Bridgend Church, West Bridgend, Dumbarton

Bridgend Church in West Bridgend, Dumbarton, is a Gothic church designed by architect John MacLeod and dated 1887. It features a symmetrical, rectangular plan with gabled transepts at the east, a chancel, and a low transverse session hall and vestry at the rear. The principal gabled east elevation is constructed of ashlar, while the rest is made of stugged, squared, and snecked rubble. The central shouldered door has a cusped tympanum and is supported by nook-shafts beneath a moulded, pointed arch, flanked by lancet windows. Above the door, there is a raised string in the gable, topped with a large simple wheel window and a blind arcaded parapet. The gable-head features five pointed-arched panels and is supported by stepped and pinnacled angle buttresses. Each stair projection has a shouldered door within a hood-moulded and pointed panel, with hood-moulded triple lights above a cusped oculus in the gable-head, and triple lancets under a relieving arch to the east. Pilaster strips divide the bays, with paired lights at both ground and gallery levels; the latter are pointed with a quatrefoil above. The gabled chancel has a simple rose window.

The church has slate roofs, with a centrally placed fleche above.

Inside, there is a three-sided gallery with a panelled front, supported by clustered columns that are banded and topped with foliated capitals, which support an arcaded blind frieze at the ceiling. The semi-octagonal pulpit features Gothic details and is accessed by flanking stairs, with organ pipes positioned behind it. The vestibule has a vaulted ceiling and an ornamental panelled screen, while the stairs to the gallery are adorned with an ornamental wrought-iron balustrade. There are three leaded glass windows on either side; on the south wall, the left window is by G Maile studios, London, after 1965, while the other is likely from around 1900. On the north wall, the left window is dated 1888, with the inner window by William Meikle & Sons from 1906, and the right window by John Blyth from 1980.