Description

Brown and Carrick, 1846-7. Restrained Gothic church with lancet windows; T-plan with single storey vestry to rear; early 20th small hall added to rear of vestry; further large later 20th century additions to rear. Ashlar to front elevation, stugged snecked sandstone with raised droved margins to side and rear elevations. Base course; eaves course. Stone skews, curved skewputts.

FRONT (N) ELEVATION: 3-bay advanced gable, pinnacled buttresses flanking bays. Central 2-leaf timber panelled door in Tudor arched opening; hood-moulded triple lancet window above. Gable surmounted by angle buttressed, stone spired bellcote with louvred openings.

SIDE (E) ELEVATION: left, advanced gable with triple window; right, recessed single bay with single lancet. Far left, 20th century additions adjoining.

SIDE (W) ELEVATION: left, recessed single bay with single lancet. Right, advanced gable with triple window. Far right, recessed single storey vestry and hall, each with own piended roof; 20th century additions adjoining to right of hall.

REAR (S) ELEVATION: 3-bay elevation with timpan gable to centre; central bay partially obscured by vestry, hall and later 20th century additions.

INTERIOR: entrance lobby with 2 flights of gallery stairs with cast-iron balusters; some vertically-boarded timber wainscoting to walls; timber and etched glass screen dividing lobby and main body of church. Raking N (installed 1847), E and W (installed galleries, with timber-panelled parapet, supported on cast-iron columns. Organ salvaged from a Glasgow church and rebuilt by Andrew Watt and Son, 1950. Carved timber pulpit and communion table, 1936. Above pulpit, 3 blind lancets with plaster hoodmould. Vertically-boarded timber wainscoting to walls. To hall to rear, timber-beamed roof, springing from timber corbels, concealed by modern 20th century suspended ceiling.

GLAZING etc: replacement glass to majority of windows; 2 stained glass windows by Ruth Gollilaws, 1993, flanking pulpit. Pitched roof with graded slates. Mostly cast iron rainwater goods.

BOUNDARY WALL, RAILINGS, GATEPIERS AND GATES: running along N boundary, dwarf snecked wall surmounted by cast-iron fleur-de-lys railings; pair of square-plan gatepiers with chamfered corners and pyramidal caps; cast-iron gates.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such.

Listed as a good, although altered and extended, example of a mid 19th century church with local interest and positive streetscape presence.

Brightons Parish Church was originally built as Polmont Free Church. The architects, Brown and Carrick, were a Glasgow practice, but John Carrick (1819-1890) originally came from Denny; this local connection may have led to the firm being commissioned to design Brightons Parish Church. John Carrick later went on to become Glasgow's City Architect from 1862 to 1889. The sandstone used to build the church came from Brighton Quarry, which was located just a few hundred yards to the south east of the church.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata IDs Q77781225 Q77781229

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

• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)