Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB11/05/002

Address :
Clanabogan Church Dromore Road Clanabogan Lower Omagh Co Tyrone BT78 1SN

Townland:
Clanabogan Lower

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Survey 2:
B+

Date of Listing:
14/08/1989 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:
137-15

IG Ref:
H4088 6850

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Owner Category

Church - C of I

Exterior Description And Setting

Detached double-height Gothic Revival Church of Ireland, built 1863 to designs by Welland and Gillespie, with interior by Thomas Drew c.1889, located to the west side of Clanabogan Road at the corner of Glenfern Road. Church consists of rectangular nave with chancel to north; gabled vestry to north-west abutted by lean-to porch to south; square broached tower with splay-footed spire to south-east abutted by gabled porch (principal entrance); attached single-storey roughcast boiler house (c.1980) to south. Roof is pitched natural slate over deep overhanging eaves supported on cavetto moulded sandstone corbels; blue/black clay ridge tiles; stone verges on cavetto moulded kneelers; chimneystack to gables. Walls are squared-and-snecked rubble with sandstone quoins over projecting plinth; splayed angle buttresses with gablets to corners. Plate tracery windows contain leaded stained glass in stepped sandstone surrounds with rubble voussoirs. Principal elevation faces east; nave is four windows wide; abutted at left by two-stage tower with splayed diagonal buttressing; stage one contains single window (further window to south); belfry stage contains gothic louvred opening at each elevation; oculi to alternate elevations above; tower terminates in splay-footed spire; abutted at right by porch containing pair of windows; north gable contains pointed-arched-headed chamfered sandstone opening with hood moulding containing double-leaf vertically sheeted timber doors with decorative strap hinges. South gable abutted at centre by boiler house; exposed section contains pair of windows; abutted at right by tower, detailed as east. West elevation is four windows wide; abutted at left by lean-to porch to vestry containing square-headed vertically sheeted timber door in chamfered shouldered sandstone surround; abutted at left by gabled vestry containing single window; three windows to north. North gable abutted at centre by chancel containing large tracery window surmounted by hood moulding (vestry to right). Setting Set on elevated site within churchyard containing nineteenth and twentieth century graves. Site bounded to road by rubble wall with rubble coping, accessed through set back entrance consisting of square pillars with cross-gabled coping supporting pair of cast-iron gates; hedging to other boundaries. Roof Natural slate Walling dressed rubble Windows leaded stained glass RWG cast-iron

Architects

Welland & Gillespie Drew, Thomas

Historical Information

The church is first shown on the third edition OS map of 1905-6. Clanabogan is added to the Valuation Revisions in 1865, listed under exemptions as ‘church and graveyard’. The building valuation is initially £18.15s (1865), which is revised to £40 in 1874. It ‘…cost about £2000’. The land on which the church was built was owned by the Galbraith family According to Rowan it was built in 1861 to designs by Welland & Gillespie, and its ‘much enhanced… High Victorian interior [was] designed by Thomas Drew in 1889’. (Rowan, pg 189). The Rev. T. W. Benson who was rector of the parish from 1903-1932, describes the interior decoration and the history of the church. He remarks that the dedication of the church is not known, but ‘… may probably be dedicated as ‘Christ Church’, judging from its orientation North to South’. The east end was decorated in 1894, the ‘work was entrusted to a well known architect-the late Sir Thomas Drew, [whose] opinion was that the building did not lend itself to carving but to colour [and] the only work of re-construction was replacing a very poor arch with the present magnificent Chancel Arch’. Various types of marble were used throughout the interior design, including Kilkenny, Connemara and French marble. On the east wall of the chancel ‘one of the designs in mosaic is a copy of an old seal dug up at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin…[and]…on the south wall of the chancel there is an exquisite piece of statuary in white marble by the celebrated sculptor, Sir Thomas Brock’. This is a memorial connected to the Galbraith family, it honours the Lt. Col. James Galbraith of the 66th (Royal Berkshire) regiment killed in action 1880 at Maiwand. ..military scene carved…by Thomas Brock (1885). Dick Oram writes that the Church’s design is ‘the fairly standard, undemonstrative but sculptural type of design favoured by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners’. Oram originally believed the church to be an early work by the Ecclesiastical Commissioner architects Gillespie and Welland as some evidence exists which points to Thomas Drew as the architect, but Oram is not convinced as in that same year, i.e. 1863, Drew had just ‘…settled in Dublin and had hardly emerged as a distinct designer’. Rowan describes Clanabogan as ‘...a typical gentleman’s estate in mid Victorian Ulster, created by Samuel Galbraith Esquire, with house, family church for a specially created curacy , and a modern rectory’. (1979, pg 189). References: Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/6/42/1 -First Edition OS Map (1833) 2. PRONI OS/6/6/42/2 -Second Edition Map (1854) 3. PRONI OS/6/6/42/3 -Third Edition OS Map (1905-6) 4. PRONI VAL/1/B/630A+B -Townland Valuation (1820-40) 5. PRONI VAL/2/A/6/42 -Griffith’s Valuation Map (1858) 6. PRONI VAL/2/B/6/32B -Griffith’s Valuation (1858) 7. PRONI VAL/12/B/41/10A-F –Valuation Revisions (1860-1924) 8. PRONI VAL/12/B/41/29A-F –Valuation Revisions (1860-1929) 9. PRONI VAL/12/D/6/42/C -Valuation Revisions Map (1882-1909) Secondary Sources 1. Rowan, A. Buildings of Ireland. North West Ulster. Penguin, 1979. London 2. Oram, R. Clanabogan Church. HD 9 Oct, 1978. 3. Benson, Rev. T. W. M (Rector of the Parish 1903-1932). Clanabogan Parish Church-A Short Description of its beautiful Marble decoration. Tyrone Constitution: Omagh.

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 J. Setting

Historic Interest

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

Evaluation

A modestly-scaled Gothic Revival Church of Ireland church, built 1863 to designs by architects Welland and Gillespie, located to the west side of Clanabogan Road at the corner of Glenfern Road. A well-conceived design with finely detailed stonework, the external appearance is enhanced by the tower with spire at the south-east. The High Victorian interior, designed by renowned Irish architect Thomas Drew, is ornately detailed with marble and mosaic tiles. The church is a fine example of church architecture of the time and makes a significant contribution to the built heritage of the local area.

General Comments

Date of Survey

04 February 2009