Description

1849-50. Gothic church of rectangular plan with canted NW end elevation. Polished ashlar principal front, roughcast walls to sides and rear with droved ashlar dressings.

SE (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: 3 bays, symmetrical, base course, moulded string course below cills. Centre bay advanced at ground floor, pointed-arched entrance door with moulded reveals, hoodmould over with floreate stops and engaged cross at apex. Sloping cill to pointed-arched window above, hoodmould over with carved mask stops. Gable above surmounted by carved cross. 3-tier battered buttresses flanking centre bay, filleted nook shafts to middle tier, panelled upper tier with crocketted pinnacles. Tall pointed-arch windows to outer bays with hoodmoulds above. 3-tier angle buttresses to outer left and right with stop chamfered upper tier and pinnacles as above. Moulded skew cope to gable, carved ashlar cross at apex.

SW ELEVATION: 3 bays, tall pointed-arch windows to each bay with stone Y-tracery and transoms, chamfered arrises and sloping cills. Ashlar margins at corners and eaves cornice.

NW ELEVATION: mirror image of SW elevation.

NW ELEVATION: 3-bay canted end elevation, windows matching side elevations at outer bays, single-storey lean to at centre bay.

Leaded glazing with coloured glass borders to windows of side and NW elevations. Timber mullions to SE windows, 3 circlets in arch-heads of centre window, single circlets to outer windows. 2-leaf, 4-panel timber entrance doors. Grey slate piended and bellcast roof to hall, mono-pitch roof to lean-to. Cast-iron downpipes. Octagonal ashlar wallhead stack, corniced with square base, centring rear elevation.

INTERIOR: modern interior (including false ceiling) of circa 1960. Monument to James Cattenach NW corner

BOUNDARY WALL: droved ashlar dwarf wall with moulded cope (railings removed) to St. John Street, terminated to S by square stop-chamfered ashlar pier with base and ogee cap. Matching gatepiers with pyramidal caps, cast-iron gate with decorative finials depicting crown, thistle, rose and shamrock.

Statement of Interest

According to the Catholic Directory, the original of the present St Kieran's Church was built in 1809, and the present one on the same site in 1849-50. It underwent extensive interior alteration in the early 1960?s. A memorial plaque to the front of the church reads when translated from Latin: "Pray for James Cattenah, a priest of this parish, who after working for 55 years, died in 1836, at the age of 85". It is thought that he was the priest that supervised the building of the first church in 1809. A local legend states that he obtained a lease of the ground for a long as he himself remained there. To ensure perpetuity he arranged that at his death he would be buried in this piece of ground, apparently near or under the altar of the old chapel. The principal gable of this buildings makes a stiking centrepiece to this section of St John Street.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q56648062

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

• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide