Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB06/05/018

Address :
Magheramorne Presbyterian Church, Magheramorne Larne Co Antrim

Townland:
Ballylig

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Survey 2:
B2

Date of Listing:
23/10/1979 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Church

Former Use
Church

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
84/1

IG Ref:
J4277 9812

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Owner Category

Church - Presbyterian

Exterior Description And Setting

A rectangular church with a two-storey gabled projection and engaged square tower at one end and a gabled porch at the other end. Main entrance faces south. South elevation comprises the side elevation of the church with a low gabled porch projecting at the right hand extremity, and a tall gable projecting to the left hand extremity with a three-stage square tower to its right, projecting in front of a low lean-to bay in the angle between it and the nave of the church. Roofs of Bangor blue slates in regular courses; terracotta ridge tiles with terracotta finials to each gable; overhanging eaves on projecting rafters with shaped and notched ends. Walls of basalt rubble with later reticulated pointing; projecting plinth with chamfered yellow brick weathering. Cast iron gutter with cast iron downpipe. Three pairs of coupled Gothic lancet windows to main front of church; yellow brick dressings and arches; projecting sandstone cills; decorative leaded glazing to windows in Art Nouveau patterns incorporating medallions to upper area. Porch to right has rectangular double doors, ledged timber, diagonal pattern, in yellow brick jambs with plain sandstone head surmounted by a Gothic relieving arch in yellow brick with recessed basalt spandrel panel containing a sandstone shield inscribed ‘AD 1876’; curved metal lamp bracket below shield, later addition. Slated roof as previous; chamfered timber barge boards, on projecting brackets with shaped and notched ends; small quatrefoil perforation to shaped ends of barge boards; tongued and grooved sheeted soffits to overhang; concrete step flush with ramped concrete pathway across front of church. Wall of porch returns at left to main block of church: one small lancet window, dressed as previous, glazed with stained glass. Cast iron gutter and cast iron downpipe. Large gable at left hand extremity of south elevation has tall triplet of Gothic lancets, set in yellow brick arched surround with sandstone cill as previous; glazing leaded clear glass in lozenge pattern with margin lights; fixed lights with square horizontally pivoted opening panel near top of central lancet. In apex of gable, an ocular window in yellow brick surround; leaded clear glass fixed light of lozenge pattern. Barge boards on brackets as to porch. At right hand side in same plane, a square tower of three stages: rectangular doorway to ground floor similar to other porch, with identical datestone but without lamp bracket. To left of doorway a PVC downpipe from short PVC gutter to overhang of gabled roof to left. Above doorway, an ocular window in two recessed yellow brick surrounds; leaded clear glass of lozenge pattern. Chamfered yellow brick cornice above, partly obscured by cast iron guttering, with slated pyramidal roof of truncated form surmounted by an open timber triple-arcaded belfry with a slated spire roof; lattice timbers to belfry below cusped heads; swept profile to spire, with iron finial on top. Other three faces of belfry and spire similar to front. Side wall of tower at first floor level facing west is blank; side facing north is blank, with PVC downpipe discharging on to roof below; side facing east has ocular window as previous to front; below it in ground floor is a small Gothic lancet as previous, with leaded clear glass of lozenge pattern with margin lights. To right of east facing wall of tower is a single-storey bay in angle with the nave, with roof swept down over it; cast iron gutter and downpipe; small Gothic lancet as previous to tower to left. West elevation has a broad roof, slated as previous, with a chimney to left hand end; chimney built of yellow brick with cornice of three brick courses. To right of chimney, ridge tiles broken by small gablet marking end of nave roof; gablet has barge boards as previous incorporating cusped wooden arch over two louvres with notched edges. Below gablet, and on axis with it, eaves line of main roof broken by lower gable over a pair of tall coupled lancets with large circular tracery light, all dressed in yellow brick; Art Nouveau leaded motifs to lancets; stained glass to roundel; barge boards and brackets as previous. To each side of coupled window and roundel, is a Gothic lancet containing decorative leaded glazing of floral character; to extreme