‘An enriching experience’

THE village of Bishopton is named for a summer residence of bishops of Glasgow, which was on a site above the settlement now occupied by a convent.

The village stretches along what was for many years the main road between the Glasgow area and Greenock and Port Glasgow. In the 1830s the Glasgow, Paisley and Greenock Railway was constructed to the south of the village, through a ridge of very hard whinstone rock, partly in cutting and partly in tunnels, which took several years to complete. A station was provided presumably for the landowner.

After the sale of the estate in 1912 the tiny village developed as a dormitory area.

During the First World War a large shellfilling factory, with associated housing, was constructed to the south-east of the village, but after the war was demolished.

From 1939 a second Ordnance Factory was built to the south of the railway station, on the Dargavel estate. This closed in 1999.

Its site has been redeveloped for housing.

Recently I attended a funeral in Bishopton Parish Church, a most moving and memorable occasion. My previous engagement with this building was as an advisory member of the General Trustees, when the congregation was proposing to install a biofuel boiler. Then I had been impressed with the character of the worship space, but sitting in it as a member of a congregation gave me an entirely different feeling.

This church was built in 1813-15 by the then Lord Blantyre, who owned the Erskine estate, for his estate workers. It replaced a medieval building the remains of which survive in its graveyard. The present building is in what is often termed ‘Heritors’ Gothic’ style, and is one of the earliest examples of that style. It has a rectangular body, with a tower at its west end containing a belfry and stairs to a horseshoe gallery, facing the pulpit, at the east end. It was designed by David Hamilton, a leading Glasgow architect of the day, He remodelled a mansion house in Queen Street, Glasgow into what is now the Gallery of Modern Art and also designed the Town Buildings in Port Glasgow and the Town Steeple in Falkirk.

The present Bishopton Parish Church is set in trees on a hillock above a road. There is a grace and elegance about the design which sets it above most other buildings constructed in this style. An apse was added at the east end, behind the pulpit to accommodate an organ, and a castellated vestry was later added, discreetly, to that end, by the Paisley architect W DMcLellan, in 1902-03. Churches like this were designed primarily for the reading and preaching of the Word, and Bishopton still has its original pulpit, with sounding-board above, to focus the minister’s voice on the congregation. As an estate church it is fairly small, and the handsomely-finished gallery fronts are appropriately close to the pulpit, both so that worshippers can hear the minister, and because the preacher can engage in meaningful eye contact with individual members of the congregation.

The gallery is supported on very elegant, slender cast-iron columns so as not to significantly obscure the view of the pulpit of worshippers on the ground floor. The overall impression is of a design beautifully worked out – ‘form following function’ – but with the added grace that comes from the designer’s real understanding of, and sympathy – indeed love – for the engagement, physical, mental and spiritual, which should be true worship of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and for which any digital experience can only be an unsatisfactory substitute. The acoustics of this little building were also very good, so that the singing of a comparatively small congregation really filled the building.

Do try to attend worship here: you will find it an enriching experience.