Fochabers, Castle Street, Gordon Chapel (Episcopal Church) and Gordon Chapel House (Parson Moray, Scotland, UK
Archibald Sipson, 1832-4; additions and alterations, Alexander Ross, 1874. 2-tier Gothic church, combining Parsonage (former school) in ground floor and chapel in 1st floor. Orientated N-S with S entrance gable to Castle Street.
Listed Building Description
Text courtesy of Historic England. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.
Archibald Sipson, 1832-4; additions and alterations, Alexander Ross, 1874. 2-tier Gothic church, combining Parsonage (former school) in ground floor and chapel in 1st floor. Orientated N-S with S entrance gable to Castle Street. Tooled ashlar entrance gable, harled flanks, tooled and polished ashlar dressings. Austere S gable with round-headed entrance (simple nookshafts and moulded reveals) in centre and triple light pointed-headed window above linked by cill course and continuous hoodmould; flanking square clasping buttresses with blind slits and terminating as octagonal gablet detailed pinnacles with stiff-leaf finials. Projecting 2-storey stair wing at W (1874). Triple light window in 1st floor at N gable with (1874) rose window above. Slate roofs. Entrance to Gordon Chapel House in W elevation; varied glazing to windows; single storey wing at NE with piended roof. INTERIOR OF CHAPEL: entrance lobby with mural memorial dated 1838. Stairs (installed 1874) lead to Chapel largely redesigned and refurnished 1874. Flat ceiling removed and replaced by hammer-beam roof; pine dado, pews and pulpit; brass communion rail; richly stencilled N chancel wall. Stained glass by Morris and Co, some designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones; E window depicting crucifixion (and probably dating from 1874), 2 windows on W wall and 3 in E wall depicting variously St Cecilia (1879), St Ursula (1887), Archangel Raphael (1902), Christ the Good Shepherd (1903) and St Michael (1914). Later 19th century decorative brass wall light brackets. Grey-white oval marble font with swagged and panelled sides supported by slender stem on plinth (possibly re-used from elsewhere).
Listed Building Statement of Special Interest
© Crown Copyright text courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland, reprinted under the Open Government License.
Ecclesiastical building in use as such. Chapel and school given by Elizabeth, wife of 5th Duke of Gordon. Mural tablet in entrance lobby commemorates Alexina Mackintosh, who died in 1838 aged 21 having been a school teacher for 4 years. Unusual 2-tier plan-form.
Listed Building References
© Crown Copyright text courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland, reprinted under the Open Government License.
THE NEW STATISTICAL ACCOUNT xiii (1842), p 119-120. George Hay, THE ARCHITECTURE OF SCOTTISH POST-REFORMATION CHURCHES 1560-1843 (1957), pp 150, 266. Howard Colvin, A BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS 1600-1840 (1978), p 737. Judith Scott, FOUR HUNDRED YEARS OF UPS AND DOWNS, THE GORDON CHAPEL FOCHABERS (1984).