Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB17/15/005

Address :
Methodist Church Maypole Hill Dromore Co Down BT25 1BQ

Townland:
Ballymaganlis

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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:
202-4

IG Ref:
J2017 5351

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Owner Category

Church - Methodist

Exterior Description And Setting

A gabled double-height polychrome Methodist Church with adjoining single-storey former Sunday school, now Minister’s office, and associated two-storey Manse; built c.1870 to designs by William Gray and situated to the west side of Maypole Hill in Dromore town centre. Rectangular on plan with single-storey gabled porch to front and modern single-storey lean-to abutment to rear (of no interest). Pitched natural slate roof with raised verges, cavetto moulded kneeler stones and finials to gables. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on projecting brick eaves. Walling is English garden wall-bonded red-brick on a stone plinth with mid-level decorative logged yellow-brick string-course, black brick string course at impost level and platband. Windows are likely original, some leaded-and-stained glass others are margin paned, coloured glass; ground floor are cambered and first floor are round-headed; all with painted sills and decorative polychrome brick voussoirs. Facing east, the principal elevation has large plate tracery oculus over central gabled porch; window to left and right at gallery level. Carved banner to gable of porch reads “WESLEYAN”; twin entrances are flanked by corner pilasters and divided by semi-engaged column, all with ornately carved capitals; diagonally timber-sheeted doors with fixed tympanum in round-headed openings with sandstone threshold. The south elevation has five evenly-spaced windows to ground floor and gallery. The west elevation is blank; abutted by the single-storey modern lean-to abutment. The north elevation is abutted at left by the adjoining single-storey Minister’s office; two timber oculi to gallery at left and two round-headed windows at right. Segmental-headed window to ground floor right. The adjoining single-storey Minister’s office and manse are similarly styled to the church in stretcher-bonded red-brick. Minister’s office has pitched slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles and projecting entrance porch to front flanked by uPVC window to each side. Porch has bargeboards to gable and contains a double-leaf timber-sheeted entrance door with round-headed fixed tympanum and flush sandstone voussoirs. Modified to rear to incorporate cement rendered flat-roof return; timber-sheeted double-leaf doors to right of return. Manse is two-storey three-bay and is symmetrically arranged with projecting ground-floor incorporating modern entrance porch. Pitched natural slate roof with rendered chimneystacks to gables. uPVC windows throughout and a modern uPVC entrance doors flanked by sidelights and surmounted by transom light. Setting Set back from the main road and situated directly opposite St Colman’s Parish Church (HB17/15/004). Parapet wall to front with coping stones topped by original cast-iron railings with fleur-des-lis finials; extending to north to incorporate minister’s office and manse. Modern two-storey cement-rendered church hall to rear and large tarmacadamed car-park. Roof: Natural slate Walling: brick Windows: leaded-and-stained glass RWG: Cast-iron

