Cranshaws Parish Church

Cranshaws Parish Church

A Grade A listed church designed by George Fortune in 1899, erected on the site of an earlier church built in 1739. The building is a rectangular-plan Romanesque church with distinctive architectural features including a gabled porch to the south, a vestry adjoining a gabled north aisle, a finialed birdcage bellcote to the west, and a bowed apse to the east.

The exterior is constructed of pointed whinstone rubble with red sandstone dressings (lightly droved in part) and coloured, cement-faced cast aggregate corbels. The walls feature raised cill courses (chamfered to the apse), raised red sandstone eaves courses, and figurative corbels beneath the eaves to the apse with plain corbels to the vestry. Crowstepped gables are used throughout. Rubble quoins and long and short sandstone surrounds frame the round-arched openings. The windows are distinguished by flanking columnar nook-shafts with scalloped capitals, architraved round-arched voussoir arches with dogtooth carving to the inner reveals, and chamfered cills.

The south elevation is dominated by a gabled entrance porch advanced to the outer left with a deep-set 2-leaf round-arched boarded timber door featuring decorative wrought-iron hinges. The porch surround is carved with paired nook-shafts (scalloped capitals), rope-moulding, zig-zag, foliate and billet frieze banding. Beneath the apex is a nook-shafted round-arched plaque embossed "Built 1739 Rebuilt 1899". The gable is crowstepped and surmounted by a decorative finial. Single windows in the remaining four bays are recessed to the right.

The west elevation is bipartite with a round-arched window centred at ground level and a deep-set rose window aligned above. A crowstepped gable surmounted by a corbelled, 2-stage bellcote contains a bell in place (circa 1899, inscribed with the trade shield of James Barwell of Birmingham) and a tiered pyramidal ashlar spire surmounted by a finial. A carved figure representing Time supports a square sundial on the corner with the south wall; a tablet inscribed "Mr J C 1731" is positioned nearby, with a metal gnomon in place (1962 replacement).

The east elevation features regularly spaced single windows in the bowed apse, centred against a finialed gable. The apse is embellished with beak-head corbels of infinite variety. A single-storey vestry is recessed to the outer right with a round-arched, roll-moulded surround to a boarded timber door offset to the left of centre, fitted with decorative wrought-iron hinges. A gabled porch is recessed to the outer left.

The north elevation displays a rose window centred in the projecting north aisle in the penultimate bay to the outer left, and a single window centred in the single-storey vestry advanced to the outer left. A bowed entrance to the north aisle in the re-entrant angle features a boarded timber door with decorative wrought-iron hinges and a round-arched surround. The remaining bays are recessed to the right and blind.

The windows comprise predominantly plain, part-stained border glazed leaded glass; some decorative stained glass appears in the apse, west end (in memory of Andrew Smith's parents) and porch (a gift of George Fortune). The roofs are graded grey slate with terracotta ridge tiling and original cast-iron rainwater goods. A coped stack to the vestry features circular cans.

The interior is finished throughout in painted polished sandstone and dark stained Siberian deal (some dark stained oak). The boarded and panelled vestibule has a tiled floor with low timber benches and 2-leaf round-arched boarded timber doors in a roll-moulded surround accessing the church, fitted with decorative wrought-iron hinges.

The nave contains timber pews, a part-tiled floor, and whitewashed walls above boarded timber dado panelling. A barrel-vaulted, boarded timber ceiling features figurative corbels forming springers, gilt bosses lining trusses, and three ridge medallions depicting the dove, Saint Andrew, and the Paschal Lamb, with dogtooth carving to the outer trusses. Round-arched windows are deep-set into the south wall with painted margins and timber boxes set on the cills.

The north aisle is set behind a round-arched columnar frame with scalloped capitals and waterleaf base detailing. A blind arcaded balcony to the front has timber-panelled walls within and a rose window centred in the north wall. The timber surround to the door is offset to the right, with a panelled and boarded ceiling.

A round-arched columnar chancel arch with scalloped capitals and waterleaf base detailing is lined with regularly spaced carved motifs set between zig-zag moulding.

The bowed apse features boarded timber dado panelling with whitewashed walls and a painted zig-zag band at the wallhead. A boarded timber conical ceiling with painted groins sits above a tiled floor. A carved, stained oak communion table with columnar shafts, stylised motifs, and dogtooth mouldings occupies the space, along with a hand bell to the front (circa 1800) and timber chairs.

A columnar balustraded stair accesses a polygonal pulpit with intricate dogtooth and arcaded carving, featuring round-arched blind arcading with columnar shafts to the main section.

A round-arched boarded timber door with decorative wrought-iron hinges accesses the vestry to the north, with the Royal Arms of Scotland set in a tablet above. A decorative sandstone plaque above the door is inscribed "To the Glory of God and to commemorate the rebuilding of this church by Andrew Smith, Esquire of Cranshaws ... AD 1899". An engraved metal plaque in the north wall is embossed "In loving memory of Andrew Smith of Whitchester and Cranshaws who entered into rest on 10th June 1914..."

The graveyard is enclosed by rubble-coped rubble walls in a near rectangular plan surrounding the church. A wrought-iron pedestrian gate inscribed "1948-1982 C E Eddy" accesses a path to the nearby manse. Various gravestones are present.

The entrance is flanked by circular-plan, harled gatepiers with hemispherical caps. A wrought-iron vehicular access gate provides vehicular access.