Church History
Our church has a long history, having served the community of Bishopbriggs for nearly 900 years! Read on to find out how our church has evolved and changed over time.
Welcome and Introduction
1990 was a significant year in Glasgow as it was designated the “City of Culture”. To mark this occasion, the Reverend Jack Beaumont, former minister of Cadder Church, led a small team to produce the first Cadder Church booklet. The booklet gave a general overview of the Church and the parish of Cadder. Twenty-eight years later, we have revised the original booklet, keeping to its main themes and structure.
The Reverend Jack Beaumont wrote, as an introduction to the original booklet, “The land of Scotland, and even the Kirk, is rich in our heritage of Parish Churches. Even in our secular age, these often remain visual as well as the spiritual focus of their community”.
Our almost 200-year-old building is somewhat tucked away, in arguably the most beautiful part of the town of Bishopbriggs. It sits close to the beauty of the canal and is surrounded by an amazing array of God's natural world. It is a continual witness to the presence and grace of God in a fast-changing world. Cadder Church still stands as both a reminder of its past rich heritage and it still is a spiritual focus and dimension for our present community life.
Those who worship here each Sunday are rightly proud of their church building; great love and care goes into its upkeep. But there is also another aspect to the building and that is its spiritual dimension. This site has been soaked in worship and prayer for the best part of 900 years and it is still the cradle that holds our worship together and which we dedicate to our Heavenly Father. Cadder Church is a church of many parts. Our South Halls are still thriving in their usage for both church organisations and community life; as is the refurbished North Hall which is also extensively used. The Coffee Shop is also a vital and integral part of our daily life and it brings together a wide community of people.
Since the original booklet, much more has been discovered about Thomas Muir, who was an elder at Cadder Church before being sent to Botany Bay on charges of sedition. He was to escape from here and he died in France as a young man. But his legacy of democracy lives on and in recent years, a finely etched window, in his memory, now stands proud amongst the other magnificent stained glass windows.
This booklet, fine as it is, will only give a glimpse into Cadder Church life and parish. The best way to experience the fullness of the Church is to come and to be part of our worshipping community and caring fellowship.
With every good wish and blessing,
Reverend John B. MacGregor
The Church and Parish of Cadder
The records of the nation of Scotland carry the story of Cadder Church and Parish back to the middle of the 12th Century. The Scots King David I instituted great reforms in Church and State before his death in 1153. His grandson and successor, Malcolm IV, made a grant of the lands of "Conclud, Cader and Badermonoc" to the Bishopric of Glasgow. This was confirmed by his successor, William the Lion. So there might have been a church before that, built near the old ruins of the Roman Camp on the Antonine Wall. But there definitely was a church building, and people worshipping there at Cadder, about the year 1150 A.D., almost 850 years ago!
As can be seen from the names of the known Pre-Reformation clergy at the back of this booklet, from the beginning links with the Cathedral of Glasgow were close. Many of the Sub-Deans were men of note. One at least, Andrew Muirhead, later became Bishop of Glasgow. Some of the nominal vicars may have held appointments in Rome, and the Appeals and Counter Appeals of which we have note suggest conflict between the priests doing the work locally and the holders of the office waiting for their stipends in Rome!
From the Cathedral to the University of Glasgow, founded in 1451, the "Living" was annexed to the College of Glasgow and the University drew the teinds of the parish until 1821. It also possessed the right of patronage, i.e. appointing a minister, but this right was bought out by the Heritors and Parishioners in 1695. We are told that when the congregation of Cadder first sought to exercise their right to elect a minister there was a dispute with the University and Thomas Muir of Huntershill, at that time an Elder, made a spirited defence of the congregation's rights.
After the great renewal of the Church in the Reformation of 1560 the first Reformed Minister was the Rev. David Cunningham who came from Lesmahagow in 1572. He also had charge of Monkland and Lenzie, covering both Kirkintilloch and Cumbernauld. Five years later he was consecrated Bishop of Aberdeen and this to-ing and fro-ing between Presbyterianism and Episcopacy was to continue for another hundred years.
We know a fair amount about every minister since then. Men of learning, and men of great evangelical spirit, as well as men of very ordinary and even frail human failure. There was John Bell, whose manse was so ruinous he petitioned to rebuild, and was told to live in the steeple. Some were chased from the parish and others died honoured in the fulness of their years.
The Minute Books of the Kirk Session of Cadder date from 1688 and the many volumes are fairly complete, though there is a great and unexplained blank from 8 May 1737 to 27 March 1791. The originals are lodged in Register House in Edinburgh, but we are fortunate in having complete photocopies for our own local use.
