New Byth Church, Bridge Street, New Byth

Heritage listing

Category C Date Added 15/02/1982 Local Authority Aberdeenshire Planning Authority Aberdeenshire Parish King Edward NGR NJ 82156 53847 Coordinates 382156, 853847 — A & W Reid, architects, Elgin. Dated 1851. Simple rectangular church. Red rubble with tooled red sandstone ashlar dressings, chamfered margins. E facing entrance gable with centre pointed-headed entrance flanked by hoodmoulded lancet windows; apex bellcote with datestone at base; angle buttresses. 4-bay long N and S elevations lit by narrow pointed-headed windows with leaded lattice-pane glazing. Later vestry in rear. Slate roof. INTERIOR: simple galleried interior; gallery masked by later inserted ceiling; seats re-used elsewhere. Painted panelled gallery front. Simple panelled pulpit and pews. Ornate inlaid marble mural memorial in W wall to Col Beauchamp Colclough Urquhart of Meldrum and Bythe. In entrance lobby mural memorial to Rev John Falconer, died 1895. FORECOURT: pyramidally capped sandstone ashlar piers with linking iron railings enclosing area by E entrance. — Ecclesiastical building in use as such. The village of New Bythe was established in 1764. Between 1792-4 a Chapel of Ease was created in a former 'linen manufactory' and by 1794 'was a church with both belfry and bell'. The present church was constructed largely through the enthusiasm of the Rev John Falconer (see memorial in entrance lobby), minister for 50 years. The drawings reveal that a clock was intended, sited immediately below the bellcote. New Bythe was erected as a Quoad Sacra parish in 1868.

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.