Whitsome Church

1803; alterations and additions 1912. Rectangular-plan, plain Gothic church with 4-bay nave, gabled N aisle; lower pitched chancel to E with adjoining vestry to SE, single storey porch to W, square-plan 3-stage tower centred in S wall. Predominantly harl pointed rubble sandstone (squared and coursed to SE elevation; weathered in part); droved and polished sandstone dressings; some cream ashlar sandstone to vestry. Raised base course; raised quoins; tooled long and short surrounds to pointed-arched openings (margins lightly droved in part); projecting cills; hoodmoulds surmounting E and W windows; gabletted skewputts. Square-plan tower with prominent quoins at base; corniced upper stages; square-plan columns to belfry.

SE (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: engaged tower centred in E wall comprising recessed panelling at 2nd stage; pointed-arched, columnar birdcage belfry at 3rd stage (bell dated 1645 within); squat polygonal ashlar spire surmounted by finial. Regularly fenestrated in 2 bays to left and right respectively. Porch recessed to outer left with 2-leaf boarded timber door. Piended vestry advanced to outer right with single boarded timber door off-set to left of centre; taller chancel set behind.

NW (STREET) ELEVATION: gabled bay advanced at centre (N aisle) with rounded angles; corbel detailing beneath bracketed skewputts; single window aligned beneath apex. Single windows in bays recessed to left and right. Square-headed window centred in porch recessed to outer right. Lower gabled wing recessed to outer left (chancel); surmounting cruciform finial.

Replacement and modern applied glazing throughout: timber sash and case windows with intersecting tracery; fixed Y-traceried windows with applied lead-effect pattern. Grey slate roof; stepped stone skews; some cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: reoriented 1912. Boarded timber floor; stone slabs to chancel. Open timber hammerbeam nave ceiling with moulded sandstone springers; boarded timber barrel-vaulted ceiling to chancel. Boarded timber dado panelling; whitewashed walls above; chamfered timber cills. Timber pews (reoriented to face E in nave). Large sandstone segmental arch framing N aisle; pews facing S within. Decorative carving to timber pulpit; tooled sandstone blocks defining round-arched chancel arch; decorative carving and stencil panelling to timber communion table set within; timber chairs behind. Octagonal sandstone font

(Sir Robert Lorimer), 1910, given in memory of Alexander Low of Laws, senator of the College of Justice and elder of Whitsome parish. Predominantly replacement light fittings; wall-mounted decorative brass oil lamps flanking chancel arch. Boarded timber door accessing vestry to right.

BOUNDARY WALLS, GATEPIERS AND GATES: round-arched rubble coping to rubble sandstone walls enclosing site. Stop-chamfered, square-plan corniced gatepiers flanking entrance; pyramidal caps; decorative wrought-iron gates.