Old St. Michael's Church Hall
formerly Crieff parish church of St. Michael
Extracts from Historic Environment Scotland details of listing (as at March 2022).
DESCRIPTION (per Historic Scotland 1992 - LB23481) http://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/LB23481
Category: B
Date added: 05/10/1971
Local Authority: Perth & Kinross Burgh: Crieff
Coordinates: 286573, 721519
Begun 1786, completed by William Stirling 1827. Large 5-bay, rectangular- plan, piend-roofed former church with crenellated, 4-stage, centre tower. Harled. Band courses to tower. Round-headed windows.
S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: symmetrical. Tower (see below) projecting to centre bay, flanking bays each with tall window, tall narrow light to outer left and smaller narrow square-headed window to outer right with further round-headed window over.
TOWER: 1st stage with 2-leaf boarded timber square-headed door and 5- part fanlight, and small window to 2nd stage; 3rd stage with taller windows to S, E and W giving way to taller 4th stage with louvered bipartite openings to each elevation.
W (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: 2-leaf boarded timber door to centre with tall lights to flanking bays.
E ELEVATION: square-headed, asymmetrical fenestration to each floor.
N ELEVATION: largely blank elevation with door and adjacent small window to outer left.
Stylised multi-pane glazing patterns in timber windows. Grey slates. Coped and shouldered brick stack to E.
INTERIOR: altered (see Notes); boarded dadoes retained.
Statement of Special Interest: Ecclesiastical building no longer in use as such. St Michael’s Churchyard and boundary walls are listed separately. Formerly Crieff Parish Church, and built on the site of an earlier church of St Michael in the walls of which were found forty Robert I gold coins. Groome describes the current building as "the plain East church, with an ill-designed bell-tower". In 1882 the building became St Michael's church hall, when the new church was built in Strathearn Terrace, and subsequently a community hall in the late 20th century. Protracted building time partly due to a successful lawsuit against the heritors, when the church was abandoned [c] unfinished by the contractor after the congregation occupied it during shower of rain. Finally completed by order of the Court of Session in 1827, at the joint expense of the heritors and feuars. Korner refers to a marble tablet sited over the door and inscribed "In memory of the late gallant Sir David Baird". He also mentions the graveyard being in a "bad state”? Interior alterations include removal of the gallery, installation of stage, raising of floor and altering vestibule to small room now accessed by stair. A king post roof is however concealed by modern ceiling tiles.
References - Bibliography: STATISTICAL ACCOUNT VOL X (1793), p598. NEW STATISTICAL ACCOUNT VOL X (1838), pp504, 518. Alexander Porteous HISTORY OF CRIEFF (1912), p124. N Haynes PERTH & KINROSS (2000), p89. CRIEFF COMMUNITY HALL: BRIEF OUTLINE OF HISTORY AND AIMS (2000). Sinclair Korner RAMBLES ROUND CRIEFF (1862). Groome's GAZETTEER VOL II, p307.
[Notes by AR: (a) Erroneously refers to East and West facing windows (b) For clarity, the roof has no slates and is finished with fibre cement tiles. Also the shouldered chimney stack is built from stone, not brick. (c) The suspended ceiling is now removed.
Supplementary notes, in red, by Andrew Rodger: (a) “Macara refers to “Crieff its Traditions and Characters with Anecdotes of Strathearn” by Duncan Macara published in 1896 and should note pages 151-158, wherein the anecdotes confirm the presence of a gallery, the raised pulpit against the tower with canopy and the shot hole above. It also confirms the tower was only built up to wall head height at the time referred to, which we assume is before 1827. The reference to Haynes is the book North Perth & Kinross published by the RIAS in 2000 ]
DESCRIPTION (per Historic Scotland 1992 - LB23481) http://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/LB23481
Category: B
Date added: 05/10/1971
Local Authority: Perth & Kinross Burgh: Crieff
Coordinates: 286573, 721519
Begun 1786, completed by William Stirling 1827. Large 5-bay, rectangular- plan, piend-roofed former church with crenellated, 4-stage, centre tower. Harled. Band courses to tower. Round-headed windows.
S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: symmetrical. Tower (see below) projecting to centre bay, flanking bays each with tall window, tall narrow light to outer left and smaller narrow square-headed window to outer right with further round-headed window over.
TOWER: 1st stage with 2-leaf boarded timber square-headed door and 5- part fanlight, and small window to 2nd stage; 3rd stage with taller windows to S, E and W giving way to taller 4th stage with louvered bipartite openings to each elevation.
W (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: 2-leaf boarded timber door to centre with tall lights to flanking bays.
E ELEVATION: square-headed, asymmetrical fenestration to each floor.
N ELEVATION: largely blank elevation with door and adjacent small window to outer left.
Stylised multi-pane glazing patterns in timber windows. Grey slates. Coped and shouldered brick stack to E.
INTERIOR: altered (see Notes); boarded dadoes retained.
Statement of Special Interest: Ecclesiastical building no longer in use as such. St Michael’s Churchyard and boundary walls are listed separately. Formerly Crieff Parish Church, and built on the site of an earlier church of St Michael in the walls of which were found forty Robert I gold coins. Groome describes the current building as "the plain East church, with an ill-designed bell-tower". In 1882 the building became St Michael's church hall, when the new church was built in Strathearn Terrace, and subsequently a community hall in the late 20th century. Protracted building time partly due to a successful lawsuit against the heritors, when the church was abandoned [c] unfinished by the contractor after the congregation occupied it during shower of rain. Finally completed by order of the Court of Session in 1827, at the joint expense of the heritors and feuars. Korner refers to a marble tablet sited over the door and inscribed "In memory of the late gallant Sir David Baird". He also mentions the graveyard being in a "bad state”? Interior alterations include removal of the gallery, installation of stage, raising of floor and altering vestibule to small room now accessed by stair. A king post roof is however concealed by modern ceiling tiles.
References - Bibliography: STATISTICAL ACCOUNT VOL X (1793), p598. NEW STATISTICAL ACCOUNT VOL X (1838), pp504, 518. Alexander Porteous HISTORY OF CRIEFF (1912), p124. N Haynes PERTH & KINROSS (2000), p89. CRIEFF COMMUNITY HALL: BRIEF OUTLINE OF HISTORY AND AIMS (2000). Sinclair Korner RAMBLES ROUND CRIEFF (1862). Groome's GAZETTEER VOL II, p307.
[Notes by AR: (a) Erroneously refers to East and West facing windows (b) For clarity, the roof has no slates and is finished with fibre cement tiles. Also the shouldered chimney stack is built from stone, not brick. (c) The suspended ceiling is now removed.
Supplementary notes, in red, by Andrew Rodger: (a) “Macara refers to “Crieff its Traditions and Characters with Anecdotes of Strathearn” by Duncan Macara published in 1896 and should note pages 151-158, wherein the anecdotes confirm the presence of a gallery, the raised pulpit against the tower with canopy and the shot hole above. It also confirms the tower was only built up to wall head height at the time referred to, which we assume is before 1827. The reference to Haynes is the book North Perth & Kinross published by the RIAS in 2000 ]