A historical Account of Dunfermline: Townhill and Kingseat Parish Church, 1883-2024
The summary information which follows mostly is extracted from “A Short History of Townhill Church”, written by the then Minister Rev. Mary Morrison in 1983, in recognition of the centenary of the first congregational meeting of the Church having taken place (in the old “Iron Kirk”) on 25th May 1883.
Mary recalled her own call to the charge, when in May 1978 she became the first woman minister ordained within the then Dunfermline Presbytery. 100 years earlier, in May 1878, Rev. Jacob Primmer had been ordained minister of the “Established” Church, in a newly constructed building in front of the local primary school, which itself had been opened three years beforehand.
Jacob Primmer became a prominent figure locally and nationally, however by December 1882 the Presbytery Clerk had offered him £100 to “clear out of the area”. Primmer was a campaigner, focussing on what he felt were the twin evils of alcohol and Roman Catholicism. He opposed his Presbytery over the “Townhill Question”, and the General Assembly agreed with him about the use of unfermented wine (grape juice) at Communion.
Doctrinal differences resulted in local residents of Townhill by November 1882 initiating the establishment of a Free Church, meeting temporarily in one of the school classrooms. By April of the following year, an Iron Church had been transported from Baillieston in Glasgow, and James Smellie had been invited to take charge of the Mission. Having been ordained in September 1884, Rev. Smellie emigrated to New Zealand in 1887, meaning that the first occupant of a newly constructed manse was his successor, Rev. Andrew Thomson Miller.
Rev. Miller served as Minister for a remarkable 39 years, during which time the local church evolved to more closely resemble the parish model with which we now are familiar. Plans proceeded to fund and construct a permanent Church building, which was opened in April 1896. A Boys Brigade company also was formed that year, and by November 1900 a national unification resulted in a name change to Townhill United Free Church (still formally outside the Established Kirk, meantime).
Nationally the country was entering a period of turmoil, with two World Wars on the horizon. In September 1914, the use of the Church hall for the quartering of troops was requested. By July 1919, the names of the fallen were recorded and the erection of a War Memorial next to the Church grounds was initiated. By 1924 the Girl Guides were established, and practical considerations included lighting the Church and hall by electricity.
Proposals for Union with the Church of Scotland were confirmed at a congregational meeting in January 1926, however within weeks the long-serving Rev. Miller had died – his considerable contribution subsequently being recognised by a memorial window over the pulpit depicting the predominant local occupations of coal mining, farming and linen spinning. Successor ministers tended to serve much shorter terms, with ten different incumbents over the next fifty years.
During the ministry of Rev. John Stewart (one of “D.P. Thomson’s boys”), the congregation of Lassodie – a dying pit village – was dissolved, with Kingseat – having previously been linked to Lassodie – reverting to its former status as a Home Mission Station in the bounds of Townhill Parish. A service establishing this was held in October 1933.
With war looming again by September 1939, the hall at Townhill was taken over by the ARP (Air Raid Precautions), and the halls at both Townhill and Kingseat were to be used as mortuaries if necessary. Church services continued (in the evenings monthly, “to coincide with the full moon”), and with the boiler room of the Church available as a basement shelter if required. During this time, a ladies’ work party evolved into the Women’s Guild.
Three ministers served during World War 2 and, with so many men away on active service, the Minister’s duties included running personally BB, Sunday School, Bible classes and Youth Fellowship. The Church was not yet ready to embrace fully the extent to which women in the congregation could take on leadership roles!
During the 1950s the previous intention of converting the former church building (adjacent to the school) into a “new hall” was abandoned, and instead by October 1957 the existing hall adjoining Townhill Church was expanded and re-opened. A cottage also had been built on the Church grounds, as a home for the Beadle.
By the 1960s, Sunday services at Kingseat – previously held in the afternoon – changed to an early morning start, preceding the services at Townhill – a pattern which continued until both church buildings closed. As a result of a gift received in the 1970s, a prefabricated building was placed to the rear of the Church, and used as an overspill small hall.
In September 1974 the Kirk Session finally recognised a previously untapped resource by admitting women elders – six at once, one of whom (Nessie McDonald) is still a regular worshipper. Rev. Mary Morrison finished her account by concluding that the congregation at the time she was writing was in good heart spiritually. Her closing remarks remain applicable more than forty years later – “The Church has changed (too) but remains essentially the same, the witness to the eternal things that are a backcloth to everyday living, working, loving and dying.”
Postscript
Rev. Morrison moved on in 1986, to be succeeded by another long-serving minister (19 years), Rev. Bill Farquhar. Around ten years into his charge, Dunfermline Presbytery agreed to the congregation being renamed Dunfermline: Townhill and Kingseat Parish Church, more accurately reflecting the joint worshipping community which had developed between the two villages.
Ministries subsequent to Rev. Farquhar’s were relatively shorter, concluding when Rev. Jean Kirkwood took up a charge in Dundee in 2021. Townhill and Kingseat had addressed the challenges facing the Church nationally, closing and removing the small hall and Church cottage when they were no longer required. The traditional (but costly) manse at Townhill was replaced by a modern family home in Kingseat.
The Church hall at Townhill was again refurbished and dedicated in July 2018, due in no small measure to a substantial donation from a stalwart office-bearer, Harry Parker, M.B.E. Following Harry’s death in December 2019, the hall was renamed Parker Hall.
While some long-standing groups (like the Boys Brigade and Girls Guides) fell away, the congregation continued and expanded its presence in and around the local communities through such ventures as Picnic in the Park, Nibble’n’Natter and a School Holiday Breakfast Club. The establishment of Fife Presbytery and the development of a new Presbytery Plan necessitated some heart-searching deliberations among Church office-bearers.
