St Andrew's Church of Ireland, Ardtrea Road, Stewartstown, Dungannon, BT71 5LY

St Andrew's Church of Ireland, Ardtrea Road, Stewartstown

An early 19th-century church built in the Gothic Revival style, consisting of a nave and chancel with a projecting porch at the west end. The church was built in 1829 at a cost of £1200 on ground granted by Lord Beresford, Primate of Ireland. The site was conveyed on 23 December 1828 and the building consecrated on 19 November 1829. It stands on an historic location, replacing a previous church erected in 1622 on a different site along the shore of Lough Neagh.

The church is constructed of roughly coursed blackstone rubble with sandstone dressings, with Bangor blue slate roofing in regular courses and cast iron rainwater goods. It is set back from the public road within its own grounds, presenting a side elevation to the road front, in a very rural setting.

The west elevation features a symmetrical gable with corner clasping buttresses of sandstone rising through two stages marked by moulded cornices to large octagonal pinnacles decorated with gablets. The gable contains a small ocular window near the apex and is surmounted by a stone bellcote with bell and spirelet. The projecting porch has similar walling with a crenellated parapet and clasping buttresses at its front corners rising to pinnacles. The main entrance contains a Gothic arched two-leaf ledged timber door (a modern replacement for the original single-leaf door) set in a gothic arched opening with hood mould. The long-and-short surrounds to the right of the doorway have been replaced by new stonework. Two cast iron bootscrapers are mounted on the doorstep. Each side of the porch contains a small rectangular timber small-paned window in a continuous chamfered surround surmounted by a Tudor drip moulding, with a cast iron downpipe of rectangular section to the south side.

The south elevation of the nave contains three tall two-light windows with cushed heads, glazed with lead cames and set in Gothic arched openings with long-and-short surrounds. Each window has a clasping buttress at the extremities, and below each window is a small square ventilation hole in a plain surround. The east gable of the nave is surmounted by a short chimney.

Extending to the left of the nave is a chancel with a steeper pitched roof. The chancel is a mid-to-late Victorian addition of unknown architect (drawings held in RCB Library), dating from the later 19th century. Most of the south wall of the chancel is covered by a lean-to vestry of similar materials except for sandstone quoins at the extremities. The vestry's roof pitch is shallower, corresponding to that of the nave. The south wall of the vestry contains a rectangular ledged timber door set in a chamfered block surround with shouldered head, approached by a flight of three new concrete paved steps. The east side of the vestry has a pair of coupled gothic headed windows with lozenge pattern metal glazing set in block surrounds below a two-centred blackstone relieving arch, with a basement doorway of rectangular form below, approached by steps and enclosed by metal post and wire railings. The east gable of the chancel has sandstone quoins and is surmounted by a stone finial of fleur-de-lys profile. It contains a three-light stained glass window with chamfered block surrounds and plain gothic arched sandstone heads set in simple Gothic blackstone arches. The south side of the chancel contains a single Gothic lancet of stained glass. The north elevation of the nave is similar to the south.

The mid-to-late Victorian work to the chancel and vestry also involved the installation of a new pulpit and sittings. An additional portion of churchyard was consecrated in 1880. The interior of the porch and its doorway connecting with the nave were refurbished in 2006. These modern alterations to the interior of the west porch and the west end of the nave detract from its integrity as a Gothic Revival building.

The church is approached by a gravel driveway which extends around the church as a path. The grounds are laid out with smooth lawns and rougher grassed areas containing 19th and 20th-century memorials and mature trees. The front boundary comprises rough rubble stone walls with a main gateway of roughly dressed sandstone square piers hung with iron gates, recessed in concave screen walls of snecked sandstone rubble terminating in short piers. A small original flat iron gate of simple design stands well to the right of the main gateway, leading to a path to the church door, and an original spiky iron rod gate stands further right, leading into the graveyard. Within the grounds, where the driveway bifurcates, stands a wrought iron lamp standard of unusual three-legged design of uncertain date but presumably of the 19th century. The main entrance gateway was erected as a memorial to Reverend Garnett who died in 1914.

The church stands as an attractive and rare example of its type, forming part of an interesting group with the former 19th-century rectory next to it and the former 19th-century school, now church hall, on the other side of the road.