Pencaitland Parish Church And Burial-Ground, Easter Pencaitland

Pencaitland Parish Church And Burial-Ground, Easter Pencaitland

This Grade A listed parish church has a complex building history, with a pre-Reformation nave probably standing on medieval foundations, an earlier Winton Aisle to the north, a bell-tower dated 1631, and a mid-17th century Saltoun Aisle also to the north.

The main structure is built in yellow rubble with harl-pointing and a variety of ashlar dressings, while the Winton Aisle is constructed in squared and coursed yellow stone. Simpler openings have chamfered reveals.

The bell-tower is positioned at the west end, projecting from the centre of the gabled nave elevation. It is square in plan with four stages. The west doorway bears the date 1631 with the initials "JO" above it. A pointed arched window appears in the second stage. A stone forestair on the north return in the re-entrant angle with the nave leads to a doorway below the second stage and is furnished with decorative cast-iron railings. The third stage contains an arrow slit flight-hole to a dovecot and a group of three small arched flight-holes on the south return. A grey ashlar octagonal bellcote at the fourth stage is broached from the third stage, with a cill course to lancet openings and bell-cast eaves to a polygonal spire topped by a cockerel weathervane. A bell dated 1656 hangs inside. The interior of the third stage is lined with nesting boxes.

The nave consists of five bays. The Winton Aisle runs parallel to the east of the north elevation, and the Saltoun Aisle projects at right angles to its west end. The east end features a doorway beneath a pointed, round-arched window with Y-tracery, and an ashlar cube sundial with copper gnomon serves as the finial. The tower is positioned at the west end to centre, with small round-arched nave windows at eaves level to light the gallery. A wall monument stands to the south of the tower. A round-arched window (former door) to the north is positioned to the right of the Saltoun Aisle.

The south elevation has set-off wall buttresses with ashlar coping. Two lancet windows flank a wall monument left of centre, with one lancet to the right of centre and another to the outer right. A round-arched priest's door is blocked as a window in the outer left bay, with a small pointed arch window under eaves. Two simple sundials with incised gnomons are carved on the outer left buttress. Wall monuments of particular note on the south wall and west wall display broken pediments cradling cartouches, columned inscription panels and memento mori. The south wall monument commemorates D Pringle (post-1733) and the west wall monument commemorates K Forbes (post-1639).

The Winton Aisle was formerly vaulted with slab slates. It extends for two bays to the north, divided by gablet wall buttresses (later strengthened with set-off additions). Bead mouldings surround hoodmoulded, pointed-arch openings, two to the north which are blocked. A roll-moulded doorway, formerly in the left archway, has been moved to the right bay with a two-leaf door and an oculus above. A set-off wallhead to the north features mask-carved corbels to the eaves and is closed by subsidiary skewputts. The west gable contains a traceried three-light window with a rose window at the centre, clasped by cusped mouchettes in pointed lights. The east end, barely separated from the Saltoun Aisle at right angles, has a pointed arch two-light window and a rose window.

The Saltoun Aisle is a gabled projection to the north with a Y-traceried window with bead moulding to the surround. The west return features a doorway with fluted pilasters and a broken segmental pediment with shield. A blocked oriel window is positioned at the centre of the west return, with a fine classical wall monument similarly detailed to those on the south wall. The east return has blank elevations facing the Winton Aisle. Diamond-pattern leaded glazing and some intersecting traceried timber glazing patterns appear to the west end windows. Grey-green slates and ashlar coped skews roof the structure. Decorative cast-iron eaves brackets complete the exterior.

The interior features a boarded dado with whitewash above and a cornice below coombed ceilings. The Winton Aisle is accessed through a wide depressed arch and retains bare stone walls. A gallery at the west end rests on polygonal timber columns with decorative brackets and Jacobean panelling to the gallery front. A 17th-century oak pulpit, decoratively carved with a baptismal bracket and modern base, is approached by steps with a decorative cast-iron balustrade. Similar 17th-century panelling adorns the pews in the Saltoun Aisle. The communion table, font and lectern date from 1909. A Peter Conacher and Co organ from Springwood, Huddersfield (1889) features colourfully stencilled decoration. A stained glass window to the east of the Winton Aisle by C E Kempe (1883) depicts Faith, Hope and Charity. Windows at the east end by Guthrie and Wells (post-1924) represent Motherhood and the Sower, with decorative borders and quatrefoils in the south windows flanking the pulpit.

The gatehouse, probably 18th century, stands at the north gate. It is built in sandstone rubble with squared dressings, has a door in the east end, a stack at the west end, and pantile roofing.

Two offertory houses stand to the west of the graveyard. The northern building, probably 18th century, matches the gatehouse in detail but is smaller and built on inclining ground. The southern offertory house, probably early 19th century, is constructed in tooled rubble with chamfered details to a tripartite window. It has four-pane glazing patterns to sash and case windows, grey slates, coped skews and beak skewputts.

The graveyard walls are rubble with semi-circular coping to the north (roadside). Two square ashlar gatepiers to the north gate feature pyramid caps and ball finials (one missing), with wrought-iron gates between them. A selection of fine gravestones includes ornately carved table-tombs.