First Presbyterian Church, 32 Hillhead, Stewartstown, Dungannon, Co Tyrone, BT71 5HY

First Presbyterian Church, Stewartstown

This is a detached early 19th century Presbyterian church built in 1851 and designed by the architect J. McNea of Belfast. It displays a restrained late Georgian Gothic Revival style, with a well-detailed and proportioned front elevation that retains much of its original character. The church fabric has suffered damage from several explosions aimed at the nearby police station, though this has not significantly diminished its special architectural and historical significance.

The building consists of a long rectangular nave with a single-storey minister's room to the rear (east). The front elevation is three bays wide, while the side elevations are five bays. The front (west) elevation faces onto Hillhead Road and is gable-ended, constructed of cut stone with dressed stone to the openings and other details. It features a long lancet pointed-arched window to the left, a pointed-arched doorway at the centre, and a long lancet pointed-arched window to the right. Above the doorway is a large double pointed-arched lancet window with Y tracery. All windows have carved stone drip mouldings with cut-stone label stops. The paired timber doors are diagonal timber sheeted, set on four cut-stone steps. The elevation is divided into three bays by four buttresses: two three-stage reducing angle buttresses to the exterior, each surmounted by a carved stone finial (replacements), and two hexagonal projecting tower-like buttresses flanking the doorway. Finials to the centre buttresses have been removed and not replaced. Protective external uPVC window frames have been added to the front facade windows.

The north and south side elevations are of harled render, divided at each bay by two-stage buttresses. They feature long pointed-arched lancet timber windows set on cut-stone sills; most window openings now have external protective uPVC frames. The rear (east) elevation is gable-ended with two pointed-arched lancet windows set on cut-stone sills (original timber). This elevation is partially obscured by the single-storey vestry return located at the centre. A simple rendered chimney rises to the apex of the gable. External walls rest on a projecting cut-stone plinth. The roof is pitched with fibre cement slate, and rainwater goods are replacement extruded aluminium.

To the rear (east), a single-storey vestry return is fitted at the centre of the rear elevation, featuring an open porch with a pitched roof. A square-headed timber panelled door is set within, with a square-headed replacement uPVC window to the rear. The vestry roof is pitched with natural slate.

The church is set on the east side of Hillhead Road, south of the commercial area of Parkers Farm. The front boundary features stone piers and original cast iron railings. Four cut-stone piers lead to the main entrance door, with a recently constructed ramp added at the front entrance. An access road to the south of the church leads to the adjacent Manse. The setting extends to the rear, where the unaltered landscape includes green fields with a small lake approximately 200 metres to the east. The church has group value with the adjacent unlisted Manse, which is shown on the 1906 Ordnance Survey town plan and was first recorded in the valuation books in 1912 when Reverend James Donaldson was in residence.

Although a Presbyterian church at this location is shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833–34 and subsequent editions, the present building was constructed in 1851. It is mentioned in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1834 and Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of 1837, though neither provides further detail.