing within the eastern section of the rear projection suggest that some work was carried out to the building around 1930, possibly including the addition of a floor to the rear projection, though this is uncertain. The church was renovated in 1975 to 1976 following extensive bomb damage; despite this, much of the internal detailing appears to have survived, with the main visible change being modern style lighting. In more recent years a large extension has been added to the west side of the rear projection, and an equally large extension has been added to the west side of the neighbouring hall.

It is worth noting that one secondary source, published in 1971, incorrectly dated the church to the late 19th century, and a source quoted in 1886 described it as being of recent erection at that date; the documentary evidence confirms the 1841 date of construction.