McLaren Jubilee Memorial Church

(SMR 130)

NS 8758 8306

1897	McLaren Jubilee Memorial Church	1904
1904	Stenhouse Parish Church	1963
1963	Stenhouse and Carron Church of Scotland

TIMELINE

1897: New church built at the east end of Larbert Parish by the Established Church to celebrate the jubilee of Rev McLaren because the Parish Church was always very full. The site on the Stenhouse estate was given free by Mr Sherriff of Carronvale. First sod cut September 1897. The long line of the nave fronts Church Street, with the hall and vestry at right angles to it. A massive square tower fills up the end of the nave, in which is situated the main entrance porch, forming a pleasing termination to the plain side elevation of the church. It groups with the hall buildings to form a court or garden. The nave is 210ft long by 25ft wide, the aisle 61ft by 21ft, and the chancel 25ft by 23ft. The floor at the end of the nave was raised for the communion table, pulpit and choir stalls. This end of the church has richer ornamentation of the roof woodwork and window stones, but beyond that nothing to break the line of the nave. The nave is divided from the aisle and chancel aisle by a series of six bays of simple arches. At the lower end of the nave, within the walls of the tower, a gallery seats 84, and is entered by a wheeling stone stair from the vestibule. The vestibule communicates with the garden by a rich open timber entrance porch. The hall accommodates 200 and measures 80ft by 25ft at right angles to the chancel aisle, and divided from it by a stone arch with a folding screen. It can also be entered from the garden by a closed corridor connecting the church with the vestry and session house (which measure 15ft by 10ft, and 20ft by 15ft respectively). The whole is built of rubble with red corncockle freestone dressings, the interior arches being red stone. The ceiling is open timber. The architect for the design was John James Burnett, St. Vincent Street, Glasgow, the mason and brick work being executed by J. & P. McLachlan, Larbert. The completion stone was laid on 25th October 1899. On the memorial stone in the centre of the tower around an arbor vetae is the inscription “Erected by public subscription to commemorate the Jubilee of the Rev John McLaren, D.D., as minister of the United Parishes of Larbert and Dunipace, A.D. 1897”. Cost £7,389.

1904: Court of Session raised church to Quad Sacra parish on 2^nd December.

1945: Hall occupied by the army during the war.

1963: November 1^st, United with Carron under the name “Stenhouse and Carron“.

MANSE

1906: Built on the S end of the hall according to a design by J Burnett. Messrs J.J. & P. McLachlan, contractors.

FITTINGS

1899: Red sandstone pulpit with a marble top.

1899: Communion table of oak designed by J Burnett with Our Lord and His Adorning angels, St. Andrew and St. George at the corners.

1900: Font gifted by John Bell Cochrane. It is bronze with a silver over. Designed by Albert Hodge of London it represents four children supporting a large laver inscribed “Suffer Little children to come unto me”. Round the base another inscription reads “A Little Child the Saviour came, the Mighty God was still His name”.

1904: The Communion vessels of the church consists of six chalices, two patens, and one flagon, all of beautiful silver work. Two of the chalices were gifted by Robert Webster the session clerk of Larbert Parish Church “Gifted to the M’Laren Memorial Church, Stenhousemuir, by Robert Webster, member of Kirk Session and Session Clerk of Larbert Parish, in the ministry of Rev. David S. Merrow, B.D., December, 1900.” Two further chalices, the flagon, and the two patens, were added in 1904.

ORGAN

1902: The work of Messrs J J Binns of Bromley near Leeds.

BELL

Cast by John C. Wilson and Co Ltd, Glasgow.

WINDOW

See separate entry for stained glass.

WAR MEMORIAL

See separate entry for War Memorial

SEATING

1900: Nave 309, aisle 228, chancel 68.

MINISTERS OF McLAREN MEMORIAL CHURCH

Jun 1900	Merrow, David Scribner	Oct 1941
Mar 1942	Fleming, Alexander Arnot	Sep 1969
Dec 1969	Hardie, Robert Keith

Geoff B. Bailey (2019)