History of St. Nicholas Cardonald Parish Church
Hillington was still a very new housing estate practically surrounded by green fields and farms, when St. Nicholas Church was designed by architect James Miller RSA.
Erected by the Baird Trust at a cost of £11,500 this unadorned brick building with its distinctive pillars and round arches was dedicated on the 25th November 1937.
The first communion service held in the following February, was an impressive yet modest event. The total number of members, visitors and elders who partook was only 207, and the communion cups used were loaned by Hillington Park Church.
The first minister of St. Nicholas Cardonald, the Rev. John Turner MA was inducted on the 10th of June 1938, and six months later, the morning service of 11th December was broadcast by the BBC.
The most important and far reaching event of 1939 was, of course, the declaration of war, with its inevitable effect on the life of the congregation. The black-out, the departure of so many to the forces, and the evacuation of many children to safer areas curtailed most activities, particularly the junior organisations.
By June of 1947, church membership was over one thousand, but it was not until the autumn of 1949 that a manse in Lamington Road was purchased at a cost of £3000.
Few congregations started life so well endowed with hall accommodation, but by 1962, with the congregation reaching over 1900 members, it was necessary to use the classrooms and halls of Hillington School to accommodate some of the organisations. Later the same year, new hall accommodation was erected on land adjoining the Church, the buildings of St Nicholas Cardonald were now complete.
History of St. Andrew Penilee Parish Church
In 1939, following the Governments decision to construct Hillington Industrial Estate the previous year, plans were organised and a start was made to build houses in what would become Penilee. Construction carried on up till the end of 1943. At that time there were between 8 and 10 thousand men, women and children living there.
During the years 1943 – 1944 the Presbytery of Paisley appointed an Assistant Minister called Mr John McQuarrie to be assisting the Rev. Gilbert M. George of St Marks to look after the people in Penilee. He helped to start the Sunday School in one or two of the school rooms in the Prefab School, which stood where Penilee Secondary would later be built. Rev John Mc Quarrie also came visiting round the doors and invited the people to come and worship in St Marks Church in Oldhall. He was the first man to have Spiritual oversight of the Penilee people.
Sometime in 1945, Mr Alistair McArthur passed his exams at Glasgow University and was accepted of the Ministry and was appointed to St. Marks to replace Rev. John McQuarrie as Assistant Minister to look after the people of Penilee.
When the war ended in 1945 the Government relaxed its restrictions and said we could go ahead with our building programme. So, the home board (the people in Edinburgh) got the Church Extension Committee to advance the money for the building of a Church Extension Hall for the people of Penilee to worship in and also to start organisations for the men, women and children of the area. At the beginning of 1946 the building was nearing completion and was to be opened as an extension of Christ’s Church in Penilee.
On 16th February 1946, the Hall Church was opened and dedicated by the Rev. Dr. John White the then Convener of the Church of Scotland Church Extension Committee. The Rev. Alistair McArthur was appointed to be ordained as Minister in charge.
At the end of 1949 preparations and foundations were made for our permanent and Large Hall which was also used as a Church.
In early 1950, our Minister Rev. A McArthur left us to pursue another profession and we had no Minister until May 1950 when Rev. Thomas Balfour was inducted. At the same time, we the Minister, Elders and congregation decided that we would like to have “Full Status” and we had the Presbytery of Paisley put this to the General Assembly of that year and it was granted and we choose St Andrew, so the Church was called the Parish Church of St Andrew Penilee.
Meanwhile the Hall was still being built and was to have been opened on the 28th October, but due to hold ups it was 25th November 1950 before it opened.
Later, during the ministry of Rev. Duff, we paid off our debt to the Home Board for our Permanent Hall and a new Manse which had been purchased when Rev. Balfour came, we received the good news that the Church Extension Committee would finish the job by giving us a church.
Our new Church was opened and dedicated on 17th March 1965, 19 years and 19 days since our first building opened.
History of St. Andrew and St. Nicholas Parish Church
In 2015 St. Andrew Penilee and St. Nicholas Cardonald were united under the Glasgow Presbytery plan and the incumbent minister of St. Andrew, Rev. Peden, was elected to be minister of the new congregation. The union has been successful and we have made difficult decisions regarding the buildings and how we would seek to develop a new vibrant church that would reach out to Penilee, Hillington and North Cardonald communities.
As part of the union, surveys were carried out to establish which of the buildings would be the more economically viable to develop. It was agreed that St Nicholas would be retained, and that St Andrew would be sold to raise funds for the redevelopment process. Extensive plans were drawn up and shared with the congregation. There were several changes and setbacks but work was ready to commence just as the Covid-19 restrictions came into place.
Phase 1 of this major renovations project got underway at Hartlaw in late 2020. These works saw the Vestibule, Small Hall, Session Room, Toilets, Kitchen and Offices demolished and rebuilt for a modern space that would serve the congregation and the wider community better. These works also saw a complete electrical rewire, re-plumb of the entire main structure as well as installation of a new heating system. Due to these delays and shortage of finance the plans were revised and the work for phase one was completed in March 2021. Phase two will commence when further funding is available.
The work carried out so far will ensure that we are able to expand our contact with our communities offering a modern wide variety of resources.
Below are a few galleries that show the condition of the spaces before the works as well as the works as they were under way and finally how these spaces look now following completion of Phase 1.
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:: Ministers of St. Nicholas’ Cardonald :: |
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1938 – 1941
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Rev. John Turner MA
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1941 – 1950
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Rev. Uist MacDonald MA
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1951 – 1957
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Rev. Thomas Morton MA
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1958 – 1966
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Rev. Wm R Chalmers BD STM
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1967 – 1992
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Rev. Alexander C Barr
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1992 – 2005
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Rev. Roderick I T MacDonald B.D.
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2007 – 2012
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Rev. Sandi McGill B.D.
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2012 – 2015
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Rev. Eleanor McMahon (Interim)
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:: Ministers of St. Andrew Penilee :: |
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1946 – 1950
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Rev. A McArthur
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1950 – 1956
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Rev. T Balfour
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1957 – 1964
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Rev. A Duff
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1964 – 1969
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Rev. J Thomson
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1970 – 1977
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Rev. I Isdale
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1977 – 1983
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Rev. C Caskie
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1984 – 2003
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Rev. EMM Jamieson (née Leitch)
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2004 – 2009
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Rev. A Cherry
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2010 – 2015
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Rev. Lyn Peden
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:: Ministers of St. Andrew and St. Nicholas :: |
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2015 – 2020
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Rev. Lyn Peden
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