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Summary

Description

William Wardell 1856-58; extended 1866-72 by Goldie and Childe. 7-bay, monolithic basilican-plan Gothic Revival church on prominent corner site. Entrance (S) Front: 5-pointed-arch blind arcade with doors to outer arches, large pointed arched hoodmoulded curvilinear tracery window and small rose window to gable head, shouldered octagonal ashlar capped corner turrets. Side (E) Elevation: tall pointed arched tracery clerestory windows and 5 low copper roofed side chapels with 3 trefoils set between buttresses, pitched 2-bay side aisle to NW. Coursed rubble with smooth sandstone margins. Stepped base course; 1st floor moulded string course. Shaped hoodmoulds.

Stained glass tracery windows, yellow diamond leaded glazing to clerestory, boarded twin-leaf doors; pitched roofs with graduated slates; lead gutters and cast-iron downpipes.

INTERIOR: good later 19th century painted interior decorative scheme in place. Pointed arched arcading to sanctuary walls, decorative painted High Altar and Lady Altar by Earp of London 1864. Carved stone pulpit and font. Equilateral arches to side chapels with quadrant ribs. Timber-lined collar-beamed roof on corbel head stone shafts rising through clerestory. Pointed arched arcade to organ gallery defining vestibule with pair of glazed timber inner porches to S. Stained glass of 1886 by Barnet & Son of Leith. Window in memory of polish expatriates stationed in the area during the war.

CATHOLIC PRESBYTERY: Earlier 19th century 2-storey, 3-bay, L-plan piended-roof villa, linked directly to confessional by small corridor. Coursed whinstone with raised sandstone quoins and margins. 12-pane timber sash and case windows, slate roof.

BOUNDARY WALLS AND RAILINGS: stepped sandstone-coped rubble walls with cast-iron railings and gates.

Statement of Special Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. Our Lady and St Andrew's Church is a good example of a later 19th century Catholic church, the only one in Galashiels, monolithically massed and in a commanding position at the top of Market Street. The church has good exterior stone detailing and a good painted decorative scheme to the interior.

A chapel and school had been erected in the earlier 19th century on the same site (slightly to west) on land gifted by Mr Hope-Scott, descendent of Sir Walter Scott. The chapel however soon became too small and the site next door was purchased with the intention of building a new church. The church was built in 1856 opened in 1858 by William Wardell (1823-1899), but was not completed until the Goldie and Childe extension of 1872. The pulpit and alter rails were added in 1870.

In 1873 the church was enlarged with the addition of the Lady Chapel and St Patrick's Chapel to the NW. The baptism font was gifted by Mr Earp of London in gratitude for the church caring for his son after a serious fall when he had been working on the high altar.

The earlier primary school to the NW was demolished in 1989 to make way for the new Ladhope Vale bypass road, which has resulted in the church being isolated form the rest of the street. A comprehensive restoration scheme was carried out in 2005.

References

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