Description

Early 19th century. Early gothic church. Rectangular-plan, aligned NE-SW; gabled with bellcote to SW; single storey lean-to porch with advanced gabled entrance to SW elevation; buttressed sides; yellow ashlar sandstone.

SW (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: single storey lean-to porch to centre; central advanced gabled entrance bay with hoodmoulds to pointed arch, double chamfered to pointed cusped arch with trefoils to spandrels, flanked by engaged columns with stiff leaf capitals; trefoil to apex, pedimented clasping buttresses to corners. Flanking bays with small hood moulded, bipartite pointed-arch cusped windows with stone mullions; corbelling to eaves course; similar single windows to returns. Hoodmoulded rose window above; arcaded bellcote with gabled roof, supported on stone corbels, trefoils to apex and base.

NE (REAR) ELEVATION: multifoil to apex, chimney stack to gablehead; single storey gabled office wing to right, single window, gablehead stack, window and door to SE return, advanced wing to NW return.

SE (SIDE) ELEVATION: 5-bay, symmetrical, regularly fenestrated lancet windows; buttressed and corbelled.

NW (SIDE) ELEVATION: mirrors SE.

Coped skews with gablet skewputts and kneelers. Grey slates, lead flashings; paired small gabled and finialed vents to sides and single vent to ridge; cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: not seen 2000

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building still in use as such. The Reformed Presbyterian church is shown on the 1859 OS map but with slightly different plan to the porch found today. The Reformed Presbyterians or Covenanters were certainly established in what was then called Wishawtown by 1836 when they erected the Covenanters Monument on Auchterhead Muir (see separate listing) and a sermon was preached to over 5000 people. But probably have a much longer history in this area of North Lanarkshire rich as it is in Covenanting history. When the extremist Covenanters or Cameronians refused to settle with the Established Church over the Revolution Settlement of 1650 they went on their own, later becoming the Reformed Presbyterians. The congregation is therefore the oldest in Wishaw predating Wishaw Old Parish Church. The present church is contemporary with the re-emerging radicalism of the early 19th century that led to the Disruption in 1843 and saw a renewed growth in the Reformed Presbyterian Church itself as seen in the sermon on Auchterhead Muir.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77775644

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

• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)