Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB09/05/009

Address :
Desertcreat Parish Church 6 Desertcreat Road Tullyhogue Cookstown Co Tyrone BT80 9UH

Townland:
Desertcreat

---

Survey 2:
B+

Date of Listing:
01/10/1975 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Church

Former Use
Church

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:

Thatched:
No

Monument:
Yes

Derelict:
No

---

OS Map No:
140-03

IG Ref:
H8125 7333

---

Owner Category

Church - C of I

Exterior Description And Setting

A plain and simple gabled and slated rubble stone church with sandstone dressings, comprising a rectangular three-bay nave with a small vestry on the south side, and a later flat-roofed porch added to the west end. The style is Gothic Revival and the overall appearance Early Victorian, except for an earlier western bellcote of simple classical form. It stands in a rural area in rolling countryside, in a slightly raised position within its own churchyard. The main entrance elevation faces south: three-bay nave with roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses between dressed sandstone copings which rise from shaped kneelers. Rainwater goods are a moulded lightweight metal gutter with a plain circular downpipe at each end with original moulded cast iron hoppers. Walling is of sandstone rubble, partly roughly squared and roughly coursed, and partly of boulders and of partly uneven plane with a slight batter below cill height to the left-hand end; roughly squared quoins to the extremities. The windows consist of three pairs of coupled Gothic arched lancets glazed with metal lozenge shaped panes in irregular block sandstone surrounds; deep splayed cills. Extending to the right is a lower later modern porch of rubble sandstone with modern reticulated pointing, containing the Gothic arched main entrance which has a re-used keystone from another building inscribed 'RD 1735'; double doors of timber with decorative ironwork hinges, latch and escutcheon. The porch roof is flat, with timber fascia. The east gable of the nave is of similar walling, as to the south side, mostly with modern reticulated pointing, and is lit by a triplet of Gothic arched lancets centrally placed, similar to those of the entrance front but with margin lights. The north or rear elevation of the nave is of similar character to the south but with a lower gabled vestry projecting at the east end. The vestry is built of sandstone rubble with a tall dressed stone chimney on the gable. Its roof is slated as previous, with timber barge boards, and exposed rafter ends at the eaves. Rainwater goods are as previous except for a modern lightweight metal downpipe of oblong section. In the east side of the vestry is a pair of rectangular windows of leaded glazing set in coupled Gothic arched heads, and a doorway in the west side set in a chamfered shouldered opening which has a lintel inscribed with the date 1881. The single door is diagonally boarded, with ironmongery as previous. The west gable of the nave has similar walling to east but with a smaller triplet of Gothic arched windows. Above the triplet is a small single lancet placed off centre, with a round head shaped from a single stone, and containing timber louvres. The gable is surmounted by a triangular pedimented bellcote in ashlar sandstone, its segmental arched opening containing a bell. Most of the lower part of this gable is covered by the later porch which has a triplet of modern Gothic arched lancets in the west face, with projecting surrounds, containing leaded glazing, and two modern metal flue pipes projecting up from the roof. Windows: cast iron diamond pattern. Doors: original ledged. Rainwater goods: aluminium and cast iron. Roof: natural slate. SETTING: The churchyard is approached from the main road by a tarmac driveway through a set of Victorian gates and piers leading to smaller concrete and tarmac paths up to and around the perimeter of the church. The churchyard largely grassed, bounded by a rubble stone wall, and containing mature trees and a variety of eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth century memorials of no special architectural or historic interest, but also including two prominent mausolea ( HB09/05/023A&B) and an eighteenth century stone slab known as the 'Bards Grave' (not recorded). Adjacent to the main gateway stands a twentieth century nissen hut with a rectangular entrance frontispiece of rustic brickwork; along the north-east boundary is a one-and-two-storey gabled and slated sexton's house in rubble stone, of no special interest, and adjacent to it is a modern gabled brick and roughcast church hall standing in a tarmac carpark. GATES AND PIERS: The main gateway comprises a pair of dressed sandstone square piers in Gothic Revival style, with stop-chamfered corners, surmounted by gabled and weathered caps containing sunken trefoil panels to front and rear, and hung with a pair of wrought iron gates of Gothic cusped and scrolling design.

