Publication Account
Date 1985
Event ID 1016211
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016211
A nearby ford on the Tweed was in use until 1839 when superseded by a wooden bridge on stone piers. Many invading armies once crossed the river at this point and tradition says that the church was built by James IV and dedicated to the Virgin Mary in thanks for his deliverance from drowning whilst crossing in a sudden spate. Ladykirk is generally identified as the "Kirk of Steill" (stell: a deep pool where salmon nets were set), as specified in royal accounts of 1500-1513. After the Reformation the church combined the ancient parishes ofUpsettlington and Horndean, both recorded in the 12th century.
It is a remarkably complete example of the final development of the Gothic style in Scotland. Greatly altered in the first half of the 19th century, when the west end was separated off and used as a school, in 1861 the division was removed and the church repaired and restored.
Cruciform but aisleless, the ends of the choir and transepts are rounded or apsidal. A further major feature is the pointed, stone-vaulted nave and chancel roof, strengthened by a series of splayed ribs resting on small, moulded corbels. This roof is responsible for the massive appearance of the exterior. On the one hand, the huge external buttresses, matched to the ends of the ribs, were necessary supports for the heavy roof of overlapping stones. Equally, the line from which the main roof vault springs internally determined the upper limit of the window arches-hence the large expanse of plain external walling between the tops of the aisles and the wall-head.
In the apses and north wall, the windows comprise two or three pointed lights in the traceried heads; on the south side, to make the openings as wide as possible, the arched heads are elliptical.
The upper part of the tower, said to be the work of the elder Adam, was added c1743. The lower three floors, however, similar to towers in Northern England, seem to have been designed for defence. Some 2.5m square internally, with walls 1 m and more thick, there is no access at ground level from the church; by contrast the only access to the upper floors is by a turnpike stair from within the church. The upper floors provided the priest's quarters, and a small window at first-floor level, now blocked up, looked into the church. Each of the three floors had a strong, substantial door and a stone vaulted roof, later pierced to accommodate bell ropes.
The lowest room has a good range of mason's markson the underside of the doorway arch, on the walls and on the vaulted roof It was later used as a prison (the jougs, an iron collar and chain, hang outside), and in this respect bears certain resemblances to the larger, later tower surviving at the west end of Greenlaw Kirk (NT 711461), built as a jail in 1712 and with the now vanished courthouse adjoining its west side.
Information from 'Exploring Scotland's Heritage: Lothian and Borders', (1985).
