St Meddans Church, St Meddans Street, Troon, Troon, South Ayrshire

Description

John Bennie Wilson, 1888-89. Tall galleried Gothic nave-and-aisles church on corner site with 5-stage tower to E; octagonal gallery stair turret to W; later church hall and rooms at rear; modern halls to N. Squared and snecked bull-faced red Ballochmyle sandstone; polished sandstone dressings. Architraved cill and string courses; stepped buttresses with trefoil-headed detailing centred in apex; raised, polished eaves course. Polished quoins; polished long and short surrounds to chamfered openings. Predominantly trefoil-headed windows; sandstone mullions chamfered cills. Single storey L-plan hall to rear; squared and snecked stugged red sandstone; polished dressings; shouldered-arched surrounds to openings.

SE (ST MEDDANS STREET) ELEVATION: buttressed, gabled nave comprising 2 square-headed bipartite windows at ground flanking centre (vestibule lights); tiered buttresses to outer left and right; 5 light pointed-arched window centred beneath apex (trefoil-headed and rose tracery); moulded stops to hoodmould; surmounting cruciform finial. Steps to 2-leaf boarded timber doors in gabled, buttressed porches to outer left and right (dated "1888?"to right); deep, chamfered reveals to pointed-arch openings; moulded stops to hoodmoulds; finialed gables. Octagonal stair turret recessed to outer left with narrow, trefoil-headed openings at upper stage; finialed spire. 5-stage tower recessed to outer right comprising main entrance at ground (dated porch), narrow slits to lower stages, clock face and paired, louvred belfry openings with traceried heads to upper stages; cast-iron finial surmounting broached spire.

NE (CHURCH STREET) ELEVATION: 5-bay, grouped 1-3-1. Buttressed tower to outer left comprising paired and single openings at lower stages; upper stages as above. Paired, trefoil-headed windows at ground in 3 bays to right; tripartite trefoil-headed gallery windows centred in recessed panels above. Paired window at ground in gabled bay to outer right; pointed-arched recessed panel aligned above comprising 2 trefoil-headed lights beneath rose window centred in gabletted apex. Adjoining single storey hall advanced to right with regularly spaced shouldered-arched windows, canted S end, pointed arched window with trefoil-headed tracery in gabled bay advanced to outer right. Later church halls recessed to outer right; gabled porch; ball-finialed gable.

Predominantly small-pane leaded glazing; some decorative stained glass. Grey slate roof; pantile ridge tiling; raised stone skews; gabletted skewputts. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: tiled floor to vestibule; timber dado panelling; plain cornice. Arcaded nave comprising cast-iron columns beneath 3-sided gallery with regularly spaced trefoil-headed panelling; rose stencilling centred in corbelled brackets; plain cornice; vaulted ceiling. Boarded timber dado panelling; timber pews (tiered in gallery); carved octagonal font; timber panelled communion table. Organ (J & A Mirrlees, post 1889) inserted into chancel arch behind timber pulpit (cusp panelled to front). Stained glass: SW window John Blythe, 1977; SE window Norman Macdougall, Glasgow, circa 1927; large S window, memorial to Provost James Gillies, W Smith, Marylebone Road, London 1892 (storey of the healing of Jairus? daughter with excellent natural foliage etc.).

BOUNDARY WALL AND PIERS: coped red rubble sandstone wall enclosing site. Coursed red sandstone, rectangular-plan piers flanking entrance with rose motifs and pitched caps.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. Originally built for the Troon United Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The name "St Meddan's" was not used until 1901 when, following the merger of the United Presbyterian and the Free Churches, the congregation became known as the "St Meddan's Street United Free Church". The union of the Church of Scotland with the United Free Church in 1929, and the adoption of parish boundaries in 1932, resulted in the present name. The clock is thought to date back to 1751 when it was commissioned by Glasgow University as part of their tercentenary celebrations. A watchmaker, Andrew Dickie, built the clock, which was housed in a quadrangle in the Old College building in Glasgow's High Street, for #720 Scots. When the University moved to its present site at Gilmorehill in 1871, the old buildings were demolished and the clock was subsequently purchased for the Portland Church building in Troon (now demolished). With the opening of a new church for the Portland congregation in 1914, the clock was gifted to St Meddans, as the Portland church had no spire and St Meddans, although in possession of a spire, had no clock. St Meddan is said to have been the first woman to form a community of Christian women in Scotland. St Meddans Church was the first in Troon to admit women to the Congregational Board and subsequently, to the Kirk Session. John Bennie Wilson (c.1848 - 1923) appears to have specialised in church design - his other projects including Stockwell Free Church, Pollockshields, the UP Church, Ayr and Cathcart Free Church, Glasgow. Articled to John Honeyman, he went on to assist both David Thomson and John Burnet before establishing an independent practice in 1878. In 1910 he became president of the Glasgow Institute of Architects and that same year, was representative of the body on the RIBA Co's work. With its impressive tower and broached spire, it is the tallest church in Troon and thereby, one of the town's most prominent landmarks.

External Links

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