St Brycedale Church Of Scotland, St Brycedale Avenue, Kirkcaldy, Kirkcaldy, Fife

Description

James Matthews of Aberdeen, 1878-81; ground floor conversion 1988. Vast rectangular-plan, aisled gothic church with geometric tracery; tall 4-stage tower and spire masking NE corner; rose window and flanking pyramidal-roofed towers to S; 6-bay nave with dividing buttresses. SE tower adjoining 5-bay gabled vestry and church hall to S. Bull-faced masonry (Fordell stone) with polished ashlar dressings and spire; 2-stage saw-tooth coped battered buttresses to nave, 4-stage to NE tower, 4-stage with pinnacles to N and 3-stage with pinnacles to NW. Ashlar base and cill courses, decorative-mutuled cornice with blocking course; string courses to towers. Moulded doorcases, pointed- and Caernarvon-arched openings; trefoil-headed windows, glazed oculus; hoodmoulds with floreate label-stops to all openings except 1st stage of nave and hall; chamfered reveals and stone mullions. Boarded doors with decorative wrought-iron hinges.

N (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: 2-stage, cross-finialled gable end with arcaded openings, raised doorcase to centre deeply moulded with paired colonnettes under Corinthian caps, boarded tympanum and broad 2-leaf door; flanking 2-light traceried windows with deeply chamfered reveals, blind oculi flanking doorcase. String course above abutting cill of large 5-light traceried window with glazed quatrefoil in gablehead. Cross-finialled, 4-stage, pinnacled buttress, with polygonal 4th stage, to right and NE tower (see below) to left. 2-stage bay to outer right (N face of pinnacled porch to W elevation) with Caernarvon-arched doorhead in pointed-arch moulded door frame with flanking colonnettes under Corinthian caps, blind quatrefoil in tympanum and hoodmould; string course abutting cill of 2-light traceried window at 2nd stage below mutuled cornice, pinnacled buttress beyond to right.

NE TOWER: 4-stage tower with angle buttresses and lucarned spire. Ashlar plinth with moulded string course and blank courses below further string course with gablet-coped angle buttresses forming flanking piers to N face with 2 narrow lights above; W face also with flanking buttress piers and Caernarvon-arched doorway as above,

2 narrow lights over; single buttress pier only to S and W faces, that to S with single light to ground and 1st floor left, nave abutting beyond. 2nd stage, narrow saw-tooth coped batter below tall lancet to N, E and W, and hoodmould forming continuous string course to each face. Each face of 3rd stage with dividing string course and cill course giving way to timber-louvered paired lancets, nook-shafts with abacus caps, and finialled hoodmoulds; almost full-height coped and battered, gablet-coped flanking buttresses. 4th stage with blind parapet and chamfered angles with water spouts giving way to polygonal, cross finialled corner turrets flanking set-back, ball-finialled, polygonal spire with small window in moulded frame below cross- finialled gablet with small oval panel to cardinal faces, 3 pairs of string courses with lucarnes to alternate faces above middle pair.

E (KIRK WYND) ELEVATION: 2-stage nave with paired lights to each bay of lower 1st stage, raked cills to 3-light traceried windows and mutuled cornice at taller principal 2nd stage; 3 tiny lucarnes above. Bay to outer right with NE tower (see above); slightly advanced bay to left with finialled, pyramidal-roofed tower, door at ground, string course above and tall window below 2 further windows with string course forming hoodmould, mutuled cornice and lucarne to each face tower roof; angle buttress to right and small door on return to right.

W ELEVATION: nave as E elevation. Slightly advanced 2-stage cross- finialled gabled porch to outer left, blank 1st stage with 2-light traceried window to 2nd stage and flanking gablet-coped, pinnacled, angled buttresses; return to right blank, return to left see N elevation. Slightly advanced pyramidal-roofed tower to outer right, detailed as that to outer left at E elevation; further small opening close to ground on return to left.

