Duntocher Trinity Parish Church

Duntocher Trinity Parish Church

An early post-war red brick church with attached church halls, designed by William Reid in 1949 and built between 1950 and 1952. The building is constructed in a severely simplified modern brick Expressionist style, cruciform in plan with a square-plan tower. It replaced an earlier church on the site that was destroyed during the Clydebank Blitz in March 1941. Duntocher Trinity was the first blitzed church to be rebuilt in Scotland after the Second World War. The church is free-standing and situated on an elevated site in Duntocher, Clydebank, overlooking Duntocher Burn. The scheduled Roman Fort (SM7070) lies east of the eastern boundary, and the Antonine Wall World Heritage Site extends beyond the northern boundary.

The church comprises a central nave with projecting side aisles, shallow gabled transepts to the north and south, and an engaged square-plan belfry to the northwest corner. The semi-circular apse to the rear (east) is abutted by contemporary flat-roofed church halls extending northwards.

The walls of the church and church halls are constructed in rusticated red brick with detailing in red brick and reconstituted stone or concrete. The parabolic arches and door openings have smooth surrounds in reconstituted stone or concrete. The rear elevations of the church halls are roughcast rendered.

The main (west) elevation features a gable rising above the eaves and a large parabolic arch to the centre constructed of reconstituted stone or smooth concrete, flanked by lozenge-shaped window openings with vertical metal bars. The parabolic arch incorporates a plain stained-glass window and a double-leaf timber-panelled entrance door with circular brass handles and carved cross and diamond motifs to the architrave. Carved lettering above the entrance reads: "1830-1951 / CALL THY WALLS / SALVATION / AND THY GATES / PRAISE / ISAIAH CHAP.60. VERSE 18".

The north and south side elevations have three narrow round-headed openings to the nave with projecting red brick surrounds, and four plain window openings to the projecting aisles. The projecting transepts are gabled, each with a smooth rendered parabolic arched window opening with vertical railings. The north elevation has a square-plan, three-stage belltower to the northwest corner with an entrance door set in a large concave concrete surround. The belfry is accessed by a decorative iron spiral staircase. The main (west) elevation features three linear lozenge-shaped openings to the third stage of the tower, set in a reconstituted stone surround adorned with abstract moulded shapes. The south elevation has a two-storey square-plan apse to the southwest corner. Although a belfry was constructed in the tower, it has never housed bells; instead a loud-speaker system plays a recording of bells.

The main roof is shallow-pitched and covered with replacement pantiles. The remaining roofs are flat. The doors are largely double-leaf timber panelled with original circular brass or bronze handles. The metal-framed windows are largely coloured glass with vertical metal bars to the lower openings.

The interior of the church, seen in 2019, largely remains unaltered. It comprises a central nave with side aisles separated by small parabolic red brick arches. Single full-height parabolic arches separate the transepts and the sanctuary. There is a fluted stone-panelled semi-octagonal pulpit positioned to one side. A large parabolic arch decorates the apse interior. Timber pews flank the central aisle and the ceiling is barrel-vaulted and plastered. A staircase leads to a raised gallery in the nave. The entrance vestibule has a textured brick wall in a repeating three-brick design and some small stained-glass windows. A wall memorial tablet was saved from the earlier church. The church hall contains two function spaces: one large hall with a stage and one smaller hall, plus kitchen and toilet areas.

The church site is bounded by rubble boundary walls. The wall fronting the pavement has a flat cope and two entrance openings, one to the church and the late-19th century former manse and the other to the church hall. The wall to the north has a rounded cope.

Historical Development

The name Duntocher means "the fort on the causeway" and marks the first visible remains of the Antonine Wall running from west to east. The village expanded after the Second World War and is now effectively a northern suburb of the nearby town of Clydebank.

The original Duntocher Parish Church, later known as Duntocher Trinity Parish Church, opened in 1836 and was destroyed in March 1941 during the Clydebank Blitz. The Ordnance Survey map of 1948-9 labels the church a ruin and shows its associated manse, built in the 1890s, to the south. A rectangular-plan hall is shown parallel to the rear of the manse; this was built to serve as a temporary church.

The remains of the previous church were pulled down in January 1950 and the foundation stone of the new church was laid in April 1950. The building was inaugurated by the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, Reverend W White Anderson, on 10 May 1952. The new church was described as a design along simple and functional lines, constructed in rustic brick with timber pews and fluorescent lighting, with a suite of halls attached.

The church is first shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1962 as largely cruciform in plan with church hall buildings attached to the northeast. The manse remains to the south, but the temporary church hall south of the manse was removed following completion of the church. The footprint of the church appears unchanged from that shown on the map of 1962.

An access ramp was installed to the north elevation of the church in around 2004.