St Leonard’s Church

St Leonard’s Church

The parish of St Leonard’s has its origins in the Middle Ages. However, the congregation has only worshipped in the current St Leonard’s Church on Hepburn Gardens since the early years of the twentieth century. From 1761 until 1904 the parishioners of St Leonard’s held services in St Salvator’s College Chapel. Their departure from St Salvator’s was surrounded by controversy. In 1898 the University of St Andrews declared a wish for St Salvator’s to be a university chapel and requested the congregation of St Leonard’s to move. Objecting to the change the St Leonard’s congregation took legal proceedings against the university. Eventually it was agreed that land on the outskirts of St Andrews, in what was then known as Rathelpie, should be acquired for St Leonard’s. A new church was built there according to a design by Peter Macgregor Chalmers, and using local sandstone from Nydie. The architecture of St Leonard’s was inspired by the rounded arches and solid appearance of Romanesque buildings. The church has a fine collection of stained glass, much of which was installed in the 1920s and 1930s. Shortly before the Second World War a church hall was built beside the church. Further alterations were made to the church in the 1960s and at the start of the twenty-first century. Today St Leonard’s remains home to an active Church of Scotland congregation.

sacredlandscapesoffife

Bess Rhodes

Site

195

05/10/2021

10/05/2021 07:13:30 pm

(1) Raymond Lamont-Brown, St Andrews: City by the Northern Sea (Edinburgh, 2006), pp. 169-170. (2) Places of Worship in Scotland, St Leonard’s Parish Church, St Andrews: http://www.scottishchurches.org.uk/sites/site/id/4711/name/St+Leonard%27s+Parish+Church.+St+Andrews+St+Andrews+and+St+Leonards+Fife [Accessed 12 May 2021].

cm x cm x cm

current,56.33702440336468,-2.8095281517315267;

St Leonard’s Church

TEXT

Building

416

Church of Scotland