right a pair of coupled lancets of clear glass, lozenge pattern as previous. Cast iron gutters with two cast iron downpipes. North elevation consists of the long elevation of the nave with a tall gable to the right hand end, both in same plane. Nave elevation of same character as front; contains a single lancet to left hand end followed to right by four pairs of coupled lancets, all glazed as previous to entrance elevation of nave. Roof slated as previous; cast iron gutter with one cast iron downpipe. Gable to right has two tall lancets containing decorative leaded glazing of floral character, surmounted by a blind ocular basalt panel with yellow brick surround containing a sandstone shield, uninscribed. At apex of gable, a yellow brick chimney as previous. Most of plinth of gable obscured by flat-topped cement roof of partly rendered concrete block bunker built into the slope of the site and projecting to the north; poor quality construction; contains store and two toilets with glazed rectangular timber doors to each. East elevation comprises the end gable of the church with a low porch on the entrance elevation set back to the left. Main gable has a triple-light window of tall lancets with high cill-line, surmounted by an ocular window, all dressed in yellow brick as previous, and all containing stained glass. Side wall of porch set back to left contains a small lancet of stained glass, as to west side of porch. Cast iron gutter to porch with cast iron downpipe in angle with main gable. Setting: the church stands in a very rural location on a sloping site with a distant view to the rear over Larne Lough. It stands facing the main road, downslope from it, with lawns and grassed areas to all sides. Concrete path from main gateway, extending along east side of church and across front. Boundaries are formed by a mature hedge to the front; a line of mature trees to the west; hedge and fence to the rear; and hedge to the east with tall trees beyond. Standing detached to the rear is a modern flat-roofed single-storey prefabricated building, inappropriate in form and materials. Detached to the east is a single-storey gabled building contemporary with the church, built of basalt rubble with yellow brick quoins and yellow brick surrounds and angled cills to small Gothic-arched windows, one in each gable and two in the west side; all with wooden louvres, except left hand opening on west side which has a two-pane fixed timber window with iron bars to the interior but without glazing. Roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses; terracotta ridge tiles; projecting rafters with shaped ends; timber barge boards on projecting brackets, all with shaped ends; barge boards and brackets new, replacements; building in course of being re-roofed. East elevation has red brick walls containing two rectangular ledged timber doors; a third doorway now bricked up. Main entrance gateway consists of a pair of square piers of roughly coursed snecked basalt rubble, with rough basalt coping stones and a projecting plinth of angled yellow brick; curved screen walls of basalt rubble with similar copings and plinth to piers, project forward to each side and terminate in square piers similar to previous; original double gates of ornamentally treated wrought ironwork.

Architects

Close, Samuel P

Historical Information

Designed in 1876 by Samuel P. Close as a mission house and school. Drawing for ‘Mission House Schools, Magheramorne, Larne, Co Antrim’ exhibited by Close at Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin in 1877. Later became Magheramorne Presbyterian Church. References - Primary Sources 1. The Architect, Vol XV, 1876, p 198. Secondary Sources 1. A.E. McGuinness, Samuel Patrick Close: Architect (1842-1925), unpublished MA thesis, The Queen’s University of Belfast, 1990. 2. P. Larmour, A worthy Victorian architect (Samuel P. Close, 1842-1925), Perspective (The Journal of the Royal Society of Ulster Architects), Vol 6, No 5, May/June 1998, pp 72-75.

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

V. Authorship X. Local Interest Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

This is a 19th century church in Gothic Revival style which exhibits the proportions, plan form, spatial organisation, and structural system that are characteristic of the style, and retains its original features both inside and out. It stands in an attractive setting and with its associated gates, walling, and detached lavatory block in similar style, together with the adjacent domestic property immediately to the north-west (originally designed as its manse) it forms part of a very coherent and important group. Designed by a leading Irish architect, it is a building of some local interest and social importance

General Comments

Date of Survey

30 May 1998