The quirky history of a Lanarkshire church is to be looked at in a new book.
Burnside Blairbeth Church features in Churches of Glasgow by Gordon Adams, which examines the history of places of worship in the Dear Green Place.
Given that the Burnside building sits outside Glasgow in Rutherglen, some may wonder why it is included in the new volume, a fact noted by the author himself.
However the answer lies in the fact that the entire Burnside Blairbeth building was previously based in the city - until being moved brick by brick to Rutherglen.
As the book explains: "Burnside Blairbeth started as a mission named St Gilbert’s in 1903 in a temporary iron church in Pollokshields. A permanent home was built in 1909–11.
"There came a point in 1942 when the congregation was united with that of Sherbrooke Church of Scotland and the St Gilbert’s building lay empty and became surplus to requirements.
"Meanwhile, a congregation in Rutherglen had been using a church hall since 1928 and plans for a new building had been thwarted by the coming of the Second World War.
"From 1947 however it began negotiating for the purchase of St Gilbert’s and succeeded. St Gilbert’s was then taken down and removed stone by stone to Rutherglen between 1950 and 1954 and rebuilt at its present site."
Originally the church was known as Burnside Parish Church, before merging with Blairbeth Rodger Memorial in 2002 to become Burnside Blairbeth Church, and it continues to be on the same site today.
Mr Adams, a local historian, uses the book to showcase how Glasgow’s dynamic history is reflected in its diverse architecture and the heritage of its church buildings.
He outlines their story through the ages, with the likes of the elegant 19th-century St Vincent Street Church, the intimate Govan Old Parish Church with its unsurpassed collection of mediaeval monument stones and the unique Queen’s Cross, the only church built by Charles Rennie MacIntosh, all featuring in the book.
Churches of Glasgow, released via Amberley Publishing, is slated for release on October 15 and more details can be found here.
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