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Summary

Description

A large Gothic Revival style parish church, built 1904-6 to designs by John Robertson of Inverness. The church has a rectangular plan form and is orientated east to west with a three-stage tower and stone steeple at the northeast corner with angled buttresses pinnacles, and a louvered bell stage. The nave consists of three bays with the chancel to the west. The entrance is in the east gable in a recessed gabled porch with a large Decorated Gothic window above. There are truncated gabled transepts at the east end and an additional aisle on the north side, all of which are contained within the overall rectangular footprint. The roofs are slated and there is an octagonal fleche on the main ridge. The church is constructed in bull-faced rubble with finely tooled dressings of lighter stone, both inside and outside. The walls have a corbeled parapet and shallow buttresses with plain hexagonal pinnacles, and cross finials on the gables. The windows are generally small lancets in the lower level and paired or triple lancets within Gothic arches in the upper level.

The church is prominently sited in raised open grounds near the west end of High Street in Forres.

Large, open-plan interior with ornate timber trusses on stone corbels. There is an ogee-fronted timber gallery with Gothic decoration at the east end with a glazed timber screen below, enclosing the narthex. The north aisle is divided from the nave by a full-height arcade of stone pillars and is occupied by a second gallery, also ogee-fronted between the pillars. In 2019-20 the space below the north gallery was glazed between the pillars to form a meeting space.

The west end has a shallow recessed chancel within a large Gothic arch flanked by two tiers of smaller Gothic arched openings. The galleries contain the organ by E.H. Lawton of Aberdeen, which extends into the gallery of the north aisle. Below are the vestry (south) and the baptistry (north), which contains a white marble font by Stewart McGlashan and Co of Edinburgh (a copy of the font at Dryburgh Abbey). In front of the chancel on the south side is the octagonal Gothic pulpit of Caen stone with red-brown marble columns by Hardman, Powell and Co. of Birmingham. The chancel has three blind arches to the rear wall and steps ascending to a marble communion table with green marble columns by Galbraith and Winton of Glasgow.

The west and east gables have stained glass windows designed by Percy C Bacon (1860-1935) and installed in 1922. The three-light window in the chancel is a First World War memorial window depicting Christ the Consolator with Courage (left) and Victory (right). The windows in the south elevation and the single window in the baptistry are by Douglas Strachan (1875-1950) and date from the 1930s. The upper level shows (from west to east): The Annunciation with Isaiah and King David, the Nativity, the Ministry of Christ and (in the transept) the Crucifixion and Resurrection. The lower level lancets show six acts of charity as listed in Matthew 25:25-26. The lower windows in the transept depict St Laurence, flanked by St Columba and St Ninian. The baptistry window is entitled 'Suffer the little children to come unto me' (Matthew 19:14).

The church is set in open grounds with retaining boundary walls of rough ashlar with a stone cope. On the south side is a gate screen comprising late-18^th century polished ashlar channelled and corniced piers with ball finials, linked by a curving parapet wall to a secondary pair of piers and with spearheaded gates and railings.

Historical background

The church stands on an ancient site of Christian worship predating the first recorded building erected there by King Alexander III in circa 1275. This was replaced by a plain Georgian church (1774-6) which is shown on the Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1868 and was demolished to make way for the present building. The new church designed by John Robertson, appears on the Ordnance Survey Third Edition map (Revised 1938, published circa 1949) and the first service was held on 28 February 1906.

St Laurence is notable for its unusually rich interior, which was informed by the views of Rev Alexander C Buchannan, minister in Forres from 1899. Buchannan was part of the ritualist liturgical movement in the Church of Scotland at the turn of the century and later became an Episcopalian clergyman. The emphasis in the new church on the chancel with its marble steps and altar-like communion table, its saint's dedication and the elaborate opening ceremony, were all controversial among Highland Presbyterians accustomed to simple liturgy focused on preaching.

The windows by Douglas Strachan were gifted by Sir Alexander Grant of Logie, managing director of McVitie's biscuit manufacturers, who was a native of Forres, and his wife Lady Elizabeth. The Nativity window (1931) and baptistry window (1932) are in memory of their daughter, Mrs Elizabeth Laing. The remaining Strachan windows were commissioned after Grant's death in 1937 by his widow and installed in 1939.

