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Erskine, Church of Scotland
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Church of Scotland,
Ferry Road
Erskine
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Bishopton Parish Church
The church, formerly Erskine Parish Church, was built in 1813—14; the architect was David Hamilton. The small castellated vestry at the eastern end was added in 1902—03, and is by William Daniel McLennan. The church was built using stone taken from a freestone quarry about a mile to the east. Old OS maps mark the former site of a church, the predecessor of this one, close to the centre of the kirkyard. A charter by Florentius (Florence, Bishop of Glasgow in the first decade of the 13th century) mentions the church of Erskine ("Irschin").
Until about 2000, this was known as Erskine Parish Church.
The New Statistical Account (1845), in its account of Erskine Parish, states in connection with the building of this church in about 1813 that "the old church ..., having become ruinous, was pulled down in 1813, and the benetier, which held the holy water at the principal entrance, is still to be seen lying in the church-yard. It [that is, the old church] was situated in the middle of the church-yard; but the new one has been built at a little distance from it, on a site granted by Lord Blantyre".
It goes on to lament that the church could not have been built in a location more central to the parish, before noting that "the number of sittings in the church is 500, and the sittings at the communion table are appropriated to the poor. No seat-rents are exacted either by the heritors or kirk-session".
The church is some distance from the modern settlement of Bishopton.
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