As the plaque on the East Wall, erected in 1909, informs us, the Pre-Reformation Church had to be replaced in 1750 and that in turn by the present building. This was designed by David Hamilton (1768-1843), one of the creators of early 19th century Glasgow, in Neo-Gothic style, built in 1825, and completed in 1829 by the erection of the tower through the generosity of the principal Heritor, Stirling of Cawder.
In 1900 around 1,000 people lived in Bishopbriggs. Cadder Church served a wide country area and the farming, mining and quarrying communities looked to the old parish church for spiritual continuity and comfort.
By the 1970s and 1980s we were one of the larger congregations in the West of Scotland, serving a bulging suburban community, with excellent facilities in South and North Halls, but focused still on the lovely church in its early 19th century setting by the canal.
As we journey through the 21st Century, we preach and practice faith in Christ in a world unbelievably different from the nine centuries during which men and women have worshipped in Cadder. But Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, and today, and forever. We believe that the world of our children, and of our children's children, needs the joy, and the forgiveness, and the love which the members of Cadder find in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Kirkyard and Watch-house
At least three churches have been built on or near the present site of Cadder, and the surrounding area is likely to have been used for Christian burial for over 800 years.
"It was the practice of the respectable families in the parish," says the Rev. Thomas Lockerby in the Second Statistical Account (1836), "to bury in the aisle or middle passage of the church, and some of them below their own seats." Other graves outside, over many centuries, remained unmarked. The earliest dated gravestones now are from 1636.
When the present church was built in 1825 (tower 1829) it was the period of the "Resurrectionists". The years roughly between 1810 and 1830 were the boom years for body-snatchers who robbed new graves and sold the bodies to the doctor surgeons in the growing medical schools of Edinburgh and Glasgow for anatomical dissection. Eventually a series of murders committed by Burke and Hare in Edinburgh, to provide the surgeons with yet more bodies, led to public outrage and the Government passed an Act in 1832 regulating by licence the Schools of Anatomy.
This is the background to the building in the Kirkyard of Cadder of the little "Watch House" and the existence of the "Mort-safe", as in many churchyards of the same period in Scotland. The mort-safe. which required several men to lift it, was placed over a newly interred coffin for several days then removed for re-use. After a funeral a small group of relatives and church office-bearers would mount a guard for several nights in the watch house, often armed with an ancient blunderbuss to strengthen their courage.
Cadder 1900 - 2018
118 historic years in world history
Cadder in 1900 had hardly changed as a place of worship since 1825 when our present building was built to the design of David Hamilton.
In 1900 it was still a simple rectangular building with no chancel, a central pulpit, "horseshoe" gallery and hot air heating in ducts under the aisles. Hymns and Psalms were sung to the accompaniment of an organ purchased in 1888 from St Pauls Episcopal Church, Buccleuch Street.
The chancel window, which we can still admire, filled the gable wall above the central pulpit. In 1905, when the first major improvements were encouraged by Rev. James Watt, the building of the present chancel caused the transfer of the Gardiner window and was the first step in the development of the church towards the 20th Century.
New pews were installed downstairs with a wider spacing for a growing generation. New heating had recently been installed, the organist had resigned after 14 years, and there were over 50 applications for the post. Mr. Watt was at great pains to reassure the congregation that the exterior of the church would remain unaltered and that the interior would be improved.
At a service in May 1908, George Buchanan of Gask (previously at Cawder House), placed a sealed casket into the new chancel arch. The casket - presumably still in position - contains copies of Life and Work, church magazines, newspapers and coins of that date. The church re-opened for worship in October 1908 with a flood of commemorative gifts which we can still enjoy today, The Stone Font, Oak Lectern, Brass Plates listing the ministers, and still to be fitted at that time, the carved memorial pulpit.
In 1911, Rev. James Watt died after 29 years in Cadder. The very fine stained glass window "Faith, Hope and Charity" was installed in 1914 as a tribute to Mr Watt where it remains facing the pulpit as an outstanding example of the work of young Alf Webster - later to lose his life in the 1914/18 war.
1914 was to be an epic year in the history of mankind. In that very year, Cadder Session decided to carry out fairly major alterations to the gallery, to open up the central area of the church and allow space for the new window to Mr Watt. Hugh Reid of the North British Loco Company in Springburn, was a regular worshipper in Cadder at this time and was influential in the changes which were to take place.
His suggestion for a new window in the side wall of the chancel, opposite the organ, was never carried out, but the memorial windows to his wife Marion Bell, is another superb example of the work of Alf Webster. Generous donations from Hugh Reid supported the gallery work and the stained glass windows.
