stirling-1963-vol-1/05_185

Transcription

No. 140 -- ECCLESIASTICAL MONUMENTS -- No. 140
roof. This alteration may indicate a delay in the com-
pletion of the upper portion. The openings on the second
floor are lintelled but elsewhere they are round-headed.
The church bell dates only from 1911. An earlier bell, by
Robert Maxwell & Co., Edinburgh, has been removed to
Fallin; it is dated 1729 and is similar in design and
lettering to the Meikle bell at Gargunnock. ¹
The internal arrangements of the church date only
from the reconstruction of 1887. The pulpit now stands
in front of a recess in the centre of the N. wall, and E. of
it a door has been broken through into the vestry.

HERALDIC CARVINGS. In addition to the two stones
noted above, bearing respectively the dates 1673 and
1789, and another bearing the initials WB and the date
1654, two heraldic stones have been reset in the walls of
the church. One, on the W. side, shows a shield dividing
the date 1654, and the initials WB charged: A saltire
and chief. The arms and initials are those of William
Bruce, 2nd of Newtoun (cf. No. 306), who was retoured
heir to his father Patrick Bruce in 1655 and was still
alive in 1709 ². In the E. wall there is a very badly
weathered stone bearing a shield charged: Quarterly,
1st and 4th, a chevron; 2nd (and presumably 3rd) a
stag's head erased. These arms have not been identified.

TOMBSTONES. The only tombstone in the churchyard
on which a date earlier than 1707 can be made out is a
small headstone inscribed in relief 1640 / IA. Some of
the later stones (Pl. 48 B, C, D) show fine representations
of ships, and no doubt commemorate seamen of the
former port of Carronshore.

903834 -- NS 98 SW ("Church") -- 23 March 1953

140. Parish Church, Falkirk. The parish church of
Falkirk is dedicated to St. Modan, but it is not known
which of the sixteen saints bearing the name Mo Aodhán
is in question. ³ No authority has been found for Watson's
statement ⁴ that the saint's arm was formerly preserved
here. The record of the foundation of the church in the
reign of Malcolm Canmore in 1057 ⁵ cannot be accepted,
as the stone now seen in the church, which bears an
inscription to this effect, is bogus (infra); but Symeon of
Durham's mention of "Egglesbreth" under the date
1080 ⁶ proves that a church existed in the later 11th
century and also suggests that the building was parti-
coloured, ⁷ perhaps through the use of two kinds of stone
occurring in the same quarry (cf. p. 443). The church
became the property of Holyrood Abbey in 1166. ⁸ About
1800 proposals were made by the heritors for repairing
the church or, alternatively, for replacing it by a new
building to be erected either on the existing site or on
another one at the W. end of the burgh. ⁹ William Forbes,
1st of Callendar, in opposition to the majority of the
heritors, favoured the new site, and a long and complex
struggle ensued; this was terminated only in 1810, when
the Court of Session decided that the tower of the old
church should be preserved and a new church added to
it. ¹⁰ During the course of this dispute more than one set
of plans was prepared for the reconstruction or renewal
of the church, drawings being submitted by a Mr. Cairn-
cross and by Messrs. Sibbald & Thin of Edinburgh.
Eventually, in March 1810, a design by Gillespie
Graham was accepted and a contract was made with
Henry Taylor, mason in Falkirk, and William Black,
wright, by which Gillespie Graham's church was to be
added to the existing steeple at a cost of about £3500. ¹¹
These alterations were completed in the autumn of 1811.
The mediaeval building, as it stood before the
reconstruction carried out in 1810-11, was cruciform on
plan, with a tower over the crossing and access to the
transepts through "lofty" arches. ¹² The S. crossing-
piers are still partly visible, and have broad filleted
arrises, but most of the substructure of the tower is en-
cased in later work. The upper part of the tower, as now
seen externally, dates from 1734 and is said to have been
designed by William Adam. ¹³ The design of the crossing
piers, together with a large roof-boss (infra) which may
well have come from the centre of the crossing and is now
preserved in the S. porch, suggests that this part of the
mediaeval building dates from the 15th century. In
1810-11 the whole structure was demolished, apart from
the portions of the tower just mentioned, and an
auditorium church, with galleries, was built to the N. of
the tower, which was central to its S. side and served it
as a porch. The pulpit was placed in the centre of the N.
side. Externally (Pl. 35) the angles are emphasised by
square pseudo-towers crenellated at their tops, and the
gables are crow-stepped. The tower shows, on its W.
side, the raggle of the nave roof removed in 1810, and
on its E. side that of the choir roof, though this is less
well defined. It has rusticated quoins, is finished with a
pronounced moulded cornice and bears an octagonal
belfry with bell-cast roof and finial, each of its faces
being pierced by a round-headed opening. This belfry
was probably added at or about the time of the main
reconstruction.
Since the reconstruction a large S. porch has been
added, abutting the tower in the position of the mediaeval
S. transept.

1 P.S.A.S., lxxxiv (1949-50), 72. Cf. No. 344.
2 Armstrong, W. Bruce, The Bruces of Airth and their
Cadets (privately printed, 1892), 105 ff.
3 Watson, Place Names, 289.
4 Ibid., 290.
5 N.S.A., viii (Stirlingshire), 33.
6 Symeonis Monachi Opera Omnia, Rolls edn., ii, Historia
Regum, 211.
7 Watson (op. cit., 349) quotes "Fawkirk" as an instance of a
Celtic place-name, which he supplies as "an Eaglais Bhreac",
being translated directly into English. On this showing Gaelic
was still spoken in the district in 1080. Mediaeval records use
the Latin synonym Varia Capella.
8 Holyrood, p. 209.
9 H.M. Register House, Forbes of Callendar Papers, Box 122.
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid.; see also H.M. Register House, Heritors' Records for
the parish of Falkirk, 1788-1825, under dates 3rd and 12th
March 1810.
12 N.S.A., loc. cit.
13 Post-Reformation Churches, 275.

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