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Aberlady, Main Street, Parish Church And Graveyard
Bell Tower (15th Century), Burial Ground (18th Century), Church (18th Century), Dovecot (17th Century), War Memorial(S) (19th Century)
Site Name Aberlady, Main Street, Parish Church And Graveyard
Classification Bell Tower (15th Century), Burial Ground (18th Century), Church (18th Century), Dovecot (17th Century), War Memorial(S) (19th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Colonel G.e Hope Memorial; War Memorial Window; Capt The Hon W Charteris War Memorial Plaque
Canmore ID 54874
Site Number NT47NE 17
NGR NT 46179 79850
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/54874
- Council East Lothian
- Parish Aberlady
- Former Region Lothian
- Former District East Lothian
- Former County East Lothian
NT47NE 17 46179 79850
See also NT47NE 1.
(NT 4618 7985) Aberlady Parish Church: A 15th century rubble-built square tower adjoins the W end, with a set-in top storey and a slated pyramidal spire behind a corbelled parapet. The storey above the string course was later adapted as a dovecot, with flight holes in the slit window on the S side. Nothing can be seen of the Georgian church of 1773. On the N side it incorporated two burial aisles of late 16th and early 17th century date. These were duplicated on the S side in 1886 when the body of the church was completely recast by William Young, who also added twin porches to the N and S sides of the tower, and the session houses at the E end. (This church was doubtless originally built as a successor to St Mary's Chapel, which stood at NT 4614 7988 - see NT47NE 1).
C McWilliam 1978; A N Robertson 1952; RCAHMS 1924, visited 1914; D C Bailey and M C Tindall 1963
This church is still in use.
Visited by OS (RDL) 25 October 1962.
NMRS REFERENCES
Non Guardianship Sites Notes Collection DC/23023 to DC/23024, 1967.
Architect: William Young (reconstruction 1886).
Field Visit (2 June 1914)
2. Aberlady Parish Church.
This church is situated at the western extremity of the village, overlooking Aberlady Bay. The tower at the western end (fig. 33) is a 15th century construction 18 feet square on plan; it rises unbroken, save for a projecting string-course, to an intake 30 feet above the ground. Ten feet above this it terminates in a corbel course supporting a plain stone parapet, within which it is roofed with a slated pyramidal spire. The ground floor is vaulted and this and the two intermediate floors are lit by narrow slits; the fourth floor has two-light windows with semicircular heads and modern mullions. The walls are 3 feet 6 inches thick.
The two burial aisles on the north were built c. late 16th and early 17th century. The north windows imitative of "plate" tracery are of some interest. The empty panel space above a door in the eastern aisle may not belong to this structure but to Kilspindie Tower (RCAHMS 1924, No.4).
In the Statistical Account, vi., p. 548 it is recorded that the church was built in 1773 replacing an older building 100 feet in length,16 ½ feet in breadth and between 10 and 11 feet in height with walls partially built of mud. The later structure in its turn has been restored within recent years and is in use and in good condition.
MONUMENT: To the east of the church within the graveyard is an elaborate freestanding monument of the 17th century, designed in the Renaissance style.
HISTORICAL NOTE: The lands of Aberlady, including the church, belonged to the bishop of Dunkeld. In 1454 all the lands south of the Forth possessed by that bishop were incorporated in the barony of Aberlady-these lands being Aberlady, Preston, Cramond and Abercorn (1). Bishop Thomas Lauder (1452-76) erected the vicarage into a prebend of the cathedral church (2) and in 1469 granted, with the consent of his chapter, 6 merks annually from the prebend for the support of chorister boys in the cathedral, a grant confirmed by James III. in 1472 (3). There was a chapel dedicated to the B. V. Mary within the cemetery of the parish church (4).
RCAHMS 1924, visited 2 June 1914
(1) Reg. Mag. Sig. s.a. No. 600; (2) Rentale Dunkeldense, p. 337; (3) Reg. Mag. Sig. s.a. No. 1056; (4) Inquis. Spec.
OS map ref. i. Hadd. No. 1.
Photographic Survey (1987)
Recording of gravestones in the churchyard of Aberlady Parish Church by Mrs Betty Willsher in 1987.