The old "horseshoe" shaped gallery was cut back, and the current new gallery was built on top of the original timberwork. The carved oak front to the gallery incorporating Heritors' coats of arms was also gifted by Hugh Reid. It is interesting to note that the cost of the oak gallery front was £78 and the additional cost for the carved work was £62.
Three carved shields remind us of the Heritors. Stirling of Kier & Cawder, Christie of Bedlay and Sprot of Garnkirk. All three played a significant part in the industrial development of Glasgow. Harriet Sprot in 1811 cut a sod to start work on the first railway line in Scotland (Glasgow to Garnkirk).
After the '14-18' war the congregation under its new Minister, Rev. Woodside Robinson, paid tribute to those lost in the Great War. The war memorial windows were dedicated in March 1921.
Life in the parish continued with 'missionary' activity in Mavis Valley and Jelly Hill (the mining villages adjacent to the canal, near the Leisuredrome). The Debating Society, and Dramatic Club continued to flourish with activities concentrated in the South Hall.
The organ in the hall (South Hall) had to be overhauled and music was "restricted to piano and one or more violins". In 1922 the organ was sold to St. Bride's Church Edinburgh.
Session minutes record that the church organ obtained in 1888, required fairly frequent attention and suffered many times from the leaking roof. It was finally replaced in 1957 with the present instrument, obtained from High Street Church, Dumbarton.
Cadder Parish originally covered a large rural parish, and the services were regulated by times for milking and farm work. During the '2O's Rev. Woodside Robinson was minister of a parish extending from Lochgroy to Colston and Springburn, Mavis Valley to Blackhill and even included visits to New City Road. Reference in 1927 was made to "a great increase in population" in the parish.
Communion attendance had risen to 413 in 1929 when Alaisdair MacInnes was ordained and admitted following the retiral due to ill health of Mr. Robinson.
The '30's were to prove a testing time for Cadder, as the effect of the 'general depression', coal strike and deteriorating personal relationships led to poor finances and attendance.
In 1930, the membership totalled 700 with only 373 actually resident in Bishopbriggs. By 1939 310 members attended Communion, and the influx of new communicants was at a very low level.
Contrast this with the service of David Brown who resigned in 1940 after 52 years teaching in the Sunday School.
A breath of fresh air arrived in 1942 with the new Minister, Rev. James Gordon. He was to enjoy the new manse at Balmuildy Road, the change to electric lighting at the church and the restoration of the hall from the A.R.P. In 1952, when he left for New Zealand, the roll had risen to 730, although it was noted that almost one third gave no support to the church.
Rev. Brock Doyle rose to the challenge of the population growth, and the demands in assisting the blending of the traditionalists and the newcomers. Under his ministry membership rose to 816 with communion attendance per annum at 77%. The organ was replaced in 1957 and the session approved the replacement of the 'Samba Stop' at a cost of £20.
Congregational growth continued under Rev. Douglas MacNaughton - placing a premium on hall accommodation - leading to the major extension of the (South) Hall in 1961.
The church had seen substantial growth from the 260 membership in 1825; 500 in 1908; 750 in 1928 and 1099 in 1962. The old church building, its ministers and members have served well since 1825, and should have many years of service still to give.
Recent years have seen many challenges nationally, amongst them the rise of secularism. This has had the effect of a drop in our membership. However, Cadder Church is still going forward in faith, believing in the providence of God, and as ever dependent on the faithful support and attendance of our members.
The Chancel Project - 1980
Before
After
The 'before' photo shows the chancel as it was built in 1908. It remained unaltered until 1980.
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Pine panelled walls and choir pews.
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Central tile floor leading to Communion Table at rear.
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Oak pulpit and curved stair. Organ from Dumbarton, installed in 1957.
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Alice Gardner stained glass window in rear wall.
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During Communion services the tops of the choir pews were covered in white linen and occupied by the duty Elders.
The 'after' photo shows the chancel after it was updated in 1980.
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Wall panelling and memorial panels remain unaltered.
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Choir pews have been removed and substituted with oak chairs from the uniting churches of Springburn.
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Pulpit has been lowered slightly and moved to the left towards the vestry door.
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Main floor area of Chancel has been raised and extended in front of the Chancel arch with steps, incorporated to give an intermediate level.
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Communion Table now occupies a forward position under the Chancel Arch, giving an improved view during Communion services. The raised floor areas also enhance the services during weddings, baptisms, and children's services.
Vestibule: 1980
The vestibule was increased in size by the removal of a rear central pew and some side pews. The original leaded glass windows and doors have been built into a new screen enclosing the vestibule, and the additional space created provides a generous meeting area with cloaks, display, etc.
The Oregon pine lining on the ceiling and cloakroom areas, together with the warm red carpet, provides a good contrast to the dark-stained pine of the original woodwork.
