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Summary

Description

David Logan, 1791; Tower and spire, J Gillespie Graham, 1832-4. Rectangular plan church with dominating Perpendicular gothic W tower, late 19th century S apse. Sandstone rubble nave, ashlar tower. Uniform later 19th century tracery to nave; mullioned, pointed arch windows with cusped heads and arch, chamfered margins, battered cills.

W ELEVATION: deep base course, splayed margins, all hoodmoulds with labelstops. 4-stage tower to centre; W face, entrance at ground, 4 colonnettes each side framing, 4-centre arch with crocketed ogee hoodmould and finial. 2-leaf panelled doors decorated with carved studs, crenellated architrave, fanlight with pointed arch tracery. N and S faces, 4-centre headed, transomed and mullioned, 4-light window with cusped upper lights. 2 string courses above. 2nd stage, N, S and W faces; 4-centre headed, transomed, 6-light window, multifoil heads to upper lights, plate tracery above, hoodmould. 3rd stage, N, S, E and W faces; clock face with stone architrave, set in cusped panelling. 4th stage, N, S, E and W faces; paired lancets, shallow cusping to heads, timber louvres, crocketed ogee hoodmoulds with finial. Tracery parapet above. Clasping buttresses, panelled at 3rd stage, fluted at 4th, rising to gabletted and crocketed pinnacles supporting quatrefoil tracery flying buttresses. Octagonal spire, crocketed with 2 lancets on N, S, E and W sides, these being miniatures of those at 4th stage. Weathervane. Gable end of nave flanking tower symmetrical to N and S; 4-centre headed, mullioned and transomed 4-light window with cusped upper lights and quatrefoil, hoodmould. Crenellated parapet above. Flying corner buttresses with pierced, cusped, quatrefoil panels rising to crocketed pinnacle with gableted lucarnes.

E ELEVATION: gable end, 2 windows at ground, shorter windows above lighting upper gallery, single similar bipartite in gablehead.

N ELEVATION: regular fenestration, 4 bays, windows at ground with shorter windows centred above. Late 19th century? porch to centre in boundary wall opening into nave at ground; pointed arch doorpiece, voussoirs to arch, plain panel beneath, 2-leaf panelled doors, flanking pilasters with gablet decoration to capitals, cornice and parapet.

S ELEVATION: large, advanced canted bay of apse to centre, full-height, mullioned, 4-light windows to E and W faces, centre blank. Flanking bays in nave with windows at ground and shorter windows centered above.

Plate glass with lattice glazing behind imitating leaded lights to tower and W elevation; leaded diamond-pane glazing and stained glass to nave. Grey slate pitched roof to nave.

INTERIOR: 2 tiered horseshoe galleries, on Roman doric columns to N, E and W. Timber, panelled, octagonal pulpit with sounding board on balustraded podium in S apse. Later glazed screen to W at ground. Timber pews. Panelled meeting room to W.

CHURCHYARD, BOUNDARY WALLS AND GATEPIERS: churchyard to E in 2parts, divided by public pathway (Churchyard Walk). Square, corniced and capped gatepiers at E entrance to pathway, with cast and wrought-iron "Sturrock Lamp" bridging the piers. Fine collection of monuments, mainly mid 17th to early 19th centuries. Including Arbuthnot Mural Monument; large mural monument with Latin inscription framed in Ionic columns, capitals very decayed. Date 1682 +. Coped rubble stone boundary walls to churchyard. Late 19th century boundary wall parallel with N wall of nave, base course and blocking course. Ashlar panelled and crenellated section to SW.

Statement of Special Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. A church has stood on this site for many centuries, and the present structure developed in stages. An octagonal spire was built on an earlier tower in the 17th century. The old church was demolished and the present nave built against this tower in 1791. The architect David Logan provided seating for at least 2,500 in a structure measuring 98 by 65 feet. By 1811 the tower was found to have cracks in its walls extending from foundations to bartizan, and the engineer Robert Stephenson was consulted. He concluded that there was no immediate danger of collapse but that replacement was advisable "as soon as it may suit the financial concerns of the honourable magistrates". In 1831 the old tower was removed, and on 1st August 1832 a new tower was founded. Designed by J Gillespie Graham, the builder was William Smith of Montrose and with the help of ?3,000 raised by inhabitants, heritors and burgh funds, the new tower was finished in 1834. The tower measures 108 feet to the parapet and the spire extends 92 feet above that. The four corner pinnacles are 32 feet high. The west gable was refaced to match the tower at a later date. Further alterations were the windows of the nave being retraceried in about 1860, and the

addition of the south apse in 1885. One bell is by Peter Ostens and is dated 1678, and three are by Thomas Mears of London, two of which are dated 1801 and 1836 respectively.

References

Bibliography

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