Auld Lichts

(SMR 2039)

NS 8879 7981

 

Original Burgher Church

Old Light Burgher Church

TIMELINE

1803/04: Members of the Erskine Church desiring to stick to the original principles of the Secession formed a new offshoot congregation.

1805:   Church  erected  in  Cistern Lane on ground  which  was  then  a  garden belonging  to John Rankine of Barns.   The church was aligned east/west with an external staircase on the north side leading to a gallery.  The date above this door was 1805.   The session house lay at right angles to the main building on the NW corner, bounded on the north by the gable of the water cistern.   The buildings appear to have been owned by William Simpson.

1839: Temporary union with the established church.

1843: As  the building at Cistern Lane was owned by William  Simpson  for  the benefit  of  the  congregation, it was never handed  over  to  the  Established Church.   This congregation, in common with Old Lights elsewhere, joined the newly formed Free Church of Scotland and continued to use the Cistern Lane Chapel.  A rent of £30 was agreed for a year from August 1843, the money being raised by letting the seats.  The following year the united congregation moved to their new building in Garrison Place.  The Cistern Road Church was then used by a branch of the Evangelical Union Church until 1857.

1857: Cistern Lane Church and session house converted to houses and subsequently demolished.

BELL

1816:  It was agreed that the Steeple bell be rung for those congregations without their own bell.

MINISTERS OF THE AULD LICHT

Aug 1808

Stark, AlexanderApr 1818

Sep 1810

Gordon, ThomasJan 1843

G.B. Bailey (2019)