The Old Church, Kirkgate, Chirnside

The Old Church, Kirkgate, Chirnside

This is a church of considerable historical depth, with parts dating to the 12th century and consecrated in 1242. The building was substantially rebuilt in 1572, repaired in 1705, and enlarged in 1837. Further significant work followed: repair and alteration in 1876, the addition of a porch in 1907, and comprehensive early 20th-century additions by architects Arthur George Sydney Mitchell and George Wilson, which included a tower, belfry, church hall, and vestry.

The church presents an irregular plan, originally comprising a rectangular nave. Its principal features are an engaged, near square-plan, 3-stage tower to the west with a taller belfry adjoining the north-east corner. The building extends northwards with a single-storey church hall and vestry, with various additions infilling the re-entrant angle to the east.

The structure is built in tooled and squared cream sandstone, partly coursed and partly squared and snecked, with sandstone ashlar dressings. The main eaves feature moulded courses. The tower is marked by an architraved string course dividing the floors and a modillioned parapet. Throughout, quoins are tooled, and openings are finished with tooled long and short surrounds. The nave displays round-arched openings with plain columnar reveals, while later additions feature square-headed and pointed-arched openings. Several sections are topped with crowstepped gables.

The south elevation centres on the three-stage tower to the outer left. An offset gabled porch to the right comprises round-arched openings with chevron mouldings, supported by circular columns with stylised carving to bases and capitals. A blind, round-arched niche, centred in the finialled gablehead, contains carved figures in the corners. The principal entrance is a weathered, round-arched Norman doorway, now fitted with a replacement boarded timber door. This opening is flanked by inner and outer nook shafts with chamfered bases and cushion capitals of different heights, surmounted by a square-headed sandstone lintel. The archway features plain tympanum with chevron moulding to the inner arch and bead-and-hollow moulding to the outer arch. Set in the south-west corner is a square-plan sundial dated 1816, with an engaged circular base and ogee-arched niche. Above, the second stage displays a pointed-arched bipartite window with moulded stops to linked hoodmoulds. The tower is topped by a crowstepped cap-house with a small centred window in a finialled gablehead. To the right, the nave adjoins with a gabletted buttress breaking the eaves offset right of centre. Two pairs of round-arched windows to the left are followed by single windows at ground level in the remaining two bays. A gabled, bipartite window breaks the eaves above, with a small oculus centred in the finialled gablehead.

The east elevation displays a gabled nave projecting to the left, with a round-arched, boarded timber door centred at ground level. This door is flanked by nook shafts with scalloped capitals and architraved banding to the surmounting arch. An oculus is centred in the finialled gablehead. The north wing is recessed to the right, with a round-arched window at ground offset to the right, and a gabled window breaking the eaves to the left. Various lean-to and flat-roofed additions occupy the re-entrant angle to the outer left. A lower wing to the outer right features an external stair accessing a 2-leaf boarded timber door breaking the eaves to the left, with a single window in the surmounting crowstepped gable and a gabled window breaking the eaves at ground in the outer bay.

The north elevation shows a projecting crowstepped wing to the left, with a deep-set, 2-leaf boarded timber door in a basket-arched surround to the right of centre. Above this door, naturalistic carving is set within a flush, stylised pediment. The adjoining church hall to the right displays regularly disposed, three-light, square-headed windows arranged in three bays across all visible faces.

The west elevation features the three-stage tower to the right, with four regularly disposed, square-headed windows centred beneath the string course. Above these sits a pointed-arched bipartite window with moulded stops to linked hoodmoulds. The tower is surmounted by a crowstepped cap-house set behind a projecting parapet. A gabled porch is recessed to the outer right. Beyond this rises a taller, square-plan tower recessed to the left. This tower features a round-arched, boarded timber door in an adjoined lean-to porch, with flanking nook-shafts and an architraved arch. Arrowslit openings pierce all three floors above, with a part-louvred, pointed-arched opening centred at the upper floor. Decorative frieze mouldings sit beneath the cornice, and crocketted corner finials crown each angle. Above rises a squat polygonal sandstone spire topped with a St Michael's weather vane. To the left, a two-bay wing features round-arched windows in both bays at ground level, with gabled windows breaking the eaves above. A commemorative plaque and armorial panels are positioned at the centre, and an enclosed burial area to the front contains a sandstone font. A crowstepped hall projects to the outer left, displaying a large, round-arched, traceried window centred in a finialled gablehead.

The church features predominantly small-pane, plain leaded glazing throughout. Roofs are covered in grey slate with sandstone ridging, while skews are stone-coped and crowstepped. A coped apex stack stands to the north, with a single circular flue.

Interior

The interior follows a T-plan around the nave, which has a boarded timber floor, stone-slabbed in parts to the north. Timber pews, some as box pews with panelled doors and private communion tables, line the space. Boarded timber dado panelling adorns the walls, and the roof is open timber construction. A balustraded platform is centred in the south wall, supporting a tall, octagonal pulpit, a columnar communion table, and a sandstone font. Galleries extend to the east (Ninewells), west (Whitehall), and north galleries, their fronts panelled in timber with square-plan columns below. These galleries contain tiered timber pews. A stone inscription reading "HELPE THE PVR 1573 VE" is visible in the south wall, offset left of centre. An organ is positioned in the east gallery. Various wall tablets mark the interior, including a marble bass relief of the 2nd Lady Tweedmouth located in the angle between the north and east wings. The vestry features a glazed tile fireplace with decorative timber surround. The church hall is separated by a full-width entrance screen comprising small-pane leaded glazing set in timber-panelled, folding doors.

Graveyard and Associated Structures

The surrounding graveyard contains numerous gravestones of varied types, including table-top monuments, carved stones with memento mori imagery, classical details, and obelisks. A curved sandstone seat with a coped, squared and snecked, lightly bull-faced back is positioned within the graveyard.

The mort-house is a single-storey, rectangular-plan structure of red rubble construction. Its south elevation features a modern timber door and side light to the left, with a blocked arrowslit opening to the right. The roof is mono-pitched. The interior was not inspected in 1998.

A tall war memorial comprises a rubble-faced cross on a tiered, square-plan base, inscribed "In Memory of those from this Parish who fell in the Great War 1914-1919."

Boundary Features

Boundary walls of rubble with arched coping enclose the site. Square-plan gatepiers with finialled and tiered, pyramidal caps stand to the east. Squared and snecked, lightly bull-faced quadrant walls flank the western entrance, topped with tiered, chamfered coping and gabletted, square-plan piers and gatepiers. A buttressed gateway is recessed at the centre, featuring a large Tudor-arched opening with decorative 2-leaf iron gates. An inscribed plaque above the gateway bears a carved motif, and a crenellated parapet crowns the structure.