The Falkirk Steeple is a municipal building on the High Street in

Falkirk Falkirk ( ; ; ) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a resident population of 32,422 at the ...

in Scotland. The building, which accommodates a heritage centre, is a Category A

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

The first steeple in Falkirk was erected at the junction of Manor Street and Kirk Wynd in the 1580s. After it became dilapidated, it was replaced by a new building, the second steeple, which was built by a local mason, William Stevenson, and completed in 1697. The design involved a three-stage tower facing west down the High Street. There was a forestair and pedimented doorway in the first stage, small square openings in the second stage, and clock faces in the third stage, all surmounted by a double ogival roof. The bell was donated by

James Livingston, 1st Earl of Callendar James Livingston, 1st Earl of Callendar (s – March 1674), was a Scottish army officer who fought on the Royalist side in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Early life Livingston was the third son of Alexander Livingston, 1st Earl of Linlithgow a ...

. It served as the local

tolbooth A tolbooth or town house was the main municipal building of a Scotland, Scottish burgh, from medieval times until the 19th century. The tolbooth usually provided a council meeting chamber, a court house and a jail. The tolbooth was one of th ...

and

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...

for over a century. However, after construction of an adjacent building caused the second steeple to subside, it had to be demolished in 1803. The current building, the third steeple, was commissioned by the feudal "stentmasters " who controlled the burgh. It was designed by David Hamilton in the

neoclassical style Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassici ...

, built by a local mason, Harry Taylor, in

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

stone quarried from Brightons at a cost of £1,460, and was completed in June 1814. The design involved a five-stage tower facing west down the High Street. There were round headed windows in the first stage, tall square headed windows in the second stage, rounded headed windows flanked by

Doric order The Doric order is one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of t ...

columns supporting

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

s and

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

s in the third stage, clock faces flanked by

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s in the fourth stage and an

octagon In geometry, an octagon () is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, which alternates two types of edges. A truncated octagon, t is a ...

belfry The belfry /ˈbɛlfri/ is a structure enclosing bells for ringing as part of a building, usually as part of a bell tower or steeple. It can also refer to the entire tower or building, particularly in continental Europe for such a tower attached ...

formed by

Ionic order The Ionic order is one of the three canonic classical order, orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric order, Doric and the Corinthian order, Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan order, Tuscan (a plainer Doric) ...

columns in the fifth stage, all surmounted by an octagonal

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spire ...

and a

weather vane A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an instrument used for showing the direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ''vane'' comes from the Old English word , m ...

in the form of a cockerel. The tower was high. The bell, which was recovered from the old steeple, was supplemented by a larger bell, cast at the

Whitechapel Bell Foundry The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was a business in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. At the time of the closure of its Whitechapel premises, it was the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. The bell foundry primarily made church bells ...

, installed in 1816. Internally, there was a shop on the ground floor, a prison officer's room on the first floor, prison cells on the second and third floors, and a meeting room on the fourth floor. The building ceased to be used for judicial purposes after the Old Sheriff Court in Hope Street was opened in October 1868, and ceased to be used for municipal purposes after the Municipal Buildings were opened in 1879. The spire was badly damaged when it was hit by lightning in June 1927. Masonry fell on a horse and cart operated by A.G. Barr, killing the horse and injuring the driver, but the spire was repaired the following year. Falkirk F.C. first adopted a silhouette of the steeple for the club in 1970. The ground floor shop was converted for use as a

tourist information centre A visitor center or centre (see American and British English spelling differences), visitor information center or tourist information centre is a physical location that provides information to tourists. Types A visitor center may be a Civic ce ...

in 1973 and was then converted again, into a box office, selling theatre and concert tickets, in the 1980s. An extensive programme of refurbishment works was financed by

National Lottery Heritage Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

Historic Scotland Historic Scotland () was an executive agency of the Scottish Government, executive agency of the Scottish Office and later the Scottish Government from 1991 to 2015, responsible for safeguarding Scotland's built heritage and promoting its und ...

and Falkirk Council and carried out by Land Engineering at a cost of £750,000 in 2016. The work involved stone and window repairs, restoring the clock faces and regilding the weather vane. The building now accommodates a heritage centre managed by the Falkirk Local History Society.

References

{{reflist Category A listed buildings in Falkirk (council area) Listed government buildings in Scotland Buildings and structures in Falkirk Clock towers in the United Kingdom 1814 establishments in Scotland Towers completed in 1814 Government buildings completed in 1814

History

See also

References