Polmont North Parish Church

1844 to 1969

POLMONT OLD PARISH CHURCH
PROPOSALS for a Presbyterian Church to be built on a site east of Jink-a-bout were forwarded in 1649 but were rejected owing to the disharmony at the time between the Resolutioners and Protesters. Nothing further appears to have been done until January 1691, when the Heritors, and people living on the east side of the Grange Burn in the East Kerse, and the upper reaches of the Grange Burn, presented a petition to the Presbytery of Linlithgow calling for a Kirk to be built in a "suitable place" in the East Kerse "not far from the twa burns". The reason for the proximity to the burn was to ensure an easily accessible water supply for future repairs. The petition appeared to be more successful on this occasion as in May 1691, the Presbytery agreed that the Parish of Falkirk was too widespread for one minister to serve. The Presbytery further agreed that a Kirk for the proposed new parish should be situated on the north side of the loan downwards from Reddoch (Grangemouth). But plans for the Kirk, which would have been situated on Loanhead Farm, were shelved again, this time until 1719 when it was proposed that the new parish should embrace all the lands lying to the east of the Grange Burn, including Kerse and Dryfield, Redding and Westquarter. The new parish would serve some 1,000 examinable people. A new site was chosen - on rising ground west of Little Kerse.

Yet again hopes were dashed and nothing was done - until 1731 - when the Presbytery agreed that the new Kirk should be "built upon the braes betwixed Carisbank and Millhall, near the braehead above Little Kerse". And so the village's first Kirk was built some 82 years after it was first mooted. The foundation stone, bearing the inscription, "Founded May 22, 1731", can still be seen today, built into the south boundary wall of the churchyard. The old Kirk depicted the austere Presbyterian outlook of the period. T-shaped, it had the pulpit on the long wall and three long galleries, entry to which was gained by stone stairs exposed to the elements. The south wall was broken by two large, double light Gothic windows with a sun-dial between.

The Heritors, landowners and farmers were responsible for the Kirk and school. The first minister was the Reverend Patrick Bennet, whose father was the minister of Muiravonside and laird of Whyteside. But the Heritors' first meeting took place at Reddoch (Grangemouth) on April 21, 1730, fully one year before the Kirk's foundation stone was laid. In 1734, when the Kirk was completed, the Heritors annually reviewed the seat letting accommodation. Early minutes - of a meeting held on August 19, 1739 - record the letting arrangements for two Kirk members thus:

"To William Drummond - the whole loft over the aisle and seats therein back and front, the first square seat to the west of the pulpit next to the minister's seat and the first, second and third from the gable to the north side of the aisle below the loft;"

"To Patrick Haldane - the whole of the south half or side of the east loft, back and foremost, the backmost seat and the half of the other seat next to it lying on the south side of the said east end of the church below the loft and next to the east door."

Allocations were also made for other local personages such as Mr George Shaw of Kersiebank; Mr R Biggar; Michael Bruce Esq, of Gilston and Windyedge; Mrs Grizell Bruce (Lady Reddoch); Thomas Bowie Esq, of Randieford; and Sir John Stirling, Lord Provost of Glasgow.

An extract from the minutes of a meeting of the Heritors on March 2, 1734, records that:- "This day and place having been arranged for a meeting of the Heritors of the said Parish to tread upon the affairs thereof concerning the finishing of the new Church, Mr Patrick Bennet, Minister, reported that due intimation was made from the pulpit of the said meeting and that the new residing Heritors were `wrote to' for allowing the same."

A further extract, of a meeting on October 13, 1736, records:- "This day and place having been designed and appointed for a meeting of the Heritors of the said Parish for the arranging of the affairs thereof and particularly for agreeing to Mr Patrick Bennet for the ground whereon the Schoolhouse is now built and ordering payment of the land thereof and what is due to the workmen for building the said Schoolhouse and other demands concerning the Heritors for ending and completing all incurred upon them, for rendering the erection of the said Parish Kirk. The said Mr Patrick Bennet declared that he had made public intimations from the pulpit upon the Lord's Day regarding this meeting. Mr John Gray will be appointed as schoolmaster."

Thus was formed the ecclesiastical Parish of Polmont, bounded on the north by the Firth of Forth, on the east by the River Avon, on the south by Muiravonside, and on the west by the Parishes of Falkirk and Bothkennar.

The population of the parish in 1755 was 1,094 but owing to the development of the area during the following three-quarters of a century it was necessary, in 1835, for a probationer minister to take up duties in Redding to serve the pastoral needs of the people there. Worship was conducted in a schoolroom owned by Redding Colliery. But within the next 10 years the national Kirk was cleft in two by the Disruption, the date of which was 1843. Local records note that "in the village of Bennetstown there has been, for upwards of two years, services held on Sabbath evenings in a schoolroom by ministers and preachers of the dissenting denomina¬tions in the neighbourhood." Therefore at a time when the Church of Scotland was bitterly divided, the decision to proceed with the building of a new church ranked as a supreme act of faith.