Non-subscribing Presbyterian Church, Burren Road, Warrenpoint, Newry, Co Down, BT34 3SA

Non-subscribing Presbyterian Church, Burren Road, Warrenpoint

This little-altered early 19th-century church, erected in 1806, stands within a churchyard on the south side of Burren Road. It is a T-plan building aligned west to east, containing a fine well-detailed interior with particular architectural and historical significance to the local community.

The church is a one-and-a-half-storey structure with a pitched natural slate roof with advanced eaves carrying half-round cast-iron rainwater goods. The walls are wet dashed and painted with smooth rendered basecourse. The principal elevation faces south and is distinguished by a central bow-fronted bay flanked by two windows on either side. All windows to this elevation are segmental-headed 8/8 sliding sashes with dressed granite architraves, keystones and cills. The bow-fronted bay itself has a curving natural slated roof that ties into the front pitch of the main roof and shares its eaves. Above the window on the bay's front face is a recessed semicircular blind niche with granite cill. The left and right faces of the bow-fronted bay each have a replacement tongued-and-grooved sheeted entrance door at the join with the main block; the left door is protected by a metal security grill.

The left and right gables of the church each have a 6/3 segmental-headed sliding sash window with granite cill set to the centre of the first floor. The rear elevation is abutted roughly to centre by a one-and-a-half-storey return. The exposed sections of the main wall each have a segmental-headed 6/6 sliding sash window with granite cill set immediately left and right of the return, both protected by metal security grilles. The east wall of the return is canted inwards to avoid abutting the left window, suggesting that the return may originally have been single storey or represents a later addition. The return is detailed as the main church and its pitched roof ties into the main roof but has a slightly lower eaves level. A dashed chimney stands on its north end gable. The right (west) cheek of the return has a 6/3 sliding sash window without cill to the centre of each floor and a tongued-and-grooved sheeted door set at the join with the main block. The left (east) cheek has a small fixed single-paned timber-framed window set halfway up the wall at the join with the main block. The end gable of the return is blank. All openings are protected by security grilles.

The interior retains its original character with galleries to three sides and a notable bow-fronted pulpit. Original boxed pews survive. Historic photographs held in the Northern Ireland Historic Monuments Record show the original plaster ceiling centres, which featured a thin guilloche ring with zigzag inset in the large central medallion and small patera ringed by delicate bay leaf garlands in the two lesser centres. The reproduction ceiling centres installed following the 1977 refurbishment bear no resemblance to these originals.

Historic Context

The church was erected on the site of an earlier meeting house. Bradshaw, writing in 1819, noted: "near the village stands the new Presbyterian meeting house, lately erected on the site of the old one, on a very convenient plan". The 1834 Ordnance Survey map shows it as a cruciform building. The 1836 Ordnance Survey Memoir records that it cost £500, raised by public subscription, and contained a large gallery with seats capable of accommodating 420 people. A plaque in the church states that it was re-opened in August 1977, following refurbishment and remodelling.

Setting

The churchyard is enclosed to the road by a high dashed wall. At its west end is a pair of plain wrought-iron gates with dog bars; the bars have ball-topped scrolls and are hung on cylindrical dashed posts set in a concave screen. The churchyard is laid out in grass with occasional mature yew trees. Memorials are grouped mostly around the immediate south of the church, with additional 19th-century memorials and yews at the east end. The west, east and south boundaries are enclosed by modern housing developments. A car parking area covered in stone chippings lies immediately to the rear of the church.