Hall, South Dalziel Parish Church, Windmillhill Street, Motherwell, Motherwell South East and Ravenscraig, North Lanarkshire

Description

1789, enlarged 1860 with later alterations. classical church, aligned SW-NE, rectangular-plan, entrance tower with spire. Squared and tooled yellow sandstone. Base course and eaves course. Round-arched windows to sides and rear.

SW (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: 3-bay. Window to ground centre, pedimented gable above, oculus to tympanum. Flanking 2-storey bays with architraved entrances, panelled timber doors, replaced 1983, 8-pane sash and case windows to 2nd storey, outer bays and returns. BELLTOWER: tall single stage with quatrefoil fretwork parapet, corner pinnacles, octagonal spire with ball and rod finial. Tower subsiding towards SE.

NE (REAR) ELEVATION: Tall paired trefoil windows to outer bays, central bay obscured by adjoining session house and vestry.

NW (SIDE) ELEVATION: 3 gabled bays. Regular fenestration; architraved, semicircular arched, mullioned and transomed bipartite windows with short stringcourse and architraved oculi windows above.

SE (SIDE) ELEVATION: mirror of NW.

Predominantly leaded windows. Grey slates, lead flashing, coped skews.

INTERIOR: galleried interior of nave; Panelled timber balustrade, supported by slender timber Tuscan columns. Later 19th century pews, altar and organ. Paired entrance doors to simple rectangular outer porch to SW end. 2 pointed arch windows to rear of gallery open onto porch. Protruding, NW-SE roof valleys to ceiling. Stained glass from late 1950s and 1960s to lower part of windows to rear and 1st bays of nave from rear.

VESTRY AND SESSION HOUSE: later 19th century. 2-storey, 4-bay, rectangular-plan, gabled addition to rear of church. Harled. Regular fenestration. Large, advanced, flat-roofed, modern stair tower to outer right, door to outer left of NW elevation, porch of hall abutting to outer right of SE of elevation. Various sash and case windows. Grey slates, lead flashing.

CHURCH HALL: Cullen, Lochead and Brown, 1909. Double-height, 3-bay, T-plan, Palladian, gabled hall with balustraded balcony beneath central pediment. Yellow ashlar sandstone. Base course, cavetto eaves cornices, slightly projecting plain architrave to openings.

NE (ORBISTON STREET) ELEVATION: slightly advanced ground floor central bay; paired, square-headed timber panelled doors to centre; projected eaves course, coped parapet with balustrade to centre. 3 tall round-arched windows to centre above, flanking tapered plain pilasters, capitals breaking eaves, pedimented gablehead, blind oculus to tympanum. Plain pilaster with coped capital to outer left bay. Advanced single storey, 3-bay, Palladian, church warden's dwelling to right bay; double bay with tripartite window beneath shouldered pediment to right, inset square plaque to tympanum; window to left bay, curved return to meet main hall, balustraded parapet; door to narrow right bay.

SW (REAR) ELEVATION: central bay obscured by abutting session house and vestry. Small, single storey, single bay, gabled entrance porch abutting to right

NW (SIDE) ELEVATION: 6-bay. Wallhead stack. Advanced churchwarden's dwelling to outer left bay; advanced gabled bay to right with paired windows, blank to return; blank left bay with entrance to return. round-arched windows to 2nd to 4th central bays. Advanced double gabled bay to far right, bipartite tall semicircular arched window to centre, blind oculus to gablehead.

SE (SIDE) ELEVATION: mirror of NW, except blank bay to left.

Timber-framed, fixed-pane astragal windows. Grey slates, lead flashing, coped shouldered skews.

WAR MEMORIAL: free-standing granite Celtic cross on tapered plinth. Situated on main axis between church front and entrance gates. Inscribed with roll of honour of the Great War, 1914-18.

INTERIOR; not seen 2001.

BOUNDARY WALL: waist-height walling squared and tooled coursed sandstone, round arched coping; 1951, square-plan, gatepiers, ashlar sandstone, base course, recessed frieze, square-plan cap. Main body bearing brass plaque with roll of honour for World War II, 1939-1945, also wrought-iron gates.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. South Dalziel Parish Church is the oldest surviving building in Motherwell built to replace the old Kirk of St Patrick's (see separate listing for St Patricks Graveyard) under the auspices of the then minister Mr Robert Classon. Described by Classon in the Statistical Account as "a handsome edifice with a fine spire, and being placed near the centre of the parish upon the summit of the ridge, is seen at a good distance and makes an agreeable object". The church was, however, not floored until the mid-nineteenth century and as Classon observed, "in summer it is well attended, not so well in winter, owing to its being one of the coldest in Scotland". The church was extended in 1860 when the third rear bay was added, in the same manner as the first two. The balustraded corner bays were also added to the previously advanced central pedimented bay at the front and the small gabled porch removed and the present central front window installed. It was decided in 1872 that the church was too small and the present Dalziel Parish Church was built from 1873, the old parish church became, by agreement between the Heritors of Dalziel and the Presbytery of Hamilton, the Parish Church of South Dalziel. The Church Hall of 1908 is so large as to appear as a separate building fronting Orbiston Street to the rear of Windmillhill Street. The original eighteenth century bell was removed in 1989 once its chimes had been recorded for playing on the public address system. It is now on display in the nave. Also in the nave is the red sandstone font of unknown date, though pre 1798, and is the only relic preserved from St Patrick's church. The font was presented to the church by the tenth Lord Hamilton of Dalziel in the early twentieth century, it having spent many years in use as a pig trough on the Dalzell estate, which then incorporated the site of St Patrick's.

The church was under threat of closure at the time of the re-survey, (Feb 2001), due to the high estimated cost of underpinning the tower to prevent further subsidence. It is proposed that the congregation will amalgamate with the congregation of the nearby, modern Manse Road church.

External Links

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