IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Alexander Street, DUMBARTON, G82 4LT

For context, and for another contributor's earlier picture, see Image, a view along Leven Street. The church is located at the northern end of Image, beside the junction with Leven Street. It was built in 1891-92. Its listed building report – http://portal.historic-scotland.gov.uk/designation/LB42920 (at Historic Environment Scotland) – provides some architectural information. More can be found below. For the churchyard, see Image; its small burial ground, to the north of the church, is shown in Image As explained at that link, it contains only a single small plot, that of Mr Alexander Wylie of Cordale House, who had sought and obtained special permission that he might be buried here; he, and two of his sisters and one brother, are buried in that plot. When this church was built, it was referred to as Renton Parish Church, or Renton New Parish Church; its predecessor was located on Main Street, a little to the north of Leven Street, but was proving inadequate to the needs of the growing congregation (whose minister was the Rev A C Watson). The foundation stone of the new Renton Parish Church was laid in October 1891, a little later than originally intended (at the same time was it was being announced that the event was to be postponed for a fortnight, local doctors were dealing with an outbreak of typhus in Renton; this was perhaps the reason for the delay). The ground upon which the new church was to be built had been provided free of charge by P B Smollett (Patrick Boyle Smollett; see Image). The foundation stone was laid with Masonic Honours on Saturday 10th October 1891 by Mr J M Martin of Auchendennan (for that family, see Image), Provincial Grand Master of Dumbartonshire. The contemporary report of the event (found in the Lennox Herald issue of Oct 14th 1891) says of the planned church that the "design is 17th century Gothic – old parish church style", and that "it will have nave and transepts and chancel for choir, with side organ chamber. A tower of three stages will be erected in the centre of front gable of nave. This tower forms the entrance hall, and provides in the upper stage a belfry for the peal of bells at present in the old church. The length of the building, which is of red sandstone, over all is 124 feet, and the width across the transepts 100 feet. The church will be seated for 800 without galleries, and the total cost will be about £3000. The architects are Messrs H & D Barclay, 245 St Vincent Street, Glasgow, and the contractors are :– Mason work, Mr James Barlas, Alexandria; joiner, Mr John Gillies, Alexandria; slater, Mr J Hunter, Renton; plumber and gas-fitter, Mr J Coubrough, Renton; plasterer, Mr John Hutchison, Dumbarton; glazier, J Britton & Son, Glasgow; painter, Mr W Menzies, Bonhill; heating, Messrs J Boyd & Son, Paisley; measurers, Messrs Boston, Menzies, & Morton, Greenock and Bonhill". Those in attendance on that day included (as well as Mr Martin, named above, who laid the stone): Sir James Buchanan, Depute Provincial Grand Master; Mr Alex Wylie of Cordale House, who, with some of his siblings, would later prove to be the only family to be buried beside the church; Mr P B Smollett, who had provided the land upon which it was built; Rev D H Wilson, senior minister of Renton Parish; and Rev A C Watson, his colleague and successor. The official opening took place on Sunday 18th December 1892. The church was opened by "the Very Reverent Dr McGregor of Edinburgh", who presented it to the aforementioned A C Watson, who became its first minister. The church was designed by Mr David Barclay, of the practice named above, and the peal of bells in its tower was made by Messrs J Warner & Son, of the Crescent Foundry, London, and presented to the congregation by James and John B Aiken of Dalmoak (see Image). An organ was added to the church in 1911, and some stained glass windows, the gift of the Aikens of Dalmoak, were presented in July 1912. These windows were designed and executed by Oscar Paterson (he was born in the Gorbals on the 26th of March 1836, and was educated at St Enoch's School; he died, after suffering financial reverses, on 7th November 1934, and was buried in Glasgow Necropolis; his grave is not marked by any stone). The name Renton Trinity Church arose later: in June of 1969 an Act of Union brought together the congregations of Renton Millburn Church, Renton Parish Church, and Renton Union Church, into a single Renton Trinity Church. In December of 1971, the church shown in this picture became the sole place of worship for that congregation. The church underwent a program of refurbishment in 1991, which included the complete re-tiling of the roof. Older readers may remember the church's tower presenting a different appearance in decades past: the tower presently has four small spires, which project from its corners, but there used to be four more, midway between them. Some online archaeology databases contain an entry for this church, citing "F Groome 1903" as stating that "the new church of 1893 has been erected on the site of the old house of Dalquhurn". This is probably taken from an edition of the "Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland" (by Francis Groome), but the comment made there is incorrect: Dalquhurn House did not stand here, although its actual site was not far away, just 300 metres or so downriver; see Image My own opinion is that this misconception arose from comments made by Mr Alex Wylie in a toast he gave during a "Cake and Wine Banquet" held in the evening of the same day as the laying of the foundation stone in the afternoon of 10th October 1891. In his toast, Mr Wylie expressed the thought that "all those present that day would concur that the site was one not surpassed by any in the Vale of Leven. It was classic ground. Within a very few yards of the site of that church Tobias Smollett was born. If any of them had looked at the old picture of the Vale of Leven about 1765 they would observe that the Smolletts' house stood upon that very corner, and was selected by them on account of the commanding view it gave them both up and down the Vale". Mr Wylie's surmise, based on his examination of that picture, was incorrect, but few, if any, of those listening would have realised that; the audience would probably have accepted the idea he expressed in his toast as fact. It was further spread by newspaper coverage of the church's opening, allowing the incorrect notion that the church stood on the site of Dalquhurn House to become firmly rooted. A brief but useful summary of Renton's other churches can be found in another work: "Renton of course had its Free Gaelic Church in 1856, its first minister being Rev. A. Cameron, the second one Rev. Jas. Dempster losing his eldest boy during a diphtheria epidemic in 1878. A United Presbyterian Church appeared about 1882 and was rebuilt about 1890. The Parish Church in Alexander St. was erected in 1891, though a mission had existed since 1852, with a girls' school attached" ["The story of the Vale of Leven", J.Agnew, 1976].

