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Summary

Description

Circa 1750; additions and alterations by Brown and Wardrop, 1872. T-plan Gothic Church with short saddleback tower to W and gable-front main (N) elevation. Squared snecked rubble stugged grey sandstone to tower and principal elevation, rubble sandtone to rear. Droved ashlar dressings. Windows in stop-chamfered surrounds. Chamfered base course, string course above entrance level. Single-storey halls to rear.

N (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: advanced central bay with three lancets to ground level and hood-moulded curvilinear-tracery above. Flanked by recessed entrances to either side. Hood-moulded Gothic entrances with boarded timber doors reached by 5 steps. Piended dormers with bipartite trefoil-headed windows over. Advanced gabled outer bay to left with single lancet and arrow loop over.

W ELEVATION: single gable with triple lancets to ground and bipartite trefoil-headed window in square opening above.

S ELEVATION: later central gable, pair of round-headed openings to ground, each with 2 trefoil headed shafts and quatrofoil light. Louvred gablet ventilators.

INTERIOR: timber truss roof on stone corbels with boarded ceiling.

TOWER: squat square-plan tower in 3 stages with arrow-loop to base of front elevation. Single lancets to 2nd stage and a pair of lancets to the apexes; saddle back roof.

HALLS: Single storey 7-bay piended hall adjoining to SW corner of church. 3 pairs of segemental headed openings with square headed door off centre to right.

Zinc or cast-iron lattice glazing. Grey slate. Stepped skews, cruciform

finials.

BOUNDARY WALLS: sandstone rubble with roughly semi-circular copes. Square-plan gatepiers.

Statement of Special Interest

Kirknewton Church retains much of the character of an 18th century village church. The 19th century alterations by Brown and Wardrop (see below) were relatively sensitive, and have not had a overly negative impact on this character. The church commands a central position in the parish on a prominent elevated open site.

The present structure was begun in 1759 following the amalgamation of Kirknewton and East Calder parishes. The building was substantially altered by Brown and Wardrop in 1872, when it took on a more Gothic appearance with the addition of the tower and gable to the N elevation. The work also involved the removal of the gallery from the interior and may have included the remodelling of the windows to form Gothic lancets. The two windows to the S elevation may be the only openings to survive from the original church. Many of the windows appear to be zinc-framed, but the date of these is uncertain. It may be that all the indows were replaced in the 1872 conversion. The difference in stonework of the central gable of the S elevation would suggest that this gable was a later addition. Ashlar margins and random rubblework also suggest that the buildings was originally harled.

A new manse was also built in 1750 and substantially upgraded in the 1830s. A later manse, now Highfield on the other side of the road, was constructed some time after 1840. The original manse (see separate listing) is also referred to as the schoolhouse.

References

Bibliography

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