A history of our parish

The Mission of Father Paul McLachlan

In 1797 the Minister of Falkirk Parish, Dr James Wilson, wrote that  “Roman Catholics are very few in number here and have no place of worship in the neighbourhood.”  However things were already changing. The great iron works at Carron and the Forth and Clyde canal were transforming the area and bringing to Falkirk large numbers of working people from the highlands of Scotland and from Ireland. With them they brought the Catholic faith which their forefathers had retained since the Reformation. By then central Scotland had a handful of Catholic churches - two in Edinburgh and three in the west of Scotland; the rest were far away in the Highlands and the borders. In Stirlingshire there were none at all but in 1831 Father Paul Maclachlan a highlander from Glenlivet in Banff shire was given charge of the whole county. 

Father Maclachlan chose Campsie as his first base but looked to the two big burghs of Stirling and Falkirk as the targets for his earliest mission. We may suppose that he began by visiting the town to meet the Catholic people in their homes and possibly conduct services from time to time. But without church, school, priest’s house or even a priest to assist him, his early progress was slow. Nevertheless by 1838 he had raised sufficient funds to build a church in Stirling which became the base for his mission to the people of Falkirk. By then there were many more of them to serve.

The construction of the Glasgow to Edinburgh railway in the late 1830s employed thousands of labourers and many came from Ireland. More than any other factor this was the catalyst which Father Maclachlan needed to establish a congregation in the town. The first Mass may have been said in 1838 in what was the original Railway Hotel where the grocer’s store is now on High Station Road; we know that in the following year a regular Sunday Mass began on 5th May 1839 in the Assembly Rooms in the Pleasance, a building known to Falkirk folk as Rankine’s Folly. That first congregation numbered 180 and just twelve months later in the same place 22 Falkirk children were baptised into the Catholic church for the first time for nearly three hundred years. 

Father Maclachlan’s mission now was to establish a permanent place of worship in Falkirk which had the people and the money to provide and support it. With a generous donation of £200 from the railway company he set about finding a site. On September 6^th 1841 land belonging to Aitkens the brewers on Hope Street was purchased for £40 and the famous Dunblane architect William Stirling was appointed to design the new church building. Work began in 1842 and on 28^th May 1843 the new church was opened for worship.  The Catholic Directory for 1844 described the new building as follows:

This elegant structure, in the Saxon style .forms a conspicuous object in the thriving town of Falkirk. Its external appearance is exceedingly handsome; the entrance-door is surmounted by a belfry in which is placed a fine-toned bell.

The building was 80 feet long and 40 wide and probably had seating for between five and six hundred worshippers though there is some doubt about the actual number at the time of opening. It was the church which served the swelling Catholic population for over a century and many present parishioners remember it well. The photograph was taken in the early years of this century and does not of course show the original house for the priest or the other buildings erected along with the church. These must have been interesting because one observer said they had a conventual character similar in style to the ranges of buildings which once surrounded the cloisters of ancient abbeys. Sadly we have no illustration to remind us of this unusual arrangement though we do know that the buildings had “old English pointed windows”.

The interior of the church was decorated with painted images and inscriptions especially above and around the altar, where the eight beatitudes were represented and,

Behind the Altar is a large painted window, the space below which is filled up by a beautiful and elaborately carved screen, the pillars of which are tastefully painted, and surmounted by the words: Deo Optimo Sacrum sub invocatione Sancti Francisci Xaverii.

Father Paul’s choice of St Francis Xavier as patron for the new church and parish could hardly have been more appropriate or inspiring. No one knew better than he the task of mission now facing him and his congregation. The land, though more welcoming than once, was still a hostile place and like the great missionary himself, the Catholics of Falkirk would need courage and determination to overcome the many difficulties they would face in the months and years ahead.

Building a Parish

From his handsome new  church and house Father Maclachlan began to build the new parish of St Francis Xaviers. At the outset there was only one Mass on Sundays at 11 o’clock and an hour earlier on Holidays of Obligation. An afternoon service followed at 2 o’clock allowing the busy priest to serve the outlying areas which of course included Denny, Bonnybridge, Linlithgow, Bathgate, Bo’ness, Slamannan, Grangemouth, Larbert, Polmont, and all the lands between. Little wonder that Father Maclachlan had written during the construction of the church “I hope that ere many months elapse a priest will be stationed at Falkirk to remove the burden from my shoulders”. In the event the burden increased and he stayed where he was for thirteen years after the opening of the church. The Catholic population of Falkirk was around seven hundred, though it changed as the demands of the builders carried people west and south in pursuit of steady work in Scotland’s burgeoning industrial revolution. More and more immigrants reached the shores of Scotland and more and more found their way to Father Paul’s parochial care.

