Prestonkirk Parish Church is a

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland. The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Reformation of 1560, when it split from the Catholic Church ...

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

church at

East Linton East Linton is a village and former police burgh in East Lothian, Scotland, situated on the River Tyne and A199 road (former A1 road) five miles east of Haddington, with an estimated population of in . During the 19th century the population ...

, in the parish of Traprain,

East Lothian East Lothian (; sco, East Lowden; gd, Lodainn an Ear) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area. The county was called Haddingtonshire until 1921. In 1975, the his ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, UK, close to Preston Mill, Smeaton, Phantassie, and the

River Tyne The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Wat ...

Building

The original church is said to have been founded by Saint

Baldred of Tyninghame Balthere of Tyninghame (later Baldred) was a Northumbrian hermit and abbot, resident in East Lothian during the 8th century. Dating According to Hovendeus the date of Baldred's death is given as 756. Symeon of Durham says "the twentieth year of ...

, also known as St Baldred of the Bass, in the 6th century. The tower of the present church dates from 1631, and the main building from 1770. It was enlarged in 1824 and the interior was redesigned in 1892. The St Baldred window was installed in 1959.

Churchyard

Amongst the persons buried in Prestonkirk churchyard are: *

Andrew Meikle Andrew Meikle (5 May 1719 – 27 November 1811) was a Scottish mechanical engineer credited with inventing the threshing machine, a device used to remove the outer husks from grains of wheat. He also had a hand in assisting Firbeck in the inve ...

, the inventor of the

threshing machine A threshing machine or a thresher is a piece of farm equipment that threshes grain, that is, it removes the seeds from the stalks and husks. It does so by beating the plant to make the seeds fall out. Before such machines were developed, thr ...

* George Rennie,

agriculturalist An agriculturist, agriculturalist, agrologist, or agronomist (abbreviated as agr.), is a professional in the science, practice, and management of agriculture and agribusiness. It is a regulated profession in Canada, India, the Philippines, the ...

and brother of John Rennie,

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

Photo gallery

Image:Prestonkirk sign.jpg, Church of Scotland, The Parish of Traprain, Prestonkirk Church Image:Prestonkirk churchyard.jpg,

, George Rennie and John Rennie are buried here Image:Prestonkirk Tower.jpg, Church tower

Sources

*The monumental inscriptions at Prestonkirk were published by the

Scottish Genealogy Society Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

in 2000. *Local History Society, "By the Linn Rocks", 1999 *Description of building by Chris Tabraham, Principal Inspector of Ancient Monuments with

Historic Scotland Historic Scotland ( gd, Alba Aosmhor) was an 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 understanding and enjoyment ...

References

External links

Webpages of Prestonkirk
* {{Coord, 55.9914, -2.6555, display=title Church of Scotland churches in Scotland Churches in East Lothian Category A listed buildings in East Lothian Listed churches in Scotland East Linton