Description

Built as Free Church, begun 1843, enlarged 1857. Now
(1988) Church of Scotland. Street elevation; tower and
stair to gallery added 1880, adjoining earlier hall.
Squared and snecked sandstone with ashlar dressings.
Random whinstone rubble at sides and rear. Window bays
slightly recessed to N; corbel table to eaves and
cornice.
TOWER AND PORCH tower and gallery stair 1880. Entrance in
central, advanced, 3-stage tower. Doorway in shallow
projecting porch; engaged columns with decorative
Neo-Romanesque capitals, moulded round arch above,
6 diamond-panels to double door. String course above;
plate traceried rose window. String course above with
ornamental stepped corbel table. Louvred bipartite with
column mullion in round-headed panel with clock. Grey
slates to helm roof; finial and weather vane.
Lean-to gallery stair projection to right of tower with
2 narrow round arched windows. 3 sided stair turret
above in re-entrant angle with narrow arched windows to
each face; grey slates to polygonal roof.
2-storey gallery stair block recessed bay to right with
column-mullioned bipartite at gallery level. Bay to left
with 2 round-arched windows at ground floor; tripartite
with columned mullions above. Gable ends of N and S
returns with 3 round-headed windows stepping down to S
at ground, 3 of standard height at 1st floor.
4-pane glazing to round-headed windows.
Grey slates, straight skews.
Entrance to body of church via vestry; single storey
projection to E with crowstepped gable added 1887.
S ELEVATION: 2 tall windows at rear with brick relieving
arches.
Single storey heating chamber adjoined at rear.
Grey slates, straight skews, brick stack to vestry, die to
E end gable.
INTERIOR: very plain with panelled gallery inserted 1880
to 3 sides. Stained glass to S windows.
CHURCH HALL: adjoining church, formerly school, built
1846. Single storey, 3-bay hall, random whinstone
rubble, sandstone dressings. Entrance to E gable end
wall. Sash and case window to each bay with 12-pane
lying glazing pattern.
Red pantiles, straight skews, brick wallhead stack to
S elevation.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. Church built in 1843 to house breakaway Free Church of Scotland led by Rev John Thomson, formerly of Prestonkirk. Functioned as a school on weekdays.

Bell hung 1884; memorial to Mr A Scott of Beanston, who built Scotscraig (listed separately) and loaned house to church as a Manse. Clock; "Jessie" installed 1887, commemerating Queen Victoria's Jubilee.

Reunion of 2 Prestonkirk congregations in May 1959. Pulpit, choir box and pews removed in 1964; church reopened as multipurpose building.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17804895

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

• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)