In 1847 his plea for support was heard and Father Robert Cameron came to Falkirk straight after his ordination, but such were the dangers of the times when cholera and typhus stalked the miserable hovels of Silver Row, the Garrison and the Howgate where the majority of the poor immigrant Catholics lived, that the young priest fell ill within months and died in January of the following year. He was not replaced and the mettle of Father Paul was again put to the test. He carried on alone - an iron constitution which survived cholera twice, rheumatic fever and apoplexy stood him in good stead and now he redoubled his efforts to extend and develop the parish. In 1849 the new church was further enhanced by the installation of three stained glass windows above the altar, the work of the celebrated Ballantine firm of Edinburgh. These depicted a calvary scene with Our Lady, St John and Mary Magdalen and allowed the evening light from the west to fill the nave of the church. Just two years later the Sacrament of Confirmation was adminis­tered in St Francis for the first time when Bishop James Gillis, Vicar-Apostolic of the Eastern Division came from Edinburgh to confirm 47 children of the parish. By then the annual number of Baptisms had risen from the 27 recorded in that first year 1843 to 159 in 1851. The large number of children born in the parish brought the next challenge to the priest.

The opportunity to pass on the principles of religion was at the heart of the plan but preparation for the future, for life and work, was also of great importance. It was the period when the main responsibility for schooling lay with the various churches and if Father Maclachlan and his parishioners wanted a school they would need to build, staff and run it for themselves. This is exactly what they did. Sometime around 1852 - the exact date is not certain - St Francis Xaviers Catholic School opened its doors for the first time in Manor Street or, as it was then known, the Back Row. Here in the very heart of the old town, in the building that would eventually serve as the Catholic Young Men’s Hall (and the respite chapel between 1955 and 1961), the school first met under the watchful eye of Mr McDermott.

At long last Father Maclachlan was given the chance to set down this particular burden and move on to work for the church in fresh fields. His Falkirk congregation took leave of their pastor at a special soiree during which Father Paul was praised for his “warm zeal, profound erudition and scholarly attainment” and presented with a purse of sovereigns. His successor, Father John Macdonald, was also a Banffshire man. He was able to concentrate his attentions much more on the Falkirk area - Linlithgow and with it Bathgate and Bo’ness had been given its own priest in 1851 - and soon the number or regular services increased. Daily Mass became the norm along with Benediction on Sunday afternoons and the number of Baptisms continued to increase.   Father Macdonald was succeeded in 1864 by Father Robert Clapperton from Dundee who served in St Francis for six years before he was replaced by Father John Gillan who died of typhus contracted during routine visits to his parishioners after less than a year.

After the shock of Father Gillon’s loss the parish enjoyed a stable period under the guiding hand of one of St Francis’ greatest priests Father Alexander O’Donnell. Father O’Donnell further extended the services introducing Benediction on two week-day evenings and encouraging the establishment of confraternities to assist in focusing the prayers and devotions of members of the congregation. Three of these were active in the 1870s, the Sacred Heart, Living Rosary and Bona Mors or Happy Death. In a society where early and sudden death of even the very young was an ever present reality it is perhaps understandable that such preoccupations emerged in the prayer life of the people.  Father O’Donnell was interested in education and recognized that the Manor Street School was in need of replacement. In 1880 sufficient funds were raised to build a completely new school on Silver Row described as of Gothic style. It was designed by the Edinburgh architect T B McFadzen and had ‘a schoolroom of large dimension with two classrooms immediately to the rear’. The old school building in Manor Street began the first of two spells as the meeting place of a new Young Man’s Society.

Having completed this good work Father O’Donnell left to become Dean of the new Deanery of Stirling, which included Falkirk, and he died just a year later in 1882. His successor was Father William Grady from Haddington whose first important task was the establishment of a church in Slamannan. Mass had been said in the village once each month for quite some time before Father Grady acquired the necessary land in 1883, and organised the building of a chapel-school with accommodation for 400 people and 180 children.  In 1885 for the first time since the tragic death of Robert Cameron in 1848, a second priest was appointed and this obviously made it easier for the senior priest - that is what the Parish Priest was called until the 20th century - to serve the outlying areas. Rumford near Maddiston was a village made up almost entirely of Catholics and Father Grady began regular Masses in a rented hail which also served as a recreation place during the week. By 1890 a school­chapel was built with space for 300 at Mass and 25 children by day.

At the same period the thriving community of Grangemouth made increasing demands on the time of the two Falkirk priests. The first Mass was said in October 1889 but the rented hall could not cope with the demand for places. By the end of the decade two Masses were required and the lesser Town Hall and a building in the new docks area were employed. It was obvious to all that the link with Falkirk could not be sustained for much longer and just one year later a priest was appointed to look after the separate mission of Grangemouth. A generation or so later Father Walter Welsh came to Grangemouth and inspired the building of the fine Sacred Heart Church which opened its doors in 1927.

