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Summary

Description

Dated 1820; restored and altered with Romanesque details by George Fortune, architect, Duns, 1905. Rectangular-plan, 4-bay church with sandstone belfry to west; remains of crocketted pinnacle to east; lower, crowstepped porch adjoined to west. Harl-pointed cream sandstone rubble; sandstone ashlar dressings. Raised base course; architraved cill course; raised eaves course; bracketed eaves course to gabled porch. Droved quoins; droved long and short surrounds to openings. Round-arched windows to south and east with scalloped capitals surmounting columnar reveals and mullions; round-arched pediments with nailhead mouldings; stepped cills. Plain, chamfered surrounds to round-arched porch windows; square-headed rear openings with projecting cills.

In accordance with Section 1 (4A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 the following is excluded from the listing: scheduled monument SM381.

South (Entrance) Elevation: gabled porch recessed to outer left with step to 2-leaf boarded timber door centred at ground; decorative iron hinges; round-arched surround with engaged columns flanking entrance, scalloped capitals, round-arched pediment with zig-zag moulding in frieze; blind, round-arched niche centred in crowstepped apex; decorative finial above. 4-bay church advanced to right with round-arched, bipartite windows flanking centre; large windows to outer left and right.

West (Side) Elevation: 2-bay porch off-set to left of centre with round-arched windows in both bays. Nave set behind with finialled, classically-detailed belfry, dated '1820', surmounting gablehead; bell dated '1782' within.

North (Rear) Elevation: main block with near full-height, square-headed window at centre; blind windows flanking at ground; window at 1st floor in bay to right. Gabled porch recessed to outer right with boarded timber door at ground off-set to left; window above.

East (Side) Elevation: round-arched, bipartite window at centre; crocketted pinnacle surmounting gablehead.

Predominantly border-glazed, plain leaded windows; stained glass windows to east (circa 1922) and west (1905). Grey slate roof; stone-coped skews; cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: porch with timber panelled dado; timber doors; stair accessing upper gallery with plain timber treads. Nave comprising boarded timber floor; timber pews; painted walls with timber panelled dado (dentilled in part). Large chancel arch centred at east end with square-plan columns flanking opening, scalloped capitals, round-arched pediment with zig-zag moulding in frieze; blind, tripartite arcades to left and right with engaged columns, decorative capitals, round-arched pediments with dog-tooth mouldings. Similarly detailed communion table centred in chancel; timber panelled pulpit; octagonal font. Fluted columns supporting gallery to W end with timber panelled and dentilled front; tiered timber pews set within; central timber door accessing bell rope. Various wall memorials.

Graveyard: irregular-plan graveyard surrounding church with various 17th, 18th and 19th century stones including table-top monuments, classically-detailed stones and memento mori.

Boundary walls, quadrant walls, gatepiers and gates: Rubble walls enclosing site. Arched coping to rubble quadrant walls flanking main entrance; tapering, polygonal iron gatepiers; 2-leaf, hooped iron gates.

Statement of Special Interest

Place of worship in use as such. Also referred to as 'Bunkle Church'. Recorded in the Ordnance Survey Name Book as "...a small square built church situated in the centre of the parish of Bunkle. It was rebuilt in the year 1820." Built to replace the medieval Bunkle Old Kirk - the apse of which can still be seen to the southeast (see scheduled monument SM381). Both materials and details from the Old Kirk were reused in this new church. Prior to George Fortune's work on the church in 1905, the building was described as a "rectangular, barn-like structure, so plain indeed that, but for the belfry one would scarcely suspect was a church at all" (Robson). Fortune added a porch and vestry to the west end and, it is assumed, the Romanesque detailing, which not only echoes the Romanesque form of the Old Kirk, but also bears strong similarity to the detailing at the nearby, more decorative Cranshaws Church - itself virtually rebuilt by George Fortune in 1898-99 (see separate listing). Fortune also renovated Longformacus Church in 1892 (see separate listing).

In accordance with Section 1 (4A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 the following is excluded from the listing: scheduled monument SM381.

Listed building record and statutory address updated in 2017. Previously listed as 'Bonkyl Church (Church Of Scotland) including Graveyard, Boundary Walls, Quadrant Walls, Gatepiers and Gates'.

'Bonkyl and Preston parish church, church 10m S of' is Scheduled Monument No 381 and is excluded from the listing.

Listed building record and statutory address updated in 2015. Previously listed as 'Bonkyl Church (Church Of Scotland) including Graveyard, Boundary Walls, Quadrant Walls, Gatepiers and Gates'.

References

Bibliography

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