Balgonie And Windygates Parish Church, Main Street, Milton Of Balgonie, Markinch, Fife

Entry Name: Balgonie And Windygates Parish Church, Main Street, Milton Of Balgonie

Listing Name: Milton of Balgonie, Main Street, Church of Scotland Church with Graveyard, Boundary Walls, Gatepiers and Gates

Listing Date: 10 September 1979

Category: B

Source: Historic Scotland

Source ID: 350453

Historic Scotland Designation Reference: LB16667

Building Class: Cultural

ID on this website: 200350453

Location: Markinch

County: Fife

Electoral Ward: Glenrothes North, Leslie and Markinch

Parish: Markinch

Traditional County: Fife

Tagged with: Church building

Description

1836. Aisless, T plan, crowstepped church with corbelled bellcote. Stugged, squared and snecked rubble with droved dressings and droved long and short work quoins. Base course and eaves course. Pointed arch openings with chamfered reveals, hoodmoulds with label stops, stone transoms and mullions.

W (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: crowstepped gable with 2 leaf panelled timber door in hoodmoulded doorway at centre, small (part blocked) window to right; large bipartite, traceried window above and corbelled bellcote at gablehead with pedimented pointed arch opening to each face below small finialled spire.

E ELEVATION: crowstepped gable with centre door and traceried window

as above.

S ELEVATION: large, hoodmoulded, transomed 2 light traceried windows flanking centre, and pal stones at outer angles.

N ELEVATION: advanced T projection crowstepped gable at centre with window as above; recessed face to right blinded window to outer right over low piended extension with boarded timber door to left and small window to right in re entrant angle, further small window on return to right. Recessed face to left with narrow, blinded window.

Windows glazed with diamond pattern leaded glazing, those to S with coloured margins. Windows to extension, fixed timber with 4 pane glazing pattern. Grey slates. Small, coped ashlar stack with can; ashlar coped skews and cast iron downpipes with decorative rainwater hoppers.

INTERIOR: 3 sided gallery, with blind arcading to fronts (Roman faced clock to centre of N gallery) on cast iron shafts; full complement of box pews, some to W gallery displaced. S wall with margined, leaded windows flanking decorative pulpit with finialled, ogee canopied sounding board. Panelled altar table with WWI War Memorial plaques for Milton and Windygates, harmonium, font and chair. N transept with memorial stones to former ministers, Rev J Moncrieff and Rev W Bain. Plain cornicing. Small vestibule with boarded timber dado and bell pull; timber stair to left leading to gallery and pointed arch, panelled timber door opposite main door; similar vestibule to E.

GRAVEYARD: collection of mid 19th century headstones and monuments, including pedimented upright slab with carved obelisk and praying female 'In Memory of Elizabeth Langlands, 1858': monument to Robert Duff (died 1867) with fine floreate carving and scrolled coping. Prominent local families are represented by a plain headstone to Andrew and David Durie, died 1874 and 94; and a marble slab set into W boundary wall to 'Henry Cecil, 4th child of CRD Bethune Esq', died 1854.

BOUNDARY WALLS, GATEPIERS AND GATES: low, saddleback coped squared rubble boundary wall to S; semicircular coped rubble boundary walls to N, E and W. Pyramidal coped, square ashlar gatepiers with cast iron gates.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. Built as chapel of ease with '650 sittings', and elevated to Quoad Sacra Parish Church in 1840, which date appears on an almost complete set of Communion tokens; joined with Windygates Parish Church 1956. Built on land given by the Balfours, "solely by the heritors and people of the district to be benefited by the erection" (NSA); many of whom would be connected with the flax spinning mill (1807 1886) around which Balgonie grew. Services are currently held in the vestry. According to Cunningham, "the churchyard was recently closed by order of the Sheriff, having been found overcrowded and unsuitable".

External Links

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