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Field Visit
Date 9 July 1915
Event ID 1115468
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1115468
Parish Church, East Calder.
Within the churchyard, on the north of the highway, which runs through the village, is the ruin of the former parish church. It has been an oblong single chambered structure, orientated, and measuring externally 62 feet 8 inches by 23 feet. The south wall and the gables are entire and are built of ashlar in courses 10 inches high with long and short quoins. The north wall has been removed to provide access to burial places now occupying the interior. The west gable is surmounted by a 17th-century belfry, from which the bell has been removed. Built into it is the upper portion of a cross-slab with foliage described below. In the east gable are the remains of a late Gothic two-light window. The structure appears to date from the 16th century.
The old church was dedicated to St Cuthbert and belonged to the Abbey of Kelso. The old parish of East Calder was united with Kirknewton soon after the middle of the 18th century.
TOMBSTONE. A tombstone (Fig. 86), of coffin cover type, lies 20 feet from the south wall of the church. It measures 5 1/3 feet long by 1 foot 4 ½ inches broad and has been elaborately sculptured, although the details are, in part, now much obliterated. The ends and sides are splayed and have a roll moulding on the edges. There appears to have been a cross or sword on the upper surface, but the head has been chiselled away and only the much-worn shaft or blade remains. The initials I. V., in incised letters, have been added on a portion of the re-chiselled space. On the splay of the southern side there is an elaborate design of drapery, broken towards the eastern end of the stone to admit a representation of the shears. On the opposing splay the ornament, except for the representation of a human hand or glove at the east end, is indecipherable. On the vertical north face there is a large key, 1 foot 5 inches long. Cf. Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., xl (1905-6), pp. 243-5.
SCULPTURED STONE IN WEST GABLE OF CHURCH. This stone could not be seen at the time of visit owing to the growth of ivy over the gable, and the description that follows is taken from Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., xl (1905-6), p. 242. ‘This interesting fragment shows very clearly the elaborately carved head of a Maltese cross, with a portion of its stem. This is not only attached to the circular nimbus, but runs right through it to a forked apex, a feature rather unusual in nimbus-bound crosses. Foliation of a somewhat elaborate character springs from the shaft and the nimbus, giving to the whole an effect peculiarly rich and pleasing. The stone measures about 20 inches by 14 inches, and has originally been about 20 inches in width’. (Fig. 84.)
RCAHMS 1929, visited 9 July 1915.
OS map: v N.E. (‘St Cuthbert's Kirk’).
