Description

Louis Mercer,1844,built as Free Church in picturesque style of cottage/school architecture.Rectangular-plan hall-church with advanced bay centre in gabled street (south) elevation;altered,presently being converted to dwelling (1990).Coursed rubble,ashlar with raised margins;broad-eaved and low pitched slated roof.South gabled front:nave-and-aisle arrangement,main roof continuing over advanced centre.Timber-moulded mutule brackets at eaves and elaborately carved decorative bargeboarding at advanced ccentre,originally with scroll and fleur-de-lis motifs,timber finial and pendant with bosses at apex,and finely carved brackets with bosses at angles (4 projecting S and EW).All timberwork detailed with raised margins.Unfortunate wide slapping in centre has resulted in loss of original round-headed leaded-glass window (being reinstated,with roundel to be introduced above, 1990).Wide band course at springing point of window arch in advanced bay only.Pair of flanking doorways at aisles also in shallow raised margins with arched lintel detail (original doors 4-panelled with lugged mouldings).Finely moulded arch bellcote on moulded base and scrolls;weather vane at apex.Single stack over north gable (that matching on south lost) with tapering chimney-cans on double-cube bases.Pair axial ventilators also lost.Bipartites to plain 3-bay east and west elevations (splayed reveals on interior).Interior mostly gutted (1990):slim chamfered ?timber supports and collarbeam roof;wall rubble,stripped to bare.Access to basement originally via-lean-to attached at north (basement blind except for 2 sunk and boarded openings with chamfered dressings and stugged lintels at west).Rubble garden wall,and shouldered Tudor arched garden gateway (wide chamfered margins) to NW of church,presumably contemporary.

Statement of Interest

Being converted to dwelling 1990:description applies to church as seen in September 1990,with notes on former and proposed appearance.Although Louis mercer was paid 6 shillings by Simpson as mason and wright (Deacons Court Minutes,courtesy of Buildings of Scotland Research Unit),it is perhaps likely that the design of the church is attributable to a more prominent architect,the name of Louis Mercer being rather obscure.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17795745

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)