Description

Thomas Henry Wyatt, 1872-4; additions by Hippolyte J Blanc, 1888. Early English aisled church with clerestorey and N and S transepts at E end; symmetrical with 3-stage belltower at NW corner. Squared and snecked bull-faced dark yellow sandstone with long and short cream polished ashlar dressings; coped base course; shallow pointed arch windows with heavily chamfered arrises and cills; crocketted capitals throughout. W (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: large projecting gabled entrance elevation with porch at ground; with moulded pointed arch window supported on and flanked by pink sandstone colonnettes with annulets; hood mould and foliate label-stops; 3 lights (b-a-b) separated by columns with octofoil window above. Entrance in penticed porch at ground spanning gable, with gabled doorway; pair of 2-leaf boarded doors with elaborate wrought-iron hinges in stop-roll-moulded shouldered frames; 3 windows (a-b-a) in tympanum separated by squat columns; round plaque with date 1873 above arch; entrance approached by straight flight of 5 steps with low flanking saddleback walls; flanking single storey single bay wings of narthex with rectangular bipartite windows; ashlar eaves supporting moulded gutter. Buttress to right balancing tower to left.

TOWER: octagonal bell tower of 3 coped stages decreasing to ribbed and decorated stone spire, gargoyles terminating each rib. 1st stage: base course and narrow blank course; further blank course rising to top of narthex with rectangular windows, rising on 3 N faces, lighting stair. 2nd stage: ring of squat rectangular windows; taller blank course above then tower narrows with saw-tooth ashlar coping to further blank course. 3rd stage: tower narrows again, as above, to ashlar belfry with timber louvred lancet to each face; corbel table at eaves; spire with carved fleur-de-lys crest and delicate wrought-iron cross lightning conductor. N ELEVATION: 3 aisle windows at ground of paired lights with sectofoil rose in gabled dormerhead above; cill-course to three 3-light clerestorey windows. At W end, tower with blank return wall of narthex to outer right. From W, single bay with window at ground (detailed as above), single clerestorey window. Aisle with steeply pitched lean-to roof overhanging eaves; window on return face.

TRANSEPT: large gabled 2-storey transept with single windows, 3 at ground, 2 above; octofoil plate traceried window in gablehead. In re-entrant angle formed with aisle to W, engaged octagonal stair tower giving private access to galleries in transepts; steps as before to boarded door in shouldered frame; single slit stair light; upper ring of rectangular bipartite windows under eaves; conical slate roof. Vestry to E of transept as continuation of aisle with pointed arch door and rectangular window to left.

S ELEVATION AND TRANSEPT: at W end, return wall of narthex continues nave with rectangular bipartite windows and trefoil above. Otherwise as N elevation,but 'vestry' houses organ, and has no door.

E ELEVATION: at centre, lower 2-stage piend-roofed canted apsidal chancel projecting from main gable below tripartite slit window; skews broken by ashlar stacks. Chancel with single windows to outward faces at ground, string course and paired windows above. Flanking buttresses to main gable and single storey links to single storey gabled projections adjoined at right angles to transepts with blind slit in gablehead; that to N (vestry) with paired windows at ground; that to S (organ) with single window. Low screen wall and steps to basement to immediate E of apse. All windows leaded; most with stained glass. Blue-grey slates: terracotta ridge tiles. Ashlar coped skews.

Cast-iron gutters and downpipes.

INTERIOR: very fine basilica-style; 4-bay pointed arch arcaded nave, Presbyterian only in abscence of centre aisle, nave being filled by pews; columns (with crocketted capitals), arches and E window of pink and grey ashlar; arches to transepts larger, supported on clustered columns. Canted apse to E framed by nook shafts and arch, with fitted and decoratively carved timber choir stalls, canopied reredos and altar, murals above. Raked galleries to transepts and rear, with carved front panels; latter supported on shallow arch. Doors with glass screen above to narthex. Arched scissor braced roof support on corbels. Black and red tiled pavement. Octagonal ashlar pulpit with cusped panels to each face. Brass electric chandeliers hung from each arch of nave.

BOUNDARY WALLS AND GATEPIERS: coursed granite boundary walls, stepping with site, with ashlar sandstone saddleback coping and square piers at regular intervals, chamfered to octagonal with similar caps. Similar ashlar gatepiers with wrought-iron gates to 2 flights of steps at NW corner of site. Coped granite gatepiers at NE corner.

En suite with wall to Old Manse and Allerley Well Park (see separate listings).

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17567953

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

• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings