Stichill Parish Church

A church has stood at Stichill since the fourteenth century, with the existing building being constructed around 1770.

The church is a rectangular building, constructed of rubble with ashlar dressings. An external stair on the north wall leads to the laird's loft, the area of the church where the principal landowner and his family worshipped. There are two large round-headed windows on the north wall, and four on the south, making the interior of the church bright and airy.

A small belfry on the west gable contains a bell engraved with the words, 'Michael Bvrgerhvys me fecit soli deo Gloria 1632', which translates as 'Michael Burgerhuys made me for the glory of God alone'.

Text prepared by RCAHMS as part of the Accessing Scotland's Past project

NT73NW 4.00 71113 38283

NT73NW 4.01 Centred NT 71130 38289 Graveyard

(NT 7111 3828) Church (NAT).

OS 6"map, Roxburghshire, (1919-38).

Parish Church, Stichill.The church and the burial-enclosure at its E end are both modern, but the E wall of the latter rests upon an old foundation which may be that of a former church. A pier of masonry, conjectured to be part of the wall, stands a short distance to the SE. In the E gable of the modern church there has been inserted an armorial panel of 17th-century type. The shield, surmounted by a helmet which is wreathed and has, for crest, a saltire within a garland of bay leaves, is charged: Three escallops, for Pringle of Stichill. Over all runs a label with the motto CORONA(T) FIDES, and below the shield there is a scrolled cartouche without an inscription. In the belfry on the W gable there hangs a bell of similar appearance to the one at Smailholm; it was inaccessible at the date of visit, but enough of the inscription could be read with field-glasses for the name of the 17th-century Dutch bell-founder Michael Burgerhuys to be identified. (Cf. RCAHMS 1956, introduction) The pier of masonry just mentioned forms a support for a mural monument of early 18th-century type. This monument has Ionic pilasters and a moulded entablature framing a panel from which the inscription has entirely disappeared. Only two other monuments in the churchyard fall to be recorded, both small headstones. One, which takes the form of a miniature mural monument, is inscribed in the tympanum MEMENTO MORI and below HERE LYES JAMES LAMB / TENNANT IN RUNN/INGBURN DIED JUNE / 23 1705 AGED 76 YEARS / AS ALSO ALISONE HOG/ART HIS SPOUSE DIED / MARCH 30 1686 AGE / 64 YEARS. On the back are the initials I L and A H followed by a verse:

NEAR TO THIS STANE A COUPLE LIES

THEY LIVE ABOVE & NO MORE DIES

THE POOR TUO PARENTS KIND HATH LOST

THEY TO RELIEVE THEM SPARED NO COST

THEY READY WERE TO HELP DISTRESD

WHICH TO THE (?BASE) DUST EXPREST

THEY ON THE WATERS CAST THEIR BREAD

THEY AFTERWARD IT FOUND INDEED

THE MERCY PROMISED TO SUCH IS NOU

BESTOUED THEM TO ENRICH

& NOU THEYR GONE TO HEAVENS GLOR

AND DO THE HOLY GOD ADORE

THE LAMB IS WORTHY OF ALL PRAISE

FROM EARTH TO HEAVEN OUR SOULS HATH (RAISE)

WHO HATH REDEEMED US BY HIS BLOOD

AND MADE US KINGS AND PREISTS TO GOD.

AMEN ALLELLUIA

The other is inscribed HEIR LYETH / WILLIAM WOOD/

WHO DEPAIRTED / THIS LIFE THE (?I)o / OF APR (I)L

16(?(77). On the back is a skull with cross-bones,

and the motto MEMENTO MORI above.

RCAHMS,visited 20 October 1937, 24 November 1951.

RCAHMS confirmed. The pier of masonry mentioned is at NT 7113 3827.

The parish church is still in use.

Visited by OS(WDJ) 29 June 1966.