Building record MAB42154 - ST JAMES THE GREAT EPISCOPAL CHURCH, ARBUTHNOTT STREET, STONEHAVEN

Church, still in ecclesiastical use.

Church, still in ecclesiastical use. The nave was built by Sir Robert Rowand Anderson in 1875-77, Work began on 21 September 1875, with the foundation stone laid by Rev Alexander Penrose Forbes, rector of the old Episcopal Church and subsequently Bishop of Brechin, and finished on 1 October 1877. The organ was installed in 1881 after a fundraising bazaar was held by the women of the congregation. The chancel, organ chamber and vestry were added by Anderson with Arthur Clyne, architects, and builder John Morgan in 1883-85. The narthex and baptistery were then added by Arthur Clyne in 1906, with Sir Ninian Comper glass added in 1929. It is a transitional church with a five-bay nave, low buttressed side aisles and clerestory, and is constructed from squared and snecked rubble with some Aberdeen bond with ashlar dressings, a deep base course, continuous hoodmoulds forming string courses, an eaves course and blocking courses to the baptistery and vestry. The openings are principally round-arched, with quatrefoil and trefoil-headed openings to the vestry and pointed-arch openings to the north-west aisle. There are also squat, two-stage coped buttresses, voussoirs, hoodmoulds with label stops, raked cills, chamfered reveals and two-leaf vertically-boarded timber doors with decorative ironwork hinges. The glazing includes diamond- and square-pattern multi-pane patterns with clear and coloured margins and stained glass. The grey slate roof has decorative terracotta ridge tiles, ashlar-coped skews and square-section, cast-iron downpipes with decorative rainwater hoppers and fixings. The principal north-west tall, gabled elevation has a projecting, full-width, lean-to narthex incorporating a moulded doorpiece under a crowstepped half-gable to each return, and a finialled polygonal-roofed baptistery projecting from the centre. The second stage has a raised centre and a five-part, arcaded frame incorporating engaged colonettes with abacus capitals, a broad centre light and a flanking blind arcade. The cross-finialled gablehead has a glazed vessica. The south-west elevation has a tall, two-stage apse with a blank first stage giving way to a second stage with six regularly-disposed lancets under a continuous hoodmould. The north-east elevation has single lights to each stage of the five-bay aisled nave at the south-east, with further taller light on the north-west return. A slightly lower apsidal chancel at the outer north-west has a small gabled projection (organ chamber). The south-west elevation mirrors the above, but with a low vestry projecting at the south-east incorporating two small lights on the gabled return and a further projecting polygonal-roofed choir and slim tower at the junction with the nave and apse. The two upper stages of the finialled, conical-roofed bell tower incorporates a square stage with tiny openings, giving way to a reduced circular belfry with narrow stone-louvered openings under a continuous hoodmould, cornice and stone-slated roof. The church has a fine arcaded Romanesque interior with round columns and uncut capitals, clerestorey windows and a hammeberbeam roof to the nave and a tall chancel arch and ribbed timber-lined, barrel-vaulted roof to the chancel and apse. There are fixed timber pews, and the narthex has a two-leaf screen door in a pointed-arch opening with decoratively-astragalled leaded panels and fanlight. The apse has a high altar and elaborately sculptured reredos by Gambier Perry of London and a memorial to Mrs Annette Maria Baird of Ury (1884), incorporating four crocketted and finialled, pointed-arch, trefoil-headed niches incorporating the marble figures of St Andrew, Peter, James and John, flanking a larger niche with a seated Christ carved in high relief. The organ is by Wadsworth of Manchester. The choir stalls are carved (1927), and the decoratively carved Caen stone pulpit was designed by Arthur Clyne, and incorporates quatrefoil panels with carved heads depicting St James, King David of Scotland, Bishop Forbes, Bishop Keith and Bishop Jolly, and was presented to the church by the Rev Disney Innes of Cowie. A marble font on an octagonal shaft with a cross-finialled timber cope came from St John's Chapel in Aberdeen, and is one of the earliest stone fonts used in an Episcopal Chapel after the Revolution. The baptistery has a niche containing a belfry stone from the former St James' Chapel, a cross of Communion tokens and a marble font. A simple, timber-framed brass War Memorial has timber pediment commemorating 'Members of St James Church Stonehaven Who Fell in the War 1914-1918', and there is a WWII memorial inscription at the base. Coloured glass includes an apsidal window depicting 'Christ crucified' by Clayton and Bell of London. A west window memorial to Dean Christie shows 'Christ's Baptism' and 'Baptism from the Tolbooth window'. Memorial windows to the nave include 'The Good Samaritan' commemorating Leslie Thomson and family of Invercowie House, a 'St James' memorial to the Adams Family (1832-1955), and an 'Angel' in memory of Alexander Innes of Raemoor, died 1882. Sir Ninian Comper's baptistery windows commemorate David MacDonald, headmaster of Episcopal school. Coped rubble walls enclose the boundary, with pyramidally-coped, square-section ashlar gatepiers and two-leaf decorative ironwork gates. Photographic recording was carried out in 2020 ahead of repair and maintenance works.

Period Notes
Listed 18/08/1972. Built in 1875-77 with later 19th century and 20th century additions. Upgraded to category A on 26/10/1993.

Author unknown, , PRESS & JOURNAL, 10/11/16 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1416.

Feb 28 2020 , APP/2017/1976, APP/2017/1976 (Ground Photograph). SAB34916.

Record last edited

May 4 2020 2:08PM