St Mungo's Church, High Street, Penicuik, Penicuik, Midlothian

Entry Name: St Mungo's Church, High Street, Penicuik

Listing Name: High Street, St Mungo's Parish Church (Church of Scotland), Including Hearse House, Churchyard, Boundary Walls, Gatepiers, Railings and Gates

Listing Date: 22 January 1971

Category: B

Source: Historic Scotland

Source ID: 384913

Historic Scotland Designation Reference: LB39290

Building Class: Cultural

ID on this website: 200384913

Location: Penicuik

County: Midlothian

Town: Penicuik

Electoral Ward: Penicuik

Traditional County: Midlothian

Tagged with: Church building

Description

Probably Sir James Clerk, dated 1771, enlarged at rear and side elevations, 1837 and 1880. Single storey classical Georgian square-plan church with Doric portico. Droved sandstone ashlar, squared and snecked rubble to rear. Round-arched windows to principal elevation. Base course; eaves course.

SW (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: 6-bay, near-symmetrical facade; advanced 3-bay Doric tetrastyle portico at centre, comprising recessed 2-leaf, 6-panel timber door, formerly used as entrance, centred at ground, with date '1771' inscribed above, flanked by part-infilled round-arched windows, glazed above door height; clock centred in pediment, added 1840, surmounted by urn and flame finials at sides, crucifix at apex. Large round-arched windows to outer left and right. Recessed entrance wing to right, comprising doorpiece with raised margins and corniced lintel, lintel incorporating tooled panel with Latin inscription; modern 2-leaf, 4-panel timber door, with glazed upper panels, to left of centre at ground; round-arched window to right of centre at 1st floor.

NW ELEVATION: 4-bay; windows in 2 bays to left at ground and above at gallery floor; advanced 2-bay wing to left, comprising 2-leaf, 4-panel timber door with 2-pane rectangular fanlight, to outer left at ground, with '1800' inscribed in lintel; window to left of centre above. vertically-boarded timber door with glazed panels, centred at ground to re-entrant angle to right.

NE (REAR) ELEVATION: 3-bay, comprising regular fenestration at ground, with tall round-arched window breaking eaves in gabletted dormerhead, centred at gallery floor, flanked by bipartite segmental-arched windows.

SE ELEVATION: 4-bay, stepped back from entrance porch, comprising 2-bay advanced wing to left, with windows in bays at ground, window to right at gallery floor; windows at gallery floor to right of centre and outer right.

INTERIOR: refurnished 1880. 3-sided panelled gallery on slender columns, including family enclosures with panelled timber gates. Vertically-boarded timber panelling to dado, at ground and gallery. Simple timber pews. Panelled timber pulpit, altar, font and lectern; pulpit centred at SW wall, with decorative organ behind, including painted panel reading, 'To the glory of God and in memory of the Fallen', altar with cusped arch, trefoil and foliate decoration.

Variety of stained glass windows, 1960s; timber sash and case windows to rear and SE. Piended grey slate roofs, platformed on top, with lead ridges; iron ventilator to ridge behind pediment. Cast-iron rainwater goods. Rendered and lined wallhead stack and stack breaking pitch; corniced, with circular cans.

HEARSE HOUSE: single storey, random rubble hearse house to NE of church, dated 1800, with coped skews. SW elevation comprising 2-leaf vertically-boarded timber vehicular doors surmounted by cement lintel, with tooled datestone, reading '1800' centred in gable. Blank side elevations, predominantly blank rear elevation with infilled narrow opening to right of centre in gable. Grey slate roof, with lead ridge.

CHURCHYARD: incorporating remnants of St Kentigern's Church and the Clerks of Penicuik Mausoleum (see separate listings). Variety of grave stones.

BOUNDARY WALLS AND GATEPIERS: semicircular coped rubble walls, and saddleback coped ashlar walls; tooled ashlar gatepiers with base courses, cyma recta cornices and ashlar caps; cast-iron gates with spear-headed finials; bee-boles listed with 39 High Street, Glebe House (see separate listing).

RAILINGS AND GATES: iron gates with spear-headed finials, ashlar copes surmounted by iron railings with decorative finials; wrought-iron decorative gate centred to principal elevation, incorporating initials 'MJD' and date '1952'.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. St Mungo's, replacing the old parish church, dominates the eastern end of Penicuik High Street with its classical facade facing the street that slopes down to the west. Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, 3rd Bt., designed Penicuik House in 1761. The nearby hearse house (dated 1800) once contained a hearse made in 1767.

External Links

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