St Mary's Parish Church, East High Street, Lauder

St Mary's Parish Church, East High Street, Lauder

Sir William Bruce designed this church in 1673 as a Greek Cross plan structure with a low central tower topped by a squat steeple. Gothick porches were added to the north-west and south-east re-entrant angles in 1820, and the building underwent restoration between 1969 and 1972.

The church is constructed of harled rubble with red sandstone ashlar dressings, featuring vertical margins at the arrises. The gables are coped with beaked skew putts to each arm, and the openings are architraved. Each arm has a simple Gothic mullion and transom window with intersecting tracery and moulded architrave set in the gable; below these are pairs of wide rectangular windows also with moulded architraves.

The tower rises in two stages. The lower section is square in plan to the apex of the roofs, while above this it becomes octagonal. A single round-arched window with keystone and imposts is set in the upper stage, with louvred vents to alternate faces. Two pigeon holes sit beneath the eaves on each face. The squat spire above is surmounted by a weather vane.

The four arms are fenestrated primarily to their gable ends, except the north and east arms, which each have a single low wide window set into the upper section of the original church entrance towards the north-east re-entrant angle. Corresponding entrances formerly existed at the south-west re-entrant. The gable of the north arm is surmounted by a small sandstone cross finial, and its skew putts are topped by sandstone obelisk finials—the only intact pair remaining of those originally flanking each gable. Stone slab funerary plaques are mounted on the church wall to the west side of the south arm and the north side of the east and west arms.

The 1820 porches are of square plan with eaves bands and crenellated sandstone parapets with ridged coping above. The north-west porch entrance faces north, while the south-east porch entrance faces south. Each has a round-arched doorway with hoodmould and replacement boarded timber door, and a simple Gothick window on its outer face (west and east respectively).

The church is fenestrated with multi-pane timber windows, some of the lower ones featuring top hoppers. A single stained glass window lights the north gable. The roofs are of grey slate.

Interior

Pointed arches spring from piers on each side of the crossing. A late 18th-century panelled pulpit of hexagonal plan stands at the south-east corner of the crossing, accompanied by a matching hexagonal sounding board with pointed apex topped by a gilded spiked ball finial. The pulpit back, fitted later, is pilastered with incised lines. Boarded timber dado and panelled box pews occupy the ground floor and lofts. The lofts were installed at different dates from about the mid-18th century onwards. Extensive interior refitting occurred in 1820, when the porches were added to provide covered access to the lofts (replacing previous external stairs), and again in the 1860s.

Stone-flagged floors in each porch are served by half-turn staircases with stone steps and timber handrails supported on plain cast iron balustrades. Six-panel internal timber doors are fitted at ground and upper levels. A stained glass window in the north arm was dedicated in 1901 to the daughter of a former minister.

Entrance Gates and Churchyard Wall

A pair of sandstone ashlar gatepiers stands at the entrance. The outer north-facing surfaces are rusticated on moulded bases, while the gate reveals and inner south-facing surfaces are plain or largely rendered. Each pier has a cornice decorated with three flower motifs on its north outer face and moulded coping surmounted by an obelisk with recessed panels to each face. Replacement cast iron gates hang between these piers.

A whinstone rubble wall encloses the churchyard, except at railed gaps at the north-east and south-east corners. Most of the wall has rubble coping; squared sandstone ashlar coping, largely replaced in concrete, runs along the north side, where the main section of wall was lowered in the 1980s. Various gravestones are incorporated into the wall, including an early 19th-century red sandstone monument with moulded pediment and oval plaque, and headstones from the Romanes family tomb (Robert Romanes was a distinguished local historian). The churchyard contains a variety of 18th and 19th-century gravestones.