stirling-1963-vol-1/05_178

Transcription

No. 137 -- ECCLESIASTICAL MONUMENTS -- No. 137
a hood-mould finishing in moulded stops. Above a
projecting eaves-course there rises a high, pierced
parapet; this runs up to the tower on the NW. gable and
over the whole of the SE. gable, the SE. gable-head being
topped by an ornate cross. The roof is slated. The SE.
end contains a single large window, similar to the side
windows except that it contains five lights. The pro-
jection at the SE. end, which is a semi-octagon on plan,
is provided with an entrance door on SW. and NE. and
a pointed two-light window facing SE., but the doors
are now permanently closed; it has four buttresses and a
pierced parapet like that on the body of the church.
The NW. end shows a two-light window, similar to
those in the side walls on either side of the tower.
The tower comprises three stages, defined by string-
courses, and is intaken slightly at the top of the lower-
most stage. Buttresses with crocketed finials are set
obliquely at its corners. The lowermost stage contains
three similar entrances, one in each face; each has a
Tudor arch with a flat hood-mould above it and tracery
in the spandrels. The second stage shows three two-light
windows, similar to those in the W. gable; and the third
stage three pairs of louvred lancets, each with its own
hood-mould and each flanked by slender nook-shafts.
The uppermost part of the tower is decorated with an
ogival-headed arcade, rising from corbels, above which
is a moulded eaves-course enriched at regular intervals
with floral ornament. The wall-head bears the same
high, pierced parapet seen on the body of the church.
The church is entered through a vestibule at the
bottom of the tower, in which a geometric stair gives
access to the gallery and to a small room, originally the
session-house. The seating faces a pulpit at the SE. end.
A door to the right of the pulpit opens into the apsidal
projection at the SE. end, which now serves as a vestry.
A second door into it, on the left of the pulpit, has been
blocked by an inserted organ. The gallery, which is
supported on iron columns and has a front decorated
with arcading, runs along both sides and across the NW.
end. It retains its original enclosed pews, while those
on the ground floor, which have open ends, appear to
be replacements. The collar beams of the roof are
exposed below the ceiling, which is of plaster.
A mortsafe, solidly made of sheet iron in the form of
a coffin without a bottom (Pl. 51 c), lies outside the
church.

897877 -- NS 88 NE ("Ch") -- 6 April 1955

137. Old Parish Church, Airth. The ruins of the old
church of Airth (Fig. 55, Pl. 32) stand immediately
NE. of the Castle (No. 199), and like it overlook the
haughs of the Pow Burn from the top of a high, rocky
bank. This bank has, in fact been quarried (cf. No. 565)
right back to the confines of the graveyard along its S.
side and at its SE. corner, and the yellow and grey
sandstones used respectively in the earlier and later
parts of the church probably both came from this source.
The site has been modified by the raising of the ground
level between the church and the Castle, and at this
operation evidently postdates the construction of the
Elphinstone Aisle in 1593 (infra) it seems reasonable to
connect the reorganisation and walling-in of the grave-
yard with the latest work on the church, in the middle
of the 17th century. This date would agree well enough
with the roll mouldings on the graveyard entrances, of
which there are two - a large gate for vehicles in the
N. wall and a small doorway by the NE. corner of the
Castle.
A church existed at Airth at least as early as 1128, at
about which date it was granted to Holyrood Abbey by
David I. ¹ but the earliest part of the existing complex
of remains is Transitional in style and dates only from
the later years of the 12th century. The structure of this
period stood in the W. part of the body of the existing
church; it had a N. nave-aisle, and its nave may have
extended about as far E. as the tower. To the E. part
of the S. side of this building an aisle, known as the
Airth Aisle, was added in the 15th century, and in 1593
another, the Elphinstone Aisle, immediately W. of the
first. In 1614 the Bruce Aisle was added on the N. side.
So far the early church had probably served as a nucleus
for the several additions, but in the middle of the 17th
century a major reconstruction took place; the W. end-
wall was rebuilt and everything E. of the Bruce and
Airth Aisles, including the tower, was added, the building
being reorganised as a "preaching kirk" in the con-
temporary fashion. It was abandoned in 1820, when the
North Church (No. 136) was built in the village. ²

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION. The only surviving
remains of the Transitional church, which are built of
the golden-coloured sandstone already mentioned, are
on the N. side of the nave, where there can be seen the
remains of a nave arcade of three bays opening into a N.
aisle, together with part of a buttress. The eastern respond
of the arcade survives intact with its moulded base, keel-
shaped pillar, and capital, and the western one remains
in part. A later round arch of two plain orders connects
the eastern respond with the first pier of the nave arcade,
and centrally between this and the western respond there
is a fragment of what appears to be the base slab of the
other free-standing pier. This completes the three-bay
system. The responds and the circular pier show an early
form of water-holding base, the profile of the lower roll
being flat and semi-elliptical. Of about the same date
are the keeled responds and circular pier, and the two
surviving capitals, all of which, to judge from the nature
of their design, may be ascribed to the latter part of the
12th century. The capitals have square abaci, but where-
as the pier capital (Fig. 56, Pl. 33 B) is formed with plain
concave sides which are crudely carved with simple
foliage, as if applied, the one belonging to the eastern
respond is an accomplished piece of masoncraft wrought
from a harder stone. This last is defaced on its exposed
side, but the half now concealed within the walling is a
beautiful rendering of a late 12th-century waterleaf

1 Lawrie, Charters, No. XCIII.
2 Fasti, viii, 386.

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