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Summary

Description

William Burn, 1840. Early English gothic church. Cruciform plan; chancel to E, transepts to N and S and steeple to W. Polished ashlar. Moulded, coped base and cill course. String course, over-stepping openings hoodmoulds. String course below parapet. Coped gabletted set-off buttresses; angle buttresses and pinnacles to all corners, many of the latter now missing. Lancet windows. Moulded and hoodmoulded surrounds; chamfered cills. Nook-shafts to some surrounds. Panelled 2-leaf doors. Moulded gablet-coped skews. Grey slates. Original rainwater heads.

STEEPLE: advanced at centre of W elevation; 3-stage tower, angle- buttressed to 2nd stage; 167 ft high spire. Curved stair-well with 2 slits deep-set in NW re-entrant angle. Stone steps to pointed-arched doorway to roll-moulded and deeply-moulded surround with Corinthian noon-shafts; recessed in panel with roll-moulded and cavetto surround, and with cusped, cross and quatrefoil detailing. Blank shield motifs to frieze above. Small lancets to N and S at ground. Geometric traceried windows, 2-light and quatrefoil, to N, W and S at 2nd stage. Louvred 3-light lancets to each face of 3rd stage belfry; clocks recessed in moulded surround above. Moulded gargoyled course above. Pinnacles to each corner of parapet (2 to E missing). Broached stone spire; 3 bands of lucarnes, diminishing in size and on alternate faces.

NAVE: windows flanking advanced steeple on W elevation. Windows divided by buttresses to 4-bay N and S elevations. Transepts adjoining to E.

N AND S TRANSEPTS: advanced from penultimate bays to E of 6-bay N and S elevations; each with steps to depressed-arched doorway, deeply moulded with nook-shafts; flanked by buttresses surmounted by griffins. Stepped 3-light window with nook-shafts above; quatrefoiled oculus in gablehead. Window to W returns, and 2 windows with dividing buttresses to E returns.

ORGAN CHANCEL: advanced to E. 3 round-arched windows at basement to E. stepped 3-light window with nook-shafts above; quatrefoiled oculus in gablehead. Depressed-arched door to left to basement of N return, and window at centre. Steps to moulded depressed-arched doorway with nook-shafts, and windows above to S return.

INTERIOR: organ chancel and pulpit to E, screen to W. Painted plaster walls and boarded dadoes. Timber combed panelled roof with pendants. Original Jacobean strapworked pulpit with sounding-board; steps from both sides. Later strapworked organ case on either side of pulpit, filling chancel behind; organ by James J Binns, Bramley Organ Works, Leeds (1906); doors to both sides of screen, vestry entered from left door. Timber communion table, lectern (1925) and font.

Timber corniced doorcases, and moulded and nook-shafted surrounds to windows to N and S walls of transepts. Jacobean veneered screen, with 3 strapwork-detailed doors, to W. Pointed-arched doorway with nook-shafted blank panel above in full-height moulded and pointed-arched panel.

Rib-vaulted roof to vestibul beneath tower; Corinthian colonnettes to moulded doorway to nave; ornate hanging lantern shade. Turnpike staircase to left. Moulded reveals to windows in rib-vaulted bell-ringing chamber at 1st stage.

STAINED GLASS: right window in N transept (Nathaniel Bryson, 1920); left window in S transept (William Wilson, 1962). Geometric glazing with coloured glass margins to remaining windows. Coloured glass to vestibule lancets.

BOUNDARY WALLS: coped rubble walls.

Statement of Special Interest

No longer in ecclesiastical use; the church has been unoccupied since December 1989. The church has also been known as Buccleuch Church.

The expanding congregation of the old Parish Church (St Nicholas) before the Disruption necessitated the erection of this church. Walter Francis, 5th Duke of Buccleuch, gifted a site, and built and endowed the church. Although built between 1837 and 1840, the church was not used until the congregation of the Old Parish Church were transferred there from 1851-54 while renovation work was carried out on their own church. Having been erected into a parish quoad sacra in 1853, the first minister of West Parish Church was ordained in April 1854.

The church could accommodate 950, and the stone was quarried in Fife. A gallery which was depicted on the original plans has never been built. Reconstruction work was carried out by Charles Henry Greig in circa 1906.

The congregations of West Church and the Old Kirk united to form St Nicholas Buccleuch Church in 1979; both churches continued to be used alternately for services. When West Church closed in 1989, Old Kirk became the parish church.

Listed Building Consent has been granted for the organ, stained glass windows and internal wall plaque to be relocated in Old Kirk (1991).

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Bibliography

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