Historical field trip
The Arran Historical Society will be making a field trip to Kilpatrick on Saturday March 11 with Angela Cassells and Ian Marshall, leaving at 10.30am.
Members should bring their own packed lunch and meet in the car park at Kilpatrick. They should also wear suitable stout footwear and bring poles to suit the rough path. Further information from Angela on 860316 or the secretary on 303577.
More than 45 members of the newly renamed Arran Historical Society heard of two windows causing religious unrest in the early 20th century which would seem incredible to today’s observer, writes Norma Davidson.
The speaker at the February meeting was Penny McWatters. who lectured at Strathclyde University and at Liverpool University, and was also a teacher before retiring. She holidayed on Arran, grew to love it and now divides her time between a home in Edinburgh and her house in Catacol.
St Bride’s Church in Lochranza, in its lovely setting, is a plain and elegant building which houses some beautiful stained glass. The round window was installed in the 1830s in memory of the Rev John Colville and in its vivid hues features the Ship of Faith and the Lighthouse. The church celebrated its tercentenary in 2012, and a rectangular window was commissioned and the result by Richard Leclerc was recently installed in the roof. A third window by John Duncan, based on a painting in the National Gallery of Scotland, depicts the legend of St Bride – an Irish Saint who journeyed to the Holy Land to give her cloak to the infant Christ and was transported back by angels.
However interesting these windows are, it was the two windows on either side of the round window behind the altar which were the focus of Penny’s research. No one could really give an explanation of what the subject matter was and eventually Penny turned to the internet.
Surprisingly, there were references in the New Zealand press, The Singapore Gazette and the Glasgow Evening Times which revealed hey were regarded as a scandal in their time. Staff from the Hunterian, Kelvingrove Museum and the Glasgow School of Art were all helpful in her research.
These windows were installed - although not in St Bride’s - by Mrs Annie Kerr in memory of her late husband, Archibald Kerr. Living in the west end of Glasgow, they befriended the Guthrie’s who owned the Caledonian Foundry in Maryhill. William Guthrie was the leading partner of Guthrie & Wells, the premiere make of stained glass and church furnishings in Glasgow. Some of their designers were renowned artists, some of the Glasgow Boys and even Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Archibald Kerr was one of the Catacol Kerr’s.
He was a great philanthropist and on dying childless, much of his wealth went to the Arran Society of Glasgow, engineering bursaries to Glasgow University and funds to help ‘the indigents between Coillemore and The Craw’. He had been a great benefactor to Lochranza over the years, even providing free piping to give the village the first piped water supply on Arran. Mrs Kerr commissioned Guthrie & Wells to make these two memorial windows for the United Free Church, now Castlekirk, little realising how much controversy they would cause.
Following the disruption on whether the civil powers or the congregation should name the minister, many members left the church and formed the Free Church. In 1900 the General Assembly of the church voted on proposed unity with the United Presbyterian Church. A majority of 643 were in agreement and the 27 dissenters eventually became the Wee Frees.
At this time, Alexander Grant was minister at Castlekirk, a Gaelic speaker in a Gaelic parish. On a holiday in Moffat he met Ethel, an English girl, who he subsequently married and brought to Lochranza. Ethel was a High Church Anglican who later converted to Roman Catholicism. Many of the church deserted because the minister’s wife was ‘perverted’. The Presbytery met in Kintyre and Rev Grant had to resign. He was grief stricken, but had to retire. A footnote to this was that he, too, later converted to Roman Catholic.
Because of the split in the churches, arguments began over assets which went to law, ultimately to the House of Lords. Castlekirk and Lenimore became Wee Free and church members at Castlekirk took against the two windows on grounds of blasphemy as they interpreted one of the figures as God or Christ.
By 1914 the General Assembly took up the issue of the Lochranza Church windows and again in 1915. This time they wanted the windows removed. The makers said the windows illustrated the parable of the talents and did not depict the Saviour. The windows were adapted – the King lost his crown and his sceptre to be replaced by a turban and a scroll and the angel was removed. The biblical tract from Matthew’s Gospel was also omitted.
Over time, Castlekirk and Lenimore closed and the contentious windows were starting to decline.
They were moved to St Bride’s, but in the installation the two were reversed. Richard Leclerc was going to re-position them but he died before he could do it.
The society’s March meeting will take place in Brodick Hall on Monday March 20 at 2pm when Diana Maxwell will talk on the First World War and HMS Drakemire in particular. Visitors always welcome.