St James R.C. Church, High Street, Innerleithen

Heritage listing

Category B Date Added 21/06/1982 Local Authority Scottish Borders Planning Authority Scottish Borders Burgh Innerleithen NGR NT 33014 36576 Coordinates 333014, 636576 — John Biggar, 1881. 5-bay, buttressed, Decorated Gothic church with steeply pitched roof and lower chancel bay to E end. 4-stage, broach-spired tower to NW corner and 3-bay, 2-storey gabled former presbytery adjoining to E. Snecked whinstone with ashlar dressings. Deep base course. Stepped buttresses punctuating pointed-arch traceried windows with corbel-stopped hoodmoulds to nave; two windows with trefoil above to gables. Tower with stepped, angled buttresses, semi-octagonal stair tower to lower stages, trefoiled pointed-arch louvred belfry windows, corbel table and 2 tiers of lucarnes to spire. Diamond leaded glazing. Two-leaf boarded timber doors. Graded grey slates, clay ridge tiles. Stone skews with beaked skewputts; cross finials to apexes. Cast-iron rainwater goods. INTERIOR: plain decorative scheme. Lofty timber-trussed roof on painted stone corbels; painted stone chancel arch. Open-back pews. Later 20th century additions to W end to form narthex incorporating relocated alter rails. PRESBYTERY: 3-bay former presbytery with advanced outer gables with tympanum quatrefoils; asymmetrical gables to side and rear. Canted lead-roofed window to principal room. Trefoil-headed window openings with plate glass in timber sash and case windows. Stone skews with beaked skewputts. Corniced and shouldered ridge stacks, plain clay cans. INTERIOR: Decorative plasterwork to principal room, dog-leg stair with cast-iron balustrade. Doors and timber shutters with pointed trefoil detailing. BOUNDARY WALLS AND GATEPIERS: Squared monolithic sandstone gatepiers with carved crosses; low whinstone walls with sandstone caps.

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.