Architects

Gray, William

Historical Information

Dromore Methodist Church was built in 1870/1 to designs by William Gray and replaced an earlier Methodist chapel on the same site. Although John Wesley is known to have visited Dromore in 1767 he does not appear to have preached in the town and Methodism began in Dromore with evangelical outreach by the Lisburn Circuit in 1779. The first services took place in the home of a poor widow in Meeting Street and due to increasing numbers, consent was soon obtained from Conference for the building of a church. Initially, however, the means could not be found. Two small houses in Meeting Street were taken over and a large room constructed between them in which services were held for eleven years. The first Methodist church in Dromore was built on the present site in 1815 through the efforts of John Ross, a native of Clare, near Lurgan. He was a notable Local Preacher and Class Leader and is known as ‘the father of Dromore Methodism’. Ross obtained the current site which was leased to the Methodists by Bishop John Leslie, Church of Ireland Bishop of Dromore. The early building on the site was a plain structure with forms and a desk, later replaced by a pulpit. (Booth) The 1859 Revival had a dramatic effect on the Dromore Circuit - ‘many were cut to the heart and led to cry for mercy...on one occasion those recently brought to a knowledge of the truth, marched in solemn procession through the streets, singing hymns and then crowded into the Wesleyan Chapel’. The increase in the congregation brought about by the revival was no doubt a significant factor in the drive to construct a new church. (Booth) Funds for the new building were raised by application to members of other denominations who responded generously, it was felt, because of the reputation of Methodists as non-sectarian. On 28th April 1870 the foundation stone of the new church was laid. As was customary, a bottle was deposited in the cavity of the foundation stone containing copies of newspapers, the minutes of the last Irish conference and a parchment roll carrying the names of the building committee and ministers. The old chapel had been in a ‘hopelessly bad’ condition and the congregation led by Rev R Maxwell had arranged for a new church to be built with a ‘commodious’ schoolroom attached. The entire cost was nearly £800, of which upwards of £600 had been subscribed. The contractor was Adam George of Holywood and the foundation stone was laid by Mr james Freckleton, a member of the building committee. The new church was opened on Sunday 19th March 1871 and a gallery was later added providing accommodation for 350 people. James McDade, the secretary of the Building Committee is credited with much of the work leading to the successful construction of the church. (Belfast Newsletter; Booth) William Gray’s design for the new church became the subject of a dispute between Gray and Timothy Hevey in the pages of the architects’ and builders’ journal, the Irish Builder. Belfast-born Hevey was the city’s leading Catholic architect until his premature death in 1878. During the course of a lecture given at a meeting of the Belfast Architectural Association on 8th November 1875, entitled ‘On Church Building’, Hevey criticised architects who did not have ‘a proper knowledge of the beautiful and correct’ with relation to Gothic architecture and used as an example (without revealing the identity of building or architect) the Methodist Church in Dromore which displayed what he called the ‘extraordinary architectural phenomenon’ of a central pier and two lateral piers in the porch, ‘having a capital on a column projecting beyond everything and carrying nothing’. This ran contrary to the principle that architecture should ‘ornament construction and not construct ornament’. Hevey’s criticism, published in the Irish Builder, prompted an immediate response from William Gray, who protested that the fault had been a ‘builder’s temporary blunder’ and not part of his original design, and had, in any case, since been rectified. The dispute ended in the pages of the journal with a retort from Hevey, in which he further criticised the design of the church as ‘destitute of any architectural features save...a projecting stone porch in gable and a stone circular window over it’. The builder’s blunder had been rectified, as he saw it, by bringing ‘the archstones forward on to the caps, and setting in behind them, to fill up the vacuum, new stones, which by reason of their light colour afford an agreeable (?) contrast to the dull grey of the old stonework’. (Irish Builder) The porch still bears the signs of the rectification that had to be made in the 1870s. During the course of this correspondence William Gray and Timothy Hevey also appear to suggest that Gray was the designer of the manse which was completed in 1875. (Irish Builder) The first and second edition OS maps show the former Methodist meeting house which stood on the site and valuation records reveal that the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, valued at £1, stood next to a Primitive Methodist Chapel and yard valued at £7. The Primitive Methodist church came about through a rift within Methodism which occurred in the year 1818, when the Wesleyan Methodists started to administer their own Sacraments, rather than relying on the established Church for baptism and Eucharist. Primitive Wesleyans preferred to retain the earlier relationship with the Church of Ireland and broke away from their brethren. A house was rented in Gallows Street in which services were held in 1827 and a new church was then built in the 1830s which is first shown on the second edition OS map of 1859. By 1878 the two branches of the church were reunited and there was no longer any need to retain a separate building. A Methodist New Connexion Church was also established in Dromore but little is known of its history. This branch merged with the parent church in 1905. (Booth) The current Wesleyan Methodist chapel and school were entered into valuation records in 1875 and were valued at £27 and £8 respectively. The Primitive Methodist chapel and yard remained on the site now occupied by the car park until 1885. Town plans of the late nineteenth century show the present church, Sunday school with separate outbuildings to the rear and manse with return. No significant changes are recorded to the church buildings in Annual Revisions. The First General Revaluation of the early 1930s revalues the church and Sunday school together at £42. Dimensions are given for the Sunday school, church and porch and a plan shows the church with internal gallery around three sides, an extension to the rear containing a heating boiler and the Sunday school with porch and coal store to the rear. The Sunday school was extended to the rear in the late 1930s, adding a kitchen and toilets, and in recent years, a further large extension has been added abutting the first. In the late 19th century a Miss Pantridge gave the money to purchase the site on which the church stands, amid fears that the Methodist and Roman Catholic sites were to be turned over to the Land Commission. (Booth) In the early twentieth century the famous Ulster evangelist Billy Spence was at the fore of a missionary movement during which many were converted. On a particular night the Church was so crowded that the gallery was in danger of collapsing and two strong beams had to be inserted shortly afterwards. (Booth) A memorial window commemorates Lady Clarence Graham who opened the First Dromore Girl Guides Company in 1941 which had the Methodist Church hall as its headquarters. The church hall housed a large lending library of 1625 volumes collected by Mr James McDade which opened in 1884 and lent books to the public for a nominal subscription until at least 1909. For many years there was a flourishing afternoon Sunday school catering for every denomination in the town from 150-200 pupils. This closed in 1963 when afternoon schools opened in other churches in the town. The morning Sunday school was for Methodist children only. (Booth) In 1979 the church marked the bicentenary of Methodism in Dromore and the sanctuary was redecorated as part of the celebrations. (Leader 25th May 1979) References: Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/3/21/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey map 1833 2. PRONI OS/6/3/21/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1859 3. PRONI OS/6/3/21/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1903 4. PRONI OS/6/3/21/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1919-20 5. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/38F – Griffith’s Valuation 1861 6. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/10A –C Annual Revisions 1864-1898 7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/11A –C – Annual Revisions 1899-1930 8. Irish Builder Vol 12, 1st May 1870, p110 9. Irish Builder Vol 17, 15th November 1875, p320 10. Irish Builder Vol 17, 1st December 1875, p338 11. Irish Builder Vol 17, 15th Deember 1875, p353 12. Belfast Newsletter 29th April 1870 Secondary Sources 1. Booth, J Lennox “Dromore Methodism – A Short History 1779-1979” Banbridge Chronicle Press 1979

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

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

Historic Interest

V. Authorship R. Age S. Authenticity Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

A gabled three-bay red-brick Methodist Church with associated single-storey former Sunday School, now Minister’s office, and two-storey manse; built c.1870 to designs by William Gray. A typical example of a late-Victorian Wesleyan meeting house in red-brick with some good detailing and a well-preserved interior. The arrangement of the three associated structures is of some interest. The church is a good example of this type of late-Victorian church, with much historic fabric surviving, although compromised by uPVC windows of inappropriate style.

General Comments

New listing criteria R and S to be added when available

Date of Survey

30 April 2012