CALTON
PARKHEAD CHURCH OF SCOTLAND
122,
Helenvale Street, Parkhead
Calton
was one of the first of the Chapels of Ease to be established to alleviate
pressure upon the limited Church resources within the extensive Barony Parish.
It was built at 27, Tobago Street in 1793 as the result of a petition of
villagers from the Calton, Bridgeton and Camlachie to the Glasgow Presbytery the
previous year.
At this time, those who had subscribed enough towards the construction of the Calton church were able to appoint their own minister. This differed from the usual practice of a minister being appointed by the patrons of the church as allowed in the 1712 Patronage Act. Most Chapels of Ease tended to be built by voluntary subscription and therefore were not so liable to the patronage pressures which were to prove so divisive in 1843. However, even this relative freedom of the chapels was removed by the Moderate party which dominated the General Assembly of 1798. Chapels were further disadvantaged inasmuch as they were not allowed to have a Kirk Session or be directly represented in the Church courts until the General Assembly's Chapels Act of 1834 finally gave them quoad sacra standing.
With
the Disruption of 1843, some members of the Calton congregation no longer felt
able to remain within the Established Church.
They joined with others who seceded from the Greenhead chapel and from
St. James’s Burgh Church, and eventually built their own church in London
Street near Glasgow Cross in 1845. This
was St. James’ Free Church - eventually to be St. James’ Glasgow Cross
Church of Scotland.
Calton itself was disjoined from the Barony in 1849 by virtue of the New Parishes (Scotland) Act of 1844, and erected into a parish quoad omnia. This meant that responsibility not only for ecclesiastical matters was transferred to Calton from the Barony, but also for those significant civil duties which accrued to the territory of a parish in the 19th century and which included relief of the poor, registration of births, marriages and deaths and provision for education.
Calton Parkhead
The geographical area of the new Calton parish extended from the Calton village itself as far east as Parkhead. Those other Chapels of Ease and missionary churches such as St. Luke’s within the Calton itself, and at Bridgeton, Greenhead and Camlachie fell inside its boundaries and now became subject to the authority of the Calton church. Eventually though, the same circumstances which had led to the division of the great Barony Parish had the same effect upon Calton.
The following decades which saw a massive expansion in population, commerce and industry also saw many quoad sacra parishes established and disjoined from Calton. These included Bridgeton (1853), St. Luke’s (1863), Greenhead (1876), Parkhead (1867), Newhall (1873), Newlands (which came over from the Free Church in 1876), Barrowfield (1879), St. Clement’s (1888) and Dalmarnock (1888). Barrowfield is now Bridgeton St. Francis in the East and St. Luke’s has become St. Luke’s & St. Andrew’s. Until recently, St. Clement’s was used for secular purposes as an annexe to Glasgow College of Building & Printing, while the other churches have gone.
That these were quoad sacra parishes meant that Calton itself retained those civil responsibilities incumbent upon it for the whole original area until these were eventually taken over by state provision.
In 1898 a new minister came to Calton, the Rev. William Chalmers Smith B.D., and although he is noted for being as hard-working as his predecessors in the ensuing 25 years of his service, it is for his wife's activities that he is particularly remembered. Dr. Elizabeth Chalmers Smith (1872-1944) was one of the first women to graduate from Glasgow University in medicine and was a pioneer in child care. She was also a militant suffragette, and endured incarceration in Duke Street prison for the cause after she and others planned to set fire to a house in Park Circus. The couple's son later took up the charge upon the demise of his father and remained with the church until its last days.
In 1929 with the union of the United Free Church with the Church of Scotland, there were now two Calton kirks. To distinguish between the congregations, the Calton United Free church in Stevenson Street became the new Calton Church of Scotland while the Tobago Street church was accorded the dignity of the additional appellation “Old”.
With moves being made by the city authorities in the 1930s to combat the appalling housing conditions in Glasgow's inner city areas, many of the inhabitants of the Calton were removed by 1934 to the new Corporation housing schemes which had been constructed at Newbank, Cuthelton and Lilybank, several miles to the east. It was decided that the church should follow its congregation.
In
1905 a small mission church had been built in Helenvale Street at Newbank, the
eastern extremity of the old parish, and which was known as Calton East Church
(or more affectionately as the wee tinny church, from its tin roof). It was
decided that the new building would also be built there to replace both Calton
Old and Calton East. This new
church was designated Calton Old (Newbank) Church, to denote its origins, and
was opened in 1935. The old
building in the Calton was finally taken down in about 1937.
The
Helenvale Street building acquired its current name when it was joined by the
congregations of both Parkhead Church and Dalmarnock Church in 1977. As part of
an agreement made at the time of the proposed demolition of the Dalmarnock
church, missionary work is still undertaken at the Dalmarnock community centre
which was built on part of the site.
The new church was built by Hutton & Taylor in what has variously been described as simplified Romanesque and Early Christian style.
Cruciform
in plan, round. A
less expected and more recent feature of the church is the hour hand of a clock
in the shape of a Celtic Cross. This
was acquired by a minister from the landmark Boots store at the junction of
Argyle and Renfield Streets when it was being demolished.
King, Elspeth (1978); “The Scottish Women’s Suffrage Movement.” David J. Clark Ltd., Glasgow.
www.members,tripod.com/ronand_2/calton.htm
http://members.lycos.co.uk/ronand_2/index.htm
© 2005 Gordon Adams
GALLERY:
The Birth, Death and Resurrection
The Burning Bush, The Good Samaritan
The Crawford Memorial Window, St. Luke