Architects

Fullerton James

Historical Information

Although the church reputedly dates from the early 17th century and has a keystone bearing a date of the 18th century, the overall appearance and character is of the 19th century. While the simplicity of the detailing gives the impression of an early Victorian rebuilding the only recorded dates for this are actually of the later Victorian period, being 1880-1881 when James Fullerton the Diocesan Architect was responsible for both interior and exterior alterations and additions. The building was described as “in building” in 1622, and has a slight batter and an uneven plane to part of its nave walling, and some boulder masonry in parts of its walls, which may be taken to have survived from the 17th century. The tomb stone to Alexander Sanderson, who died on 8 December 1633, which is now built into the east wall of the interior, was apparently originally laid on the floor of the church interior, further confirmation of an early 17th century date for the main body of the church, which was described in 1837 as “a very ancient edifice”. Although the keystone in the modern porch is inscribed ‘RD 1735’, this was actually cut for Rev Richard Dobbs, rector from 1731 to 1745, from the remains of the inauguration stone of the Kings of Ulster which had been broken into pieces by Lord Deputy Mountjoy in 1602, and then used by Dobbs in the building of the rectory yard. At a later date this stone was removed and built into the church doorway. Any supposition therefore that there was a predecessor of the current building on this site built in 1735 is not based on fact. In 1748 the roof of the church was repaired; on 1754 the seat above the pulpit was mended; in 1788 the form of the chancel was altered; in 1810 the outside of the windows were puttied; and in 1816 the inside of the church was white-washed, but in 1880 renovations were embarked on which appears to have swept away all this earlier fabric, as new pewing, a new pulpit and reading desk, and a vestry were all designed by the Diocesan Architect James Fullerton. He also designed at that time the gateway at the new entrance to the churchyard, as well as a new sexton’s house and stable. These were built by 1881. Following that a new holy table was added in the 1930s, with the reredos erected in 1936, the communion rails in 1937, and the pulpit, reading desk, and lectern in 1939. The reredos of Celtic design was carved and presented by Thomas McGregor Greer of Tullylagan and made from bog oak dug up in the townland of Annahavil, in the parish, and was dedicated on 7 February 1936. References – Primary Sources 1. OS Map 1833-4, Co Tyrone 38. 2. Date of 1881 inscribed over vestry door outside. Secondary Sources 1. J.B. Leslie, Armagh Clergy and Parishes (Dundalk, 1911), pp 218-220. 2. J.B. Leslie, Supplement to Armagh Clergy and Parishes (Dundalk, 1948), p 78. 3. UAHS, Dungannon and Cookstown (Belfast, 1971), p 44. 4. A.J. Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North-West Ulster (Harmondsworth, 1979), p 229. 5. R.J.N. Porteus, A History of Desertcreat Parish Church, ND [c. 1999].

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

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

Historic Interest

W. Northern Ireland/International Interest V. Authorship Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance Z. Rarity

Evaluation

This is a church of largely Victorian appearance due to extensive interior and exterior alterations and additions in 1880-81, designed by a prominent local architect J.H. Fullerton, to a building of much older origins reputedly dating for the early 17th century, from which period the general proportions and some of the field-stone masonry may date. Despite the inappropriate roof form of the later porch the handling of its materials and details blend satisfactorily with the original building, while the overlay of various elements from the 18th and 19th centuries integrated with those of earlier periods, illustrates an historical development of considerable local interest. It has a good and unspoiled interior which contains some interesting decorative elements,and stands in a pleasant rural setting in its own churchyard where it forms part of an interesting group with two impressive mausolea nearby. The main gateway to the churchyard is in a style compatible with that which prevails in the church and forms a fitting approach to it.

General Comments

Date of Survey

30 November 2007