Back in late Victorian Falkirk, Father Grady turned his attention from the needs of surrounding country back to the town. In 1887 an infant section of St Francis School was opened which in the following century would take over the old Free Church School in Meeks Road.  The church building, which was by then nearing its Golden Jubilee was in need of attention and in 1889 the whole of the interior was repainted, proper heating installed and new confessionals erected. But before the fifty year celebrations arrived the senior priest changed twice. Father Grady went to Edin­burgh and Father Joseph Hannan came from Denny to replace him. Just two years later in 1893 he changed parishes with Canon Patrick Morris of Bathgate whose pleasant duty it was to accept from the people of St Francis, a new Monstrance to mark the jubilee. The changes and improvements in the church interior continued with the creation of a new high altar and the erection of statues of St Francis Xavier and St Patrick.

The New Century

Having refurbished the church building Canon Morris turned his attention to the presbytery buildings which were no longer suitable for the modern age. A proper dwelling house for the priests was required and in 1901 the present fine building was built to the design of James Strang of Falkirk. The new parochial house cost over £2000 a very large sum at the time when a skilled man’s yearly wage was less than £100. Much of the money was raised at a grand bazaar following the practice well established by all the churches of the town. The bazaar took place in Falkirk Town Hall over three days in November 1900 when the building was decorated to represent St Mark’s Square in Venice. With electric light kindly supplied by Aitkens - still quite an unusual experience for visitors - and dozens of stalls and attractions, it was supported by many hundreds of Falkirk people of all denominations and none.  Sufficient funds were raised and on 6th December 1901 Archbishop James Smith came to Falkirk to lay the memorial stone in the porch.

The school also benefited from the generosity of the parishioners and the determination of their priest. In 1904 major alterations costing £3000 were made to St Francis giving it the familiar front entrance in Silver Row. By then there was one senior school mistress and five full time as­sistants looking after over 300 pupils. Canon Morris left his much improved parish in 1912 to go to Edinburgh and Canon Michael J Turner arrived to take his place. Soon after his arrival regular Masses were started in the Camelon Cooperatve Hall to serve yet another rapidly expanding Catholic commu­nity.

The 75th anniversary of St Francis coincided with the ending of the war in 1918 and once again a fine new Monstrance, this time donated by the Owen sisters, was presented to the Parish Priest by the congregation. In Camelon a temporary building was acquired at the Hedges where ground for a new church was also purchased. In 1919 Canon Turner, his dream as yet unfulfilled, left Falkirk for Peebles to be replaced by Father Charles Murdoch from Bathgate. Although Father Murdoch only served for seven years he is remembered as a tireless worker who set the parish on course for what some of the older parishioners recall as a golden age in the twenties and thirties when parochial life, both social and religious, was at a high point. Perhaps he helped to heal the wounds inflicted by the war and to give the people back a sense of purpose - it is hard to say at this distance in time, though he was without doubt one of the most influential priests in the long story of St Francis Xaviers.

               Soon after he arrived Father Murdoch came to the conclusion that his church building could no longer cope with the numbers of Catholics in the parish and in the autumn of 1920 a church building fund was launched to secure the funds necessary to build a new St Francis. By the following year the funds had reached £800 and a site further down Hope Street identified for a new building.  This is the space where the new hall now stands.   However no action followed and the depression of the 1930s and the War which followed delayed the proposal for a generation.  Camelon did get its new church, at the Hedges in 1923, with Father John McKee as its first priest.  In Falkirk Father William Lynagh was ordained priest – the first Falkirk man ordained since the Reformation in 1560.

               Father Murdoch died in 1926 and his successor Canon George Mullan survived for only two years.  Despite these setbacks the parish went from strength to strength with a very active social and religious life.  During the period of the next Parish Priest, Canon Joseph Long, the Children of Mary, St Vincent de Paul, the Guilds of St Agnes and St Cecilia, the Association for the Propogation of the Faith, the Holy Childhood, and the Boys Guild all thrived.  There was already a well established Chapter of the Knights of St Columba  as well as football teams, a drama group, Scouts, Guides and a host of musical and cultural activities.  There were two new vocations – Father Dolty Ward and Father Roger Gallagher – and in 1931 Cardinal Bourne of Westminster came to Falkirk to officially open a new Carmelite Monastery in Arnothill.

               In 1933 Larbert was established as a mission separate from Falkirk with Faher Joseph Byrne from Winchburgh as its first priest.  Canon Long left Falkirk in 1933 to go to Blairs College and Father James Macdonald came from Bannockburn as his replacement.  His health failed after a short time and following a long illness he died in 1938.  Canon Walter Welsh the Parish Priest of Grangemouth was transferred to Falkirk and it was his task to take the congregation through the years of the war which broke out the following year.