Historic A-listed kirk secures future thanks to six-figure funding

Church in proposed union with cathedral receives essential repair and heritage grant

A Brechin church in proposed union with the city’s closure-threatened cathedral has received a six-figure financial boost for essential repairs and heritage promotion.

Following an earlier Heritage Lottery Fund development grant of almost £25,000 to the Gardner Memorial Church, Historic Environment Scotland and the Heritage Lottery Fund have jointly agreed to a further award of almost £220,000 for the A-listed building’s repair and renewal project.

The project will carry out essential conservation work and provide interpretive material and new digital access to the building, enabling visitors to better understand its unique detail and the wider community to participate in a variety of related heritage activities.

The church was designed in the American Romanesque style by Sir John James Burnet, a contemporary of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

It contains a number of unique features including several ornate Tynecastle Tapestry-covered doors which will be restored by the Scottish Conservation Studio during the course of the project.

An initial exhibition displaying various aspects of the church’s architecture, history and heritage will run from October 24 to November 1.

Conservation work will be undertaken by Graeme W Cheyne (Builders) Ltd of Aberdeen under the supervision of conservation architects James F Stephen of Glamis.

The Gardner, built in the late 1890s following a bequest of £7,000 from the late Rev Alexander Gardner in memory of his son, together with a matching donation by the local Milne family of Mooranbank, could welcome the congregation of Brechin Cathedral if the two congregations unite.

A continuing decline in attendance and financial support at the cathedral, along with the impending departure of the minister and a debt of £140,000, prompted union talks.

Committees from both churches will now meet to negotiate a draft basis of union and, if this is reached, it will go before each kirk session independently before a vote by the sessions and congregations.

Peter George, treasurer and project manager at the Gardner, welcomed the major investment which he says has secured the building’s long-term future.

He said: “We are obviously delighted to receive this level of support.

“It means that, unlike so many churches, the place has a distinct future and we are planning for that future.

“It is the result of a significant effort of the congregation to ensure that is the case.

“There is a proposed union with the cathedral, who knows how that will result, but either way the Gardner has a future in terms of the building.”

Unlike so many churches, the place has a distinct future and we are planning for that future

Brechin’s A-listed Gardner Memorial Church has secured a future thanks to the grant.