Paxton, Paxton Church (Church of Scotland) Scottish Borders, Scotland, UK
Listed Building Description
Text courtesy of Historic England. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.
Opened 1908. Symmetrical, T-plan, plain gothic, gabled church with gabled porch centred at front; single storey, piend-roofed vestry off-set to left at rear. Squared and snecked tooled cream sandstone to front; tooled and squared rubble to sides and rear; ashlar dressings throughout. Base course to front; moulded eaves in part. Tooled quoins; long and short ashlar surrounds to pointed-arched, chamfered openings; chamfered cills. Hoodmoulds to front. S (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: 3-bay gable of nave with single storey, gabled porch projecting at centre; 2-leaf boarded door; decorative hinges; chamfered surround. Single windows flanking porch at ground; buttresses centred beneath coped, crenellated parapets to outer left and right. Plate-traceried window centred above porch; gabled belfry surmounting gablehead with trefoil-headed opening; cruciform finial; billetted eaves. E (SIDE) ELEVATION: projecting gable of transept to right with 3 large windows centred at ground (taller central window). 2-bay range recessed to left with shouldered-arched windows in square-headed openings in both bays; trefoil-headed window in projecting porch recessed to outer left. Single window in projecting vestry recessed to outer right. N (REAR) ELEVATION: projecting gable of nave at centre with single window in projecting, piend-roofed vestry off-set to left; rose window centred above. W (SIDE) ELEVATION: projecting gable of transept to left with 3 large windows centred at ground (taller central window). 2-bay range recessed to right with shouldered-arched windows in square-headed openings in both bays; trefoil-headed window in projecting porch recessed to outer right. Projecting vestry recessed to outer left with boarded timber door to right; single window to left. Predominantly opaque-glazed square-pane leaded windows with stained detailing; timber sash and case windows to vestry. Grey slate roof; red tile ridging; stone-coped skews; beak skewputts (curvilinear skewputts to porch). Remains of ridge ventilator. INTERIOR: 2-leaf panelled door accessing nave. Plain nave with boarded dado panelling throughout; painted walls above; boarded timber floor. Open boarded timber ceiling with timber joists on moulded sandstone springers. Pews; polygonal pulpit with linenfold carving and floral panels; timber font and communion table. Panelled door accessing vestry to rear. 2 wall plaques. BOUNDARY WALLS, RAILINGS, GATEPIERS AND GATES: coped, tooled and squared rubble sandstone walls enclosing site (stepped to E). Painted, decorative iron railings surmounting front wall. Square-plan sandstone gatepiers flanking pedestrian entrances to left and right; gabletted caps with quatrefoil panels and trefoil finials, Painted, decorative iron gates.
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. Opened in 1908, this was originally Mordington and Paxton United Free Church, and remained so until the union with the Church of Scotland in 1929. Prior to its erection, the congregation attended the nearby Mordington Free Church (no longer in use) and Horndean United Free Church. The Rev Peter Hendry is said to have been instrumental in the erection of this church and he is commemorated on one of the plaques inside. An early photograph shows a conical cap originally surmounted the ridge vent, only the base of which remains (1999).
Listed Building References
© Crown Copyright text courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland, reprinted under the Open Government License.
Ordnance Survey map, 1906 (not evident). THE PARISH OF HUTTON, PAXTON AND FISHWICK (1989) p4. PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE PARISH OF HUTTON, PAXTON AND FISHWICK (1989) p3. G A C Binnie THE CHURCHES AND GRAVEYARDS OF BERWICKSHIRE (1995) pp294-295.