Slamannan R.C. Church

SMR 1408 / NS 8536 7301

The Roman Catholic chapel in Slamannan was dedicated to St Mary. It used a number of sites until 1959 when a new church was built in Bank Street and opened the following year. It is a low structure with white rendered walls carrying angled buttresses to support a low-pitched felted roof.

The roof continues over the south gable facing Bank Street to form a wide porch supported on slender steel columns and containing the double door entrance. An open pyramid belfry over the porch was removed c1990. Between the five buttresses along each side finished are window panel infills. The building sat 128 and cost £4,600.

Timeline

1881: Mass said in a private house in Slamannan.

1883: Ground purchased for a chapel.

1885: Church building completed at Barnsmuir near the Black Loch, named St. Mary’s, to serve the mining community which had arisen in that area. Designed by George Fortune of Duns. Opened on 11th October, the chapel-school could accommodate 400 for mass or 180 children.

1888: Slamannan became a separate charge.

1923: Charge entrusted to Longriggend.

1930: Charge returned to Falkirk.

1939: Slamannan became a separate charge again.

1959-1960: New church built in Bank Street, it is a low structure with white rendered walls carrying angled buttresses to support a low-pitched felted roof. The south gable fronts Bank Street and contains the double-door entrance over which was a simple belfry. Cost £4,600.

1968: Tn 1968 the building was badly burnt in an arson attack and the villagers subsequently helped to rebuild it. The church closed in 1989 though occasionally masses were held until 2003. It was sold in 2010 but was still unoccupied in 2025.

1970s: Mass also said in Avonbridge Welfare Hall on Sundays.

1989: Church closed.

2003: Occasional masses held.

2010: Church sold.

Manse

1958: 15 Binniehill Road used as manse.

1960: Built on the same plot as the new church, to its north-east.

Seating

1960: To seat 128.

Churchyard

None.

Priests of St. Mary’s RC Church

1885	Mackenzie, C.C. (St. Francis Xavier)	1887
	Mullen, George	Nov. 1889
	O’ Carrall, Thomas	1895
1895	Mason, George	1898
1898	McOscar, James	1903
1903	O’Brian, Francis	Dec 1906
1907	McDonald, James	Sep. 1912
1912	Hart, Dominic	1913
1913	Burns, Peter John	1914
1914	Rattrie, Robert J
	Delaney, Richard	1919
1919	Morrison, Edward	1923
1923	Served by the priest at Longrigend	1929
1931	Served by the priest at Falkirk.	1940
Feb. 1940	McGloin, Patrick	Apr. 1940
Apr. 1940	O’Leary, Patrick	1943
1943	McGeown, John	1947
	McCallum, John
1955	O’Donnell, Bernard G.	1962
1962	Jackson, Michael
	Gallacher, Peter	1968
1968	Neilson, Angus	1969
1969	Foley, Daniel
	McAllister

Bibliography

Jaques, R.

2001

Falkirk and District, an Illustrated Architectural Guide.
“St Mary’s Chapel, Bank Street, 1960 Simple statement in roughcast, timber and felted pitched roof
has homely appeal with its generous porch, simple buttressing; small, DIY spire, now no more. [p.111]”