Houndwood Church on the Great North Road

[cessna152towser]

If you took the Great North Road (A1) from London to Edinburgh by way of Newcastle and Berwick, a building you would have seen soon after crossing the border into Scotland would have been the little presbyterian church at Houndwood, which stood on the right hand side of the road. The road was re-aligned last year and now Houndwood Church is a much quieter place.

The church was built in 1901.

Although the church closed recently, the burial ground is still in use and includes this memorial to those parishioners who fell in the Great War 1914 to 1918, with further names added of those who gave their lives in World War 2, 1939 to 1945.

[Scott Gilmore]

What a handsome little church. Curious (from a Californian's point of view) that there are gravestones scattered about in what appears to be the front lawn area. I've seen that in pictures of other churches over there as well, just never commented on it.

I notice that often in stone structures in some parts of southern Scotland (and perhaps northern England, don't know), that a reddish colored stone is used. In fact, isn't Ferintosh built from similar material? Limestone? Sandstone? Whatever it is, it looks great.

I wish we could use masonry construction here in California. Being earthquake country, it requires so much reinforcement that it's impractical, though not unheard of.

Thanks for the quick tour!

[Big Dave]

Great pics.

[nixphotography]

What awsome pictures! Thanks for sharing.

Brett

[Matthew Siegmann]

What a handsome little church. Curious (from a Californian's point of view) that there are gravestones scattered about in what appears to be the front lawn area. I've seen that in pictures of other churches over there as well, just never commented on it.

I notice that often in stone structures in some parts of southern Scotland (and perhaps northern England, don't know), that a reddish colored stone is used. In fact, isn't Ferintosh built from similar material? Limestone? Sandstone? Whatever it is, it looks great.

I wish we could use masonry construction here in California. Being earthquake country, it requires so much reinforcement that it's impractical, though not unheard of.

Thanks for the quick tour!

I don't claim to know all, but I believe that the "front lawn area" is part of the grave yard. Threre's a place in Kansas that used to have a church (been torn down for a couple of years now and had been abandoned for several decades before that) that I cannot remember at the moment but I know it was surrounded by the cemetary. If you remember old B&W "horrer" movies, the church is always surrounded by the grave yard. I know I live in a city where the churches stand alone and the cemetarys stand alone as well but I find it's more common for a grave yard to surround a church in rural areas. It all depends on if the original settleing demagraphic was all of one religious denomination or not. If all people of an area agreed to a nondenominational church then most likely the graveyard is started next to it and over time, instead of taking part of the farmer's field, they just use the chruch yard. In cases where you see a lone graveyard, often times you can tell if a church had been there or not because there's usually a big blank spot with a spotty foundation, sometimes the case is that the church burnt down pre WWI and the site was just cleared and they probably put more graves where the church was.

I appoligise for highjacking this thread.

Matthew

[David Dalglish]

Nice picture Alex-It looks very picturesque

[Pour1Malt]

guid oan ya Alex...

ta

[Graham]

Nice celtic cross!

[GMan]

What a beautiful building in such a neat setting.

[Paul Henry]

It's fairly usual/normal to have gravestones surrounding Churches, at least in the UK, although they tend to be older plots, some are still used.
The Red Stone you see on the church and especially over Scotland and N. Ireland is known as Old Red Sandstone, readily quarried, easily worked for building materials, although can become friable if gets too damp- at least if it sits in water!