Church Hall, St John's Episcopal Church, Bleachfield Road, Selkirk, Selkirk, Scottish Borders

Entry Name: Church Hall, St John's Episcopal Church, Bleachfield Road, Selkirk

Listing Name: Bleachfield Road, St John's Episcopal Church with Church Hall and Boundary Walls

Listing Date: 11 December 1996

Category: B

Source: Historic Scotland

Source ID: 390346

Historic Scotland Designation Reference: LB43743

Building Class: Cultural

ID on this website: 200390346

Location: Selkirk

County: Scottish Borders

Town: Selkirk

Electoral Ward: Selkirkshire

Traditional County: Selkirkshire

Tagged with: Hall

Description

J M Wardrop, 1867-9, with later alterations; later 19th century, or early 20th century church hall to NE. Whinstone with red stugged sandstone dressings, hall church with nave, choir, vestry, bellcote. Base course; point-arched openings.

SW ELEVATION: gabled. Large geometric-traceried window with hoodmould. Angle buttress to left. Angle buttress to right as part of cruciform- plan buttressed bell tower rising to open octagonal bellcote and ashlar spire.

SE ELEVATION: 6-bay, grouped 4-2. Bell tower to outer left (see SW elevation). Plate-traceried windows to each bay of 4-bay group, except bay to inner left. Single storey gabled porch, in bay to inner left, hoodmoulded entrance; ornamental trefoil plaque in gablehead above; 2-leaf cast-iron gates. Leaded windows to each return elevation. Buttress to outer right of 4-bay group. 2-bay group to right slightly set back with hoodmoulded window to each, 4-centred arch in bay to right. Buttress to outer right.

NE ELEVATION: gabled with vestry set back to outer right. Tripartite plate-traceried window. 4-centred arched boarded door in bay to left of vestry.

Leaded lights to windows; some stained glass by Herbert Hendrie, of 1933; some windows by German designer. Steep slated roof. Ashlar coped stack to vestry. Saw-toothed ashlar skews. Cross finials. Cast-iron gate to porch.

INTERIOR: fine carving to reredos, altar and choir screen by Robert Lorimer, 1908-12. Oak, gothic altar fence. Panelled dado. Octagonal ashlar font. Encaustic tiles to choir. Ashlar corbels to support roof struts. Oak carved Tudor scroll-panelled pulpit. Fine carving to external side of door to porch. Mid 20th century organ dedicated to memory of James Douglas and Douglas Rhodes.

BOUNDARY WALLS: whinstone rubble with rubble coping.

CHURCH HALL: single storey, 4-bay, L-plan. Corrugated-iron walls and roof. Timber ogeed heads and hoodmould to each opening. Window to each bay of principal (N) elevation, except outer left, flush door. Lean-to porch and boarded door set back to outer right. Octagonal window to W gablehead. Vent to ridge. INTERIOR: not seen, 1996.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. In 1866, the church seated

110 people. The church appears on 3rd edition OS map (1897), but the church hall does not. Photographs of the interior dating from 1920s show there was stencil-work to the chancel and foliate wallpaper to the nave. This was painted over by the 1950s. The former rectory was sold by the church in 1973 and is now known as Hillcrest, Shawpark road (see separate listing). The name Bleachfield Road refers to the fact that this area was used to lay out the linen in the sun to bleach it (according to Gilbert). Plans of a Episcopalian church in Selkirk can be seen at the Rowand Anderson collection of drawings at the University of Edinburgh Library, Special Collection Room. The drawings date from March 1867. They are not signed but the writing and style of the plans are those of Wardrop and Reid. Wardrop joined Thomas Brown in partnership in 1848/9; in circa 1873/4 he retired, and Charles Reid joined the partnership. This church therefore dates from the period of Brown and Wardrop. The plans in the special collection room do not match exactly the building which was built. There was a bowed apse to the NE; there was an oculus to the gablehead and bellcote to the apex of the SW elevation. The porch is shown in the plans to have ornate bargeboarding to the gable. Clearly the plans were much altered after this date, which would allow for the present speculation that the building dates from 1867-9.

External Links

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