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Summary

Description

John Henderson, 1838; transepts, Peddie & Kinnear, 1868; chancel, Hardy & Wight, 1888; interior work, L Grahame Thomson, 1931-3. Small cruciform-plan aisleless free Romanesque church with slim engaged W tower and later ventilator over crossing. Grey ashlar front; cream sandstone rear and sides, ashlar to S elevation, squared and snecked rubble to E and N. Tall round-arched windows with continuous mouldings; moulded cill course rising to hoodmoulds over doors; scalloped capitals to nook-shafts; ashlar mullions and transoms and plain round-arched bar tracery to W windows.

W elevation: gabled with tall parapet turning corner into aisle elevation. Engaged tower to centre with angle shafts and entrance door at base; roll-moulded doorway with nook-shafts and 2-leaf boarded timber door with decorative cast-iron hinges, diagonal off-set buttresses flanking and stepped hoodmould above; tall single window above with clock at gablehead in cavetto panel; top stage of tower with 3 narrow lancets with diamond-shaped louvres to each face, corbelled cornice and octagonal ashlar spire with 4 corner pinnacles. Tower bay flanked by tall windows and off-set buttresses with ashlar pinnacles. Aisle return to S with round-arched doorway and single window. Aisle return to N with single storey flat-roofed addition with round-arched doorway to W, single window and wallhead stack above.

Nave: 3-bay with westernmost bays as return of W elevation; tall windows to remaining bays. Squat leaded ventilator with round-arched louvred openings and finialled pyramidal bellcast roof.

N and S Transepts: 1868; tripartite window and oculus in gabled end elevations, cross finial; single windows to return elevations.

Chancel: 1888; rectangular-plan with vestry in re-entrant angle to S; gabled vestry with secondary door and tall arrowslit window. Chancel with tripartite window and cross finial to gable end.

Windows with glazing of small leaded panes, some coloured. Black slate roof with metal flashings; 1 wallhead stack (see above). Corbelled skewputts.

Interior: impressive kingpost roof (probably 1868) rising from moulded stone corbels with carved trusses, pendants and iron braces; roll-moulded window surrounds; all timber work showing distinctive panelling of blind arcading (L Grahame Thomson/Macdougal, 1931-3); raked gallery to W with timber parapet; chancel with dado panelling and choir stalls, organ on S side of chancel (Henry Willis & Sons, 1921).

Furnishings: pulpit with sounding board and panelling depicting 4 evangelists; octagonal Caen stone font (Cox and Sons, Buckley & Co., 1888).

Stained Glass: complete set of windows to chancel and transepts depicting stories from the bible (Ballantine studio, 1868-74 and 1902).

Boundary walls, gatepiers and railings: rubble wall with ashlar coping to S; ashlar wall to W, tall ashlar coped gatepiers; ornamental cast-iron arched gate, original cast-iron railings.

Statement of Special Interest

No longer in ecclesiastical use. Morningside's earliest church cost £2075 and was financed through subscription mainly from the owners of the mansions in Greenhill and Morningside. Dr Thomas Chalmers, leader of the Disruption of 1943 and resident of Morningside, preached the opening service.

References

Bibliography

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