A red-stone Arts and Crafts church brings a squat pyramidal tower, swept aisle roofs and a barrel-vaulted interior to the wartime garden village.
Quick facts
- Date
- 1917
- Architect / designer
- Designed under Raymond Unwin’s supervision, possibly by Geoffrey Lucas
- Type
- Arts and Crafts church with square tower and aisles
- Designation
- Listed building, Category B (LB3787)
- OS grid reference
- NY 24523 66242
Architecture and continuing use
Red bull-faced ashlar gives the church a robust texture. A large square tower rises in three stages beneath a pyramidal roof with louvred dormers. Swept main roofs cover the aisles, while round-headed openings, a gabled porch and a circular east window soften the mass. Inside, brick arches spring from paired red-stone columns beneath a barrel vault.
Its story
The church was completed in 1917 while Eastriggs was being built for HM Factory Gretna workers. Its design formed part of the garden-village programme overseen by Raymond Unwin and may be attributable to Geoffrey Lucas. The building has retained ecclesiastical use and remains an active congregation within the Scottish Episcopal Church.
Why it is included
It is both a carefully designed Arts and Crafts building and direct evidence of the religious and social infrastructure created for a new wartime community.
What to notice
- The tower’s low pyramidal roof and small louvred dormers.
- Swept roofs joining nave and aisles.
- Paired columns and rounded brick arches inside, when legitimately accessible.
Reading the surroundings
Check current service or visitor arrangements before entering and respect worship. Outside services, view from public space and do not enter church grounds or interiors without permission.
Timeline
- 1915 Work began on the munitions factory and associated worker settlements.
- 1917 The completed church gave the new village a permanent Episcopal landmark.
- 1971 St John’s entered the statutory list at Category B.
- 2026 The Scottish Episcopal Church continued to list an active congregation here.
What we know — and what remains uncertain
HES states that Geoffrey Lucas may have designed the church, but the attribution is not certain. Current opening times must be obtained from the congregation.
Sources & further reading
- Historic Environment Scotland: St John the Evangelist Episcopal Church, LB3787 — Current designation status, statutory identity, official mapped point, date, fabric and significance.
- Trove: St John the Evangelist — National collection entry corroborating designation identity, mapped position and related archive material.
- Scottish Episcopal Church: St John the Evangelist, Eastriggs — Current denominational directory confirming the church’s continuing identity and ecclesiastical use.
- Dumfries and Galloway Council: Local Development Plan 2 — Official settlement statement recognising Eastriggs’s built heritage and garden-village layout.
Location
OS grid reference NY 24523 66242 · Location confidence: High for the current HES designation point; public text separately qualifies component extent, access and any present-use uncertainty. · Select the marker to open its satellite view in Google Maps. On desktop, drag Pegman (the yellow figure) onto a blue road. On mobile, turn on the Street View layer and tap a blue road. Other photo markers may be user-contributed.
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