|
Admin
history |
A chapel was opened at Blairdaff on 9th June 1839, and in 1843 at the Disruption some of the congregation 'came out' and elected Rev David Mitchell as their minister, who was a probationer at Blairdaff at that time. There were those of the congregation who remained with the Established Church, and Blairdaff Church of Scotland continued as a separate charge in the original church building. Those members who adhered to the Free Church were banned from using the exising church building, and subsequent meetings were held in the Grant Lodge Hall, which was eventually purchased by the Free Church congregation, and a church was erected on the site in 1850. Initially the minister lived in a farmhouse until a manse was built in 1879. Membership dwindled somewhat and numbers dropped even further when many members joined the Kemany Free Church when it opened in 1866. At the union of the Free Church and The United Presbyterian Church in 1900, Blairdaff Free became Blairdaff United Free. Later in 1916 the manse was destroyed by fire, but was rebuilt on the same site, and in 1925 the status of Blairdaff was reduced. In 1929 when the United Free Church came back into the Established Church, the charge at Blairdaff became Sclattie Church of Scotland to distinguish it from the existing Church of Scotland congregation at Blairdaff. However, the two charges were united in 1934, taking the name Blairdaff. A link with Monymusk followed in 1963, but was terminated in favour of a link with Chapel of Garioch in 1982. |