St Matthias Church of Ireland Church, Loup Road, Moneymore, Magherafelt, BT45 7ST

St Matthias Church of Ireland Church is an outstanding mid-Victorian church built between 1866 and 1868 to designs by Welland and Gillespie, architects of Dublin, one of the leading ecclesiastical specialist firms in Ireland at the time. It is built in what was described at the time of construction as the "First Pointed Style of Gothic" — the early lancet phase of the Gothic Revival — and stands as an exceptionally good and inventive example of that architects' work, combining functional ingenuity with an all-embracing Gothic vision. The site was conveyed from the Salters Company on 1 June 1865; the foundation stone was laid by Andrew Spotswood, agent for the Salters Company, on 23 July 1866; and the church was consecrated by the Lord Primate, the Archbishop of Armagh, on 23 February 1868. The contractor was George Tipping. The listing covers the church itself together with its front boundary wall, gates, and piers.

The building stands in a rural area, set back slightly from the main road within its own grounds. It consists of a nave and apsidal chancel with a south porch and a vestry on the north side. A rectangular belfry rises at the north-western corner, while embryonic transepts are marked by steep gables near the east end. The main entrance faces south through an open porch.

The nave roof is clad in Bangor blue slates in regular courses, contained between gable copings. Rainwater goods are of cast iron, comprising moulded guttering and circular downpipes with trefoil-ended brackets. Nave walling is of polygonal white limestone rubble with grey sandstone dressings, and a Moneymore red sandstone stringcourse that arches over the windows. The stone was obtained from the Draper's Estate. The windows are narrow stop-chamfered and moulded lancets with margined panes, paired in the nave and surmounted by a trefoil tracery light, and arranged in a group of three in the transeptal gable with a large circular plate-traceried window above them.

The south porch has a steep slated roof and low side walls of polygonal white limestone rubble. Its gable is of similar walling with sandstone dressings, the shoulders of which rest on a small foliate-capped red colonnette to each side, with the wall battered beneath. The chamfered corner of each kneeler contains a quatrefoil-like cluster of four tiny piercings — an unusually intricate detail. The gable contains a moulded Gothic archway leading into the open porch. To each side of the archway, at ground level, is a small cusp-arched recess containing a cast iron boot-scraper — a particularly notable example of the architects' inventiveness, combining functional usefulness with the overall Gothic design. Above each recess is a small ocular opening with a deep-set leaf-carved surround under a red sandstone relieving arch. At the apex of the gable the coping is terminated by a carved trefoil. The open porch has an original coloured tiled floor in a geometrical pattern. The walls are of white painted brickwork rising to a Gothic arched vault; originally this brickwork was carefully designed polychrome work, subsequently obscured by paint, though the brickwork itself survives beneath. In the rear wall is a sandstone-dressed Gothic arched opening with a datestone inscribed "1868" at the top. It contains a Gothic arched ledged timber door with decoratively treated ironwork hinges.

The west gable is of similar walling to the rest of the building, but cross-banded with four red sandstone stringcourses and one projecting moulded grey sandstone stringcourse which serves as a sill for the tall triple-lancet window. In the apex of the gable is a small Gothic arched lancet opening to ventilate the roof space. At the right-hand extremity of the gable is a flat rectangular buttress with a battered weathered base clasping the corner. At the left-hand extremity is a similarly projecting but wider and taller tower with a similarly detailed base, rising to a steep hipped stone-roofed bellcote. The corners of the tower are moulded and rise as tall thin colonnettes to the top of the tower, where they terminate in bell capitals carved with trefoil leafage. The tower contains a narrow lancet window at approximately gallery height, and a cusped-arched opening at the top housing a large bell. Above springing height in the belfry stage there is narrow cross-banding in red sandstone and two small red-encircled ocular motifs in the spandrels. The bellcote is further embellished with imbrications on its roof and finials on the ridge.

The north elevation is generally similar to the south, but with a narrow semi-circular lancet window at the west end in place of a porch, and the addition of a small vestry projecting at the east end. The vestry has a slated roof of hipped form and contains a rectangular ledged timber door with decoratively treated ironwork hinges, recessed in a shouldered opening on the front face and approached by a stone step, with a pair of coupled cusped Gothic windows in the east side.

The east gable of the nave has a rounded oblong chimney in regular coursed sandstone on a base of battered profile, rising from the right-hand side, with the curved apse projecting below. The walling of the apse matches the rest of the building but without the red sandstone banding. Three weathered buttresses with battered bases alternate with three windows around the apse. The windows consist of a cusped narrow single light surmounted by trefoil tracery, all set within a Gothic lancet. The pattern of stonework on the fronts of the buttresses is unusual, with narrow triangles of white limestone set between angle-ended sandstone blocks.

Inside, the church remains almost entirely intact and is of high quality throughout. The interior displays polychromatic masonry, characteristic foiled motifs and notchings on the pulpit, stencilled motifs on the sanctuary ceiling, and grisaille decoration in the stained glass windows. The roof structure is of unusual design and adds further architectural interest to the interior.

The building is approached by a tarmac drive from a gateway on axis with the main entrance, looping around a circular flower bed. To each side of the driveway and all around the church are lawns containing a number of graves, some tall mature deciduous trees, and lower neatly-clipped evergreen trees. The boundary in front of the church is formed by a rubble stone wall with rough stone copings. It contains a vehicular gateway consisting of a pair of decoratively treated ironwork gates of High Victorian character, designed by the architects of the church and similar to the original gates they designed for St Patrick's Church at Ballyclog in the same year. They are mounted on piers of cut sandstone with interlocking joints and chamfered capstones. Standing a short distance to the west of the church against the western boundary is a small flat-roofed rendered toilet block. Standing well to the east of the church, beyond the actual churchyard enclosure and separated from it by a field, is the later stone-built Victorian rectory, built in 1880 and not currently occupied.