Hall, South Dalziel Parish Church, Windmillhill Street, Motherwell

South Dalziel Parish Church Hall, Windmillhill Street, Motherwell

The principal building comprises a classical church built in 1789 and enlarged in 1860, with a separate church hall constructed in 1909. Both structures are Grade B listed buildings.

The church is a rectangular-plan building aligned southwest to northeast, constructed in squared and tooled yellow sandstone with a base course and eaves course. The southwest principal elevation contains three bays, with a central ground-floor window beneath a pedimented gable featuring an oculus in the tympanum. Two-storey flanking bays have architraved entrances with panelled timber doors (replaced in 1983) and 8-pane sash and case windows to the second storey. The entrance is topped by a tall single-stage bell tower with a quatrefoil fretwork parapet, corner pinnacles, and an octagonal spire crowned with a ball and rod finial. The tower is subsiding towards the southeast.

The northeast rear elevation features tall paired trefoil windows to the outer bays, whilst the central bay is obscured by adjoining session house and vestry structures. Both the northwest and southeast side elevations are identical, comprising three gabled bays with regular fenestration of architraved, semicircular arched, mullioned and transomed bipartite windows with short stringcourse and architraved oculi windows above. Round-arched windows punctuate the sides and rear. The roofing comprises grey slates with lead flashing and coped skews.

The interior contains a galleried nave supported by slender timber Tuscan columns with a panelled timber balustrade. The later 19th century fittings include pews, altar and organ. Paired entrance doors lead to a simple rectangular outer porch at the southwest end. Two pointed arch windows to the rear of the gallery open onto the porch. The ceiling features protruding northwest-southeast roof valleys. Stained glass from the late 1950s and 1960s occupies the lower part of windows to the rear and first bays of the nave.

The vestry and session house are later 19th century additions, a two-storey, four-bay, rectangular-plan, gabled structure in harled finish with regular fenestration. A large, advanced, flat-roofed modern stair tower projects to the outer right, with a door to the outer left of the northwest elevation and a porch of the hall abutting to the outer right of the southeast elevation. Various sash and case windows are present, with grey slates and lead flashing.

The church hall, designed by Cullen, Lochead and Brown in 1909, is a double-height, three-bay structure with a T-plan and Palladian character. It features a gabled hall with a balustraded balcony beneath a central pediment, constructed in yellow ashlar sandstone with a base course, cavetto eaves cornices, and slightly projecting plain architraves to openings.

The northeast elevation, facing Orbiston Street, has a slightly advanced ground floor central bay containing paired, square-headed timber panelled doors. Above these sits a projected eaves course with a coped parapet and balustrade, followed by three tall round-arched windows flanked by tapered plain pilasters with capitals breaking the eaves line. The pedimented gablehead carries a blind oculus in the tympanum. An advanced single-storey, three-bay Palladian church warden's dwelling extends to the right bay, featuring a double bay with a tripartite window beneath a shouldered pediment, an inset square plaque to the tympanum, a window to the left bay with a curved return meeting the main hall, a balustraded parapet, and a door to a narrow right bay.

The southwest rear elevation has its central bay obscured by the abutting session house and vestry. A small, single-storey, single-bay, gabled entrance porch abuts to the right. The northwest side elevation spans six bays with a wallhead stack, an advanced churchwarden's dwelling to the outer left bay, and an advanced gabled bay to the right with paired windows. Round-arched windows occupy the second to fourth central bays. An advanced double gabled bay to the far right carries a bipartite tall semicircular arched window to the centre with a blind oculus to the gablehead. The southeast side elevation mirrors the northwest side except for a blank bay to the left.

The hall features timber-framed, fixed-pane astragal windows throughout, grey slates, lead flashing, and coped shouldered skews.

The site also includes a free-standing granite Celtic cross war memorial on a tapered plinth, positioned on the main axis between the church front and entrance gates. It is inscribed with a roll of honour for the Great War (1914-1918).

A boundary wall of waist-height, squared and tooled coursed sandstone with round-arched coping was constructed in 1951. Square-plan gatepiers in ashlar sandstone feature a base course, recessed frieze, and square-plan cap. The main body of the wall bears a brass plaque with the roll of honour for World War II (1939-1945) and is accompanied by wrought-iron gates.