Description

James Maitland Wardrop, 1872. Church with square-plan tower, spire, nave and vestry, sited on raised site to W of Gavinton village. Stugged ashlar with polished ashlar hoodmoulds and droved ashlar stop-chamfered margins, to S elevation; rubble to N elevation; bull-faced sandstone with polished ashlar dressings to tower and spire. Base course. Sawtooth coped, battered buttresses.

TOWER: pointed-arch boarded door with hoodmould at ground/1st stage of tower to outer right. String course dividing each stage; small window at 2nd stage; pointed-arch window with hoodmould at 3rd stage with timber louvring; eaves course with winged gargoyles to each corner. Tall octagonal tapering spire with gabled, crocketted lucarnes and pinnacles; string course at half-height; weathercock at apex.

S ELEVATION: 7-bay. Buttress to centre. Pointed-arch windows with hoodmoulds to 2 bays to each side. Single storey vestry and entrance in bay to outer left with timber-framed porch on sandstone (now partly rendered) wall; boarded pointed-arch door.

W ELEVATION: gabled end of single storey vestry with four-centre-arched window to centre. Pointed-arch window to side elevation of entrance, set back from W elevation. Lean-to addition in re-entrant angle between vestry and nave, to N with four-centre-arched boarded door to W. Rose window flanked by pointed-arch single windows to W gabled end of nave, with wallhead coped stack to N.

N ELEVATION: pointed-arch window to outer bays of nave; blank to centre bays. Small window to single storey lean-to addition to outer right. Half-conical roofed octagonal engaged tower to re-entrant angle of nave and tower at 1st stage with small pointed-arch opening. Same arrangement at 2nd, 3rd and spire levels as S elevation.

Flowing, curvilinear traceried windows with leaded lights. Graded sandstone tiled roof. Sawtooth coped skews with skewputts.

INTERIOR: encaustic tiling to floor of porch and to nave. Simple interior with sentences from the Bible painted above each window and around Rose window to W end. Timber pews, raised to E end (to rear). Communion table and pulpit to centre of W end with timber panelled reredos with pointed-arch engaged arcading above with Lord?s prayer and 10 commandments set within. Timber font. Organ set at 1st floor of E end in pointed-arch opening (see Notes). Timber wall memorial to Margaret Crombie Grant on N wall; marble wall memorial to Rev Robert Stormonth Darling, to N wall; timber tablet recording the Ministers of Langton from 1574 to 1983.

GRAVEYARD: variety of mainly 19th century sandstone gravestones, including one near church in memory of Charles Moir (died 1832) with bas relief to reverse of man in 18th century dress holding book. Separate area with cast-iron railings with gravestones of family and descendants of Langton House.

Statement of Interest

The church was built to replace one built in 1798, under the instruction of Lady Elizabeth Pringle, the wife of Sir John Pringle of Langton House. The original organ was replaced by an electrical organ in 1975, in memory of the Very Rev James B Longmuir although the pipes are still in situ.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17840984

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

• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)