God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
Psalm 46:1
Originally, as finished in December 1770, the chapel was a simple rectangular building, but considerable alteration was made from time to time to windows and doors, as can be seen from old photographs. A bellcote was added in 1836 and recast in 1861 – 2. Further reconstruction was involved with the erection of the west porch with a round headed doorway, as well as extending the church at the east end by the provision of a chancel. This was the work of William Simpson, Stirling, in 1890. The most recent alterations were the construction of the Church Hall in 1985 and the removal of plaster work in the chancel to reveal the original stonework.
Ardoch Church was officially opened for worship on March 25th, 1781 as a Chapel of Ease for the convenience of parishioners in what was then the southern part of the old Parish of Muthill. At that time there was no village of Braco, but a fairly populous rural area round about.
The early period of Ardoch’s Chapel of Ease belongs to a remarkable personality. He was James Clow, born at Mill of Feddal in 1790 – the first recorded native of the present parish to become a minister of the Church of Scotland, although his service was all overseas. Mr Clow’s first appointment was in Bombay in 1815. He was involved in setting up a new church there and in 1833 he retired from Hon East India Company service. He later settled in Melbourne, Australia, where he was a pioneer of the Presbyterian Church. He died in Australia in 1861.
The first sermon in Ardoch Church was preached by the minister of Muthill Parish, Rev John Scott on the text, “Be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” The first minister to be appointed to the Chapel of Ease in 1781 was Rev. David Simson. Ardoch became a Quoad Sacra Parish in 1834, about which time also the village of Braco arose and began to extend. The New Statistical Account (dated 1845), for Muthill reports, “A very thriving village is now rising up beside the church, named Braco village, from the circumstances that it consists of feus on the estate of Braco.” The most important phase in the constitution of Ardoch Parish from a legal point of view was its erection as a Quoad Omnia Parish in 1855, when its boundaries, as defined, took in not only part of Muthill, but part of Dunblane and of Blackford Parishes.
What is known as the Disruption of 1843, largely over the question of patronage, split the Church of Scotland almost in two. At the local level its effects were felt in Braco, by the building of the Free Church in 1844, of which the tower remains today. The Church at Greenloaning was originally a Secession Church, which arose from similar causes in the previous century. Happily in the course of time divisions were healed and by the union of the Church of Scotland with the United Free Church in 1929 a united Christian witness could once again be made. The first minister of the united churches in Ardoch Parish was Rev. Thomas Blackwood, 1929 – 1934.
ARDOCH PARISH CHURCH OF SCOTLAND
Charity registered in Scotland
Charity No. SC000139
You can contact us by getting in touch with us at info@ardochparishchurch.org