Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB17/09/001

Address :
Drumgooland Presbyterian Church Cloghskelt Banbridge County Down BT32 5AT

Townland:
Cloghskelt

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Survey 2:
B1

Date of Listing:
25/10/1977 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:
239/1

IG Ref:
J2405 4127

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Owner Category

Church - Presbyterian

Exterior Description And Setting

A symmetrical Presbyterian church on lateral five-gabled plan with central projecting entrance porch accessed by twinned curved staircases, built c.1835 and located on an exposed elevated site at Drumgooland TD. Multi-pitched natural slate roof with simple projecting render eaves, and ogee cast iron rainwater goods. Walling is unpainted ruled-and-lined cement render with stepped quoins to front and plain banding to porch; no plinth; pointed granite pinnacles to corners. Windows are generally pointed arched, all uPVC with slightly projecting masonry cills; hood moulds to principal elevation. Principal elevation faces east and is symmetrical five gables wide about projecting porch; the elevation is retained by a bank with additional support from retaining wall to right side. Each gable has a single window. Porch has simple raking cornice to gable over plain frieze forming pediment inset with circular motif, all over two lancets with rectangular panels beneath; an undercroft accessed by a timber sheeted door is flanked by twin curving concrete staircases on ruled-and-lined rendered plinths, having simply detailed arcaded curved balustrades terminating in square piers. Cast-iron half-standards to balustrade. Leading to timber sheeted replacement doors with modern lattice-glazed overlights. South elevation has two windows, that to left converted to DDA access. The rear elevation is abutted by a modern gabled extension at centre (of no interest); otherwise a single window to each gable. North elevation has a window to each side. Setting Overlooking a rural road set at the top of a sloping site with views to the High Mournes to east and the Dromara hills to south. Surrounded by an expanse of tarmac, with burial ground to north, heavily renovated single-storey church hall to north-east of site. Late twentieth century bungalow to south-east of site. The site is bounded to the road by a rendered boundary wall with cast-iron gates supported on plain rendered piers with pyramidal granite caps (steel gates to secondary entrance). The rear of the site is bounded by a rubble drystone wall. The church hall is accessed from the road via a wrought-iron gate on circular rendered piers with conical caps. Roof: Slate Walling: Render Windows: uPVC RWG: Cast iron

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

Drumgooland Presbyterian Church was constructed and dedicated in 1834, however the congregation dates from the mid-18th century (Kirkpatrick; Young). The first edition of the Ordnance Survey map notes that in 1833-34 a cruciform ‘Meeting House’ stood on the current plot of land at the crossroads of the Drumgooland and Cloughskelt Roads; a National Schoolhouse (not captioned until 1860) was also depicted on the map, although it has been replaced with the current church hall. The meeting house depicted on the 1833-34 map was an earlier building as it was clearly situated some metres to the east of the current church; it was presumably the building in which the congregation met from the 18th century. The Townland Valuations were carried out between the period when the original church was taken down and before the current church was erected. As a result the site (including the schoolhouse) was not included in the valuation. The current church was built in 1834 a number of metres to the west of the original building; the Ordnance Survey Memoirs described the new building as a ‘plain, slated, rectangular building in good repair, 60ft long and 46ft broad’ whose minister was the Rev. Thomas Mayne Reid of Ballyroney (Ordnance Survey Memoirs, pp 22-23). The church was not rated until Griffith’s Valuation in 1862 when it and a sexton’s house (now demolished) were valued at £17 10s; the schoolhouse which predated the current church was valued at £2 10s. and both values remained unaltered by the end of the Annual Revisions in 1929. The seceding Presbyterian congregation of Drumgooland was formed in the mid-18th century by a number of families that desired an Evangelical form of worship in contrast to the restrictive ritualistic Presbyterianism of the time; the seceder congregation associated itself with the Burgher Seceders of Scotland (established in the 1730s) and was one of the first Burgher Seceder congregations in Ireland. The Scottish Burgher Seceders sent the Rev. Thomas Mayne to Drumgooland in 1749 and he was ordained minister of the congregation on 20 June 1749, the first Burgher minister to settle in an Irish congregation (Kirkpatrick, p. 271; Reid). The Rev. Thomas Mayne died in 1806 and was succeeded by his grandson the Rev. Thomas Mayne Reid in 1808. The Rev Mayne Reid preached at Drumgooland until 1852 and during this time was appointed Clerk of the Secession Synod (1826-40) Joint Clerk of the General Assembly (1840-68), and in 1834 oversaw the construction of the current church at Cloughskelt which was opened on 16th July 1835. Upon Rev. Mayne Reid’s retirement from his duties at Drumgooland in 1852 his son the Rev. John Reid took charge of the congregation (Kirkpatrick). Drumgooland Presbyterian Church operated independently until 1st December 1937 when it was united with the congregation of Kilkinamurry. The church was listed in 1977; the original schoolhouse, depicted on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map was taken down and replaced with a single-storey church hall in the mid-20th century, sometime before the current edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1976. Drumgooland Church continues to be used as a Presbyterian house for worship, its membership currently stands at around 150 families (Kirkpatrick). References Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/3/35/1 – First edition Ordnance Survey map 1833-34 2. PRONI OS/6/3/35/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1860 3. PRONI OS/6/3/35/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1901-1902 4. PRONI OS/6/3/35/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1902-1920 5. PRONI VAL/1/A/3/35 – Townland Valuation map 1833 6. PRONI VAL/1/B/359 – Townland Valuation c. 1830 7. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/51D – Griffith’s Valuation 1862 8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/20A – Annual Revisions 1864-1878 9. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/20B – Annual Revisions 1879-1887 10. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/20C – Annual Revisions 1888-1900 11. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/20D – Annual Revisions 1901-1911 12. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/20E – Annual Revisions 1912-1929 13. Ordnance Survey Memoirs, Co. Down I Vol. 3 (1836) 14. First Survey Record – HB17/09/001 (1969) 15. Ordnance Survey Map - 239-1 (1976) Secondary Sources 1. Kirkpatrick, L., ‘Presbyterians in Ireland: An illustrated history’ Booklink, 2006. 2. Reid, M. A., ‘Our Heritage Loughaghery Presbyterian Church: 1750-1988’ Loughaghery Presbyterian Church: 1988. 3. Young, A. F., ‘Old Rathriland, Hilltown and Ballyroney’ Ayrshire: Stenlake Publishing, 2002.

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form H-. Alterations detracting from building I. Quality and survival of Interior

Historic Interest

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

Evaluation

Drumgooland Presbyterian Church is an unusual early-nineteenth century rural Presbyterian meeting house. Composed on a symmetrical plan with ornamentation characteristically austere, the church has a noteworthy interior with much historic fabric and character surviving. Also of interest as the first Burgher Seceder congregation in the country, originating in the mid-eighteenth century. The setting has been compromised by the loss of original landscaping and remodelling of the church hall. This is a good example of the type with unusual origins/

General Comments

Date of Survey

20 January 2012