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Summary

Description

Shiells and Thomson, 1878-9. Rectangular plan Gothic church with square corner tower to NW and adjoining halls to N. Yellow sandstone rubble with smooth ashlar dressings. Base course, string course above ground floor windows and above central rose window. Pointed-arch openings at ground floor level; hood moulds with decorated terminals. Radial rose window with quatrefoil detail. Bow-ended projection to NW. Modern flat-roofed halls.

TOWER: 4 stages divided by string courses. 1st stage with single hood-moulded lancet to SW. 2nd stage with a pair of plain lancets to 3 sides. 3rd stage with tall louvered lancets to all sides with corbelled blind arcade over. 4th stage with clock faces within wide gothic-arched niches. Triangular pediments with crocketted finials. Circular spirelets to corners.

SW (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: slightly advanced triangular-headed buttressed central entrance. Gothic-arched doorway with colonettes to splays. Boarded timber door with decorative iron strap-hinges. Trefoil in pediment with date (1878). Flanking single lancets. Triple lancet to apex above rose window and crocketted finial to gablehead. Outer bay to right has square-headed mullioned double window to basement, single lancet at entrance level and quatrefoil over. Angle buttress. Immediately to left of tower is the entrance to the halls. Lean-to roof, Gothic-arched door and single lancet. Date stone (1878).

SE ELEVATION: first bay as right bay on SW elevation. Double lancet and 4 single lancets divided by flat buttresses.

NW ELEVATION: bow-ended piended-roof single storey rubble former hall-vestry.

INTERIOR: modern timber boarded ceiling. Rendered walls with stone cornice and gothic chancel arch. Timber reredos with pierced quatrefoil rail to choir gallery behind. Triangular-pediment chair with trefoil-headed opening. At the E end is a large triangular window flanked by trefoil lights. Along the nave Victorian stained glass; both pictorial and with bannered scripture. Otherwise modern figurative stained glass. Timber gallery.

Leaded and timber glazing. Concrete tile main roof, original secondary roofs with graded grey slate and clay ridge-tiles. Modern rainwater goods. Modern galvanised gate to main door and protective railings to windows.

Statement of Special Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such.

This church was named for the Rev. Henry Angus Paterson, a prominent minister to the congregation.

Although the roof and much of the interior required rebuilding after a fire in 1977 the building is important in the townscape of Stonehouse, especially as the tower contains the town clock. The church also contains some good Victorian stained glass and a good collection of modern stained glass by Crear McCartney (1931-). Most of the interior was lost in the fire but the reredos is intact. The small building immediately to the North of the main body of the church has recently been referred to as part of an earlier church on the site but the first edition O.S. map shows only a rectangular building on the Southeast part of the site.

The church, which opened on 29/4/1879, replaced a smaller church on the same site, the woodwork of which was transferred from a church at Chapelton in 1796. The design was described as 'Gothic of the 12th century' by the architects. The new church was to have a hall and hall vestry on one side and a ladies room and classroom on the other. A new hall was dedicated in 1961 and the old hall was used to form new kitchen and toilet facilities. The clock, which was to be the public clock, was paid for by a locally-born benefactor on the condition that the congregation keep it lit.

R.Thornton Shiells (1833-1902) and James M Thomson were an Edinburgh-based firm of architects, responsible for a number of churches such as the Tron Free Church (1876-7) in Chambers St., Edinburgh, Buccleuch St. church in Dalkeith (1879) and Panbrae Road Old Kirk, Bo'ness (1885). The firm was also responsible for a number of tenement buildings in Marchmont Crescent, Edinburgh

References

Bibliography

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