..... Continued estimated. Ian Begg, Vice President of the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland, and member of the H.B.C., suggests that spires and towers, which are the most conspicuous and least functional parts of listed churches, should be maintained by the State to relieve the hard-pressed congregations. Episcopal Church, the sale of the empty building in 1957 as an electricity sub-station was regarded as a practical, even symbolic, triumph for conservation. After being fairly well maintained but now no longer required by the South of Scotland Electricity Board, the premises have been purchased by Christian Centre Ministries. However, the Planning Authority had previously consented to commercial use by another applicant with a consequent increase in selling price, so that the new church owners now have to Former Holv Trinitv Church by John He~derson 1838 ---- Case Histories ---- Of course towers alone are not always convincing monuments; the 1844 tower of Stockbridge Church transported from Lothian Road, when the Caledonian Station was built in 1867, was re-erected on its present site and attached to a new Parish Church. The church was demolished in 1980 and replaced by sheltered housing. The Norman style tower still stands, deprived of its church and demeaned by its domesticated brick replacement. Here was a case where, given a few more years for taste to change and demand to increase (as they have) there would have been a ready market for the church buildings and the sheltered housing might have been put on a less congested site - Stockbridge Parish might even have kept its church for worship! That is to be the happy outcome at Telford's great Dean Bridge where Holy Trinity Church still stands picturesquely on the northern bank high above the Water of Leith. Built in 1837 for a congregation separated with its rector from the raise considerable sums to buy and 'transform' the building before it can be used once more for worship; no doubt the Historic Buildings Council will be asked to assist. Some buildings can be rescued only by official action. For instance in Charlotte Street the church on the George Street axis was in a critical structural condition in 1960. The dwindling congregation could not afford the repairs but the Government stepped in and converted the church into an annex of Register House, the Scottish Record Office. Admittedly Colin Mc William, the architectural historian, says that the interior is now a vast filing cabinet but thanks to this official rescue operation Robert Reid's 1814 domed and pedimented elevations remain as the western hub of Edinburgh's First New Town. ---Funding Conservation --- Scotland does not have the benefit of a redundant Churches Fund but grants from the Historic Buildings Council for Scotland for the repair of churches in ecclesiastical use have risen over ten years from £51,199 in 1978/79 to £1,495,744 last year. This increase is likely to continue. H.B.C. grants are also awarded for listed but redundant churches and for unlisted churches in conservation areas. With this aid is bound to come increasing control over alterations and changes to the fabric of churches used for worship, which are at present exempt, and this control could become an impediment to radical liturgical reordering. The Dean Bridge by Thomas Telford 1829 St Bernard's \V ell by Alexander Nasmyth 1789 In Edinburgh the District Council has contributed £315,000 to the cost of repairing some of the most important churches (1979-1988) - about 10% of conservation grant expenditure. In fact until 1925 the City was the residual guardian of many "Burgh" churches built in the 18th and early 19th centuries with municipal funds for the established Church of Scotland in the expanding New Town as well as the Old. These "Burgh" churches in the New Town are now threatened with closure by the central church authorities and the future of some of Edinburgh's finest city churches is uncertain. In the Old Town one 17th century church with 19th century spire was built in the High Street at the Tron (public weighing scales) and was acquired at great expense by the City Council in compensation for refusal to permit demolition after it became redundant. In spite of this investment the Tron Kirk has remained virtually unused since 1954 though its central position, half way along the Royal Mile, should make it an ideal information ITIII11111111111111111 IIIll IIIll IIIIIHHI11IITIIIAIIIII IIIll IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 7
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