Listed Building

The only legal part of the listing under the Planning (Listing Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 is the address/name of site. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing – see 'About Listed Buildings' below for more information. The further details below the 'Address/Name of Site' are provided for information purposes only.

Address/Name of Site

ANDERSON STREET, PATHHEAD BAPTIST CHURCH WITH HALL AND BOUNDARY WALLSLB45485

Status: Designated

Documents

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Summary

Category
C
Date Added
26/03/1998
Local Authority
Fife
Planning Authority
Fife
Burgh
Kirkcaldy
NGR
NT 29186 92911
Coordinates
329186, 692911

Description

David Forbes Smith, 1908 church with circa 1900 hall (former church). Gabled plain gothic church with Free Style details and battered tower (see Notes) and 5-bay aisless nave: rectangular-plan hall. Squared and snecked bull-faced rubble with droved ashlar quoins and dressings. Chamfered ashlar base course on rubble bed, eaves course. Pointed-arch and trefoil-headed openings; hoodmoulds with label-stops; concave moulded reveals and stone mullions.

W (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: 2-stage, gabled bay to centre with steps up to slightly advanced, deeply moulded, gableted doorcase with hoodmould and 2-leaf boarded timber door with decorative cast-iron hinges and multi-pane, leaded fanlight; traceried, 3-light window at 2nd stage. Small, trefoil-headed tripartite window with relieving arch to ground right, slightly advanced tower (see below) to left and flat-coped buttress to outer right.

NW TOWER: single stage tower with small trefoil-headed tripartite window at ground and further similar bipartite window close to parapet; pyramidal-capped, square dies to each angle.

S ELEVATION: 5-bay nave with pointed-arch windows and further small trefoil-headed tripartite window with relieving arch abutting buttress to outer left. Polygonal, louvered air vent with delicate-finialled cap to centre of roof ridge above. Lower hall (see below) adjoining at angle to right of centre with timber door and plate glass fanlight in pointed-arch opening of crenellated porch in re-entrant angle.

N ELEVATION: 5-bay with dividing buttresses, small window to tower at outer right.

Multi-pane leaded glazing with coloured margins. Grey slates and terracotta ridge-tiles. Coped ashlar skews with flat skewputts.

INTERIOR: fixed timber pews with umbrella racks, boarded timber dadoes, panelled timber gallery front with centre clock, and half-timbered gallery walls, hammerbeam roof with large decorative air vents. Finialled, raised centre sounding board to panelled pulpit with canted front with moulded tri-lobed blind arcading and panelling. Baptistry beneath with glazed tiles and marble steps, access from pulpit and rear hall. Vestibule with multi-pane, coloured glazing to part-glazed doors, moulded cornice and marble memorial to 'James Wishart Esq JP, Strathearn House'. Minister's room and Ladies' room retain drip trays and boarded dado area (see Notes).

HALL: gabled hall, former church, adjoining later building at an angle at SE. SW elevation with cross-finialled hoodmould over stepped-tripartite window to and NW elevation with 2 pointed-arch bipartite windows to right and door in linked porch to outer left.

INTERIOR: moulded cornice and collared-timber roof; hoodmould with label-stops to W window, and cast-iron air vents with 'clenched fist' opening mechanism. Baptistry to W (see Notes).

BOUNDARY WALLS: low saddleback-coped rubble boundary walls with inset railings.

Statement of Special Interest

Ecclesiastical building is use as such. The belfry which Gifford describes as an "Art Nouveau belfry rather of the St Andrews's East (Glasgow) type" was removed in 1992 due to constant water ingress causing much internal damage. The original church (now the hall) was opened in 1900 but soon replaced by the larger and grander 1908 building. The hall baptistry was moved when the raised dais was reoriented to the W. The drip-trays and dadoed-corners retained in both the minister's and ladies' rooms (unfortunately removed from the gentlemen's room) were fitted with draw-screens and used for removal of wet clothes after baptism. James Wishart, together with fellow industrialists were influential in providing funds for the church, not least in an attempt to reform the drinking habits of their factory workers.

References

Bibliography

J Gifford FIFE (1992), p295. Dean of Guild Refs Red 512 and 993 (45/07). Kirkcaldy Civic Society ST CLAIR STREET, p45. Information courtesy of church warden.

About Listed Buildings

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Listing is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for buildings of special architectural or historic interest as set out in the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997.

We list buildings which are found to be of special architectural or historic interest using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Listed building records provide an indication of the special architectural or historic interest of the listed building which has been identified by its statutory address. The description and additional information provided are supplementary and have no legal weight.

These records are not definitive historical accounts or a complete description of the building(s). If part of a building is not described it does not mean it is not listed. The format of the listed building record has changed over time. Earlier records may be brief and some information will not have been recorded.

The legal part of the listing is the address/name of site which is known as the statutory address. Other than the name or address of a listed building, further details are provided for information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland does not accept any liability for any loss or damage suffered as a consequence of inaccuracies in the information provided. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing. Even if a number or name is missing from a listing address it will still be listed. Listing covers both the exterior and the interior and any object or structure fixed to the building. Listing also applies to buildings or structures not physically attached but which are part of the curtilage (or land) of the listed building as long as they were erected before 1 July 1948.

While Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating listed buildings, the planning authority is responsible for determining what is covered by the listing, including what is listed through curtilage. However, for listed buildings designated or for listings amended from 1 October 2015, legal exclusions to the listing may apply.

If part of a building is not listed, it will say that it is excluded in the statutory address and in the statement of special interest in the listed building record. The statement will use the word 'excluding' and quote the relevant section of the 1997 Act. Some earlier listed building records may use the word 'excluding', but if the Act is not quoted, the record has not been revised to reflect subsequent legislation.

Listed building consent is required for changes to a listed building which affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest. The relevant planning authority is the point of contact for applications for listed building consent.

Find out more about listing and our other designations at www.historicenvironment.scot/advice-and-support. You can contact us on 0131 668 8914 or at designations@hes.scot.

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Printed: 22/07/2025 07:52