We are pleased to welcome a final guest writer to produce Object 49. It is fitting that, Rosemary Potter, should have taken up our invitation to write on Kirkcaldy's iconic Old Kirk and, in particular, homing in on its tower and bell. It is appropriate, in fact very appropriate, as Rosemary's late husband, David, was an extremely good friend to the 50 Objects Team.

David authored two objects for us, the first being number 9 – Tom Kennedy M.P. - the story of Kirkcaldy's first Labour Member of Parliament. That was followed up exactly a year later with Object 21 – The History of Kirkcaldy Cricket Club. David also produced a blog on Dr. John Smith – Kirkcaldy's own sporting doctor whose surgery was in Kirk Wynd in the premises now occupied by Charles Wood, Solicitors. If this was not enough, three years ago, David, along with colleagues from the Old Kirk Players wrote, produced and acted, in our re-enactment of Scotland's Last Fatal Duel. It was staged in the graveyard of the Old Kirk where both protagonists, George Morgan and David Landale,  lie. It was very well received and played to large audiences.

Rosemary has a connection with the Old Kirk stretching back to 1972 when David and herself came to live in Kirkcaldy. They attended the Old Kirk on their first Sunday in the town – primarily, because the only two people that they knew in Kirkcaldy attended that church!  It was the Rev. Sim who took that very first service the couple attended. That led to an unbroken bond with the Church until its union with St. Bryce in 1999. David and Rosemary were Elders for 25 years.

Rosemary is well known as the driving force behind the formation of Kirkcaldy Old Kirk Trust which was formed, in 2010, by a group of local people to buy and maintain the building for the community. The fact that this happened was, in no small way, due to the financial assistance provided by the Rev. Sim's son, John. The Trust has managed the Kirk for the last 13 years, serving as a continuing church, community venue and heritage centre. The Trust's mission and aspiration is for it to remain a spiritual place in the very heart of Kirkcaldy, lifting people's spirits by friendship, an atmosphere of reflection and celebration, beauty in the stained glass windows, heritage activities, music, worship and community.

Make no mistake, no one is better placed to write on this iconic building than Rosemary Potter – enjoy her thoughts which follow;-
Ringing down through the centuries from 1553, the bell in Kirkcaldy's Old Kirk tower is the oldest object in the oldest building in continuous use in Kirkcaldy. No mention of Kirkcaldy’s history is complete without it.

The bell tower was built in the late 14th or 15th century, so, we have to presume there was an earlier bell to the one recorded as first cast in 1553. By 1533 the Celtic church founded on this site by Columban monks in the 7th century had been re-consecrated by the Roman Catholic Bishop de Bernham  in the Catholic tradition in 1244.  The familiar sound of this pre- Reformation bell floated over the16th century “Lang Toun” to call worshippers to Mass, or as an alarm call if the town was under attack, summoning the  then smaller populace to shelter in the sanctuary of the tower.

We can but admire the hard work and skill of these early builders dressing huge blocks of ashlar to a height of 55 feet to the parapet. Who the two faces  featured on a stone projection on the south side are, we do not know.
The bell-tower was also used at least once to keep people in rather than out: Alison Dick, accused of witchcraft along with her husband William Coke, was locked up inside before both were executed on the Town Moor in November 1633. A copy of the trial still exists and can be viewed in the church. More details can be found in the longer narrative.

The original church bell made in 1553 weighed 28 stone 11 pounds (403 pounds or 183kg) but it has been recast on several occasions. It is still rung today.
In May 1706, the elders reported that the kirk bell was broken, so it was taken down and transported over to Edinburgh for repair. Recast, it continued to give good service until the occasion of the King’s birthday in November 1754 when the bell met with an accident which was never adequately explained by the beadle.
In May 1755 a new larger bell was recast from the damaged bell but the Kirk Session were not convinced this would be heard across the whole parish, so they decided to heighten the bell-tower by adding on the present “cap-house”, terminating in a pyramid. Nowadays you can still see the large lancet windows where the original belfry was plus, on the second floor of the tower, when looking up the roof beams of the original belfry and the bell itself are visible.
By the start of the 19th century the church building itself with its “lafts” or galleries for each of the town's trades, had become dilapidated and with slates falling off the roof the parishioners were afraid to attend. The Heritors, the local landowners with responsibility for the upkeep of the Kirk building, had to replace it with a new building, which once again was joined to the tower.

