Helensburgh Heritage Trust
Helensburgh Heritage Trust
THE roots of Helensburgh’s now closed St Columba Church sprang from a group of Dissenters who met fortnightly in the Baths Hotel for Sunday worship, often with a visiting minister.
The hotel was owned by a prominent member of the group, Mrs Margaret Bell, widow of Henry Bell, first Provost of Helensburgh and pioneer of steam navigation. On other Sundays the group travelled to Dumbarton.
HELENSBURGH’S former Park Church — now the Buddhist Meditation Centre of Scotland — began a new era at the start of 2016 after being bought by Buddhists for use as a place of worship.
The sale of the property followed the union of Park Church — built in 1862, originally as a Free Church — with Helensburgh Parish Church.
THE NINE decades of the life of the Rev John Baird — father of TV inventor John Logie Baird — encompassed much of Helensburgh’s early religious history.
A signed engraving which is part of Argyll and Bute Council’s Libraries Collection shows a fine looking man of great character, which helps to explain his considerable following over many years.
A SERMON preached by the father of Helensburgh-born TV inventor John Logie Baird early in World War One was considered at the time to be exceptionally moving and apposite.
The Rev John Baird had been the minister of Helensburgh West Parish Church, later named St Bride’s, for many years, and he came out of retirement to preach the sermon on Sunday September 20 1914. He was 72.
FIFTY years ago in May 1964, the then Helensburgh Youth Council organised a fifty mile walk, and this year, May 2014, the golden jubilee was celebrated — with a shorter walk.
The original event was held as part of and in aid of Christian Aid Week, and was from Killin, a village at the western head of Loch Tay which was then in Perthshire and is now in the local authority area of Stirling.
To mark Craigrownie Church's 150th anniversary, Douglas Dow compiled this history.
UNTIL the 19th century the Rosneath Peninsula, which in older records is referred to as the Isle of Rosneath, had a population of about 500.
A SMALL sheet of paper gifted to Helensburgh Heritage Trust in March 2012 turned out to be a fascinating relic from local church history.
ONE hundred and fifty years of worship were celebrated at Helensburgh's St Columba Church on July 3 2011 — just weeks before its union with another congregation.
The 150th anniversary of the Sinclair Street building was marked at a packed service of thanksgiving on July 3, and the birthday came as the congregation — at its present site since 1861 — prepared to say farewell to the historic building.
The text and illustrations below are the entire contents of a leaflet compiled and published in 1955 by David McRoberts, giving the history of the Chapel of St Mahew at Cardross. The leaflet was donated to Helensburgh Heritage Trust in 2010 by Gillian George.
ABOUT a quarter of a mile to the north of Cardross village, in Dunbartonshire, lies a small parcel of land called Kirkton of Kilmahew.
THE Christmas 2010 edition of Helensburgh's West Kirk magazine announced that St Columba Church and its halls were surplus to town Church of Scotland requirements — the first public announcement of the latest change in local church history.
A long drawn out process of consultations and planning on church union was completed in the summer of 2011, and St Andrew's Kirk was chosen as the name of the new church.
LUSS Parish Church arranged a season of six weekly historical lectures to end the Year of Celebration to mark its 1,500th year.
The free one-hour lectures began in the church on Wednesdays evening November 17 2010, covering the events of the last 1,500 years around Loch Lomond. Three of the talks had to be rescheduled to January 12, 19 and 26 because of the bad weather in December.
THE founder of the Salvation Army, General William Booth, paid his only visit to Helensburgh in 1910.
The image above, which shows the General at Helensburgh pier, was supplied by Provost Billy Petrie, who received it from a relative in California, Donald Cullen, whose grandfather, Donald Brownlee, was the Salvation Army officer on the extreme right.
A MUCH loved minister from Cardross was commemorated in 2010 by the creation of a stunning memorial window in the church which was his charge for 37 years.
The picturesque South Queensferry Parish Church was packed on Sunday August 22 for the dedication of the window installed in memory of the Rev John Gilbert Carrie, BSc, BD, who grew up in the village and was a former pupil of Larchfield (now Lomond) School.
Click the image above
