Elie Parish Church

This T plan church was built in 1639 and its tower was added in 1726.   The church lies east to west, the long axis with the tower facing south towards Elie High Street.   It is in a walled graveyard which surrounds the church to the south, east and west and is probably of a similar age to the church.  It has been in use until very recently.   Features of interest include a carved octagonal font which was removed from Wood Memorial Church prior to its demolition in the 1960s.   

The church and session house are built from sandstone, which may previously have been harled, and are roofed in Scottish slate.   The east elevation has a four centred arch with clear glass at gallery level and is topped by a pinecone finial.  A seventeenth century graveslab featuring deathsheads and cherubs has been inserted into the wall;   a flat roofed extension with two windows and ball finials on each corner covers a blocked opening. The east wall of the extension has a coffin style memorial in the wall, probably also seventeenth century in date, which has a skeleton protruding from the top of the coffin with an hourglass and memento mori above its head.     To the north of the transept a square headed door with a moulded frame and lintel is the main entrance into the church. This is flanked by a rectangular slit opening and a tall rectangular window.   Above the door is a projecting string course which runs to the edges of the wall. There is a pediment at the wallhead above the string and a rounded finial on the corner.   To the north there is a further flat roofed sandstone extension with a square headed window for a room which is used as a session house.

The south elevation faces the High Street. It has four semi-circular arched windows, all with stained glass. To the west of the windows is a door, which does not appear to be in use. There are two blocked openings in this face; a rectangular one between the two most westerly windows and a semicircular arched one between the two most easterly windows. In the centre of the face is the tower, which cuts the margins of two of the windows.

The west elevation is a mirror of the east, with a similar flat roofed porch in the centre. To the north of the porch are a blocked square headed window, and a semi-circular arched stained glass window.   There is also a blocked opening which was probably a door.

On the north elevation there are arched rectangular stained glass windows  on either side of the central cell. The string on the pedimented face on the east elevation continues under the flat roof of the north elevation, stopping when the roof slopes upwards to become a gable. The gable and the flat roof both have rounded finials.   There is a semi-circular arched stained glass window under the gable.

The tower has two stages, capped by a belfry which was probably added in the early nineteenth century in place of an earlier spire.   The lower stage of the tower is entered through a door under rounded arch on the south face.   Above this is a framed Latin inscription, dating the construction of the tower to 1726.   The second stage of the tower is octagonal and divided into eight faces by strips of dressed sandstone.   To the east a blocked window has a memorial inserted below.   To the west is another blocked window.  This stage has a clock face to the north, south, east and west, and  a louvered vent below the clockface on the south elevation. The bellcote is rounded,  divided into four by strips of sandstone, and has four louvered openings in rounded arches. It  is covered by a domed roof and has an abstract silver weathercock.  

The old session house of the church is built into the church wall on the south side of the graveyard.  

The interior has galleries to the north, east and west. On a raised area to the south there are an elaborately carved pulpit, a communion table, font and lectern. In the nave facing the pulpit, the organ is on the east wall.   There are pews  facing the pulpit in the nave, and also facing inwards both from the east and the west.   On either side of the pulpit are stained glass windows depicting Moses on the east and Christ to the west.   To the west under the gallery the window also depicts Christ.  In the west end of the north wall is one of two windows by Burne Jones, working out of the William Morris Studio, with the inscription �Glory to God� and depicting St. Matthew.   In the east wall is a memorial window with the inscription �The Lord is my Shepherd�. The other Burne Jones window is on the north wall to the east of the entrance, depictine  St. Luke and has the inscription �Glory to God�. There is a further stained glass window in the south wall, to the east of the large windows on either side of the pulpit which  also depicts Christ.   All of the windows, except those on either side of the pulpit were removed from the Wood Memorial Church when it was demolished in the 1960s (Site No. 8417).