The Church of St John the Evangelist is in the Scottish town of

Cumnock Cumnock (Scottish Gaelic: ''Cumnag'') is a town and former civil parish located in East Ayrshire, Scotland. The town sits at the confluence of the Glaisnock Water and the Lugar Water. There are three neighbouring housing projects which lie just o ...

Ayrshire Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Re ...

. Designed by

William Burges William Burges (; 2 December 1827 – 20 April 1881) was an English architect and designer. Among the greatest of the Victorian art-architects, he sought in his work to escape from both nineteenth-century industrialisation and the Neoc ...

for the 3rd Marquess of Bute, it was constructed between 1878 and 1880.

Architecture and fittings

The church is constructed in the

Early Decorated English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed ar ...

style and follows the plan of Burges's

Church of All Saints, Murston The Church of All Saints, Murston, Sittingbourne, is an Anglican parish church in the county of Kent, England. It is notable due to its architect, William Burges, and was constructed in 1873–4. The church was built in "an early Gothic Style" ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. The nave is of four bays and ends in an unfinished tower.

History

The church has some significance as the first ecclesiastical building in Scotland to be lit by electricity. The Scottish composer

James MacMillan Sir James Loy MacMillan, (born 16 July 1959) is a Scottish classical composer and conductor. Early life MacMillan was born at Kilwinning, in North Ayrshire, but lived in the East Ayrshire town of Cumnock until 1977. His father is James MacMi ...

played the organ at the church as a young man.

References

Bibliography

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cumnock, Saint John Category B listed buildings in East Ayrshire Gothic Revival church buildings in Scotland Roman Catholic churches completed in 1880 Roman Catholic churches in Scotland William Burges church buildings 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom