Description

Sketch plans by F L Pearson, London with details by W R Simpson, Burntisland. 1904-5. Simple Gothic rectangular plan aisless church with apsidal chancel and dominant belfry at gabled W end, angle buttresses. Rusticated ashlar with droved quoins and dressings; raked plinth, continuous moulded string course encompassing downpipes, eaves course, hoodmoulds and stone mullions. Lancet windows.

W ELEVATION: memorial stone at centre below string course, 2 tall lancet windows with hoodmoulds above extending into gablehead, flanking battered buttresses with saw-tooth coping to windowhead height; belfry at gablehead with blind base and moulded string course below 2 depressed-arch openings with gablet coping to each face and centre cast-iron weathervane with cockerel finial.

N (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: moulded pointed-arch doorway in gabled stone-roofed, stone porch to outer right with small flanking cluster columns and circular capitals below continuous hoodmould; tiled step leading to deep-set boarded 2-leaf timber door with large cast-iron hinges. 3 bipartite windows over continuous string course to left of door, 2-stage angle buttress beyond dividing nave and chancel with saw-tooth coping below gablet breaking eaves and saw-tooth coped skew to Celtic cross at roof ridge, 5 windows above continuous string course and slightly raised wallhead to chancel at outer left.

S ELEVATION: 4 pointed-arch bipartite windows over continuous string course to centre and to left of centre; flat-roofed extension beyond to right set in return, 5 steps leading to boarded door with decorative cast-iron hinges and hoodmould below pointed-arch continuous string course on return to left and 3-light plate traceried window under string course to right; gable end to outer right with 2 pointed-arch windows, bipartite to left and quadripartite to right.

E ELEVATION: 3-sided chancel apse with 2 blind oculi encircling quatrefoils to E, and 1 each to SE and NE, all over continuous string course; piended roof with decorative cast-iron finial. Small dry-dashed store set into re-entrant at S.

Small square-pane margined leaded lights, some coloured and stained glass (see below). Red tiles. Saw-tooth coped ashlar skews with flat skewputts, coped ashlar stack.

INTERIOR: part-glazed and roofed timber inner porch opposite stone font with 3-side bench pew, dado-height timber panelling and roll-moulded, stepped string course around 3-bay nave with timber bench pews and pointed timber arch and door in 3-stage coped surround to SE, open beamed timber ceiling with stone corbels. Slightly narrower, full-height pointed-arch with round columns to 5-bay chancel with panelled and carved timber pulpit at left; choir stalls with organ loft behind pointed arch to right, timber door and sedilia beyond. Stepped pointed apsidal arch screen with flanking narrow arches and slender polished columns, stone roundels with quatrefoil decoration to spandrels. Piscina to right and credence to left with altar and baldacchino at centre below wallhead cornicing.

Stained glass illustrating texts, "Mine eyes have seen thy salvation", "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased" and the Light of the World, (see notes). Vestry to SE.

BOUNDARY WALLS, GATEPIERS AND GATES: low coped-ashlar boundary walls with inset railings. Pyramidal-coped ashlar gatepiers with decorative gates.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. Memorial stone in W wall, described in The SCOTTISH GUARDIAN, "bears the ancient 'Chi-rho' cross, surrounded by a circle, as found upon the ancient stone at Kirkmadrine in Wigtownshire, and the inscription, 'To the Glory of God, this stone was laid by the Most Reverend the Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane, Primus, AD 2nd July, 1904". The GUARDIAN continues, "a special baldachino treatment over the altar will be a conspicuous feature internally". The church is built on the old site to drawings by the son of the architect of Truro Cathedral.

Stained glass illustrating texts by J Powell & Sons, 1910, erected by Elizabeth Fernie Richmond of Plains, Victoria, for her father who died Australia 1854; the Light of the World commemorates Henry Hardy, Rector of St Serf's 1898-1915, erected 1937.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17794157

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

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  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)