Description

Alexander McAnally, 1954-7. Stripped modern Romanesque aisle-less church with apse. Red brick and contrasting cream sandstone dressings and eaves course. Chamfered arrises; round-arched windows; plain, pier buttresses.

SE (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: gabled elevation with slender campanile engaged to right; ashlar tripartite doorpiece with gable over centre door bearing carved panel and with stone cross breaking through at apex; 3 pairs of boarded doors with decorative hinges. Tall round-arched window above.

CAMPANILE: rectangular-plan, at E corner of SE elevation with louvred round-arched windows at towerhead, single to SE and NW, tall bipartite to NE. Swept, tall, copper pavilion roof with metal cross finial.

NE ELEVATION: campanile to outer left. 7-bay nave with dividing buttresses. Single storey, flat-roofed vestry porch projecting to right.

NW (APSE) ELEVATION: tall, deeply bowed apse with ashlar mullioned window strips at wallhead to left and right and flat-roofed single storey service ambulatory projecting at ground.

SW ELEVATION: single bay of narthex to outer right. 7-bay nave, bowed conically roofed baptistery adjoined to outer right bay, with 8-light window; flat-roofed, single storey porch across 3 bays to left of centre.

Square-pane, metal glazing grids to windows with hopper openings and small-lead-pane glazing pattern. Grey slates to pitch swept low over nave and bowed at apse and baptistery.

INTERIOR: fine period, modern church fittings in situ. Panelled wainscot in bays upto altar, with crossing delineated by pilasters. Plastered walls and roof, latter enclosed below apex and ribbed with supporting beams on block corbels at intervals. Tall round-arch to apse flanked by altars to Jesus Christ and Virgin Mary each with marble altar, stylised timber reredos behind statue and round-arched panel recess extending behind; decorative 2-leaf railed brass(?) gates. Sanctuary on panelled base of various marbles, sheltered by tall, gabled, canopied, timber baldacchino, enclosing crucifix with figure of Jesus Christ under coffered barrel vault, with studded fleuron and carved capitals; panelled wainscot stepping down to flanking walls of apse, adorned by carved, foliaceous frieze, panels divided by quasi-reeded base. Principal altar panelled with various marbles, framed with contrasting paired pilasters. Marble altar rail resting on marble dies of paired pilasters. Lectern of various marbles with paired contrasting columns to base. Font comprised of octagonal marble shaft and contrasting basin: Baptistery screened by decorative wrought-metal gates and railings. Timber pews. Stations of the Cross, Stanley Spencer-influenced contemporary paintings. Tripartite entrance screen to narthex of 3 sets of 2-leaf doors, upper sections with cross-pattern glazing.

PRESBYTERY: contemporary, en suite. 2-storey, near-rectangular-plan priest?s house with ashlar porch at centre of SE elevation in shallow re-entrant formed with advanced bay to left, gabled with cross finial. SW elevation with broad, canted window at centre ground, windows flanking and above, varying in size. Joined to church at E corner by single storey, flat-roofed link. Rear with regular fenestration at 1st floor. NW side elevation with singe storey, piend-roofed porch. Metal casement windows. Grey slates. Brick stacks and corbels to overhanging eaves.

BOUNDARY WALLS, RAILINGS AND GATES: brick walls to NE and NW, curving around corner with ashlar coping and ashlar coped brick parapet with grouped openings at intervals and gabled corner panel breaking upward with stone cross relief. Plain railings to remaining perimeter. Pair of taller, decorative scrolled wrought-iron gates to presbytery drive; plainer, 2-leaf gates to church with flanking pedestrian gates.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17815602

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

• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)