St Patrick's Church of Ireland, 125 Coagh Road, Stewartstown, Dungannon, BT71 5LL

St Patrick's Church of Ireland, Stewartstown — Church of Ireland, built 1865–1868

St Patrick's is an exceptionally fine 19th-century Church of Ireland parish church, designed in the High Victorian Gothic Revival style by Welland and Gillespie of Dublin, architects to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and one of the leading firms of ecclesiastical specialists in Ireland at the time. The site was conveyed on 14 June 1865, construction was carried out by contractor James McClean to signed drawings dated 26 December 1865, and the completed church was consecrated by the Lord Primate on 2 September 1868. It was built to replace an earlier church — now in ruins and known as Ballyclog Old Church — which stands on the opposite side of the road and remains visible from the new building, the two forming an interesting historical group.

The church stands on an elevated, open site in a very rural area, set back from the main road within its own grounds. It consists of a three-bay gabled nave with a rounded apse, an attached circular western tower, and a vestry at the east end that also terminates in a curved wall.

Architectural Character and External Appearance

The walls are constructed of snecked, rock-faced sandstone rubble with red sandstone impost courses and stringcourses, and incorporate some blue and yellow brickwork within the coloured stone bands, giving the building its polychromatic character. Roofs are of Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses, with no break between the main roofs and the apsidal ends. Rainwater goods are of cast iron and are modern replacements for the originals.

The main entrance faces west and is housed within a lean-to narthex porch built across the front of the main west gable. This porch contains two moulded and shouldered entrance openings fitted with original gates of ornamented ironwork. To the north the porch is flanked by a buttress rising to a gabled pinnacle with a flying buttress — a particularly notable feature of the design — and to the south by the circular belfry tower. The tower is steeply battered at the base, around which two bands of red sandstone spiral; the upper band bumps up over the lancet openings that light the stair inside. At the top, the cap is drawn out into a long, slender conical spire containing both small circular openings and lancet openings. This treatment of the traditional Irish Round Tower belfry theme is an inventive and distinctive element of the architects' design.

In the gable above the west porch is a large circular rose window of clear glass, set in plate tracery with five multi-foil and five quatrefoil lights, embellished with trefoil stone motifs and set within a polychromatic Gothic arch rising from a stringcourse. Above this is a small two-centre arched unglazed lancet, also set in a polychromatic arch. At the apex of the gable is what appears to be a pair of coupled short chimneys, originally serving the building's heating apparatus.

The north elevation comprises the nave wall with three windows, the side of the porch set back slightly at the west end, and the curved apse wall to the east, separated from the nave by a two-stage buttress with a small gablet at the top decorated with a red sandstone roundel; a similar buttress divides the easternmost nave window from the other two. The nave windows are three-light with a central multi-foil in plate tracery above the lower middle light, set in polychromatic Gothic arches; the lower portions have lozenge-pattern metal frames. The apse windows are single-light Gothic-arched lancets with lozenge-pattern metal frames, surmounted by plate-traceried quatrefoil and small circular piercings, set in polychromatic arches that spring from a higher impost course than those of the nave. The side elevation of the porch contains one small shouldered rectangular lancet with lozenge-pattern metal frames, recessed in a segmental-headed surround. The south wall of the nave contains three windows similar to those on the north.

At the east end, a tall square chimney of regular coursed sandstone rises from the angle between the front and rear roofs of the vestry. The vestry projects from the south side of the church in an L-shape, its apsidal eastern end echoing the form of the main church apse. Its roof is of hipped form except over the curved wall, where it is conical, and is slated to match the main block. The vestry has three single-light lancets around its sides and rear, similar to those of the main apse but without the plate tracery. In the south side of the vestry there is also a doorway containing a segmental-headed ledged timber door set in a moulded segmental-headed stone surround, surmounted by a Gothic-arched stone fanlight with pierced circular tracery of geometrical design.

Interior

The porch doorways lead into two open porches floored with original black and red tiles, with walls and vaulted ceilings of yellow brick. The side walls of these open porches contain pairs of rectangular timber-panelled doors with ornamented arched tympanum panels over them, leading into two inner porches — one central and one to the south — and into a former porch to the north, now converted to a toilet. Each of the two open porches contains an iron grille set in the floor. The interior overall retains its polychromatic brickwork and characteristic foiled motifs on the font and other furnishings, and the roof structure is of an unusual design that enhances the space. The interior remains substantially intact.

Setting

The ground in front of the church and along each side is gravelled, with a sloping grassed verge to the north and south. To the south, an extension to the churchyard beyond a low rubble stone wall is laid out as a grassed burial ground with paths at intervals. The front boundary is formed by a rubble stone wall with rough stone copings. Near the north end of this wall is a vehicular gateway containing a pair of iron gates made up of the original High Victorian Gothic gates, now widened by the addition of the original pedestrian gate, all set in cut stone dressings to the rubble wall. To the south, a pedestrian gateway in the front boundary wall contains a modern replica (2007) of the original High Victorian Gothic gate, also set in cut stone blocks; it opens onto a small cement-screeded area from which short steps lead up to the gravelled parking area in front of the church. This gateway formerly led onto a path up a grassy incline.

Significance and Condition

A few minor alterations and additions have been made to one of the porches, which detract somewhat from the original spatial quality and experience of the church, and some alterations to the grounds detract from the character of the setting. Nonetheless, the church stands as an exceptionally good and inventive example of the work of Welland and Gillespie, particularly in such details as the single flying buttress and the unusual treatment of the Irish Round Tower belfry. Both its architectural quality and its historical relationship with the ruined 17th-century predecessor church across the road give it considerable significance at both local and wider levels.