Buildings
Elie has an unusual parish church with a tall hexagonal tower, topped with a belvedere detail, centrally located on the church. It is approached on axis from the High Street, increasing the drama of its architecture, and surrounded by a churchyard burial ground.
On the outer corner of the churchyard wall, where the main road makes a right angle, stands the village war memorial. This is of particularly poignant composition, as each name listed also states their trade before the war and their battalion number and regiment. This therefore highlights a number of "ploughmen" and a high ratio of "chauffeurs". It may be speculated that the latter were in service on the several large country estates encircling the village.
'Elie Castle' is an interesting Scots vernacular extended tower house, standing close to the waterline. Superficially it dates largely from the early 17th century but contains older elements possibly from the 15th century. The High Street nearby contains several good 17th century houses with curious doorpieces.
Read more about this topic: Elie And Earlsferry
Famous quotes containing the word buildings:
“If the factory people outside the colleges live under the discipline of narrow means, the people inside live under almost every other kind of discipline except that of narrow means—from the fruity austerities of learning, through the iron rations of English gentlemanhood, down to the modest disadvantages of occupying cold stone buildings without central heating and having to cross two or three quadrangles to take a bath.”
—Margaret Halsey (b. 1910)
“Now, since our condition accommodates things to itself, and transforms them according to itself, we no longer know things in their reality; for nothing comes to us that is not altered and falsified by our Senses. When the compass, the square, and the rule are untrue, all the calculations drawn from them, all the buildings erected by their measure, are of necessity also defective and out of plumb. The uncertainty of our senses renders uncertain everything that they produce.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)