Autumn Leaves (Volume 2) by Alasdair Gordon - HTML preview

[1] Quotation from Andrew de Wyntoun’s Chronicle

[2] There is a reference to his being Bishop of Glasgow at the time of Conwalle, King of Strathclyde, in Adam King’s Kalendar published in Paris in 1588.

[3] i.e. the 19^th century

[4] Following church readjustment in the area, this building is now named Saint Serf’s.

[5] On the east bank of Loch Leven

[6] It is known that in 1595, the minister, David Anderson, lost an arm in a fight at the Kirk door.

[7] i.e. in the 19^th century.

[8] This area is now served by two church buildings and one united congregation known as Lochgelly and Benarty St Serf’s. Lochcraig Church is now demolished.

[9] When the writer first knew this district it was a mining area and heavily polluted. The pits have now all gone and the huge reclamation of Lochore Meadows has been a remarkable success.

[10] i.e. the 19^th century.

[11] Here I am describing the situation as it was in the early 1960s. In 2013 Lottery funding was earmarked to excavate, restore and feature the castle. Due to draining of the loch, subsidence and subsequent reinstatement, the waters of the loch have shifted and the castle is no longer on an island.

[12] i.e. in the middle of the 19^th century.

[13] This name was retained when the ambitious reclamation scheme was first put in hand.

[14] i.e. 1961

[15] The final two or three sentences about the Youth Club have been omitted as having no current relevance. Eventually, the property was abandoned and vandalised. It was subsequently bought and refurbished by the Scottish Spastics Association [as it was then called]. Sadly, this handsome Georgian house was finally demolished some years ago.

[16] More details of the lives of Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine respectively can be found in my own Whose Faith Follows (Eva Publications, 2013).

[17] The so-called Auchterarder Controversy around the same time focussed on the problem as to whether or not it was sound and orthodox to insist that a man must forsake sin before he can come to Jesus Christ. Even then, people of staunch and Calvinist evangelical conviction were having difficulties with some of the more rigid aspects of the Westminster Confession of Faith.

[18] It is difficult not to see similarities in the current Kirk scene over the matter of so-called “gay” clergy with some congregations and ministers breaking away, others determined to stay and many bitter and intemperate comments flying around. The most important lesson to learn from history is that we generally do not learn from history.

[19] Dunfermline1828. Reprinted 2012

[20] Glasgow 1879 Reprinted 1999

[21] A slightly smaller church of a very similar design was built by Whyte in Nicholoson Square in Edinburgh and was used as a lecture theatre by Edinburgh University from 1937 to the 1960s under the name of the Pollock Memorial Hall.

[22] The congregation moved to a new church on the east of the town in 1975. The East Port building was subsequently demolished.

[23] The statue when last seen by the writer in 2013 was in a poor and neglected state.

[24] A prime example was St Vincent Street UP Church in Glasgow, designed by Alexander “Greek” Thomson.

[25] Older people will remember with affection and respect Miss Isobel F Methven LTCL who gave a lifetime of uncomplaining service as organist at Erskine Church. “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

[26] As a member of Erskine Church I voted for the Union but voiced my dislike of the name.