Description

J N Scott & A Lorne Campbell, 1905. Cruciform plan church and hall with perpendicular and Art Nouveau details and 3-stage tower with green copper spire. Squared and snecked bull-faced sandstone with ashlar dressings. Ashlar base course to entrance elevation, chamfered openings, hoodmoulds, buttresses. Half-timber detailing to hall.

N (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: to left, tower with entrance reached by flight of steps. Timber 2-leaf 6-panel vertical panelled door with upper panels with diamond leaded panes. Above, stepped hoodmould. Tower with octagonal stair turret with arrow slits rises above battlemented parapet. Bipartite window with stone mullion at 2nd stage, louvred belfry opening with stone mullion to 3rd stage. To right, advanced gable with central bipartite window with stome mullion at ground flanked by single light windows. Above, large pointed arch traceried window.

E ELEVATION: to right, 4-bay section with advanced transept and recessed 2-bay section all with pointed arch openings and advanced tower with canted 4-light bay window at ground to outer right. To left, church hall with 2-leaf timber door entrance. To left, advanced gable with tripartite mullioned and transomed window with half-timbering at apex. To right, 2-bays, the outer one recessed with wallhead half-timber detail.

Predominantly diamond leaded pane glazing. Graded grey slates.

INTERIOR: 4-bay nave. Timber ceiling rising from stone corbels. Gallery to N with 1920 Sermon on the Mount stained glass by Oscar Paterson and timber entrance screen with leaded glass above. Pointed arch chancel with timber ceiling and dado height oak panelling and stained glass Ascension window by James H Leat of Oscar Paterson's studio, 1908. En suite oak communion table and lectern. To left, organ and WAR MEMORIAL to 1st and 2nd World Wars. Aisles to left and right with timber ceilings. Predominantly timber pews, some modern seating to S.

BOUNDARY WALL: squared and snecked bull-faced sandstone with saddle-backed coping, stepped to E.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. A good example of the work of Scott & Campbell. One of a group of three churches in Bo'ness (Craigmailen UF and the Old Kirk - see separate listings) which are located on a linear axis though the upper part of the town and dominate the skyline with their distinctive spires and elevated position. Constructed as a replacement for the congregation's Links Road/Boundary Street church (see separate listing) which had become too costly to repair.

Originally built as the United Free church. Mr Cadell of the Grange (also by Scott & Lorne Campbell) donated the land to build the church. Similar in style to the architects' competition winning red sandstone church St Stephen's in Comely Bank, Edinburgh (see separate listing). Arthur notes that the congregation wished to model their church on the 1901 Comely Bank example.

The church opened on 6th January 1906 and cost £6400.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17815988

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

• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)