S ELEVATION: lower stage obscured by church hall (see below). Cross-finialled centre gable with large rose window and blind trefoil in gablehead; flanking finialled, pyramidal-roofed towers each with

2 windows below string course forming hoodmould, mutuled cornice and lucarne above.

Windows glazed with multi-pane coloured diamond- and square-pattern, margined leaded lights (stained glass see below). Grey slates. Coped ashlar skews.

INTERIOR: narthex with plain cornice, boarded dado, segmental-headed openings and small decorative timber pews; small trefoil-headed window to right flanked by brass memorial tablets for WWI and WWII. Modern screen door to foyer of altered ground floor retaining Corinthian columns but infilled to form rooms to nave and W nave aisle, coffee bar to E nave aisle. Boarded dado to NE stair tower leading to gallery level with infilled floor. Pipe organ and raised chancel area with quatrefoil panelling to S. Arched brace roof with decorative brackets; moulded arcades on slender, clustered cast-iron columns with Corinthian capitals and decorative consoles to outer arches; floor to N, E and W raked with boarded timber pews and moulded ends; carved, blind arcaded gallery fronts retained.

Stained glass: rose window (18' diameter) with text 'God is Light' on open bible to centre quatrefoil with 16 branching rays and 16 quatrefoils, by Adam & Small, 1881: N gallery memorial window 'Self- Sacrifice', with Michael the Archangel to centre quatrefoil and phoenix to centre light, by Douglas Strachan, 1922-3. Memorial windows to E aisle - to Provost Michael Beveridge, 'The Call of Nathaniel' and 'Andrew With His Brother Peter'; to John Thomson Stocks, 'The Parable of the Talents'; missionary window, 'Carstairs Douglas preaching to a Chinaman'; to Patrick Don Swan, 'The Call and The Burial of Moses' by Edward Burne-Jones and Morris & Co 1892. Windows to W aisle - memorial to Isabella Nairn, 'The Resurrection and The Life'; to Robert Nairn, 'By the Waters of Babylon' also by Burne-Jones, 1889; to Fanny Stocks 'The Virtuous Mother' of Proverbs.

CHURCH HALL: 5-bay, L-plan, gabled church hall to S.

E (KIRK WYND) ELEVATION: gablet-roofed porch with hoodmoulded door to outer left, 4 bays to right with paired lights, pinnacled buttresses to outer angles.

S ELEVATION: asymmetrical fenestration including advanced and buttressed finialled gable to right with raised centre triple light to centre and mandorla in gablehead; recessed, harled face to left with triple light to gabled bay at centre and corbelled stack piercing gablehead.

N ELEVATION: hoodmoulded, raised centre triple light to centre with small quatrefoil above in finialled gablehead.

W ELEVATION: 5 windows with relieving arches except that to right, corbelled stack above in gablehead, and flat-roofed extension in re-entrant angle to right.

BOUNDARY WALLS, GATEPIERS AND GATES: semi-circular-coped rubble boundary walls; chamfered ashlar gatepiers and decorative cast-iron gates.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. Originally a Free Church, now Church of Scotland. Competition plans were submitted by Robert Rowand Anderson, Campbell, Douglas and Sellars, J Matthews, and J Honeyman. Built of Fordell stone with tower interior of 'a hard stone from Gallatown Quarry', and steps at all entrances 'of finely dressed Aberdeen granite'. Work commenced on 7 November 1877, with the memorial stone laid on 15th June, 1878; the spire was completed on

30 September but the engraved date at the top is 31 September, 1881. Opened for worship in August 1881, in March of that year M B Nairn 'gave linoleum for all the passages and ex-Bailie Gibb gave carpets'. The total cost, excluding the site given by Patrick Don Swan, was £17,000. The spire is 200' high, and 'a peal of 11 bells' by Gillett & Bland of Croydon, cost £1000. The organ by Brindley & Foster was installed 1892-3, during which time the congregation moved to the Parish Church. The Church hall was built as a 'Sabbath-school seated for 300, and a young men's hall for 150'.

External Links

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