Publication Account

Date 1981

Event ID 1018512

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1018512

Apparently up until 1586 (when the town council ordered a church to be built with 'all godly expeditioun (Wood, 1887, 301). Anstruther-Wester and Pittenweem had formed one parish and the parish church was in Anstruther (Cook, 1867, 9n). However, there was a church connected with the priory which receives a mention in 1549, but whether Pittenweem residents ever worshipped in it is unknown (Cook, 1867. 14n). The parish church at Pittenweem was built .in 1588, and although the main building had to submit to a dreadful restoration' which entirely 'changed its character in 1882, the tower and spire have remained almost unchanged (MacGibbon and Ross, 1896, ii, 149; Anon, 1975, n.p.). The tower was used as a tolbooth and is a 'fine example of intermingling of domestic and ecclesiastical work which was so common in the sixteenth and seventeenth century (Anon, 1975, n.p.; MacGibbon, 1892, ii, 149). Its circular stair turret and its corbelled gable top and the gun loops in the sills are capped off by a top storey and .spire which were added in 1630 (Anon, 1975, n.p.).

Information from ‘Historic Pittenweem: The Archaeological Implications of Development’ (1981).