Church of the Immaculate Conception (Bathgate)

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The Church of the Immaculate Conception ( Church of the Immaculate Conception ) is a Roman Catholic church building in the Scottish town of Bathgate in the Council Area West Lothian . In 2006 the structure was included in the Scottish List of Monuments in Monument Category C. The church is still in use as such.

history

Like all of Scotland, the Bathgate region has been Protestant since the Reformation. In Bathgate, for example, only three Catholics were recorded in 1843. With the famine in Ireland , however, numerous Irish Catholics settled in the Central Belt in the following years , where there was a high demand for labor in the course of industrialization . A mission was set up under the parish of Linlithgow to take care of the Catholic immigrants .

In 1855 the ward purchased an abandoned church building on Livery Street ; it was consecrated to the title of the Immaculate Conception of Mary , dogmatized the year before . Three years later, the Bathgate Mission was separated from the mother parish Linlithgow and raised to an independent parish . Towards the end of the century there were plans to build a new church. The local community raised an estimated £ 6,000 construction costs through fundraising. A design by the Belgian architect Charles Ménart was awarded the contract . After the laying of the foundation stone on May 21, 1907, the first service took place on October 29, 1908.

description

The neo-Gothic structure is on Livery Street in the city center. Above the main portal on the east side, which is crowned with pointed arches, there is a wide tracery of five lancet windows . It is flanked by two slim towers with octagonal helmets and elongated portholes . Wide tracery are also built into the main nave, while the side aisles have small, elongated windows that are set deep into the masonry. In the interior, marble in various shades was mainly used. Black marble was chosen for the Gothic arcades .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Listed Building - Entry . In: Historic Scotland .
  2. ↑ Network presence of the parish
  3. ↑ a b Information from the parish ( memento of the original from March 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.saintmary.org.uk

Web links

Coordinates: 55 ° 54 ′ 11.6 "  N , 3 ° 38 ′ 31"  W.