The 1807 building, where we worship today, was constructed by a Perth builder who undercut the quotes of the Kirkcaldy builders but then got into financial difficulties halfway through the contract. This was to have disastrous consequences 20 years later – but that is a story that deserves to be told in more detail and is included in the full narrative.

In the tower two new large windows were created on the first floor to light a room used as the robing room (not robbing room as one historian inadvertently referred to it) for the Kirkcaldy Town Councillors when they processed into the Kirk for the service of dedication after each election.

A door was created in the tower facing Kirk Wynd and, using part of the Manse garden, the steep steps from the street to the tower were replaced by a “cascading staircase” - wide enough for a horse to climb.

In 1831 the belfry roof was reported as dangerous and a temporary repair was done. Fresh plans nearly saw the ancient structure being replaced by a new one but insufficient funds saved the day!

Further repairs were required over the next 30 years and in 1857 there was a report of the clock falling off the tower. It is estimated that the clock dates back to 1833, although there is a Session minute of 1708 agreeing to pay Francis Henderson £20 Scots to paint the ‘dyall of the kirk clock’.

On 20 December 1900, a severe storm caused serious damage. The tower roof, of about five tons, was lifted off by the wind and blown along the church roof, displacing slates, destroying a stone pinnacle and some crow-stepped cornice, which fell into the graveyard, damaging a number of gravestones. The roof was replaced with four iron beams, six inches by four, covered with concrete nine inches thick.  At the recent tower restoration, this was underpinned by a further fail-safe steel beam.

In December 1915, the church bell was found to have a crack at the point where the hammer strikes the bell and Messrs J C Wilson, Gorbals Bell Foundry, Glasgow, reported that the bell would need to be recast. The bell was duly taken down and dispatched to Glasgow, but because this firm was heavily engaged in war work it was not until January 1917 that the bell was recast and rehung at a cost of £30.19s.
In 1930 it was the turn of the tower clock to show signs of wear and tear as the Fife Free Press and Kirkcaldy Guardian points out : “The tower clock at Kirkcaldy Parish Church has a decided mind of its own, and very seldom falls in line with any one of the three times suggested by the town clock”  (three dials). The article was entitled Changing Times - Kirkcaldy’s Contrary Clocks with the author humorously describing how every public timepiece in Kirkcaldy shows a different and incorrect time!

This was followed up in 1936  by an anonymous gift of a new clock but retaining the original square wooden face. The Courier and Advertiser records that when the old clock went out of order “some time” previously, it was decided, after negotiations with the Town Council who owned the clock, not to replace it. An anonymous donor stepping in to gift a new one must have been welcomed.
Late in 1949 there was a report of deterioration in the belfry timbers and it was decided to remove all existing timber, struts, supporting beams and flooring, and replace them with steel girders and a concrete servicing platform.

In 1977 the bell-ringer had a narrow escape when the “clanger”, or tongue of the bell, fell from its place and crashed through the floor of the Tower just as he was ringing it prior to the morning service. A black mark on his shirt showed how closely the 80lbs of cast iron had brushed past him. You can be reassured that it was welded on again and it is now quite safe, as a recent inspection confirmed!
In 1986 it was smoke issuing through the belfry vents that alerted a vigilant taxi-driver to the fire started by vandals in the Old Kirk and so the tower played its part in saving the whole building.

Today, after a major tower restoration project, through Covid and its aftermath, which took 7 years and almost half a million pounds to bring to fruition, Kirkcaldy Old Kirk Trust guides visitors up the tower to ring the bell, admire the panoramic views of town and river and, on May 1st at 6am, to sing Easter hymns to greet the Spring from the top in a tradition which has been maintained for 150 years – history you can touch and traditions you can join us in!

All that remains to be done is to thank Rosemary Potter for producing such a full account of the iconic Kirkcaldy Old Kirk.
The full story, enhanced by illustrations, can be reached from the icon on this page – it is well worth investigating.