Ballywillan Presbyterian Church

History

Gabriel Cornwall of Balliwoolen appears in a list of 14 ministers who received grants from the Commonwealth government in 1655, and he preached in the old parish church at Crossreagh crossroads until 1661, when he was ejected for refusing to be re-ordained by a bishop at the Restoration of the monarchy. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1835 record a tradition that a Presbyterian meeting house had once stood at Maddybenny. The congregation later obtained a site at McIlvennon West, though the date is not recorded, and all its subsequent churches have been built on that site.

The church built in 1828 replaced an older thatched building that had outside steps leading to the gallery. It cost £600 and the architect was Angus Cameron of Ballymoney. Whitewashed and two-storey, it measured 54 by 30 feet internally, with 16 windows and a gallery of 37 pews carried on six metal pillars.

Rev Hugh Wells, ordained in 1879, considered repairing the church, but a canvass of the congregation found that about £800 could be raised and it was decided that so large a sum should not be spent on the old structure. Wells went to England to raise further funds and the old church was demolished. The foundation stone of the new church, on the same site, was laid by William Young J.P. of Fenagy in August 1888, and the church opened on 14 July 1889.

The building

The present church is built of black stone faced with sandstone from Dungiven quarries. It has a tower and a lychgate. In 1900 an approach road was made to the church through a plantation from the Portrush road, and repairs were carried out at the same time to the church, the session room and the school. A church hall was built in 1934 at a cost of over £1,700 and was later extended and joined to the church, with a new entrance made to the main road.

Extensive work was carried out in January and February 2003, including repairs to the parapets and stonework of the tower, a new tower roof, repointing of the stone walls, repairs to plasterwork and floorboards, redecoration and new pews. Further work on the tower between October 2023 and April 2024 covered repairs to the parapets and stonework, repointing, treatment of the floor joists, new floorboards and redecoration.

Notable features

At the rebuilding of 1889 the Rev Huey's son John presented a three light stained glass window in memory of his father and mother, and Catherine Huey, the minister's second wife, presented communion plate and linen. The window is said to have been originally intended for Capetown Cathedral. The Thompson memorial pulpit and the Huey memorial window were dedicated at the opening.

Two further stained glass windows commemorate the Law family of Maddybenny. The window in memory of the Rev James Law, minister of Richibucto in New Brunswick, was presented by his son Bonar Law, later Prime Minister of Great Britain. A pipe organ was presented by the Alexander family in 1959 in memory of Mr and Mrs Hutchinson.