Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB02/07/003

Address :
Bovevagh Presbyterian Church Ballyquin Road Camnish Dungiven Co Londonderry

Townland:
Camnish

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Survey 2:
B2

Date of Listing:
28/03/1975 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:
39/14

IG Ref:
C6907 1210

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Owner Category

Church - Presbyterian

Exterior Description And Setting

A “T” form plan of practically equal length nave and transepts, with lean-to porch at the end of the nave, gabled and natural slated with double bellcote over the nave gable. Walls are rendered. On the west side a long 2 storey 20th century hall extension is gabled, slated and rendered with further flat roof extension at S end. The lean-to porch is built of random rubble sandstone with battered plinth which returns on each gablet. Each gablet has a simple pointed entrance door, in pairs, sheeted in wood and reveals in ashlar sandstone with chamfer.There is an unadorned barge stone without kneeler on each gable. The long wall of the porch has a single pointed lancet with cusping, centrally placed and breaks the eaves to form a gabled dormer with stone barges, its slated roof ridge finishing level with top of lean-to roof. There is a natural slated roof with red decorative ridge tiles, some broken. Valleys finished in lead. Gutters fixed directly under slate overhang with downpipe on either side of dormer. The lean-to porch is shorter than the width of the nave gable. Above it and centred on the gable, a wheel window with 4 quatrefoils and a semi-circular hood moulding. The gable has simple barge stones with small moulded kneeler on each side which does not project above the line of the barge. The roof pitch is approximately 50º. Above the wheel window is a double bellcote in ashlar sandstone, gabled in Early English style, with unadorned bargestones and shouldered. There is a small chamfered quatrefoil opening at the apex. Below the apex of the main gable there is a thin slender louvred vent to the roofspace. The bellcote is probably contemporary with the porch. The nave and transcepts, each 2 bays long, have 2 cusped lancets each with leaded lights. Transept gables have 3 similar cusped lancets, closely spaced and above towards the gable apex a small quatrefoil with semi-circular architrave forming vents to roofspace. The west wall of the transepts (behind the pulpit) has 6 cusped lancets. There is a small chimney stack on the S gable with single pot. There does not appear to be a basement to the church, though there is a considerable crossfall. The 20th century hall extension is 7 bays long, 2 storey, separated from the church by a narrow gap with a passageway connection just N of the pulpit area. The 1st floor of the extension is on the same level as the church floor. The church has steeply pitched Bangor blue slated roof with decorative ridge tiles grouped in series along the ridge. The church is sited close to the east bank of the River Roe and near the junction of the Ballyquin and Camnish roads. The ground falls from road to the river and a well filled graveyard occupies the site to the east and south, while to the north a carpark has been formed. Between the buildings and the riverbank there are no graves. The boundary to the Ballyquin Road has a random rubble wall and entrance gates with piers. There is a sprinkling of yew trees within the graveyard and several mature trees on the south and west sides.

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

The present church was established in 1701 when Mr Hans Stewart was ordained minister, though the book, The Presbytery of Limavady, refers to an earlier church in the 2nd half of the 17th century. The church that Mr Stewart was ordained in is thought to have been “thatched and riggened” and the building is recorded as still thatched in 1765. Shortly after the ordination of the Reverend Mr Gray, who married a daughter of Dr Edward Edwards of Straw House, Bovevagh, a new church was built, slightly removed from the position of the former. It was described as in the form of the letter T “being 27 feet by 22 feet in the nave and 81 feet by 27 feet across the transepts. The church had not ceiling nor were the passageways paved and devoid of architectural pretensions, was whitewashed and had a pleasing appearance”. John McCluskey (1788-1876), author of Statistical Reports of Six Derry Parishes 1821, describes the church as “large house and in very good repair”. The O.S. Memoir describes the church as “inside is not well finished” and that it was built about 70 years. the Memoir was written in 1834-35. In 1877 a meeting was held to decide whether the old meeting house should be repaired or rebuilt. Renovation was decided on and in 1879 the floor was raised four feet and the walls and roof rebuilt. This would imply that the renovations were practically a rebuild. During this work the congregation worshipped in Scriggan Presbyterian church nearby. This church is now demolished. The church was reopened on 21st March 1880 by Reverend D Hanna of Belfast. In 1914 and 1922 further improvements were carried out and again in 1928 when the church was closed for renovations. In 1928 the two storey hall and minister’s room were completed and possibly the bellcote and lean-to porch. Samuel Smythe-Edwards' son Frederick, presented the communion table and in 1962 a new electrical and heating system was installed. Recently the church has been redecorated and present stained glass installed. The O.S. map 1856-58 shows a projection (possibly a porch) at the S gable but none at the east gable. References Primary Sources 1. O.S. map 1st Edition 1832 Londonderry sh. 25 2. O.S. map 1st Rev. 1856-58 Co Londonderry sh. 25 3. O.S. Memoir, Parishes of Co Londonderry VII 1834-5, p.p. 3, 23 and 24 Ed. Angélique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1993) Secondary Sources 1. John McCluskey – Statistical Reports of Six Derry Parishes 1821 p. 89, 90 Ed David O’Kane Ballinascreen Historical Society 2. J E Mullin – The Presbytery of Limavady p.p. 49 – 58 3. Lewis – A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland Vol I p.218. 4. A Rowan – The Buildings of Ireland, North West Ulster p 149. (This description refers to Bovevagh Presbyterian Church, Scriggan Presbyterian Church was demolished c1927 and the stones used to build Mr Semple’s House in Gortnagross, see J.E Mullin – Presbytery of Limavady p.163. The present owner of the house confirmed this).

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form H-. Alterations detracting from building

Historic Interest

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

Evaluation

A fine “T” plan form Presbyterian church in a 19th century neo-Gothic style with Early English overtures but retaining its 18th century vernacular plan layout. It is pleasingly sited by the banks of the River Roe and is well kept with a good graveyard. Its setting has been spoiled to some extent by the adjacent modernised church hall.

General Comments

Date of Survey

19 January 2000