St David's Church, Eskbank Road, Dalkeith, Dalkeith, Midlothian

Description

Joseph Aloysious Hansom, 1853-54. Early English Gothic church with side aisles, chancel and chapels linked to later additions and modern presbytery. Cream sandstone, squared and snecked rubble; ashlar dressings. Base course. Coped set-off buttresses. Chamfered reveals. Hoodmoulds with block label stops to principal openings. Predominantly pointed-arched windows with plate tracery in 2-light cradling oculus form. Diamond-pane leaded windows. Steeply pitched grey slate roof with fish-scale bands. Decorative ridge tiles to nave. Bracketted coped skews with gablets. Variety of stone cross finials. Gabled bellcote at crossing with cross finial, cusped opening and bell (Gabrial, 1855). Some original rainwater goods.

W (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: steps with modern wrought-iron railings and low stone retaining wall. Moulded and pointed-arched doorway at centre with carved label stops; 2-leaf boarded doors with scrolled wrought-iron brackets. Large window above and vesica in gablehead. Lean-to aisles, each with window flanked by buttresses. Recessed gabled side chapel to right with quatrefoiled 2-light geometric window.

N (ESKBANK ROAD) ELEVATION: 4-bay. 2-leaf boarded doors in bay to right of centre. Remaining bays fenestrated. Quatrefoil clerestorey windows. Rectangular projection (housing monumnet), with ashlar half-piend coping, to far left, surmounted by oculus.

E ELEVATION: chancel at centre with gabled Lady Chapel recessed to right at end of N aisle; gabled sacristy abutting chancel at right angles, with common eaves line, to left. String course below window level.

CHANCEL: tall window, 3-light Geometric tracery with 2 quatrefoils and 1 trefoil. Window on S return part-intercepted by sacristy.

LADY CHAPEL: 2-light Geometric traceried window with trefoil on E elevation. Plate traceried window to N, and quatrefoiled oculus to W gablehead.

SACRISTY: 2-bay. Common eaves line with nave. Paired and cusped lancets at ground; cusped half-vesicas to clerestorey. Window in S gable, intercepted by skew line of single storey linking block to Presbytery. Rendered gablehead stack to S.

S ELEVATION: clerestorey windows to nave as above. 3-bay side aisle adjoined to left with plate-traceried windows.

ST ALOYSIUS' CHAPEL: taller gabled block adjoined to 4th bay with steeper pitched roof; 2 pointed-arched windows in S wall over-looking intermediate porch.

LINKING BUILDINGS: single storey block with modern block abutting at right angles to W, linking sacristy to modern 2-storey Presbytery (1969).

INTERIOR: light interior with white and cream painted walls and open timber roofs. Nave roof with carved stone corbels; aisle roofs with timber trusses. Four-centred embrasures. 5-bay nave; pointed arches supported on alternate round and octagonal ashlar piers, with both E arches springing from impost corbel. 2 side chapels separated from S aisle by 6-bay diminutive arcade.

Organ gallery to W end; organ designed by Dr Monk of York Minister, built by Hamilton of Edinburgh, 1864: arcaded panelling to gallery on slender-columned 3-bay pointed arches.

Pieta in monument recess in NE wall by Mayer of Munich. Stations of the Cross brought from Paris by Lady Lothian, 1854.

CHANCEL: pointed chancel arch; marble wainscot and floor. High altar: Caen stone with marble insets and 3 quatrefoil reliefs depicting Our Lady, St Margaret and St David, designed by Mr Henderson, carved by Earp/John Drummond. Modern marble lectern, communion table and chair by Cullen. Richly stencilled, coffered vaulted ceiling by C H Goldie, 1890s. Mural depicting Coronation of the Virgin above chancel arch of nave by Miss Gibsone.

LADY CHAPEL: C H Goldie, 1890s. Vaulted with ornate, gilded coffering and decorative bosses. Altar: 5-bay arcaded reredos with marble colonnettes, statues of saints, and Virgin and Child in gothic canopied niche, enclosing relic of St Vitale. Dado of glazed tiles.

ST ALOYSIUS' CHAPEL: rib-vaulted altar sumounted by statue of St Aloysius in ornate canoped niche by Pollen. Confessional set into S wall and surmounted by 3-bay arcade with lancets in outer bays and statue in centre blind bay.

HOLY SOULS (SW) CHAPEL: altar by Mayer of Munich, 1883; altarpiece painting of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, 1868.

STAINED GLASS: chancel window: Our Lady, St John and St Paul. Lady Chapel: St Mary and St Joseph by Morris & Co. Remaining stained glass windows each depicting saint or angel, biblical scene or sacrament; variety of dates.

BOUNDARY WALLS AND GATEPIERS: ashlar saddleback coped rubble walls and ashlar gabled gatepiers.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. St David's Church was commissioned by Cecil, Marchioness of Lothian. Holy Souls' Altar, S side aisle and the burial vault were commissioned by Walter Kerr in 1877. The Church provided 500 sittings in 1882. The Church was extensively redecorated in 1894. The Chapel House was demolished in the late 1960s and replaced by the new presbytery in 1969. St David's was liturgically reorganised and repainted by Sean Cullen in 1971-72. Listed category A for the quality of the interior.

External Links

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.