Parish Church, High Street, Selkirk

Parish Church, High Street, Selkirk

A parish church designed by R Baldie in 1880, this is an early gothic building with a prominent 3-stage tower and steeple, comprising a nave, chancel, presbytery and hall.

The main structure is built in stugged ashlar with polished ashlar dressings and droved ashlar to chamfering. The side elevations use squared whinstone with stugged ashlar dressings. The building features a base course and string courses at impost level (stepping over windows at ground level), defining each stage of the tower and running at cill level of gallery height. The latter steps over lancet windows in a bay to the right, forming a hoodmould. An eaves course and point-arched openings complete the external detailing.

The north-west (High Street) elevation has three bays with the tower to the left. Buttresses define each bay. A 2-leaf boarded door stands at the centre within a columned and hoodmoulded doorway, flanked by two narrow windows. Above is a quadripartite geometric-traceried window with hoodmould, and a blinded arrow slit to the gablehead. Paired trefoil-headed windows occupy the bay to the right.

The north-east elevation contains six bays plus a further single bay (the hall) to the outer left, each defined by buttresses and fenestrated except for the tower to the outer left. The hall is advanced and features a tripartite window in a gabled addition to the outer right, connected by a platform-roofed link section.

The south-west elevation has six bays defined by buttresses, with further advanced bays to the outer right. Two paired windows appear in the bay to the outer left, with a single window to each remaining bay and a door to the outer right.

The tower's north-west elevation contains a blank first stage, two paired trefoil-headed windows at the second stage, a window at the third stage, and sawtoothed buttress-heads at the fourth stage. The fifth stage has two paired openings with louvring. A mutuled course separates the tower from the steeple, which is distinguished by a quatrefoil-studded band course. The north-east elevation of the tower displays a window at the first stage and a cinquefoil opening at the second stage, with the upper stages matching the north-west elevation.

Windows throughout have leaded lights with coloured borders. The roof is slated with coped ashlar skews and an ashlar cruciform finial to the apex of the gable on the north-west elevation. Lucarnes punctuate the roof on the north-east side, and a wallhead ashlar coped stack stands on the south-east elevation. The guttering is moulded throughout.

Interior

The interior features an impressive galleried scheme. A horse-shoe gallery, supported on cast-iron columns with timber boarded parapet, encircles the main space. A clock, set to the centre of the gallery and formerly housed in the old Meeting House (dated 1815), sits above cast-iron columns that rise above the gallery to the sides, carrying a tall 2-storey point-arched arcade. A boarded dado runs at ground level. Two aisles serve the nave, lined with pine pews fitted with brass umbrella stands.

A modern glazed partition beneath the gallery was added to the north-west side. A white marble font, dedicated to the memory of Reverend John Lawson, features the inscription "Suffer the Little children to Come unto Thee" carved to its bowl side and a brass lid inscribed "In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost".

A finely carved oak altar with rich gothic ornamentation memorializes William Linton, while a brass lectern dedicated to the memory of William Strang Steel of Philiphaugh sits upon it. Two Hamilton oak chairs and a tall-backed chair stand behind the altar. An organ between the pulpit and altar occupies the south-east wall. The pulpit and its arrangement underwent alteration in 1952–55, and now consists of a pine gothic design. A pine lectern, dedicated in memory of Jane Muir in 1953, also occupies this area. A stained glass window hangs above the organ screen. Timber boarding covers the ceiling.

A 4-part gothic screen in the vestibule is flanked by stone stairs, each fitted with cast-iron balustrade and timber handrail. The hall is a large room with boarded dado.

Boundary Works

The boundary walls are constructed of squared whinstone with ashlar coping. Square-plan stop-chamfered ashlar gatepiers with pyramidal coping formerly displayed cast-iron lamps. Cast-iron railings enclose the site.