Field Visit
Date 10 July 1912
Event ID 1087763
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1087763
The parish church, an unpretentious structure erected in 1724, lies 2 ½ miles east-south-east of Haddington. In the south wall is inserted a stone 4 feet long and.8 inches high, which is carved with a foliaceous interlacing band and is possibly the side of an early Christian cross-shaft. The belfry over the west gable dates from 1685 and is of a common plain Renaissance type.
BELL. Within the belfry hangs a bell 15 ½ inches diameter at lip and 12 ¼ inches high, which is inscribed SIR, JAMES, STANDSFIELD ,DONVM , EIVS ,1681. It is small but very beautiful, almost certainly cast in Holland, but seemingly at some foundry otherwise unrepresented in Scotland so far as is known at present. The lettering of the inscription is closely set and has a rather heavy face, and the words are divided by commas set in the middle of the line, somewhat in the manner adopted by Quirin de Visser of Rotterdam at a later date on bells at Kells and Kirkcudbright Town Steeple. Above and below the inscription are ornamental borders in the best style of the period, the lower and wider consisting of birds with long beaks and outstretched wings among conventional flowers and leaves. The general style may be compared with the somewhat similar ornaments used by Peter Ostens of Rotterdam at Kinnett, Kincardineshire, 1679 (1). The clapper is original, and the old crown staple remains, but all the canons except two have been cut off in order to enable the bell to be fitted to a modern iron stock. The lip is remarkably thin.
RCAHMS 1924, visited 10 July 1912.
(1) Eeles, Church Bells of Kincardineshire, pp. 15, 33
