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Summary

Description

Probably John T Rochead, 1845. Cruciform-plan gothic church, miniature Early English with late gothic central entrance tower. Ashlar fronted; squared and snecked rear and side elevation; ashlar, margins and dressings. Lancets; eaves course; base course; angle buttresses; squat pyramidal pinnacles.

E ELEVATION: ashlar symmetrical front; 4-stage entrance tower at centre rising into crocketted spire in Scott monument telescopic style; flanking buttressed bays; recessed flanking transepts. Pointed arch door with moulded surround, narrow lancet at 2nd stage; gabletted lancets at 3rd stage with pinnacled flying buttresses; small lancets at 4th stage; narrow finialled angle pilasters, running through upper

2 stages. Crocketted spire with gablet detailing, lead weathervane. Flanking buttressed bays, lancets, angle buttresses, pyramidal finials. Transepts to left and right, blocked lancets.

N ELEVATION: gabled transept, squared and snecked sandstone, ashlar margins and dressings. Blocked stepped 3-light lancet window, angle buttresses; ringhead cross finial with trefoil cusped arms; date stone 1845 in gablehead plaque.

W ELEVATION: lower gabled chancel; blocked stepped 3-light lancet window, door at ground below centre lancet; 3 lancets to right and left returns; tall lancet at right and left transept.

S ELEVATION: gabled transept; 3-light window, plaque in gablehead, 1845 datestone; lancet on right and left returns. Ringhead cross finial with trefoil arms.

Pointed-arch lancet windows, now all blocked, rendered and lined; grey slate roof; ashlar coping to skews and skewputts.

INTERIOR: not seen 1994; gutted.

GRAVEYARD: range of fine mid to later 19th century grave monuments including obelisk monument to John Hathieson, died 1874; Ruskinian Gothic monument to William Murray, died 1872, exotic lotus leaf finial.

BOUNDARY WALL AND RAILINGS: rubble boundary wall with semicircular coping surrounding graveyard to N, W and E. Low wall with cast-iron railings; cusped heads to E.

Statement of Special Interest

The building is no longer in ecclesiastical use. It was built as the Free Church. It is now in a poor state of repair with the interior gutted, dampness and stone damage. Rochead designed the St John's Free Church, 205 George Street, Glasgow 1845 which boasts a similar spire of tiered pinnacles and its seems probable that he designed this sibling Free Church at the same time. Millburn Church had previously been attributed tentatively to George Meikle Kemp, an architect familiar with such Gothic work (see the Scott Monument) who had been working reputedly at Millburn Tower. However, this attribution now seems unlikely in view of the Rochead parallel.

References

Bibliography

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