Insc. "A Perspective View of the Front of the Tron Kirk with the Adjoining Buildings. The Hon.ble John Elphinstone Esq.r Engineer Delin.t Parr Sculp.t"

Description Insc. "A Perspective View of the Front of the Tron Kirk with the Adjoining Buildings. The Hon.ble John Elphinstone Esq.r Engineer Delin.t Parr Sculp.t"

Catalogue Number SC 421901

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of EDD 222/16 P

Scope and Content 18th-century view of the Tron Kirk, High Street, Edinburgh The Tron Kirk church was built as 'Christ Church at the Tron' c.1637 by John Mylne to house a congregation displaced when St Giles became a cathedral under Charles I's charter of 1633. It took its name from the 'tron' or weigh beam that once stood here. The Tron Kirk had a wooden 'Dutch' steeple covered with copper from Hamburg, destroyed in the Great Fire of 1824, and an oak hammerbeam roof by John Scott. The main body of the church was shortened c.1790 when Hunter Square and South Bridge were built. The Tron was a wooden beam fixed on top of three or four stone steps. All merchandise that came into the City was weighed here. Merchants whose goods were found to be underweight, and 'sinners' were nailed to the beam by the ear. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/421901

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap