Crossmichael Parish Church
| Crossmichael Parish Church | |
|
Crossmichael, Kirkcudbrightshire | |
|---|---|
| Status: | parish church |
| File:CrossmichaelKirk2.jpg Crossmichael Parish Church and burial ground | |
| Church of Scotland | |
| Presbytery of The South West | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | NX72986698 |
| Location: | 54°58’52"N, 3°59’11"W |
| History | |
| Built 1751, with 16th- or 17th-century tower | |
| Information | |
Crossmichael Parish Church is the church for Crossmichael in Kirkcudbrightshire. It stands on a knoll, which was possibly an ancient site of worship, at the north end of the village. Its tower may date from 1611, but the main block was built in 1749–1751, and there were additions and alterations in the nineteenth century. Its interior is an unusually complete example of Georgian church design. It is a Category A listed building.
The church's burial grounds contain tombstones from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. One of its burial enclosures has on its east face an ornately carved memorial for William Gordon of Greenlaw, which is itself independently listed at Category A.
The church is still in regular use as a place of worship, and its former hearse house is owned by a community group and used as an information centre.
Description
Crossmichael Parish Church and its burial ground lie on a knoll at the north end of Crossmichael's Main Street.[1] Built of painted whinstone rubble,[2] it has a piend-roofed main block, with an extension (also piend-roofed) in the middle of the north wall, resulting in a T-plan.[3] In the middle of the south wall is a slender circular tower, with a conical slate roof.[3][4] It has tall lancet windows.[5]
The church retains an unusually complete Georgian interior dating from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.[3][4] There are raised galleries on Tuscan columns, and box pews, some named for important local heritors including the Gordons of Kenmure and the Copelands of Danevale.[3][4] Two of the windows have stained glass: the west window, by Heaton, Butler and Bayne, is of 1898 and depicts the Risen Lord; the east window, entitled Our Lord stilling the Storm, is of circa 1920.[6]
The church is surrounded by a burial ground, containing tombstones from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries.[2][7] To the west of church is a burial enclosure for the Gordons of Culvennan. On its east wall is an ornately carved memorial to William Gordon of Greenlaw (died 1757), erected by 'his disconsolate widow'. The memorial is believed to have been carved by self-taught sculptor S. Rae.[3][8]
The church's hearse house, at the bottom of the knoll on its west side on the level of the street, has been converted into a local history centre.[9]
History
The knoll on which the church stands is probably the site of an ancient place of worship.[1] The oldest part of the current building is the tower, which is seventeenth-century, possibly as old as the 1611 bell (made by John Burgerhuys) that hangs in it.[3] The church's main block was built in 1749–1751, on the site of an older building.[1][3] In 1822–1823, David McLellan designed and built the north extension; in 1824–1825, John Graham and William Laurie heightened the tower; the tower's present conical roof was most probably added while alterations were being made in 1880–81 by John Starforth.[3]
In 1971, the church was designated a Category A listed building.[7] In 1990, the Gordon memorial was given its own separate designation at Category A.[8]
In 2018, Dumfries and Galloway Council sold the church's hearse house to the Crossmichael Community Trust for a nominal fee, so that it would be turned into an exhibition space.
The church remains in use as an active place of worship.
Outside links
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Hume 2005, p. 58.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 POWiS - Crossmichael Church.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 Gifford 1996, p. 203.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Hume 2000, p. 144.
- ↑ Scotland's Churches Trust - Crossmichael Church.
- ↑ Gifford 1996, p. 204.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Historic Environment Scotland LB3698.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Historic Environment Scotland LB3699.
- ↑ Gillespie 2018.
- "Community Led 'Crossmichael Heritage Centre & Living History Project' Launches". Dumfries and Galloway! What's Going On?. 17 September 2019. https://www.dgwgo.com/community-focus/crossmichael-heritage-centre/.
- "Crossmichael Church". 24 September 2017. https://scotlandschurchestrust.org.uk/church/crossmichael-church/.
- "Crossmichael Church and Gordon Memorial". Scottish Church Heritage Research Ltd. http://www.scottishchurches.org.uk/sites/site/id/2705/name/Crossmichael+Church+and+Gordon+Memorial+Crossmichael+Dumfries+and+Galloway.
- Gifford, John (1996). The Buildings of Scotland:Dumfries and Galloway. London: Penguin. ISBN 0140-71067-1.
- Gillespie, Stuart (20 February 2018). "Crossmichael's old hearse house to be turned into community exhibition space". The Daily Record. https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/crossmichaels-old-hearse-house-turned-12057341.
- Crossmichael Parish Church and Churchyard (Church of Scotland) (Category A) - Listing detail (Historic Environment Scotland)
- Crossmichael Church Gordon Memorial (Category A) - Listing detail (Historic Environment Scotland)
- Hume, John R (2000). Dumfries and Galloway: An Illustrated Architectural Guide. The Rutland Press. ISBN 1-873-190-344.
- Hume, John R. (2005). Scotland's Best Churches. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0748621792.