Description

Alexander Cullen, 1900-2. 4-bay, Romanesque style chapel with 3-light arched window to gable facing road, entrance lobby and bellcote adjoining to side, and gabled hall across rear gable forming T-plan. Bull-faced snecked sandstone with polished ashlar dressings to principal elevations; squared, stugged, snecked sandstone with polished ashlar margins to sides and hall. Intermittent base course, 3 polished ashlar band courses to principal elevation; ashlar-coped skews; bracketed eaves.

DESCRIPTION: principal elevation to NE, facing road: 3 hood-moulded narrow arched lights under hood-moulded semicircular relieving arch; shouldered buttresses flanking to each side; lunette to gable apex; 2-leaf timber panelled front door in stop-chamfered, hood-moulded round arch architrave to small piend-roofed lobby adjoining gable to right; steps to door; YOU REAP WHAT YOU SEW inscribed on riser of upper step; simple gabled bellcote between lobby and gable, at right-angle to gable. 4 bipartite mullioned windows to side elevations of church. Timber-panelled doors to each end of NE elevation of hall; bipartite windows to SE and NW (side) gables of hall; 4 windows to SW (rear) of hall.

Predominantly leaded lights in timber frames; non-traditional double-glazed windows to hall. Ashlar-coped skews. Graded grey slate roof. 2 cast-iron ridge vents to hall.

INTERIOR: exposed M-trussed roof to church; timber pews; timber communion table; tongue and groove panelling to dado. Very small, simple stage to hall.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. A compact and well-detailed chapel designed by a prominent local architect (see below). The church is now one of the oldest buildings in Ferniegair and occupies a notable position on the main road through the village. The Romanesque style used here is late in revival terms and links rather to its use in the search for a modern Scottish style. Ferniegair Colliery opened in 1859 and during the 2nd half of the 19th century the local population grew considerably. Other collieries opened locally and the rise in population lead Hamilton Parish Church to appoint a Missionary minister to take services and carry out pastoral work in these areas. At Ferniegair services were originally conducted in parishioners' houses, but by 1899 it was decided that a proper chapel was required. Funds were raised with the help of the Duke of Hamilton and the local Coal Masters, and plans for the church were drawn up by the architect Alexander Cullen in1900. Construction of the church was completed in 1902; the final cost of construction and furnishing was £1587.19s.8d. Mining operations ceased at Ferniegair after the 2nd World War, and since then most of the miners' cottages have been demolished. This chapel is therefore one of the few remaining reminders of Ferniegair's industrial history.

Alexander Cullen was a local architect who had a very prolific practice with most of his work concentrated in Hamilton, Motherwell and the surrounding area. He is known to have designed over 100 buildings in the period between 1888 and his death in 1911. Most of his work was for public buildings such as churches, schools, police stations, hospitals, libraries, offices and public halls, but he also executed a number of domestic commissions. In 1902, because of his heavy workload, he took on the architects James Lochhead and William Brown as partners. The firm Cullen, Lochhead and Brown was one of the leading practices in Lanarkshire and continued to hold this position after Cullen's death.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77777743

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

• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
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  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)