Description
John Paterson, 1810-12; altered and enlarged 1878; hall block to W added 1970. Interior partly refurbished by John Smith, 1884; timber screen 2002. Tall single stage, D-plan, crenellated, gothic church with octagonal turrets at springing of curved front with square tower at centre. Dry-dashed with chamfered stone margins; squared and snecked rubble with dressed margins and voussoirs to N. Base course and corbelled crenellated parapets Pointed-arch openings; timber Y-traceried fenestration. Diagonallly-buttressed, 3-stage tower with band course between 2nd and 3rd stages, quoin strips at reduced 3rd stage and corbelled angle bartizans. Dividing courses between stages of 3 stage turrets. Chamfered arrises to N.
S (ENTRANCE) TOWER: dominant, engaged entrance tower projecting at centre S, with diagonal angle buttresses rising to 3rd stage. 1st stage with 2-leaf, vertically-boarded timber door (replaced 1995), large decorative ironwork hinges, and deep timber-traceried, pointed-arch fanlight with diamond-pattern, leaded glazing and modern wall-mounted carriage lamps flanking. Single windows to 2nd and 3rd stages, latter predominantly timber-louvered. Corbelled out crenellated ashlar parapet and angle bartizans with blind arrowslits and polygonal stone caps. Windows to centre of each stage at returns, those to 1st and 2nd stages blind, louvered and glazed at 3rd stage.
S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: single large window to each curved bay flanking entrance tower (see above), flanked in turn by squat octagonal turrets, comprising windows on alternating faces at 1st and 2nd stages, blind where abutting curved bay at 2nd stage; tower to right with additional boarded timber door to N face of 1st stage.
E ELEVATION: 3-bay elevation comprising 2-leaf vertically-boarded timber door to centre at ground, windows in flanking bays and regular fenestration to gallery floor above; diagonal buttress with pyramidal stone cap to outer right angle.
W ELEVATION: modern, 2-storey, near rectangular-plan, rendered church hall and offices adjoining church, with S entrance elevation, glazed doorpiece.
N ELEVATION: altered elevation comprising variety of elements including crenellated, single storey, rubble vestry with part-blocked trefoil-headed windows and boarded timber door under leaded fanlight.
Y traceried timber windows, predominantly diamond-pattern leaded glazing with coloured margins, and some coloured glass. Grey slates. Cast-iron downpipes with decorative rainwater hoppers dated '1810'.
INTERIOR: fine galleried interior with fixed timber pews. Porch with encaustic-tiled floor and mural monuments including WWI and WWII memorials; stone slab (possibly font) and 1736 bell, both from Old Fetteresso Church. 21st century timber screen leading to body of church with vertically-boarded timber dadoes, timber horseshoe gallery on slender painted columns with Corinthian capitals and stepped timber pews. Painted ceiling roses. Timber altar table and communion chair, latter incorporating earlier panel, reading 'I M P F 1682' (see Notes). Steps flanking and leading to decorative timber pulpit. Organ above by Willis of London, installed 1876. Diagonally-boarded timber doors and gallery parapet panels. Vestry door to right of pulpit. Coloured glass includes 1902 memorial window to Lizzie Lindsay Wood depicting lilies, by Benson & Co, Glasgow, and St Clare and St Francis by Crear McCartney 1990.
BOUNDARY WALLS, RAILINGS, GATEPIERS AND GATES: low saddleback-coped ashlar quadrant walls and polygonal ashlar piers with cornices and shallow polygonal caps with 2-leaf decorative ironwork vehicular gates and inset railings. Semicircular-coped rubble boundary walls.
Statement of Special Interest
Ecclesiastical building in use as such. Exceptionally interesting for its unusual plan form, style and authorship. The old church of Fetteresso, dedicated in 1246 by David de Birnam, Bishop of St Andrews, was located at what is now known as Kirktown of Fetteresso. Petitions were put together between 1785 and 1806 regarding the inconvenience of the site of the Old Fetteresso Church in relation to the growing population, and The Old Statistical Account of 1793 mentions the unsuitability of the building due to the deterioration of its condition. A plan for a new church was submitted in March 1808 by John Paterson of Edinburgh. This was built between 1810 and 1812, at a cost of two thousand guineas. In 1808 Paterson had worked on additions and alterations to the largely seventeenth century Fetteresso Castle, the designs for which, especially the central castellated tower, influenced those for the church. The wooden panel in the communion chair, commemorating the Episcopalian minister John Milne, is one of two rescued from the pulpit of the old Fetteresso Church. The other panel, which survived at Fetteresso Castle until the 1950s, had a scene of pigs playing bagpipes and dancing. The organ was donated by the Bairds of Ury House in 1876. The manse, built in the same year, was demolished circa 1970.