History Of The Church

The Congregation

The origins of the congregation of St John's, Largs lie inthe formation of the free Church of Scotland following thedisruption of 1843. Immediately after this historic event Revd John Dowof the pArish Church in Largs, along with two hundred members of hiscongregation, established the Free Church in Largs.

The First Building

The foundation stone for the Largs Free Church was laid on 28th September1843. The original building was a small simple construction consistingof four whinstone walls and a bell tower. This typical Free Churchdesign allowed places of worship to be provided very quickly. A centralpulpit jutted out from the east gable wall.


Original Church


The Reconstructed Church

In1886, plans were submitted for the reconstruction of the church. Thearchitect was a young man of singular promise, Archibald J Grahame.Sadly, he contracted malaria while in Italy studying architecture anddied in his twenty eighth year before building work on the churchcommenced.. St John's Church stands as the only memorial to his genius.
The architecture of the reconstructed church was in the French Romanesquestyle. The whinstone north, east and south walls of the original churchwere retained. The entire west gable was removed and replaced by agallery, vestibule and session house. The central pulpit was removed.In the east wall an apse, reckoned to be one of the finest in Scotland,was reconstructed with a stone pulpit placed to one side. A transcept,with gallery above, was built out from the south wall. At the northeast corner, a tower of graceful lines in keeping with the Italianarchitecture was constructed. The total cost of the reconstructedbuilding was £5084 7s 8d.

Present Church



Church Name

Afterthe reconstruction of the building, the church was still known as LargsFree Church. Following the union of the Free and United PresbyterianChurches in 1900 to form the United Free Church of Scotland, thebuilding became known as St John's Church. The minister at the time ofthe reconstruction was Dr Charles Watson. Of all the writers of the newtestament, John was his favourite. This beloved apostle's mind appealedto Dr Watson. He spoke, lectured and wrote on him frequently. Because of Dr Watson's love for this New Testament writer, the FreeChurch congregation displayed their regard for their minister by givingthe name St John to the Church.

Texts

Textswere carved in the stone above the two exterior vestibule doors - teone on the south reading "If any man will do His will he shall know ofthe doctrine"; and on the north, "Show me Thy ways, O God, and lead mein a plain path.". Inside the vestibule, two other inscriptions arecarved. The welcoming text from the first verse of Psalm 122, "I wasglad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord," isfound above the doorway into the Church, while over the entrance toSession House (now the Simpson Memorial Room), an inscription reads,"Guide us by Thy Counsel.".

Pulpit

In1951, the stone pulpit was replaced by a smaller wooden one. Thisserves as a memorial to those young men of the congregation who gavetheir lives during the Second World War.

Stained Glass Windows

Onethe north wall, there are three window representing Moses, Isaiah andJohn the Baptist. Beyond the pulpit are two windows depicting Marthaand Mary. On the south wall there is a window of Paul.

Awindow depicting the Good Shepherd is to be found in the transept.

Itis fitting that within the church, there should be some memorial toArchibald John Grahame, its architect. This takes the form of severalstained glass windows. In the apse, there are five windows gifted byhis father, mother and aunt. These depict Our Lord Jesus Christ and thefour evangelists; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. On the north wall underthe back gallery, is a shepherd boy. This was gifted by soe ofArchibald Grahame's friends.

In the back gallery,there are two circular windows of angels.

Threewindows, the work of Douglas Strachan, are to be found in thevestibule. There were installed in 1911 by the congregation to mark theesteem in which the held Dr Watson. Unsurprisingly, two of them arescenes from the life of St John - one depicts John taking the mother ofJesus to his home, while the other shows the apostle in exile as hehears the voice of God giving him his Devine revelation. The thirdwindow depicts Jesus ordaining the twelve, that they might preach andheal.

The memorial windows are located in thetransept gallery.These are the work of Douglas Hamilton. The west window depicts theyouthful David with the sword of Goliath, while the sheep in thebackground remind us that he was a shepherd boy. The window to the eastportrays David as he purs out the water which three brave men haverisked their lives to bring to him. The theme of this window issacrifice.

Three windows in the former Session Housetake their theme from Psalm 84.