Fowlis Easter Church And Churchyard, Monifieth and Sidlaw, Angus

Description

1453; renovated 1889, Thomas Saunders Robertson, including new roof and bellcote. Rectangular-plan aisleless simple Gothic church. Polished ashlar, occarional snecking, numerous masons' marks, slate roof. Chamfered base course, cavetto eaves course, flat-coped skews, skewputts with coats-of-arms, gabled ashlar bellcote to W, gablet to E with damaged cross finial, cast-iron rainwater goods with decorative hoppers and brackets. Single pointed windows with trefoil heads to north and south elevations, pointed windows with reticulated tracery, moulded surrounds and chamfered cills to west gable and south wall of chancel. Boarded doors with large decorative iron hinges.

South Elevation: round-headed door to left, double moulded reveal splayed to base, richly sculpted ogival hoodmould (weathered details) supported by corbels with figures holding shields, arms of Lord Gray to top; group of 3 narrow windows to right consisting of nave window to left, chancel window toright, shorter rood screen window off-centre right with square-headed rood loft window above; round-headed door with chamfered surround to far right; 3-light chancel window to outer right.

East Gable: small round traceried window to centre.

West Gable: 4-light window to centre.

North Elevation: largely blank; rood screen window off-centre left, round-headed door with chamfered surrounds to far right, 1st World War memorial plaque to outer right.

INTERIOR: walls papered and painted as plaster, polished ashlar dressings to doors and windows, rood screen buttresses on north and south walls; collar brace roof rising from wallposts with blank heraldic shields at base, frieze with quatrefoil decoration, boarded ceiling. Stoup with sculptured fleur-de-lis decoration recessed to east of north door, plain stoup to east of southwest door. Large elaborately sculpted sacrament house set in east wall, ogival-headed opening flanked by pinnacles, surmounted by panel depicting figure of Christ holding orb with cross flanked by angels; further panel above cornice depicting the Annunciation. 3-light stained window to southeast in memory of John, 16th Lord Gray, 1869, single stained glass window in memory of Robert Lamond Macnie, 1929. Damaged octagonal font at west end, probably pre-Reformation, with sculpted scenes of the life of Christ; timber screen at west end 1889, incorporating doors from original rood screen, linenfold and traceried panels below, crocketed balusters above. Jougs, offertory ladle, and bronze alms dish dated 1487 affixed to wall at north door; heptagonal pulpit (circa 1889) with stairs, panelling and buttresses echoing rood screen doors. 1 manual and pedal organ with Gothic case and painted pipes, Scott Brothers and Co, Dundee, 1889. 2 oil lamps probably dating drom 1889, 1 affixed to organ case, 1 mounted on wall adjoining sacrament house. Paintings; large crucifixion, pol on panels, west wall, late 15th century, inscription in Latin (pertaining to the church) on frame; Christ with St Catherine, John the Baptist, Virgin and Child, and others, oil on panels, north wall, damaged, 16th century; 5 male figures, oil on panels, west wall, late 15th century; Christ, Saints and Apostles, oil on panels at east wall, 16th century; Dove and Ark, oil on copper, north door, 16th century.

Churchyard, Cross and Graveslab, and Boundary Wall: some 17th and many fine 18th and 19th century tombstones; cross and graveslab to south of south elevation of uncertain date; rubble boundary wall with rounded rubble coping.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. The parish was established in the 12th century, the present building dating from 1453 when it was rebuilt as a collegiate church by Lord Gray. According to Dalgetty, the inscription on the frame of the crucifixion painting reads: '(They) built this Church to St Marnock; if you ask when (then) in 1453, because he (Lord Gray) had been on a pilgrimage to Rome, as one under a vow. But Thou (O Kord, have mercy upon me)...Amen'. Before the re-ordering of the interior in 1889, the east end of the chancel was used as the Gray family burial place. The church is extremely rare if not unique in Scotland for its surviving paintings, rood screen doors and other furnishings. Apart from the roof, the exterior of the building seems unaltered. Fowlis Easter parish was united with Lundie in 1618; in 1953 Fowlis Easter united with Liff, and Lundie with Muirhead. The Church, Churchyard, Cross and Graveslab, and Boundary Wall forms an A group with the Hearse House.

The cross and graveslab were formerly a scheduled monument, scheduled on 26/11/1971 and descheduled on 17/03/2015.

Listed building record updated 2016.

External Links

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