Description

W H, J W and J Hay, 1853-54. Cruciform-plan; 4-bay church. Gothic Revival design with flowing tracery to windows and 2-stage square-plan tower with broached spire at SE corner; basement at W end. Coursed lightly stugged/snecked sandstone rubble with sandstone ashlar dressings. Base course to ground floor; moulded eaves cornice. Pointed-arched traceried windows to nave and transepts. Chamfered surrounds/long and short surrounds to openings; quoins at arrises. Coped gables with fleur-de-lis finials.

S (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: rectangular-plan gabled porch projects to outer right; pointed-arched entrance with hoodmould with foliate ball-stops; entrance to church set back; 2-leaf boarded timber door with strapwork hinges. Window to each of 2 bays of nave set back to left; bays divided by buttress. Gable of transept projects to outer left; large central window. Tower to far right at re-entrant to right of entrance porch.

TOWER: lancet window to E and S of lower stages. Upper stage recessed slightly; pair of pointed-headed cusped louvered vents (N not visible). Decorative eaves cornice with carved motifs at intervals and carved heads projecting at arrises. Stone, gabled lucarnes to spire.

E ELEVATION: large window to gable end. Horizontal band of 5 trefoils below; flanking buttresses. Tower set back to outer left.

N ELEVATION: tall gabled window breaking eaves to outer left. Window to each of 2 bays of nave to right (bays divided by buttress and one to left); pointed-headed entrance adjoins to right, 2-leaf boarded timber door with strap hinges. Gable of transept projects to outer right; large central window.

W ELEVATION: pentagonal apse projects to centre of gable end; shoulder-arched windows (bipartite with some tracery) to angled intermediate faces. Pointed-headed entrance (boarded timber door with strap hinges) to outer left face. Angular trefoil window set back to apex of gable. Plainer openings to corresponding places to basement (windows mullioned bipartites). Basement entrance to left transept.

Fixed leaded lights, including several stained glass windows. Grey slate roof incorporating horizontal bands of fishscale slates. Ashlar roof to spire.

INTERIOR: fine arch-braced roof with tie beam and diagonal struts; diagonally boarded sarking. Roof timbers decorated with geometric stencilling. Tiered gallery to E side (over entrance vestibule, created circa 1980). Boarded timber dado, timber pews. 2 early 20th century stained glass windows (St Margaret and St Andrew) to S of nave; formerly in Leighton Church, Hailing. 1996 Memorial window (to Dunblane massacre) to S transept by Roland Mitton. 2 windows representing 4 seasons in apse also by Mitton (1995). Octagonal pulpit and octagonal font, both with some carved Gothic Revival decoration. Organ by Peter Conacher, 1860 (formerly in Dennyloanhead Church). Communion table and chairs circa 1934. Tower contains bell by John Wilson of the Gorbals Brass Foundry, Glasgow, inscribed 'JOHN C WILSON, FOUNDER, GLASGOW, 1854'. Apse/chancel formerly vestry; opened up late 20th century.

BOUNDARY WALL: rubble boundary wall with ridged coping, partially surmounted by replacement railings. Replacement gates with wrought-iron panels to principal entrance.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastic building in use as such. A fine mid 19th century Gothic Revival church of solid appearance. It has a particularly impressive open timber roof. It was built as a Free Church and is unusually traditional and decorative in appearance for a church of that denomination. It appears to have replaced an earlier Free Church, built on the opposite side of the road following the Disruption of 1843. In 1929 all of Dunblane's churches united under the Church of Scotland. The Free Church became the 'East Church'. In 1951 it amalgamated with the former Leighton Church on Haining, the congregation of the latter moving to what became 'St Blane's'.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• St Blane's Church, Dunblane at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q7592667

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.

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