Maybole Baptist Church is a Baptist church in Maybole, South Ayrshire, Scotland. It arose from a Maybole prayer group started in 1898 that was admitted to the Baptist Union of Scotland in 1901.[1] The church building opened in 1914.[2] It has operated for over a hundred years, one of 164 active Baptist churches in Scotland in the early twenty-first century serving 14,000 members.[3][4][5]
The church building features red sandstone, a traditional gable with projected front porch and arched doorway. Designed by architect Hugh Campbell (1863-1926)[6] of Glasgow it is a recognized noteworthy building in Maybole and the wider Carrick area of southern Scotland.[7][8] The church grounds feature minimal space due to a small plot size.[9]Maybole town, within which the church is located, is also noted for distinctive architecture.[10][11][12]
Geography
Maybole Baptist Church is located at 14 Carrick Street, Maybole, Scotland, KA19 7DN. Carrick Street lies immediately north of the A77 road which passes through Maybole. The church's National Grid Reference (NGR) is NS 29880 09900,[3] Canmore ID is 203792 and Site ID is NS20NE 60.[13] The church is marked on Google maps[14] and UK streetmap.[15][16]
History
19th century
It is estimated new Christian congregations in Scotland increased from a handful mid-nineteenth century to 184 assemblies in southern Scotland by 1900.[17] Maybole was part of this trend. The setting for a Maybole Baptist Church further benefited from the new Baptist Union for Scotland, formed in 1869,[18][19] the "Maybole Revival," an evangelist movement during the 1870s, which also published "The Maybole Evangelist" magazine,[20] a new Maybole Presbyterian Church opened in 1880,[21] a Baptist Theological College established in Glasgow in the 1890s,[22] and flourishing missionary work in the expanding British Empire.[23]
Nineteenth century industrialization also impacted Maybole, with the town seeing much new manufacturing of agricultural implements and shoes.[24] This was significant because Baptist churches in Scotland attracted commercially active and middle class congregations.[25][26] Some Maybole worshippers were also less open to the strict doctrine of older Maybole churches, for example the Church of Scotland stress on avoiding work on Sundays.[27][28]
Early 20th century
Scotland's Baptist Union admitted Maybole Baptist Church in 1901, despite the lack of a church building. The Maybole Baptist Church established a building fund in 1903.[29] Maybole Baptist Church arose from a prayer group of 17 parishioners, formed in the 1890s, a common start for churches at the time.[30] Before the church opened the Maybole prayer group used private homes and the disused Maybole Methodist Church.[31] Early leaders included Thomas Ramsay (1857-1934).
Great War (1914–18)
Maybole Baptist Church opened on 30 October 1914, two months after the Great War started, eleven years after construction started. It was described as "The Youngest Church in Maybole" with seating for 320 and standing room for 120.[32]
Construction cost £1,720, on a self-funding basis by the congregation. As comparison, the nearby Maybole Library was built in the same decade for £2,500, based on one donation from American philanthropistAndrew Carnegie.[33][34] Even though the church's first pastor, Thomas Ramsay, and other elders made personal donations Maybole Baptist Church carried debt for some time. The retiring first pastor made a further gift of a manse in 1919, citing the Great War as motivation.[35]
Interwar era (1918–1939)
During and after the Great War, members of Maybole Baptist Church supported a "daughter church" in Girvan, 19 km to the south. This emerged from a Girvan prayer group, established in 1907.[36][37] The Girvan Baptist Church opened in 1920, closed in 2001 and was destroyed by fire in 2013.[38]
The inaugural pastor of Maybole Baptist Church, Thomas Ramsay, was elected President of the Baptist Union of Scotland in 1921.[39]
Maybole Baptist Church installed electricity within the church building in 1935, which is marked by a memorial plaque.[40] The registered congregation numbered 105 in the 1930s, a high point, after which congregations declined, in line with Scotland-wide declines in Baptist congregations.[41]
Post World War 2 (1945–)
Up to the 1950s, Maybole Baptist Church admitted 404 people to the Baptist Union, and up to the 1960s, it baptized 288 people.[42] Although congregations declined from the 1930s peak some modest increase in attendance at Baptist churches within Scotland happened in the late 20th century.[43]
Current use
Maybole Baptist Church remains active in the early twenty-first century. Activities include regular Christian services and community use of the church building,[44] registered charity status with the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (number SC021239),[45] participating in Remembrance Sunday services held each 11 November, and participating in the annual gala of the Maybole Council of Churches.[46][47]
References
^Yuille, George (2005). History of the Baptists in Scotland (From Pre-Reformation Times)(PDF). Arkansas, USA: The Baptist Standard Bearer, Inc. pp. 223–224. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2 March 2016. In November, 1898, evangelistic services [in Maybole] were conducted by Mr. Thomas Ramsay in the Methodist Chapel, which had just closed...[Maybole Baptist Church] was admitted into the Union in October, 1901, at the Session held in Paisley. Mr. Thomas Ramsay was the first Pastor, and continued until 1919.
