Newcastle Presbyterian Church, Main Street, Newcastle, Co. Down, BT33 OAD

Newcastle Presbyterian Church

This single storey Gothic Presbyterian church dates from approximately 1890–1900, with a prominent four storey tower. It is constructed in light-coloured rock-faced sandstone with smooth finished sandstone dressings to openings. The building occupies the east side of Main Street at its intersection with Bryansford Gardens. A matching single storey gabled hall, built in 1910, is attached to the rear.

The church is roughly rectangular in plan with its front gable and tower facing Main Street. The entrance is located on the ground floor of the east side of the tower, slightly off centre, and comprises pointed arch double timber panelled doors set within a chamfered recess with moulding and label moulding over the opening. Above the entrance is a panel which appears to have been originally inscribed or was intended to be inscribed.

The tower features buttresses that extend to the second floor on its east face. The buttress to the south is a standard square type with offsets, whilst that to the north is canted and actually projects as a stairwell with a hipped roof and small slit windows following the stair rise. Both buttresses have a thick base. Between them at first floor level is a pointed arch window in a chamfered reveal, with a small slit window above at second floor level. These windows are repeated on the south face of the tower, with the slit window only repeated on the west face.

The belfry level of the tower is distinguished by twinned pointed arch openings with cusping, set in chamfered reveals and louvered. The openings feature label moulding over them and are set within a slightly recessed panel with carved tracery in the spandrel area above. These belfry openings are repeated on all sides of the tower. Above them is a projecting course, above which the tower is topped with castellations and tall corner pinnacles.

The south face of the tower contains a broad pointed arch window at ground floor with three lights and sandstone mullions. The front gable to the north of the east tower face features a large pointed arch window with Perpendicular-like sandstone tracery set within a buttressed projecting bay. The outer edge of the gable itself has a slightly shallower roof pitch and is buttressed. In the narrow north-facing wall between the large gabled bay and the gable proper is a small single storey lean-to with a segmental arch headed doorway with timber sheeted door.

The north facade has five fairly large pointed arch windows in chamfered reveals, with a smaller roundel window at the far right. Buttresses separate the windows, with the rightmost buttress merging into a short wall extending to a small single storey flat-roofed building projecting from the exposed section of the east facade of the hall to the rear. This walling, forming the front of a porch section, contains a timber doorway. The east facade of this flat-roofed section features a semicircular arched window with a course beneath.

The south facade of the church contains three pointed arch windows with buttresses between them, with a roundel window to the left. Further left is a small single storey gabled projection with small flat-roofed porches attached to both its east and west faces. The gable of this projection has a three-light window with sandstone mullions. The small porch to the east has a pointed arch doorway with timber sheeted door in a chamfered recess with label moulding over its south face, and a small pointed arch window to its east face with a buttress to the left. The small porch to the west has a flat arch doorway with plain sheeted door on its south face and two narrow windows with recently inserted frames to its west face.

The exposed rear gable of the church contains a broad pointed arch window with tracery set at a high level.

The hall attached to the rear is a fairly large single storey gabled structure closely matching the materials and styling of the church. Its south gable has a left-of-centre projecting gabled porch. The east face of the porch contains a flat arch doorway with panelled timber double doors. The gable has two windows: the left a four-light window with sandstone mullion and transom, the right a smaller two-light window with sandstone transom. A flat-roofed section projects from the west side of the porch and extends beyond the hall gable. The north facade of this flat-roofed section has a partly glazed door. High in the south gable of the hall is a roundel window with a tiny slit opening above. The west facade of the hall contains five large mullioned and transomed windows, with a small flat-roofed projection beneath the window at the far right. The north gable of the hall has a neighbouring single storey flat-roofed garage attached, with its exposed upper section rendered.

All gabled sections of both the church and hall roof are covered in natural slate with high parapets. The hall has two low monopitched roof dormers on the west, each with three-light windows. A tall sandstone chimney stack rises from the small exposed section of the parapet of the rear gable of the church. Both the church and hall roofs feature slight eaves overhangs with exposed rafter ends.

A low wall in matching sandstone surrounds the church and hall, finished with decorative cast iron railings.

The church appears to replace an earlier church dating from approximately 1840–1850, which is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1859. The present church was constructed circa 1890–1900, with the hall added in 1910.