Legerwood Kirk is an ancient and historic

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland. The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Scottish Reformation, Reformation of 1560, when it split from t ...

church in the former county of

Berwickshire Berwickshire ( gd, Siorrachd Bhearaig) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in south-eastern Scotland, on the English border. Berwickshire County Council existed from 1890 until 1975, when the area became part of th ...

, Scotland. It is situated half a mile east of the hamlet of

Legerwood Legerwood is a village by the Eden Water, in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland, near Lauder, near the Southern Upland Way. Legerwood Kirk is outside the village and has been there since at least 1127. Places nearby include Boon Farm, Gor ...

and south east of

Lauder The former Royal Burgh of Lauder (, gd, Labhdar) is a town in the Scottish Borders in the Shires of Scotland, historic county of Berwickshire. On the Southern Upland Way, the burgh lies southeast of Edinburgh, on the western edge of the Lamme ...

in the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders ( sco, the Mairches, 'the Marches'; gd, Crìochan na h-Alba) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian, Midlothian, South Lanarkshire, West Lothi ...

, on an unclassified road east of the A68 highway at . The

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

at Legerwood serves a wholly agricultural community and there are barely any clusters of houses worthy of being known as a village.

History

A date stone at Legerwood Parish Church - geograph

There has been a religious establishment at Legerwood since, at least, 1127 as John, a priest at Ledgaresude, as it was known, was a witness to a charter of that year. Walter de Lauder granted the church to the monks of

Paisley Abbey Paisley Abbey is a parish church of the Church of Scotland on the east bank of the White Cart Water in the centre of the town of Paisley, Renfrewshire, about west of Glasgow, in Scotland. Its origins date from the 12th century, based on a for ...

in 1164 and they held the church and its tithes until the coming of the reformed church in Scotland in 1560. There is more mention of Legerwood in 1296 when the vicar, Walter, swore fealty to

Edward I of England Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassa ...

in 1296 at

Berwick-upon-Tweed Berwick-upon-Tweed (), sometimes known as Berwick-on-Tweed or simply Berwick, is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, and the northernmost town in England. The 2011 United Kingdom census recor ...

. The church still retains its original Norman

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

Noted minister

The Reverend William Calderwood was minister at Legerwood from 1655 to 1709 but was evicted from his charge for 27 years for his refusal to conform to the Act of Glasgow – failure to preach with the

Episcopalian Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the l ...

prayer book as advocated by the Stuart kings in London

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

and Charles II. William Calderwood died in 1709. In 1684 the congregation of Legerwood were fined for attending

Conventicles A conventicle originally signified no more than an assembly, and was frequently used by ancient writers for a church. At a semantic level ''conventicle'' is only a good Latinized synonym of the Greek word church, and points to Jesus' promise in M ...

. The minister's manse was not built until 1812.

New Statistical Account of Scotland The ''Statistical Accounts of Scotland'' are a series of documentary publications, related in subject matter though published at different times, covering life in Scotland in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The ''Old (or First) Statistical Ac ...

page 347

References

External links

Parishes of Berwickshire

Images of Legerwood from Geograph
{{DEFAULTSORT:Legerwood Kirk Churches in the Scottish Borders Churches in Berwickshire Category B listed buildings in the Scottish Borders Listed churches in Scotland

History

Noted minister

See also

References

Further reading

External links