Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB10/14/008

Address :
Church Of The Immaculate Conception (RC) Barrack Street Strabane County Tyrone BT82 8HD

Townland:
Town Parks of Strabane

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Survey 2:
B+

Date of Listing:
28/11/1990 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:
72/8 NE

IG Ref:
H3485 9755

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Owner Category

Church - RC

Exterior Description And Setting

Large, almost cathedral-like, cruciform RC church of 1895 by William Hague in the 13th century French gothic style, with large four-stage tower with spire, large, pinnacled, side porches, side aisles, and a large two-storey rear vestry projection. The church is set on the east side of Barrack Street. [The church is actually set on a SW-NE axis, with the chancel to the NE, for the purposes of this description, however, SW will be read as W etc.] Although ‘cruciform’ in terms of design, this church is basically rectangular in plan. To the W end is the large four-stage tower which has an octagonal tower with turret-like corner pinnacles. The tower is flanked by relatively large two-level side-porches, with gabled fronts and prominent pinnacled buttresses. Stretching between these and the transcepts are the side aisles. Projecting from the SE corner is the large two-storey vestry / office section. The building is constructed in squared rockfaced stone [?limestone] with quoins, dressings, tracery, eavescourses and stringcourses all in dressed light-coloured sandstone, with some relieving arches in rock-faced red sandstone. The uppermost stage of the tower as well as the spire are in dressed sandstone also. There are reducing buttresses to all sections of the building bar the vestry projection. The roofs of the various sections are slated, with moulded sandstone parapets with kneelers and decorative stone finials, and decorative red clay ridge tiles. The symmetrical front elevation consists of the tower and the gables of the side-porches. To the ground level of the tower is the main entrance. This is made up of a flat-arch opening filled with a panelled timber double door with decorative strap hinges. Above the doorway there is a finely carved pointed-arch frieze showing the Virgin Mary flanked by angels. The whole ensemble is set within a bevelled reveal, with marble colonette ‘jambs’ set on tall bases ‘supporting’ a moulded archivolt with some delicate carving. The entrance also has a drip moulding with carved human heads as stops. There is a short flight of stone steps to the doorway. To the relatively narrow exposed sections of the ground level of the N and S faces of the tower there is a cusped window. To the second stage of this face of the tower there is a a large pointed arch window with geometric tracery, marble colonette ‘jambs’, a moulded archivolt, bevelled ‘cill’, and a drip mouldng similar to the entrance (most of the windows are dressed in this fashion). To the N and S faces of this stage of the tower there are (relatively) small pointed-arch windows. To the (short) third-stage of the tower there is a ‘blind’ arcade, with a cusped head to each arch with curved arches over. Two of the arches are filled with slit windows, also with cusped heads. The other faces of the tower have similar detailing. Just below the second stage there is a moulded stringcourse with gargoyles to each corner. The uppermost stage of the tower is octagonal, but with the buttresses rising against the four ‘bevelled’ faces to form, part square part-octagonal, turret-like pinnacles with small slit ‘windows’ and conical roofs to each. Each of the other four other faces there is a large cusped opening with louvers and drip moulding. Above this stage, to the base of the spire, there is a stringcourse with dentil-like moulding. The spire has tall lucarne projections to four of its faces, all with geometric tracery forming niches; the alternative faces have small quatrefoil openings set higher up. The pinnacle of the spire has crockets and a metal cross finial. The side porches have two large windows set at a high level to their lower storey, each with geometric tracery and drip moulding with decorative stops. To the upper level, above a moulded stringcourse, there is three-light window, with cusped heads to each light. The central light is much taller and a ‘linked’ drip moulding covers all lights. There is relieving arch above this window, with another stringcourse above that. The buttresses to the corners of each porch rise into prominent gabled pinnacles. The N elevation is made up the chancel, to far left, then a small gabled porch, (attached to both the side of the chancel and the E side of the N transept) , then the gable of the transept, then the side aisle, and, to far right, the large side porch. To the chancel there is a high level cusped window. To the (uneven) gable of the porch there is a pointed-arch doorway with panelled timber double door with strap hinge, bevelled reveal and moulded archivolt with drip moulding over. Above the doorway there is a small slit opening with cusped head. To the E face of the porch there is a small flat-arch window with shoulders. The porch extends from a taller projection with a lean-to roof. To the E face of this section there is a high level octofoil window. The lower level of the gable of the transept projects in a shallow ‘lean-to’ fashion. To the lower level there are two relatively small cusped windows. To the upper level there are two large pointed-arch windows with geometric tracery (two cusped lights and a cinquefoil). To the apex of the gable there is a large, but squat, pointed-arch window (actually an equilateral curved triangle) with geometric tracery in the form of three trefoils. To the side aisle there are windows each consisting of a pair of cusped lights. To the clerestory there are five large pointed arch windows, with geometric tracery. To the large side porch there is a doorway, similar to that to the smaller porch to the left of the N elevation, but larger and with marble colonette ‘jambs’. Above the doorway there is a relatively small trefoil window. The S elevation is a mirror image of that to the N as far as the small porch attached to the transept and chancel. To the right of this, (extending from the chancel and abutting the E side of the small porch), is the large vestry / office projection. To the N-facing gable of this there is a large high level window with geometric tracery, (two cusped lights and a quatrefoil). To the apex of the gable there is a small slit window, with cusped head. To the W face of this section there is tall pointed arch window to right on the ground floor, with a small flat-arch window with shoulders, to the first floor. A tall chimneystack, whose lower half is finished as the walls of the church, but whose upper half is wholly in dressed sandstone, rises from the W side of the roof of the vestry. The E elevation consists of the vestry to left, the chancel to right of this and the side of the small porch to right (already described above. To the ground floor of the vestry there is a doorway. This consists of a flat-arched reveal with shoulders, a panelled timber door, a pointed-arch frieze with decorative roundel recess, and a the bevelled reveal, archivolt and drip moulding. There is a short flight of stone steps, with low walling, to the doorway. To the right of the doorway are three flat-arch windows, each with two cusped lights and a relieving arch over. To the first floor there are four windows, three with single (cusped) lights, one -the third window from left- with two lights. The chancel has a large window with geometric tracery., with a small slit window (with cusped head) to the apex of the gable. In front of the church there is a paved forecourt and drive. The paving continues around the whole perimeter of the building, with well tended lawns beyond these. The grounds of the church are enclosed from the road by a low squared stone wall with bevelled sandstone coping, topped with decorative and distinctive iron railings. The wall is punctuated by square sandstone piers with bevelled bases, bevelled corners, cusped panels and ‘gabled’ caps with trefoil and roundel panels, and moulded ridge. There is a carriage gateway flanked by pedestrian gateways. The piers to the former have more elaborate ‘pyramidal’ caps. The S and E sides of the church grounds are enclosed by simple stone walls with sandstone copng. The wall to the S is taller and has had modern metal fencing attached to its S side.