^Gray, James T (1972). "12". Maybole, Carrick's Capital Facts, Fiction & Folks (Buildings Past & Present). Ayr, Scotland: Alloway Publishing. In 1914 at a cost of £1,720 the [Maybole] Baptist Church was built in Carrick Street...
^Seymour, John (1982). Maybole - A Pictorial History. Darvel, Ayrshire, Scotland: Walker & Connell Ltd. p. 33. Situated in Carrick Street, the [Maybole Baptist] church with its red sandstone frontage makes a roomy alternative to the small hall in Abbott Street, the former meeting place of the congregation
^Gray, James T (1972). Maybole, Carrick's Capital Facts, Fiction & Folks. Ayr, Scotland: Alloway Publishing. [Maybole Baptist Church]...is a small rectangular, brick built structure, with a red sandstone front gable and porch with an arched doorway.
^Gray, James T (1972). "12". Maybole, Carrick's Capital Facts, Fiction & Folks. Ayr, Scotland: Alloway Publishing. Like the Episcopal Church it [Maybole Baptist Church] is crammed into a very small site which does nothing to improve its appearance and it would seem building sites were either scarce (or expensive) when these churches were built.
^"Architecture of Maybole". Visit Scotland. 2015. Maybole is a small market town 9 miles south of Ayr, with some fascinating architecture. Maybole is a town whose lengthy history is evident from the many fine buildings on view.
^"Undiscovered Scotland on Maybole". Undiscovered Scotland. 2015. Maybole is the ancient capital of Carrick… Today's visitor finds a town whose lengthy history is evident from the many fine buildings on view.
^Dickson, Neil (1991). "Brethren and Baptists in Scotland"(PDF). Biblical Studies. There were only a very few Open Brethren assemblies prior to 1860, but in the decade after at least thirty assemblies came into existence, and by 1887 one source calculated that there were 184 assemblies. They were formed mainly in those Lowland communities which had known recent social and economic change.
^Balfour, Ian (1996). Baptist Union of Scotland (1996 Chapel Document). Edinburgh, Scotland. p. 1. The Union was formed in 1869, when 51 Scottish Baptist churches agreed:"That a Union of evangelical baptist churches of Scotland is desirable and practicable, and that its objects should be to promote evangelical religion in connection with the baptist denomination in Scotland, to cultivate brotherly affection and to secure co¬operation in everything related to the interests of the associated churches."{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Murray, Derek Boyd (1969). The First Hundred Years: the Baptist Union of Scotland. Glasgow, Scotland: Baptist Union of Scotland.
^Dickson, Neil T R (2000). The History of the Open Brethren in Scotland (1838-1999). Stirling, Scotland: The University of Stirling (PhD thesis). pp. 131, 177. The Maybole Evangelist founded in 1874, a periodical tract which was issued around the houses of the town… [and] the Maybole Revival of the 1870s affected all the town's churches
^Small, Robert (1904). History of the congregations of the United Presbyterian Church, from 1733 to 1900. Edinburgh, Scotland. Retrieved 30 March 2016. Maybole now disappeared from the list of supplemented churches, owing, perhaps, to the generosity of the minister. In 1867 a manse was built... the present church, with 380 sittings opened on Sabbath, 19th December 1880, by Dr Thomson of Broughton Place{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Bebbington, D.W. (1989). "Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A history from the 1730s to the 1980s". Routledge. …in Scotland Evangelicals gained most ground in the vast parishes of the Highlands as well as in the new industrial regions… Land for erecting a chapel was far more likely to be available in open parishes where landownership was fragmented.
^Gray, James T (1972). "7". Maybole, Carrick's Capital Facts, Fiction & Folks. Ayr, Scotland: Alloway Publishing. Maybole had risen from an impoverished little country town to become a thriving place of industry which produced boots and shoes for all districts in Britain and agricultural implements, from the famous works of Jack & Son, for all countries in the world. The last half of the nineteenth century was the boom period for Maybole and its townsfolk prospered exceedingly well.
^Brown, Calum G (1997). Religion and Society in Scotland since 1707. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press. p. 30. Baptists had mixed social compositions of urban middle classes, especially in Glasgow and Dundee, and peasant and fishing communities in the northeast, Orkney and some west-coast ports and islands.
^Farm Implement and Machinery Review, Volume 80, Part 2 (Obituaries). Morgan-Grampian. 1954. p. 1227. (Hugh B McFadzean obituary) ...his profound interest in agricultural engineering. Hugh McFadzean... was a founder of the Maybole Baptist Church and was, we understand, a life deacon. (Ed: from 1945)
^Gray, James T (1972). "27". Maybole, Carrick's Capital Facts, Fiction & Folks. Ayr, Scotland: Alloway Publishing. Although most of the Maybole men were staunch Covenanters and strict sabbatarians some were also hard headed farmers who considered the reaping of their hard won crops was of primary importance... At a Sunday morning service in September, 1807, the Rev. James Wright intimated from his pulpit that, as the day was good and ideal for harvesting the crops, those who wished to do so could work in their fields... Such an intimation was tantamount to heresy to many of the congregation... Finally the matter was taken to the Synod in October, 1808. The Synod ruled that all members of the church "must be sensible as to the sanctification of the Sabbath"
^Small, Robert (1904). History of the congregations of the United Presbyterian Church, from 1733 to 1900. Edinburgh, Scotland. Retrieved 30 March 2016. [Maybole Church of Scotland minister] ... noted at the close of his forenoon service one Sabbath in the autumn of 1807, he told his people that, the weather being critical, any of them who chose might in his opinion devote the afternoon to harvest labour.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Davidson, John; Wallace, Morton; Waugh, James (1950). These Fifty Years: The Jubilee Story of Maybole Baptist Church. p. 5. The first mention of a larger building was minuted on 15/12/03 when it was decided that a Reserve Fund should be opened, for building or other purposes.
