Conserving a landmark

FOLLOWING an earlier Heritage Lottery Fund development grant of almost £25,000 to Brechin’s Gardner Memorial Church, Historic Environment Scotland and the Heritage Lottery Fund have jointly agreed to a further award of almost £220,000 for essential repairs and heritage promotion in connection with the Gardner’s Repair & Renewal Project.

The Project aims to secure the future of this ‘A’ listed building within the Brechin Conservation Area and the heart of the town for the benefit of the whole community.

The project will carry out essential conservation work and provide interpretive material and new digital access to the building, enabling visitors to better understand its unique detail and the wider community to participate in a variety of related heritage activities.

The Gardner was built in the late 1890s, following a bequest of £7,000 from the Rev Alexander Gardner towards the building of a new church in memory of his son; along with a matching donation from local landowners, the Milne family of Mooranbank.

The church was designed in the American Romanesque / Arts and Crafts style by Sir John James Burnet, a contemporary of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and was designated 1896 building of the year by the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland.

The building is built of red sandstone and has a number of interesting features, from its Art Nouveau entrance gateway to a medieval monastic style cloister.

The interior of the church is constructed on a number of different levels, progress from the entrance being ever upwards towards the chancel, whilst the roof is of a highly crafted open timber collar braced construction unique to the church and incorporates a rood beam with three niches, deliberately left empty to avoid thoughts on man’s workmanship rather than that of the Creator.

There are a considerable number of both wooden and stone carvings throughout the church, ranging from angels on the pulpit to animals on the choir stalls and devils in the stonework.

It also contains several ornate Tynecastle Tapestry covered doors, which will be restored by the Scottish Conservation Studio during the course of the project.

Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, said: “I am certainly pleased to support this and congratulate the Gardner Repair & Renewal Project, Brechin, on securing this money from Historic Environment Scotland and the Heritage Lottery Fund.

“This historic red sandstone building has been an attractive and important landmark in Brechin for over a century and represents so many different things to so many different people, not least the architectural talent of John James Burnet. It was simply vital that this major repair and renewal work could go ahead and I commend not only those who fund it, but also those who work tirelessly to make this happen.”

“I congratulate the Gardner Repair & Renewal Project, Brechin, on securing this money from Historic Environment Scotland and the Heritage Lottery Fund.

This article appears in the January 2019 Issue of Life and Work

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