St. David's, Dalkeith

Introduction

Saint David's in Dalkeith was designed by Joseph Aloysious Hansom in 1853-54. The church was formally opened on Sunday, 21st May 1854.

History

The church was commissioned by Cecil, Marchioness of Lothian. Father Mackay served as the first priest, followed in 1858 by Father J.S. McCorry. The Jesuits served the Dalkeith mission from 1860 until 1944.

The Holy Souls' Altar, S side aisle and burial vault were commissioned by Walter Kerr in 1877. The church provided 500 sittings in 1882. The church was extensively redecorated in 1894. The Chapel House was demolished in the late 1960s and replaced by the new presbytery in 1969. The church was listed as Category A on 18/10/1976.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is Early English Gothic with side aisles, chancel and chapels, built of cream sandstone. The interior has a 5-bay nave with pointed arches on alternate round and octagonal ashlar piers. The Stations of the Cross were brought from Paris by Lady Lothian in 1854. The high altar is of Caen stone with marble insets, designed by Mr Henderson and carved by Earp/John Drummond.

The chancel ceiling is richly stencilled and coffered, by C H Goldie in the 1890s. The Lady Chapel was designed by C H Goldie in the 1890s with ornate gilded coffering. The Holy Souls Chapel altar is by Mayer of Munich, 1883. The Lady Chapel stained glass of St Mary and St Joseph is by Morris & Co.

The nave roof has carved stone corbels. The church has a steeply pitched grey slate roof with fish-scale bands and decorative ridge tiles to the nave. The church has a variety of stone cross finials. The church has an organ gallery at the W end with arcaded panelling on slender-columned 3-bay pointed arches.

The chancel has a marble wainscot and floor. The chancel has a tall 3-light Geometric tracery window with 2 quatrefoils and 1 trefoil. The E elevation has a chancel at the centre with a gabled Lady Chapel recessed to the right at the end of the N aisle, and a gabled sacristy abutting the chancel at right angles to the left. The Lady Chapel has a 2-light Geometric traceried window with trefoil on the E elevation, a plate traceried window to the N, and a quatrefoiled oculus to the W gablehead.

The sacristy is 2-bay with paired and cusped lancets at ground and cusped half-vesicas to the clerestorey. The S elevation has a 3-bay side aisle adjoined to the left with plate-traceried windows. The St Aloysius' Chapel is a taller gabled block adjoined to the 4th bay with a steeper pitched roof and 2 pointed-arched windows in the S wall overlooking an intermediate porch. A single storey linking block with a modern block abutting at right angles to the W links the sacristy to the modern 2-storey Presbytery of 1969.

The church has boundary walls and gatepiers of ashlar saddleback coped rubble walls and ashlar gabled gatepiers. A mural depicting the Coronation of the Virgin above the chancel arch of the nave is by Miss Gibsone. The St Aloysius' Chapel has a rib-vaulted altar surmounted by a statue of St Aloysius in an ornate canopied niche by Pollen. The chancel window depicts Our Lady, St John and St Paul. A Pieta by Mayer of Munich is in the monument recess in the NE wall.

Parish life

The parish has published 10 Spring and 10 Autumn magazines about parishioners' achievements since Autumn 2006. The parish provides a Catholic chaplain contact for hospitals.

The church has an induction loop hearing enhancement service during Mass. Weekday morning Masses are preceded by the Rosary for 15 minutes.

Visiting

Car parking is available in the Church grounds, and the front entrance is up steps from the car park. Walkers and wheelchair users can enter using the side entrance between the church and the Presbytery to avoid the steps. The website offers a visual tour of the church interior.