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Summary

Description

David Smart, Perth, 1887. Cruciform-plan church in mid-Decorated gothic with 3-stage tower and broached stone spire. Red bull-faced rubble with ashlar dressings. Base course and eaves corbel course; dividing courses to tower. Corbels; 2-stage saw-tooth coped clasping buttresses; traceried windows; stone mullions chamfered reveals and raked cills.

SE (BOAT BRAE) ELEVATION: stone-cross finialled gabled elevation with large hoodmoulded 4-light traceried memorial window (see Stained Glass) behind protective screen, small louvered triangular opening in gablehead and flanking buttresses.

S (ENTRANCE) TOWER: 1st stage at SE with deeply-moulded doorcase with flanking engaged colonettes, hoodmould and 2-leaf boarded timber door with decorative ironwork hinges, and flanking angle buttresses; small window appearing as shoulder-arched to SW and small 2-stage polygonal-roofed stair tower with 3 small vertically-aligned windows breaking into 2nd stage at left angle. 2-light traceried window below narrow light at SE and blind trefoil to centre SW at 2nd stage giving way to slightly reduced 3rd stage with 2-light traceried window at each face, and surmounted by weathervane-finialled broach spire with louvered and finialled stone lucarne to each principal face.

SW (RIVERSIDE ROAD) ELEVATION: gabled bay to left of centre with 3-light traceried window over widely-spaced tripartite with each light appearing as shoulder-arched, buttress to left angle and trefoil-headed lancet on narrow set-back face to left, hall adjoining at outer left. Dominant tower (see above) in re-entrant angle to right and 2-light traceried window to set-back face at outer right.

NE ELEVATION: gable to right of centre as that to SW but with blind quatrefoil on return to left, 2 2-light traceried windows with dividing buttress set-back to left and trefoil-headed lancet to narrow set-back bay at outer right.

NW ELEVATION: louvered triangular opening in gablehead above projecting hall.

Diamond-pattern leaded and margined multi-pane glazing; stained glass see below. Grey slates. Ashlar-coped skews with mitred skewputts. Cast-iron downpipes with decorative rainwater hoppers. Diminutive louvered triangular roof ventilators.

INTERIOR: unaltered interior with fixed timber pews, boarded timber dadoes, some decorative plasterwork and hammerbeam roof. Raised chancel area with carved pulpit, communion table and pipe organ by Albert Keates of Sheffield with tuning by H Hilsdon Ltd, Glasgow.

STAINED GLASS: War Memorial window to Labour Corps, designed by Robert Anning Bell RA, Glasgow, 1922: executed by John and William Guthrie. Depicting St George, St Paul, Patriarch Job and General Gordon over wording 'COURAGE' 'ENDURANCE' 'FORTITUDE' and 'SELF SACRIFICE' surmounted by angels and surmounting dedication worded 'To the Glory of God and in memory of the officers, non-commissioned officers and men of His Majesty's forces who gave their lives while serving in the Labour Corps in the Great War 1914-1918', and panels with soldiers struggling through 'sun', 'frost', 'rain' and 'tempest' over wording 'AND THEIR NAME LIVETH TO ALL GENERATIONS'. Tracery with Union Jack, shield and badge of Labour Corps; symbols of suffering and endurance, and top roundel with emblems of Christ's passion.

Small tripartite window depicting 'Dove', 'FAITH', 'Lamb', in memory of David Caldicott Ingram, died June 26th, 1897, over brass plaque worded 'These windows were erected by members of the Church on 7th June, 1900'.

CHURCH HALL: single storey, L-plan gabled hall with square-headed tripartite window below louvered triangular opening to SW and further similar bipartite on return to left; NW gable with 2 bipartites, broad shouldered gablehead stack and shoulder-arched doorway with boarded timber door (with disabled access) on return to right; further gable to NE with timber door to left, bipartite to right and louvered triangular opening in gablehead, slightly-set-back lower piended bay in re-entrant angle to outer right with timber door and 2 small windows on return to right.

Diamond pattern leaded glazing. Grey slates. Sawtooth-coped, chamfered ashlar stack and ashlar-coped skews with moulded skewputts.

BOUNDARY WALLS, RAILINGS AND GATES: low saddleback-coped rubble boundary walls with inset decorative cast-iron railings and hoopwork gates; semicircular-coped rubble boundary walls.

Statement of Special Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. The Wesleyan congregation of Blairgowrie was started in 1885 with meetings held in the Mechanics Institute, Perth Street. Funds for building a church were left by Mr & Mrs Borrie, he had been a business man in the boot and shoe trade, and was involved during his lifetime with the Church of Scotland. However, he was so impressed by the Wesleyan ministry that he left his fortune to the church. A manse was also purchased at Rosebank House (listed separately) on the Balmoral Road, this was sold during the late 1960s and the proceeds placed in a Trust Fund to house retired ministers. The headquarters of the Labour Corps came to Blairgowrie in 1917, with nearly 20,000 men passing through. Officers and men started a memorial fund in 1919 which resulted in the erection of the War Memorial window by Glasgow's J & W Guthrie, at a cost of #800. The window was unveiled on 2nd December, 1922 by Mrs Hay-Wilson and Major General G S Sinclair-Maclagan. Some army funding was more recently donated to assist with provision of the protective screen.

References

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