Old Parish Church, Newcastle Road, Jedburgh

Old Parish Church, Newcastle Road, Jedburgh

This is an Early English aisled church with clerestory and north and south transepts at the east end, designed by Thomas Henry Wyatt and built between 1872 and 1874, with additions by Hippolyte J Blanc in 1888. The building is symmetrical with a three-stage belltower at the north-west corner.

The exterior is constructed of squared and snecked bull-faced dark yellow sandstone with long and short cream polished ashlar dressings. The base course is coped. Windows feature shallow pointed arches with heavily chamfered arrises and cills, and crocketted capitals are used throughout.

The west elevation contains the main entrance, which is a large projecting gabled entrance with a porch at ground level. The porch entrance has a moulded pointed arch window supported on and flanked by pink sandstone colonnettes with annets; the arch has a hood mould and foliate label-stops. Above are three lights (b-a-b) separated by columns, with an octofoil window above. At ground level sits a gabled doorway within a penticed porch spanning the gable, containing a pair of two-leaf boarded doors with elaborate wrought-iron hinges in stop-roll-moulded shouldered frames. Three windows (a-b-a) separated by squat columns occupy the tympanum, and a round plaque dated 1873 appears above the arch. The entrance is approached by a straight flight of five steps with low flanking saddleback walls. Single-storey narthex wings flank this entrance, each comprising a single bay with rectangular bipartite windows; ashlar eaves support a moulded gutter. A buttress to the right balances the tower to the left.

The tower is octagonal with three coped stages that decrease to a ribbed and decorated stone spire, with gargoyles terminating each rib. The first stage has a base course and narrow blank course rising to the top of the narthex, with rectangular windows on three north faces lighting the stair. The second stage features a ring of squat rectangular windows; a taller blank course rises above, then the tower narrows with saw-tooth ashlar coping to a further blank course. The third stage narrows again in the same manner to an ashlar belfry with timber louvred lancets to each face; a corbel table sits at the eaves. The spire has a carved fleur-de-lys crest and a delicate wrought-iron cross lightning conductor.

The north elevation shows three aisle windows at ground level, each of paired lights with a sectofoil rose in a gabled dormerhead above; a cill-course runs to three three-light clerestory windows. At the west end, the tower connects with a blank return wall of the narthex to the outer right. A single bay with a window at ground level and a single clerestory window sits at the west end. The aisle has a steeply pitched lean-to roof overhanging eaves, with a window on the return face.

The north transept is a large gabled two-storey structure with three single windows at ground level and two above. An octofoil plate traceried window occupies the gablehead. In the re-entrant angle formed with the aisle to the west, an engaged octagonal stair tower provides private access to galleries in the transepts. Steps (as in the main entrance) lead to a boarded door in a shouldered frame; a single slit stair light and an upper ring of rectangular bipartite windows under eaves are present. The stair tower has a conical slate roof. A vestry to the east of the transept continues the aisle, with a pointed arch door and rectangular window to its left.

The south elevation and transept largely mirror the north elevation. At the west end, the return wall of the narthex continues the nave with rectangular bipartite windows and a trefoil above. The "vestry" on this side houses the organ and has no door.

The east elevation features a lower two-stage piend-roofed canted apsidal chancel projecting from the main gable below a tripartite slit window; skews are broken by ashlar stacks. The chancel has single windows to outward faces at ground level, with a string course and paired windows above. Flanking buttresses support the main gable, and single-storey links connect to single-storey gabled projections adjoined at right angles to the transepts, each with a blind slit in its gablehead. The north projection (vestry) has paired windows at ground level, while the south projection (organ) has a single window. A low screen wall and steps to a basement lie immediately east of the apse. All windows are leaded; most contain stained glass. Blue-grey slates with terracotta ridge tiles cover the roof. Ashlar coped skews finish the gables. Cast-iron gutters and downpipes are throughout.

The interior is a very fine basilica-style space. A four-bay pointed arch arcaded nave, Presbyterian in its absence of a centre aisle and filled by pews, features columns with crocketted capitals, arches, and an east window of pink and grey ashlar. The arches to the transepts are larger and are supported on clustered columns. A canted apse to the east is framed by nook shafts and an arch, containing fitted and decoratively carved timber choir stalls, a canopied reredos and altar, and murals above. Raked galleries to the transepts and rear have carved front panels; those at the rear are supported on shallow arches. Doors with glass screens above open to the narthex. The roof is arched scissor braced with corbel supports. The pavement is black and red tiled. An octagonal ashlar pulpit with cusped panels to each face stands in the nave. Brass electric chandeliers hang from each arch of the nave.

The boundary walls are of coursed granite, stepping with the site, with ashlar sandstone saddleback coping and square piers at regular intervals, chamfered to octagonal with similar caps. Similar ashlar gatepiers with wrought-iron gates mark two flights of steps at the north-west corner of the site. Coped granite gatepiers stand at the north-east corner.

The church is linked to the Old Manse and Allerley Well Park, which are separately listed.