St James The Less Episcopal Church, Broomhill Road, Penicuik

St James The Less Episcopal Church, Broomhill Road, Penicuik

St James The Less is a Gothic revival church designed by R T N Speir in 1882, with Henry Seymour serving as draughtsman and supervisor. The chancel was added by John Kinross and Harold Ogle Tarbolton between 1897 and 1899, and a church hall was built by Eric Stevenson in 1978.

The building is constructed on falling ground and comprises a single storey with basement. The main structure consists of a rectangular four-bay nave with a two-bay chancel that steps down to the east over a vestry. A distinctive two-stage square-plan tower stands to the southeast.

The nave is built of rock-faced Marfield sandstone ashlar, stugged, rake-jointed and snecked, with tooled and polished dressings. The chancel uses similar materials with some chamfered arrises. The windows are pointed-arch to the nave and cusped to the chancel. A base and cill course runs along the nave with long and short quoins present throughout.

The tower is crenellated and advanced in the penultimate bay from the right of the south elevation. At ground level, recessed single storey lean-tos flank it on both sides, with windows centred to the south and a two-light cusped window to the left. A vertically-boarded timber door opens to a re-entrant angle at the lean-to to the right. A three-light mullioned window with cavetto moulding sits to the right of centre on the south face. A carved armorial panel is located below the belfry on the east face. The belfry features round-arched louvered openings with hoodmoulds and grotesque terminals, centred to the south, east and west faces. The south and east faces have tripartite openings, while a projecting blank ashlar panel is centred on the north face.

The west entrance elevation features a gable with bargeboards. A later single storey five-bay lean-to addition at ground level forms vestries with a tripartite window at the centre and bipartite windows elsewhere. A four-light stepped window sits in the gable, with a corbelled-out bellcote at the apex breaking the eaves, surmounted by a Celtic cross finial. A vertically-boarded timber door with cavetto-moulded cement hoodmould is set in a recessed bay to the right. The church hall occupies the outer right.

The north elevation is six bays long and steps down to the left at a buttress dividing the nave and chancel. A gabletted doorpiece in the bay to the right features a decorative hoodmould and two-leaf vertically-boarded timber door with decorative metal strap hinges. A timber wall-mounted crucifix stands to the left of the doorpiece. A three-light window appears in the penultimate bay from the left at basement level. The remaining bays contain windows at principal floor level: two-light windows in the penultimate and third bays from the right, a four-light in the penultimate bay from the left, and a three-light in the outer left bay.

The east elevation is gabled with a three-light window centred at basement level.

The south elevation is five bays, with the tower occupying the penultimate bay from the right. A two-light window appears in the outer right bay at basement level, with windows in the remaining bays at principal floor level, including two-light windows in the penultimate and third bays from the left and a three-light in the outer right bay.

The church hall is a single storey structure of four bays built in random rubble, positioned to the right of the west elevation. It features a cement base course with regularly spaced recessed windows hugging the eaves and angled cills above the base course. Vertically-boarded timber-fronted gables rise above eaves level. The south gable contains a vertically-boarded timber door at centre with steps and railings to ground.

The interior contains an open timber nave roof with collar braces and a compartmented timber chancel roof. A reredos screen carved in low relief and painted by Alice Meredith-Williams comprises seven wooden panels depicting the Adoration of the Risen Christ by soldiers and saints, created as a memorial to Great War dead of the church. A rood screen designed by Tarbolton in 1912 and executed by Thomas Good is also present. The chancel floor is black and white marble. Simple timber pews furnish the nave. Oak altar rails designed by Tarbolton and carved by Scott Morton feature fruit, bird and floriated decoration. Pair of pointed arch openings at the south open to the tower base. Notable stained glass windows by Charles E Kempe and Shrigley and Hunt are installed throughout. A granite font completes the interior fittings.

The roof is covered with graded grey slate with a decorative terracotta crested ridge. The tower has a pyramidal slated roof, and the entrance addition has an asphalt roof. Cast-iron rainwater goods are present throughout. A stack breaks the pitch of the main roof, coped and topped with a circular can. Coped skews with gabletted skewputts finish the roof detail.

The churchyard is enclosed by a coped random rubble boundary wall.