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Summary

Description

1764 core; Wardrop and Reid reconstruction 1882-3. Symmetrical, stepped T-plan church with entrance bays in re-entrant angles and square-plan, 5-stage clock tower to N stepped in with each band course. Rendered masonry with sandstone and concrete dressings. Moulded eaves course. Clock faces and round-arched louvred belfry openings to tower under slated ogee roof with weathervane. Quoin strips; irregular fenestration with plain margins; gabled dormers breaking eaves; large circular windows to gable apexes. Some earlier memorials set into walls.

Multi-pane glazing in fixed timber windows; timber-boarded and panelled doors. Small grey slates; terracotta ridge tiles; stone skews; corniced gable stacks.

INTERIOR: Post-Reformation T-plan layout with panel-fronted sloping galleries over three sides supported on slender cast-iron columns, scrolled stone corbels and exposed timber beams. Shallow vaulted timber-boarded ceilings. Tongue and groove panelling to dado height. Plain pine pews (painted to galleries). Panelled, bow-fronted pulpit with balustraded stair circa 1880; sounding board and seat circa 1960. Communion Table with arcaded front bearing WWI memorial. Plain timber boarded floors. Stone stair to balconies.

CHURCHYARD: 17th, 18th and 19th century headstones around the sloping sides of the church mound.

BOUNDARY WALLS AND GATES: Coursed rubble walls with heavy stone copes and squared gatepiers to tower steps entrance (N). 1937 walls and wrought-iron memorial gates to NE entrance. Long angled stone stairway leading down to Kirkstile.

Statement of Special Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. St Mary's and Old Parish Church is a post-Reformation church prominently sited on a high mound between the confluence of the two rivers to the W end of the High Street, and makes a strong contribution to the character of the area. A church has been on the site since the 13th century with the first dedication to St Mary recorded in 1214. The main rectangular section, which may incorporate fabric of the earlier buildings, was enlarged in 1764 to create a T-plan with an aisle and tower to the NW. During these renovations the Buccleuch burial vaults were sealed below ground. In 1880 the church suffered a devastating fire and much of what is seen today is a reconstruction on the same footprint by Wardrop and Reid in 1882-3.

James Wardrop (1824-1882) has a strong reputation for country houses earlier in his career, although he also rebuilt many country parish churches in the 1860s. In 1873 he went into partnership with Charles Reid (1828-1883) and in 1876 the firm won the contracts for the British Linen Bank. St Mary's was one of the last works before they died and the project was finished by the firm's successors Wardrop, Anderson and Brown.

St Mary's was the Parish Church of Hawick until 1844 when a new church, Hawick Old Parish Church, was built on Buccleuch Street. The two congregations rejoined in 1989 to form St Mary's and Old Parish Church.

The churchyard was closed to burials in 1864 and was landscaped and tidied up in 1973. The stones include a memorial to Baillie John Hardie (1722-1800), founder of the Hawick Hosiery Industry. Two foliate capitals said to be from the earlier church and some earlier tombstones are held within Wilton Lodge Museum.

Memorial walls and gates were erected in 1937 by the town council to mark the 400th anniversary of the Burgh Charter. The raised pulpit and steps were installed in internal renovations circa 1960, and the church was refurbished in 1987. List description revised following resurvey (2008).

References

Bibliography

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