Lorne Street Church, Bigkiln Street, Campbeltown, Campbeltown, Argyll and Bute

Description

James Boucher of Boucher & Cousland, Glasgow, dated 1867, with church hall addition by Henry E Clifford 1889. Rectangular plan, gabled entrance front to E with steeple at apex and flanking stair towers. Late 19th century single storey L-plan hall projecting to W from rear (W) elevation. Stugged squared and snecked red sandstone ashlar to nave, vestry, stair towers and hall. Alternating red and yellow sandstone banded quoins and details to E front. Chamfered arrises and sloping cills at windows.

E (ENTRANCE) FRONT: 2-bay gable end to nave, with flanking square stair towers. 2-tier, stepped base course, modern steps and ramp to arcaded doorpiece of 3 pointed arches of single order with hoodmoulds and gable over each arch; cusped door surrounds. 2 pointed-arch plate tracery 2-light windows with hoodmoulds above; buttress between windows, corbelled out at gablehead supporting square base of pinnacled birdcage bellcote, angled to elevation. Pinnacle with finial at apex, pointed-arch openings and gablets to each face supported on short columns at each corner, bell extant within. Octagonal engaged buttresses framing elevation with and octagonal pinnacles and finials. Stair towers to outer left and right. String course and pointed-arch lancets at 1st floor, bracketted eaves.

NAVE: 5-bay hall to W of stair towers, 2-storey pointed-arch lancet at each bay, rose window centring W elevation with single lancet to right. Single-storey entrance porch to vestry at W end, flush with S elevation, pointed-arch door with stone steps.

HALL: 8-bay (N) elevation to street, gabled at 1st and 2nd bays, with blank bay (8th) at outer right. Flush corbelled lintels, windows at 1st and 2nd bays in pointed-arch recesses, with blind vesica and slit window in gablehead above, buttress to right of 4th bay. E gable elevation partially exposed with pointed-arch entrance door. 2-bay symmetrical W (gable) elevation, bipartite windows with pointed relieving arches over, single buttress centring elevation with slit window in gablehead above.

Leaded glass with iron bars and coloured border glazing to nave windows and coloured glass to rose window. 6-pane windows to hall, timber sash and case to W and S elevations. Diagonally-boarded 2-leaf entrance doors with ornate iron hinges. Vertically-boarded vestry door with 3-pane fanlight over. Grey slate roofs, piended with decorative iron finials at stair towers. Profiled cast-iron gutters to stair towers and nave, with widely spaced brackets, cast-iron gutters and downpipes with hoppers elsewhere. Single flue square ashlar stacks at W gable of nave and wallhead of S stairtower. 2-flue apex stack with red circular cans at W gable of hall. Stone skew copes to all gables.

INTERIOR: original fittings removed at ground floor, timber floor surviving. U-plan gallery with stop-chamfered panelling and supported on circular cast-iron columns with plain capitals. Additional columns above with large floreate capitals supporting plain plaster vaulted and ribbed ceiling with decorative ventilator echoing rose window design at centre of main vault. Steeply-raked, horizontally-boarded pews, with umbrella stands, surviving to E. Mid 20th century organ screen infilling W gallery bay, organ removed. Vertically-boarded wainscoting to outer walls at gallery, decorative timber balustrades across windows. Rose window in W wall in pointed-arch recess, hood mould over with bracket stops. Gothic internal doors, 4-panel, stop-chamfered, with perforated upper panels. Stone gallery stairs with timber handrails.

Timber floor and vertically-boarded wainscoting to church hall, large glazed screen at W end.

BOUNDARY WALL: random rubble stepped dwarf wall with railing to N (Big Kiln Street), terminated at W by semicircular-coped wall with hooped pedestrian gate, and E by square ashlar entrance gatepiers. Piers with bases, stop-chamfered shafts and gabled caps with trefoil decoration, 2-leaf cast-iron gates with spear finials. Matching gatepiers to S, small section of original pattern gatepiers surviving to right. Random rubble boundary walls to S and E.

Statement of Interest

This church was built to replace the Gaelic Free and English Free churches that previously stood together on this site. The Campbeltown Courier of 8th August 1908 records "the proposal to renovate the old Gaelic Church was not favourably entertained by the friends of the Gaelic Congregation. The late Provost Beith took up the cause of the highland people, and largely at his own expense, with the assistance of like-minded friends, Lorne Street church was built and opened free of debt. The fine suite of halls were built in 1899 through the energy of the minister, the Rev D F Mackenzie B D, and through a legacy of ?100 from the late Malcolm McEachran, Kirk Street, the gallery of the church was lowered at this time, thereby remedying a defect in the original the plan, and making the building for comfort and compactness, with perfect acoustic, everything that one could desire, and which to succeeding generations, by the faithfulness of the gospel preached within its walls, has been a Bethel - the house of God, the very gate of Heaven". This church is also interesting due to the striking resemblance of its unusual design to the church of St Francis, Gorton, by the architect E W Pugin which is dated 1866-72. The striped stonework may be derivative of the more common mixture of red brick and stone used in England. It is unfortunate that this pattern has been painted out at the entrance door surrounds. The church was closed in 1990, and the ground floor cleared for conversion to a museum. The original entrance steps have been dismantled and the materials incorporated in the modern ramp and steps.

External Links

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