Historic Churches 2019

BCD SPECIAL REPORT ON HISTORIC CHURCHES 26 TH ANNUAL EDITION 41 preserving redundant churches dating back several decades, there has been a marked upturn in the trend in the past five years. One such community at Loch Broom in the north-west Highlands established the Clachan Lochbroom Heritage Trust in order to raise funds to buy the category B listed Lochbroom Parish Church, which held its final service in 2016. The Trust successfully acquired the church from the Church of Scotland General Trustees in 2018 and plan to use it as a community resource for concerts, heritage interpretation, arts and crafts displays, and also as a place for occasional services, weddings, and funerals. Urban communities too have taken the initiative, looking to retain a church as an asset for local people and a hub in which a range of community-led initiatives can be delivered. In 2018, following a campaign by local group Action Porty, Portobello Old Parish Church in Edinburgh became the first church to be successfully acquired through the Community Right To Buy process, with the Scottish Land Fund contributing 94 per cent of the purchase price. Now called Bellfield, the former church provides a range of spaces for hire, including the main former worship space in which pews have been retained, together with smaller multi-purpose hall spaces and break-out rooms. A similar purchase, also supported by the Scottish Land Fund, has seen the striking category B listed 1968 Anderston Kelvingrove Church in Glasgow become the Pyramid at Anderston, a community- owned space for local people and ‘a place to connect, create and celebrate.’ An alternative model for community involvement in an historic church is St Margaret’s Braemar, a category A listed church of 1899–1907 by Sir J Ninian Comper for the Scottish Episcopal Church. Built not for a local congregation, but to accommodate the influx of Anglican visitors following Queen Victoria’s fashion for holidaying in the Highlands of Scotland, the longevity of the church was in doubt almost immediately. Plagued by water ingress, the church was never completed, with a planned spire and north aisle left unbuilt. Nonetheless, St Margaret’s is considered to be Comper’s ‘Scottish Masterpiece’, a building referencing key ecclesiastical sites including the abbeys of Iona and Pluscarden. Closed for worship in 1997, the church sat empty and deteriorating, and was put on the Buildings at Risk Register in 2003. Local concern for the condition of the church, in a prominent location at the centre of the village next to the primary school, increased over time, prompting the formation of an action group by the community council. Motivated by a desire for a derelict building to benefit rather than blight the community, the group worked with Historic Churches Scotland to rescue and reanimate St Margaret’s. From small beginnings in 2011, the local group has developed a year-round programme of arts events in the church, including internationally- renowned artists and performers, at the outset working within the constraints of a building that was neither weathertight nor heated. In 2013, Historic Churches Scotland acquired St Margaret’s from the Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney for £1, establishing a partnership with the local group (now the St Margaret’s Trust). The complementary nature of the partnership in terms of motivation, skills, connections, and locality brings resilience, strength and many advantages, enabling both organisations to benefit from each other’s particular expertise. While the planned £2 million project to repair, conserve and adapt the building has some way to go, the process of reanimating St Margaret’s, engaging the community, and testing uses offers a useful model that can be applied to other redundant churches. An essential component of that model is the value of partnership and collaboration – of working with others who share an interest in a building – and one which Historic Churches Scotland actively promotes to the growing number of community-based trusts now caring for churches around the nation. This is a uniquely challenging time for churches in Scotland, with a wide range of factors, both historical and contemporary, conspiring to create a perfect storm. The nation’s past experience of redundancy makes it accepting of loss and change which can be freeing when seeking to reimagine and repurpose churches, but creates ambivalence in terms of valuing ecclesiastical heritage as we would its artistic or literary counterparts. The willingness of denominations to identify new solutions and, in particular, the action and engagement of communities, are all positives. What is currently lacking, however, is coordination and collaboration: a coming-together of denominations, national organisations, and decision-makers to create a strategic approach that will ensure that the rich heritage of Scotland’s churches survives for future generations. VICTORIA COLLISON-OWEN is the director of Historic Churches Scotland (formerly the Scottish Redundant Churches Trust) (www.srct.org.uk/) . Appointed in 1999 she has managed two of its major conservation projects from development and fundraising through to completion. The rescue and regeneration of St Margaret’s, Braemar, is a partnership project between Historic Churches Scotland and the community-led St Margaret’s Trust. A dynamic programme of cultural events is reanimating the previously derelict church while a £2 million repair project is developed. (Photo above: Dale Johnson) (Photo below: Historic Churches Scotland)