Ayton Village, Berwickshire Scotland

A historic parish

in the beautiful East Berwickshire area of the Scottish Borders

Ayton Parish Church - Structural Details

 

Estimated to accommodate 720 worshippers, the Church is cruciform in shape, comprising a nave, cloister, apsidal chancel and south transept, and is finished with a graceful spire rising over 120 feet.

The tower, surmounted by the spire, is situated at the south angle over the principal doorway, and contains a bell, in the key of A, presented by Mr Mitchell-Innes. Built with white dressed freestone and standing on a fine open site, the exterior of the building reveals much decorative beauty.

On the north side are a small but neat vestry and the entrance to the pews in the Apse through an open porch of ornamental timber work. In front of the pulpit, which commands both the transept and the nave, stand the baptismal font as well as the new communion table and the reading desk of light Spanish oak, commemorative of the men of the parish who died in the Great War and gifted by members of the Young Men’s Guild and Mr John Heron respectively.

The tranceried windows are enriched with coloured glass, the west light above the gallery being an architectural feature of much beauty. The latter, called the ‘Rose Window’, is shaped like a wheel and is filled with geometric and foliated glass.

At the east end of the chancel are three twin light windows representing the Six Acts of Mercy; those in the south transept consist of four upright lights, the subject being ‘The Adoration of the Magi and the Shepherds’ who are represented offering their gifts to the infant Saviour. On the north side are three upright lights depicting the ‘Sermon on the Mount’. In the adjoining graveyard are tombstones dating 250 years back.