^Dickson, Neil (1991). "Brethren and Baptists in Scotland"(PDF). Biblical Studies. ...churches emerged spontaneously out of the small groups that were meeting for Bible study in the wake of the revivals.
^Gray, James T (1972). "12". Maybole, Carrick's Capital Facts, Fiction & Folks. Ayr, Scotland: Alloway Publishing. It was built, mainly through the efforts of Pastor Ramsay, to replace the former meeting place of the Baptist congregation which was a hall in Abbot Street near the Old Cemetery and which is now used by the Roman Catholics as a recreation hall.
^Yuille, George (2005). History of the Baptists in Scotland (From Pre-Reformation Times)(PDF). Arkansas, USA: The Baptist Standard Bearer, Inc. p. 224. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2 March 2016. In 1914 a new Church was completed, situated in Carrick Street, and was opened on Friday, October 30th, 1914, the Pastor presiding. A short service was held, and an address given by Rev. Joseph W. Kemp, Edinburgh. On the following day (Saturday) the public opening of the building took place. Rev. Principal Coats, D.D., conducted the service and preached.
^"Scottish buildings cost". Scot cities. Archived from the original on 18 October 2018. Retrieved 27 March 2016. In 1905 Andrew Carnegie gifted the small sea-side town of Maybole a sum of £2500 towards the erection of a library and recreation rooms. The additional cost of providing the recreation rooms and books for the library was met by public subscription.
^Davidson, John; Wallace, Morton; Waugh, James (1950). These Fifty Years: The Jubilee Story of Maybole Baptist Church. p. 18. On 26th February, 1919, Mr and Mrs Ramsay intimated that they had agreed to present their half-villa, Lilybank Culzean Road, to the church as a manse, as a thank-offering for the safe return of their only son, Robert Guy Ramsay, from the first World War.
^Yuille, George (2005). History of the Baptists in Scotland (From Pre-Reformation Times)(PDF). Arkansas, USA: The Baptist Standard Bearer, Inc. p. 65. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2 March 2016. At Maybole and Girvan churches were begun through the influence and service of Mr. Thomas Ramsay. For 19 years he carried on the pastoral work of the young cause at Maybole, while attending to the onerous duties of his business; and at the end of that period, he had the satisfaction of introducing his successor to a prosperous, self-supporting church.
^Davidson, John; Wallace, Morton; Waugh, James (1950). These Fifty Years: The Jubilee Story of Maybole Baptist Church. p. 32. The Girvan church proper was started on 1st Sunday in April, 1920, under the direction of the Ayrshire Baptist Association. The oversight was in the hands of a committee, with Mr Thomas Ramsay as pastor and guide. A great deal of the initial success of the Girvan cause is due to Mr Ramsay, also to Rev D. M. Simpson, and other Maybole helpers.
^The Baptist Missionary Society, 130th Annual Report (1921-22). London: The Baptist Missionary Society. 1921. p. 74. Mr Thomas Ramsay of Maybole Baptist Church was elected President in 1921
^Davidson, John; Wallace, Morton; Waugh, James (1950). These Fifty Years: The Jubilee Story of Maybole Baptist Church. p. 32. It was decided to install electric light in the church and hall as a Memorial to Mr Ramsay, and the light was switched on by Rev Wm McInnes, in September, 1935. An engraved brass plate at the back of the pulpit (marks the occasion)
^Brown, Calum G (1997). Religion and Society in Scotland since 1707. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press. p. 31. But in the main neither the Baptists nor the Congregationalists achieved high growth rates, tending to remain socially diverse and geographically scattered
^Brown, Calum G (1997). Religion and Society in Scotland since 1707. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press. p. 159. Only one denomination which has experienced membership decline in Scotland has sustained a late-twentieth-century reversal - the Baptist Church. Baptist membership declined from the 1930s until 1976, and then started a modest but steady growth in the last quarter of the century.
^"Maybole Baptist Church services". Maybole, The Ancient Capital of Carrick. Retrieved 25 March 2016. Maybole Baptist Church holds services twice on Sundays (morning and evening) plus morning communions during the week. The church also supports a Women's Fellowship (Mondays), Kids Club (Wednesdays), Prayer & Bible study (Thursdays) and a community cafe (Fridays)
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