Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB01/06/018

Address :
St Mary's RC Church 49 Ardmore Road Londonderry BT47 3QP

Townland:
Ballyshasky

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Survey 2:
B1

Date of Listing:
13/04/2016 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:
37-09SW

IG Ref:
C4656 1372

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

Free-standing six-bay double-height red brick Roman Catholic church, built c.1930. Cruciform on plan facing north-east and positioned on an open corner site set back on the south-west side of Ardmore Road at the junction with Rushall Road, to the south-east of Derry City. Pitched natural slate roof with roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles and lead flashing, set behind raised gables with cement coping rising from oversized moulded cement kneelers. Replacement moulded steel guttering to deep moulded cement eaves course, box hoppers and downpipes. Red brick walling laid in English garden wall bond with flush cement bands, red brick plinth course and moulded cement trim. Stepped cement round-headed window openings set within gauged brick headers and rising from continuous splayed concrete sill course (unless otherwise stated). North-east front elevation comprises a central doorcase set within a square-plan three-stage tower with closed machicolated course below copper roof and surmounted by an octagonal bell tower with alternating occuli and round-headed openings, deep moulded cement cornice, steel guttering and pyramidal copper roof and cross finial. Over the entrance is a single window opening to each stage set within a double-height stepped round-headed recess. To either side of the door opening is a pair of leaded occuli set within splayed and stepped surrounds with a central diminutive colonette. On each side of the gallery level is a pair of round-headed window openings with brick voussoirs with a series of slender engaged colonettes above forming a triangular blind arcade below the raking cornice of the roof. Portland limestone pedimented doorcase comprises a square-headed door opening flanked by columns on pedestals with foliate capitals supporting stepped lintel cornice and a carved tympanum depicting the birth of Christ and rising into an open-bed pediment. A carved statue of Mary sits on the apex of the pitched roof to the pediment. Double-leaf hardwood panelled doors open onto masonry platform and step with iron handrails. South-east nave elevation is six bays wide, all windows have round-headed openings with brick voussoirs. The extreme right-hand bay projects and is separated from the other five windows of the nave by brick piers with large moulded cement kneeler stones at eaves level below a raised sloping parapet. The projecting bay has a diminutive single-bay lean-to projection at ground floor level with a leaded occuli window with cement surround to each of its three sides. The gables of the lean-to projection rise as parapets above roof level. Below each of the five nave windows is a small round-headed stepped ventilation ope with a terracotta vent and steeply sloping concrete cill. The two nave windows towards the north-east end are leaded glass and the three towards the south-east are stained glass. There is a gabled transept to the left of the five-bay nave which has a tall round-headed door opening to the north-east cheek with moulded cement hood and cross finial. The south-east gable has a pair of short round-headed windows in the centre which are flanked to each side by a longer window. Below the two central windows is a low shallow lean-to projection abutting the gable. A large figurative Portland limestone roundel surmounts the central two windows with a blind arcaded detail formed with diminutive colonettes rising to the centre with moulded coping and Greek cross finial. The south-west cheek of the transept is blank, apart from cement banding. South-west gabled rear elevation is blind with Greek cross finial to apex and centrally located vented occuli below with cement banding. North-west nave elevation is a mirror image of the south-east elevation, although it does not have the small projecting lean-to to the first bay; five windows wide with ventilation opes below. To the right of the nave is a two-storey over-basement gable-ended transept and sacristy. The gable side of the transept/sacristy has square-headed window openings set within stepped surrounds and 1/1 timber sliding sash windows; the left-hand-side of the gable is comprised of a single square-headed door opening with hardwood sheeted door opening onto a platform enclosed by steel railing and steps to either side. A single window is located to the left of the door. There are two windows above, aligned with those below. The right side is comprised of two windows at ground level giving light to the basement which are aligned with two windows above on ground floor level and again on the first floor. The centre of the gable above has a ventilation occuli with cement surround. The south-west cheek of the transept is blank and the north-east cheek has one 1/1 timber sliding sash window to the left at high level. Setting: Located at the junction of Ardmore Road and Rushall Road, to the south-east of Derry City, on an extensive open site enclosed by flush rubble-stone wall with concrete coping to the north-east, and decorative cast-iron posts and chains to the south-east that are set on a raised concrete kerb. Site entrances to the both sides are demarked by square flush rubble-stone pillars with pyramidal concrete caps. To the rear of the church is a large graveyard enclosed by rubble-stone walls. On the north of the site is an early twenty-first-century single-storey structure. Materials: Roof Natural slate RWG Replacement steel Walling Red brick / cement Windows Stained glass / fixed-pane leaded

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

The first Catholic Church at Ardmore was built towards the end of the eighteenth century. It stood in the old graveyard on the opposite side of the road from the present church. Plans to build a new church at Ardmore were underway by the early 1920s. Under the terms of his will, Edward Elliott of Lisdillon, who died on 14 October 1924 directed that his farm should go to his brother, John Elliott, for his lifetime, and after his death to his executors, who were to put the farm up for sale and give the proceeds of the sale to the funds for building the new Catholic Church at Ardmore. The present church was completed in 1930. It was dedicated by Bishop Bernard O’Kane on the 2 November 1930. The driving force behind its construction was Rev. W. B. MacFeely. Major renovations were carried out in the 1950s, including the installation of electricity. Rowan (p. 195) notes that the church has an ‘unusually rich interior’ with a gilded oak baldacchino. Calley (p. 10) remarks that the church resembles a smaller and simpler version of St Patrick’s Church on the Buncrana Road in Derry of 1932 which was built to designs by E. J. Toye, one of the most active architects in the North-West in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Toye was responsible for numerous churches in the dioceses of Derry and Raphoe and it is possible that had a hand in designing St Mary’s, Ardmore. Online resources Primary sources The Belfast Gazette, 5 June 1925, issue 206, p. 183 Secondary sources 1. Alistair J. Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster (Harmondsworth, 1979) 2. John R. Walsh, A Noble Story: a short history of the diocese of Derry (2001) 3. Daniel Calley, City of Derry: An Historical Gazeteer to the Buildings of Londonderry (Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2013) Online sources 1. Church website: www.ardmoreparish.com/history.htm

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting

Historic Interest

S. Authenticity R. Age T. Historic Importance X. Local Interest Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

A six-bay red brick Roman Catholic church, built c.1930, located on a corner site in Ardmore, to the south-east of Derry City with a graveyard located to its immediate south-west. This is an impressive example of an early twentieth-century brick-built church with fine proportions which retains many of its original elements both internally and externally. The interior contains an elaborate gilded and oak baldacchino and the exterior includes much ornamentation such as the octagonal bell-tower, blind arcading with colonettes to the front facade and brick detailing. The church is of significant social importance to the local community.

General Comments

Date of Survey

30 September 2014