Sprouston Parish Church

Sprouston Parish Church was built in 1728, though a church has stood on the site since at least 1128, when the monks of Kelso dedicated the church of 'Spruwestun' to St Michael.

The church is situated on a knoll in the centre of the village, and is a rectangular, white-painted structure. In 1822, the external stairs leading to the upper gallery were enclosed to form a lobby, and a small chancel was constructed in 1911. During the digging of the chancel foundations, a carved stone was found, which dates from between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. Showing the face of a knight and with a semi-circular niche, it is thought to be a fragment of a piscina, a basin in which priests washed their hands.

In 1588, an act of the church assembly forbade the ancient practice of burials inside churches. In protest at this, a local man, John Burne, broke into the church in the same year and buried his mother within it. He was eventually fined #50 and the body was removed to be buried elsewhere.

Text prepared by RCAHMS as part of the Accessing Scotland's Past project

Sprouston (St Michael), Roxburghshire, cross-shaft fragment in socket-stone

Measurements: socket-stone H 0.23m, W 0.66m square; cross-shaft H above socket 0.61m, W 0.41m, D 0.23m

Stone type: sandstone

Place of discovery: NT 7566 3532

Present location: in the churchyard of the old parish church.

Evidence for discovery: noted by RCAHMS during fieldwork in 1952, on a site with early origins.

Present condition: weathered, broken top, east face removed to allow re-use as headstone for ATH.

Description

This was a substantial cross-shaft, and the re-cutting of the east face implies that there was carved ornament on it.

Date: uncertain.

References: RCAHMS 1956, no 970.

Compiled by A Ritchie 2016.

NT73NE 11.00 75669 35326

NT73NE 11.01 Centred NT 75680 35300 Graveyard

NT 7566 3532 Church (NAT).

OS 6" map, Roxburghshire, (1919-38).

Parish Church. Though a church has no doubt existed at Sprouston since early times, the present structure dates only from 1781. The gallery, which is at the W end, was enclosed in 1822. Apart from a small chancel, which was added in 1911, the building is plain and barn-like, with four tall, round-headed windows in the S side. The W gable bears a bell-cote containing a bell which was inaccessible on the dates of visit; the inscription could, however, be read in part with glasses, as follows: FOR THE KIRK OF SPROUSTOUN ..... ROXBURGH / EDR 1703.

When foundations of the new chancel were being dug in 1911, a carved stone (RCAHMS 1956, fig.266) was found (Information from Rev Hunter Wray, Sprouston) and was inserted, for preservation, on the inner face of the S wall of the chancel close to the SE corner. In this stone there has been cut a recess of semicircular section 11 1/4in long by 6 3/4in high and 4in deep, with a segmental upper edge, and, below, a rudely moulded sill. From the centre of the top projects the head of a knight wearing a close helmet and a chaplet; in the upper sinister corner there is a flower in low relief, and from the dexter corner some corresponding piece of ornament seems to have been cut away. The stone evidently dates from the 15th century, but its purpose is unknown.

Among the memorials in the churchyard the following may be noted:

(1) The lower part of a cross-shaft inserted in a stone base (RCAHMS 1956 fig.406). The base measures 2ft 2 1/2in by 2ft by 9in in height; the shaft, where it enters its socket, measures 1ft 4in by 9in and it stands 2ft above the top of the base. Its upper end is fractured, and its E face has been cut away to form a slightly sloping surface on which the initials A T H have been cut in modern times.

(2) A headstone commemorating JAMES DICKSONE, TAILZER IN SPROUSTOUN, who died in 1707.

(3) A headstone on which the date 1704 can be read although the name of the person commemorated is illegible.

The stones in this churchyard are, in general, very badly weathered, and some of the numerous illegible ones may well date from before 1707. Preserved in the manse is a funeral hand-bell of bronze inscribed, in raised letters, MR WM BAXTER 1728 / IAS EDGAR FECIT.

RCAHMS 1956, visited 15 March 1945, 26 April 1952.

The parish church, still in use for public worship, is as described by the RCAHMS.

The cross-shaft and base are at NT 7567 3530.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 30 June 1966.