Architects

Hague, William

Historical Information

This church was built in 1890-95 to designs by William Hague. It replaced an earlier smaller RC church -‘St John’s’- built at the south end of Meetinghouse Street in 1821, and extended and embellished in the two decades following. By the late 1800s the Catholic congregation of Strabane had outstripped St John’s both in terms of size and aspirations, and the building itself had fallen into disrepair. It was abandoned c.1890, with services transferred to the chapel in the Convent of Mercy while work was completed on the new church. The building work was largely funded by the congregation, however some money was raised by the curate, John McElhatton, from members of a congregation he had previously ministered to in the United States. References- Primary sources 1 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31B Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1864-73) 2 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31C Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1874-81) 3 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31D Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1882-91) 4 PRONI OS/8/25/1/1-17 OS town plan of Strabane (1883) 5 PRONI OS/8/25/1/1-17 OS town plan of Strabane (1883) 6 PRONI VAL/12E/187/1/1-12 Valuation town plan of Strabane (1884 [-1908]) 7 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31E Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1892-96) 8 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31F Annual valuation revision, Strabane ED (1892-96) 9 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31G Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1897-1910) 10 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31H Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1897-1910) 11 PRONI OS/8/25/2/1-3 OS town plan of Strabane (1905) 12 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ (Belfast, 1905) 13 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31J Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1911-22) 14 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31K Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1911-22) 15 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31L Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1922-31) 16 PRONI VAL/12B/42/31M Annual valuation revision, Strabane UD (1922-31) 17 PRONI VAL/3B/7/14 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Strabane UD (1935 18 PRONI VAL/3C/7/23 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, annual revisions, Strabane UD (1936-57) 19 PRONI VAL/3G/159/1/1-3 Valuation town plan of Strabane (1936-55) 20 PRONI VAL/3G/159/2/1-3 Valuation town plan of Strabane (1951-55) [Sheets 1 and 3 are currently missing.] 21 EHS OS map (1:10,000 scale), sheet 72 (1983) Secondary sources 1 Rowan, Alistair, ‘The Buildings of Ireland- North West Ulster’ (London, 1979), p.493 2 Williams, Jeremy, ‘A Companion Guide to the Architecture of Ireland, 1837-1921’ (Dublin, 1994), p.358 3 Michael G. Kennedy et al., ‘The Church of the Immaculate Conception’ (1995) 4 Bradley, Jim et al, ‘The Fair River Valley: Strabane Through the Ages’, (Belfast, Ulster Historical Foundation, 2000) Other
references 1 EHS HB10/14/008 First Survey report (11 Feb 1970)

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form E. Spatial Organisation F. Structural System I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

W. Northern Ireland/International Interest Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

Large, impressive, cruciform RC church of 1895 by William Hague in the 13th century French gothic style, with large four-stage tower with spire, large, pinnacled side porches, side aisles and a large two-storey rear vestry projection. An excellent example of the genre, this almost cathedral-like church is well preserved both indisde and out, and, internally, retains some fine mosaic work and altar-fittings.

General Comments

Date of Survey

24 November 2004