100 Buildings 100 Years

1918: St Andrew’s Church, Gretna

Status: Listed
Condition: Good condition
Type: Place of worship
Architect: Courtenay Melville Crickmer, under the supervision of Raymond Unwin
Owners: Church of Scotland
Location: Loanwath Road, Gretna, Dumfries and Galloway DG16 5AX

The Great War demanded increasing supplies of munitions. Dangerous cordite had to be manufactured (using nitro-glycerine) somewhere safely remote, yet near good railways. Gretna and Eastriggs on the Solway were developed rapidly: a factory 9 miles long, with 20,000 workers, mainly women. Housing, shops and a cinema were provided, and churches for the main denominations – Episcopal, Roman Catholic and Presbyterian. Unwin, Letchworth architect, was in overall charge: he appointed a Garden City colleague, C M Crickmer, resident architect.

“It is very simply designed as a war building, depending for its effect on a broad dignified treatment.” (Annandale Observer) Rough cast over brick with an Italianate tower.

St Andrew was used by both Church of Scotland and United Free. All Saints Episcopal (probably Geoffry Lucas, 1917), St Ninian’s RC, now Anvil Hall wedding venue (C Evelyn Simmons, 1918) and St John Eastriggs (Unwin, 1917) also survive, but barely a trace of the factory.

by Alec Hamilton

British Listed Buildings Listed at Grade B

C M Crickmer

Raymond Unwin

Gretna