The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Scotland, vol. 1

ST. Mary’s Church, [186] Rutherglen, Lanarkshire .

Only the merest fragment of this ancient church now remains, consisting of the east wall (Fig. 336), with an eastern tower attached to it. The masonry of the east wall shows it to be of the Norman period. There has been no opening of any kind in this wall. The returns of the chancel walls are only indicated on the east wall by the slightest traces in the jointing, so completely have they been cut away. The eastern tower (Fig. 337) is quite a unique feature in Scotland. It had no connection with the church, although built against it, and is of later erection by probably two or three centuries. The doorway is low and lintelled, and has a simple splay. The upper part of the tower has apparently been rebuilt, and, with the slated roof, dates doubtless from the seventeenth century. The tower is about 10 feet 6 inches square inside, and about 34 feet high to the top of the masonry. It contains no stair.

In Ure’s History of Rutherglen it is stated that there was a nave with side aisles, 62 feet long by 25 feet wide, “exclusive of the additions on the back and front;” that is, exclusive of the side aisles. Assuming these to have been eight or ten feet wide, we should have a church nearly corresponding in size with the present erection, built about a century ago, and occupying the site of the nave, as shown in outline on the plan, on which are also indicated the nave piers. The nave was thus about 62 feet long by 45 feet wide, and the chancel was about 42 feet long by 20 feet wide inside. Ure, by a mistake easily made, gives the dimensions of the chancel as ten feet less in length. He also mentions that there were five pillars on each side of the nave. This may mean four whole pillars and two halves (the responds), as shown in the plan, which, however, merely pretends to approximate to something like what the original was.

Ure gives a drawing of the interior of the church, with detailed sketches of some of the capitals of the piers. Four of these capitals are preserved in a garden rockery in Rutherglen, and the annexed sketch (Fig. 338) shows them as they are seen lying there half covered up and concealed. The upper one, which shows the bed of the capital, is a respond from one of the end walls, and the diameter of the column, as indicated by the inner circle, is 18 inches, the breadth across the abacus being 2 feet 5 inches. The enrichments of these capitals correspond with those indicated by Ure in his view, and he informs us that the pillars, of which there were five on each side, “are smooth and round, except the middle ones, which are octagonal.” He further says that the arcade “arches are pointed, but the point is hardly discernible,” and with this the view in his book agrees. Above the arcade he shows a small square window, probably measuring about 2 feet each way, and widely splayed inside. Immediately above this was the roof. The walls were “about 20 feet high, including the pillars on which they are supported.” It is satisfactory to find Ure’s description of the church supported by the

remaining fragments. The lower member, shown in Fig. 338, is a carved stone, probably part of the chancel arch. It is enriched with the alternate billet ornaments so frequent in such arches during the Norman period.

The church was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and was granted to the Abbey of Paisley by William the Lion before the year 1189, and it continued in their possession down to the period of the Reformation. There were several altars, with endowed chaplains.

The church stands near the west end of the cemetery, on the north side of the main street. The entrance from the street is through a picturesque lych-gate of Renaissance design, dated 1663. (See Fig. 337.) It is surmounted by a sundial, dated 1679.

The cemetery is mentioned in the charters of Paisley (No. 85) in the year 1262, when the widow of John of Perthie grants to Paisley a piece of land lying between the church of the Virgin Mary and the river Clyde.