The church was closed for regular services in January 2025. The building is largely unaltered except for the enclosing of the north aisle beneath the gallery in 2019-20. Little remains of the former graveyard and burials which were cleared during the construction of the present church.

Statement of Special Interest

St Laurence Parish Church meets the criteria of special architectural or historic interest for the following reasons:

• It is a major example of an early 20th century parish church, in the Gothic Revival style. It displays fine architectural details that are key features of the Gothic Revival style, such as the pinnacles, buttresses and tracery, and shows high quality craftsmanship throughout the interior and exterior.
• It contains the largest collection of windows in Scotland, by Douglas Strachan, Scotland's leading stained-glass designer of the 20th century.
• The building survives largely in its original form and the historic character has not been adversely affected by later alterations and extensions.
• The setting is well preserved, and it makes a prominent contribution to the conservation area.
• It is a notable example within a common building type, in particular the quality of internal decorations and the elaborate furnishings are unusual for an early 20th century parish church.

Architectural interest

St Laurence Parish Church is a major example of an early 20th century church in the Gothic Revival style. The building is of high material quality and is a good example of its architectural style, displaying hallmark features of the Gothic Revival style, including pinnacles, buttresses, front porch, window tracery and fleche. The craftsmanship is of a high standard, with finely detailed external stonework and a good collection of interior furnishings and decorations ranging from carved stone and woodwork to stained glass.

The church is one of the largest and most distinctive examples of the work of noted Inverness-based architect, John Robertson, who carried out numerous church commissions and restorations throughout the Highlands for various denominations. Several of his buildings are listed including Rosemarkie Parish Church (listed category B, ref: LB31853) and St Anne's Episcopal Church, Strathpeffer (listed category B, ref: LB7857). St Laurence is notable as one of his grandest commissions in which his personal style of rough masonry and fine detailing is clearly developed.

The church contains windows by Douglas Strachan, who was the leading Scottish stained-glass artist of the 20th century. Born in Aberdeen, he established a studio and workshop in Edinburgh in around 1910 and gained an international reputation with his windows for the Peace Palace in The Hague (1911-3). In Scotland, around 46 listed churches contain windows by Strachan, notably Holy Trinity in St Andrews (listed category A, ref: LB40633) and Dunblane Cathedral (listed category A, ref: LB26361). The 14 windows in St Laurence Parish Church make up the largest collection of Strachan's works in Scotland and are described by Walker and Woodworth (2015, p.632), as 'outstanding in every way: luminously colourful, with extremely saturated hues and a swirling verve that amplifies their psychological power.' Their concentration and design quality contribute to the special architectural interest of the church.

Later alterations such as the enclosing of the north aisle have not substantially affected the building's character or legibility which is largely unchanged since the early-20th century.

The historic setting of the church is well preserved, retaining its open grounds and Georgian gate-piers. The building makes a major contribution to the streetscape of Forres and has a prominent profile within the Conservation Area.

Historic interest

Late-19th and early 20th century Gothic Revival churches are not rare in Scotland.

For its date, St Laurence Parish Church is a notable example within its building type of a new, large-scale parish church that was built for the established Church of Scotland.

The interior is a well-preserved example of church furnishings reflecting the ritualist movement in the Church of Scotland in the early-20th century. Presbyterian church buildings often have simple furniture arranged to suit services focussed on preaching. St Laurence is unusual in the emphasis given to the chancel and elaborate communion table, especially as a newly built church rather than a repurposed medieval building.

Due to their key function within a community, church buildings inherently have socio-historical interest for the local area. However, this is not considered to be of special interest and there is no association with a person or event of national importance.

Information from the superseded listed building record, compiled in 1989: Former Item 47 (1983 Revised List)

The supplementary information in the listed building record revised in 2025.

Satutory address amended in 2025 to correct a typographical error. Previously listed as 'HIGH STREET, ST LAWRENCE'S CHURCH, GATE PIERS AND KIRKYARD WALLS'

References

Bibliography

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