stirling-1963-vol-1/05_184

Transcription

No. 139 -- ECCLESIASTICAL MONUMENTS -- No. 139
and quoins, measuring 56 ft. from NE. to SW. by
45 ft. 6 in. transversely. The roof is hipped and slated.
High up in the centre of the SE. side there is a panel of
quatrefoil shape enclosed within a backset moulding;
the inscription, which is poorly done in a mixture of
scripts and with some letters disproportionately small,
reads THIS HOUSE / WAS ERECTED / AT THE EXPENCE
OF THE / BURGHER MEETING AT / AIRTH A.D. 1809.
Evidence of the alterations is to be seen, on the NW.
side, in the traces of disturbance below the tall windows
and in new stones used in the heads of the smaller ones.
At either end there is a square-headed entrance-door
with a blind window above it. These entrances open into
transverse lobbies, the SW. one now adapted to contain
a vestry and a heating-chamber while the NE. one has
had a session-house cut off its SE. end. Entry to the
church is now obtained by a door near the NW. end of
this lobby. A mark left by the removal of the gallery can
be seen on the inner face of each of the partitions that
separate the lobbies from the body of the church.

899874 -- NS 88 NE ("Ch") -- 6 April 1955

139. Parish Church, Bothkennar. Bothkennar, now a
quoad sacra parish under Grangemouth, was formerly
independent, and its church stands in a graveyard N. of
the by-road leading from the Polmont-Stirling highway
(A 905), at Pinfoldbridge, to Carronshore. The church
(Fig. 57) was "rebuilt" in 1789 ¹ and remodelled and
enlarged in 1887, when an extension containing new
entrances was added on the S. and a vestry on the N.;
the work of 1789 is no doubt commemorated by a stone
bearing that date which is built into the wall, high up,
near the NE. corner. It is clear, however, that this
rebuilding was not total, and that remains of an older
structure survive; evidence for this is seen in the masonry
of the lowermost four feet or so of the walls, as under
each of the existing windows on the N. side, which have
been placed to suit a higher floor than that of the older
structure, there appear the lower rybats and sill of an
original window, now built up, with dressed and backset
margins. Similarly, the bottom part of an original door-
way survives under the window in the E. gable, while a
corresponding doorway, now also built up, in the centre
of the opposite gable provided access to the church
until the new entrances were formed in 1887. The
structure to which these openings belonged, and the
lower courses of masonry in which they are found, may
perhaps have originated in 1673, as this date is incised
high up on the W. gable near the SW. corner; this
inscription also suggests the retention at the southern
ends of the gables of some of the higher parts of the
walling of this period, as well as of the lower, during the
rebuilding in 1789.
Though the difference between old and new work is
hardly perceptible in the face of the E. gable, there is a
decided contrast between the character of the masonry
in the southern and northern halves of the W. gable,
and this tends to confirm the idea that earlier work was
retained on the S; it may also be significant that the
southern angles of the church have slightly backset
dressed margins, similar to the old doors and windows,
in contrast with the plain quoins of the angles on the N.
Apparently the size of the church remained unchanged
until the 19th-century reconstruction, where most of
its southern wall was removed to allow for increased
accommodation in the new additions on that side. The
original church, rectangular on plan, measured
57 ft. 9 in. by 35 ft. externally, the walls being 2 ft. 9 in.
thick and built of random rubble. The present windows
are round-headed and have rounded arrises.

[Plan Inserted]
Fig. 57. Parish Church, Bothkennar (No. 139)

Abutting on the W. gable is a tower, erected either
during the alterations of 1789 or very shortly afterwards. ²
On plan it is 11 ft. square over walls approximately
3 ft. thick; it rises to a height of four storeys, the upper
ones being reached by ladders and hatchways. A door in
the middle of its S. wall leads into a small chamber 5 ft.
square, which served as a vestibule before the W. door
was built up. The top storey is used as a belfry. In its
ascent the tower is intaken at two stages, the lower
between the first and second storeys, at about the level
of the eaves of the church, and the higher between the
upper two floors. Below the lower intake the masonry
is squared rubble roughly brought to courses, but higher
up it is ashlar to the apex of a concave-sided pyramidal

1 Stat. Acct., xvii (1796), 295.
2 Hay gives the date as 1792 (Post-Reformation Churches,
172).

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