Catholic Church Kilsyth


The new church of St. Patrick's Kilsyth
New updated version of the building of the Church

The new church replaces the stone-built church on the same site, which was in use until demolished to allow the erection of the new St. Patrick's. The site, with its gentle slope to the road and its central change of level parallel to the road, is surrounded on three sides by buildings, one of which stands atop a high retaining wall which forms a long boundary. By placing the new building across the site parallel to and well back from the road and over the change of level, it was possible to provide a large paved forecourt and to exploit the levels to give access to the church via a lower narthex and to house a mortuary chapel, repository, and Guild room in a lower ground floor.

The nave, on the upper level, is reached by a wide stair, which continues to a gallery placed alongside the nave, accommodating the choir and the Lady chapel. The baptistery, at an intermediate level, is situated in a roof-lit tower attached to the nave near the main entrance. Ground level access to the nave is by a slow ramp from a rear enclosed paved courtyard. The large sanctuary, the layout of which was modified during construction to bring it into line with the new liturgical requirements, has a main altar placed forward to allow celebration of the Mass facing the people, and a Blessed Sacrament altar bearing the tabernacle.

The sacristies are placed under a side gallery, convenient to the sanctuary, and adjacent to the nave are three sets of confessionals, with an additional confessional placed off the mortuary chapel. Generally, in the design, the aim has been to provide a large spacious interior, with carefully controlled daylight by means of a continuous high level strip of windows for general lighting, with additional roof lighting and windows emphasising the sanctuary and baptistery, and by a system of stepped windows between massive brick piers giving additional light to the nave.
The construction is of load-bearing facing brick, both externally and internally, with strongly modeled recessed and buttressed walls carrying deep steel trusses spanning across the nave. This deep truss is externally expressed by an inward sloping copper-covered fascia, separated from the wall head by the narrow strip of continuous glazing. The roof covering is of copper and the ceiling of diagonally boarded soft wood. Flooring generally is of precast concrete and granolithic pavings over embedded electrical coils which provide the heating. The gallery, in the form of a concrete slab with semi-circular vaults, is carried over the front wall and revealed as a range of circular headed openings on the exterior. The windows formed of random placed bronze sections fixed between copper covered timber transoms, are filled with plate glass at upper level and rough cast glass at lower level. Internally all timber finishings, seating and fitments are of hardwood and in general an effort has been made to create a permanent and rich effect by a limited selection of self-finishing materials.

The fluorescent lighting aims at maintaining the character of the daylighting, and this is achieved by the placing of the main part of the lighting on the high level sill, and by integrating it into the stepped windows alongside the naves.

The altars are of solid block Portland stone. The font for the baptistery comes from the old church and will create a desirable link to the previous building.

Architecturally, the church is a large-scale one-box brick structure surmounted by a clerestory and an unusual roof. It was designed by Gillespie, Kidd & Coia in 1965 and is one of only four Gillespie, Kidd & Coia churches with all its original features intact.
In 2000, Historic Scotland and Heritage Lottery funded restoration of the church.

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New updated version of the building of the Church



 
God BlessYou!