These adjacent towns form one of the very interesting group of ancient
seaports and places of commerce on the northern shore of the Frith of
Forth. Anstruther is divided into two portions by the little river
Dreel, which formed the harbour of Anstruther Wester, while Easter
Anstruther extends in a wide crescent along the coast, and has a larger
harbour of its own.
Anstruther Wester belonged to the Priory of Pittenweem, and the parish
church was dedicated to St. Nicolas. The town obtained a charter from
the monastery in 1549, and another in 1554.[224] The church is now
modernised, but the old tower (Fig. 1504) is a fair specimen of the
keep-like structures so often erected in connection with Scottish
churches in the sixteenth century.
[Illustration: FIG. 1504.--Anstruther Wester.]
Anstruther Easter was, before the Reformation, in the parish of
Kilrenny, and was disjoined from it by the General Assembly, with the
consent of the bailies and council of the town, in 1639. In 1640
Anstruther Easter was erected into a separate parish, and the reason
assigned in the Act was “the Burgh being a part of the parish of
Kilrenny a mile distant of deep evil way in winter and rainy
times.”[225]
A proposal to build a church at Anstruther Easter had thus been in
contemplation for some time, and in 1636 an agreement was come to
regarding it between Mr. Colin Adams, the first minister of the parish,
and the bailies and council. The new church was erected, and “ten years
later a steeple was added after a Dutch model.”[226]
The arrangement of the Plan (Fig. 1505) and the design of the tower
seem, however, to contradict the latter statement. The debased but
picturesque architecture of the tower (Fig. 1506) so strongly resembles
the other Scottish church towers of the period as to render its origin
beyond dispute. It combines the ornamental treatment of the upper part
with the plain features of the lower portion, so usual in the castles of
the time; and the classic balustrade and the gabled termination of the
staircase recall similar domestic features of Scottish castellated
architecture very common in the seventeenth century, both in churches
and houses.
[Illustration: FIG. 1505.--Anstruther Easter. Plan.]
The church measures, externally, 92 feet in length by 41 feet in
breadth. The entrance doorway leads into a simple barrel-vaulted passage
9 feet wide. This originally opened directly into the body of the
church, having a staircase to the gallery on the south side and a small
room or vestry on the north side. The body of the church is of the usual
oblong form (Fig. 1507) and is lighted with windows, which, from their
mullions and round arches, retain a slightly ecclesiastical appearance.
This is chiefly striking in the large east window. There were originally
two doorways in the south wall, but one has been built up.
Altogether, this church, the date of which is known, forms a complete
and characteristic example of the Scottish ecclesiastical architecture
of the earlier part of the seventeenth century.[227]
[Illustration: FIG. 1506.--Anstruther Easter. West End and Tower.]
[Illustration: FIG. 1507.--Anstruther Easter. View from South-East.]