Description

Reginald Fairlie, dated 1925; minor alteration to cloister circa 1950. Cruciform-plan, aisless Romanesque church with low pyramidal-roofed NW tower and cloistral link to transept. Snecked rubble with ashlar dressings. Droved ashlar base course with battered cope to E; eaves course. Round-headed openings. Buttresses; voussoirs; stone mullions.

SW (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: broad gabled elevation with tripartite arcade-effect entrance, 2-leaf outer doors with mosaic-detail tympanum flank small window to centre, each arch with engaged colonnettes; tripartite window above and arrowslit in gablehead.

NW (WELLESLEY ROAD) ELEVATION: small 5-light cloister to centre with adjacent boarded timber door to right, all under lean-to roof below 2 widely spread tripartite windows. Bell tower (see below) in penultimate bay to right and window to ground below tripartite window in bay to outer right. Transeptal-bay to left of centre with 3 windows, flanking full-height buttresses and arrowslit in gablehead, tripartite window to each return and 2 further tripartite windows in recessed bays to outer left (all tripartites at clerestorey level).

BELL TOWER: 2-stage, square-plan tower with windows to ground and on return to left at 1st stage, small engaged conical-roofed tower with arrowslits close to eaves on return to right with lower link in re-entrant angle and small window above. Slightly set-back 2nd stage with 3 square-headed arrowslits to each elevation giving way to finialled pyramid roof.

SE ELEVATION: transeptal bay to right of centre with 3 windows, flanking full-height buttresses and arrowslit in gablehead; door in small porch in re-entrant angle to right, and tripartite window to each return; 2 further tripartite windows in recessed bay to outer right. 4 single lights to left of centre, and small pyramid-roofed session house to outer left.

NE ELEVATION: blind 5-light arcaded opening with engaged colonnettes close to gablehead, and flanked by full-height buttresses with carved panels, that to right dated 1925.

Multi-pane leaded glazing (stained glass see below). Grey slates. Ashlar-coped skews.

INTERIOR: nave spanned by transverse concrete arches springing from attached stone columns with variously carved cushion capitals, segmental-headed ashlar arches to transepts and round-headed chancel arch. Rushworth and Dreaper organ to E with richly carved screen bearing Celtic and early Christian symbolism, integral elders' stall with arm-rests carved with beasts. Jacobean style pulpit; stone font and fixed timber pews. Small gallery to W over narthex.

STAINED GLASS: WWI memorial to N transept; WWII memorial by William Wilson (dedicated 9 Oct 1949) to S nave; John Davidson, Shipmaster and Pilot, Memorial 'Christ Stilling the Sea' c1939 to S nave; S transept 3 lights depicting SS John, Andrew and Paul, c1925.

BOUNDARY WALLS, GATEPIERS AND GATES: saddleback-coped boundary walls with pyramid-coped ashlar gatepiers and decorative cast-iron gates.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. Built for the Baird Trust (who recommended Reginald Fairley as architect) at a cost of ?24,000, on a site gifted by the Wemyss family. Fairley looked to Inchcolm Abbey and Tullibardine Collegiate Church for traditional patterns. The previous Methil Parish Church was situated in Lower Methil, and the foundation stone of that building (dated 1837) is now located in the Narthex of the present church. The Roman Catholic church, St Agatha's, Methilhaven Road, was also by Reginald Fairlie, pre-dating the Church of Scotland church and a more economical commission.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17793606

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

• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)