This detail is carved upon the sandstone buildings on the western side of Image, opposite the Masonic Hall (Image). The name commemorates Annie Mylrea, the wife of Alex Wylie of Cordale; for more about her, see Image

The street is mainly residential, but part of Image can be seen on the right, at the far end of the street, and the building in front of it is a Masonic Hall: Image The building opposite that hall has, carved on its upper part, the name Mylrea Place: Image (the reference is explained at that item, and at Image). See Image for another picture of the street.

Lodge Leven St John No.170, Renton, Glasgow.

The hall is on Image; it can be seen on the right in that picture. It is also shown in Image The foundation stone was laid in November 1892, and the building was consecrated in December 1893.

Renton Trinity Church was opened in 1892

The area as a whole is shown in Image, and the church, just to the south of here, is shown in Image and Image The present view focuses on the small burial ground. The gravestone is that of Mr Alexander Wylie of the Cordale and Dillichip Works, and resident of Cordale House (now long gone), and of two of his sisters and a brother. The inscription is as follows: "Sacred to the memory of Alexander Wylie of Cordale died 13th February 1921; and of his sisters and brother: Agnes Wylie died 1st September 1909; Hugh Wylie died 30th June 1914; Mary Fulton Wylie died 3rd December 1924." Amongst the cuttings in Dumbarton Library is a page written by Hugh McColl (it is not apparent whether it is an extract from a longer work or not), which provides more information about the circumstances of their burial here; my own comments are in square brackets: in July 1909, Alexander Wylie had approached the church's minister Gordon Quigg [elsewhere spelled Quig and Cuig] and the Trustees of Renton Parish Church stating that he would like to have the special privilege of having a burial ground for his family in the church grounds, on the north side. They in turn contacted the Procurator of the Church of Scotland, the County Council of Dunbarton, Col. Telfer-Smollett (the Ground Superior), and neighbouring proprietors. None of them had objections to Mr Wylie's proposal. McColl's account also records a curious detail about the gravestone itself: when it was later being cleaned, the monumental sculptor noticed a mistake ("Febuary"), but was able to correct it. The library also has, among its cuttings, a family tree of the Wylies of Cordale. Alexander's parents were John Wylie, a colour-mixer who was born in Balfron, and who came to this area in about 1835, and Marion Kinloch, born in Bonhill in 1817/18. They were married in Bonhill in 1839. An account of Alexander Wylie's life can be found on pages 20–24 of Donald MacLeod's "Historic Families, Notable People, and Memorabilia of the Lennox" (1891), and I refer readers to that work for more details. See also Image - - • - - In 1880, he married Annie Mylrea, who was born in Waterloo, near Liverpool, and who died after only three years of marriage, aged just 27, on the 16th of November 1883. She is not buried here (this churchyard did not yet exist): her gravestone is, instead, in the churchyard of Image; she was an attached member of the congregation there. A few hours after taking the present picture, I paid a very quick visit to the kirkyard of Cardross Old Parish Church, while passing through the village; as it turned out, I came across that gravestone almost immediately, without having to look for it. Its inscription is as follows: "In memory of Annie Mylrea Wylie wife of Alex. Wylie of Cordale who died 16th Nov 1883 aged 27 years. To relieve the poor and needy, to minister by the beds of the sick and suffering, to gladden and elevate Renton. 'She hath done what she could' –Mark xiv.8" A summary of her life and her charitable works is given by Donald MacLeod on pages 104-109 of his "Dumbarton, Vale of Leven, and Loch Lomond" (1884). In her brief life, she had done much for the people of Renton. Her gravestone (which I photographed, although I have elected not to use the pictures for this site) is described on page 63 of MacLeod's "Historic Families ..." (1891), a work that I have already cited above; the stone is about seven feet high, and is of Gothic design, shaped as a pointed arch, made of white Sicilian marble upon a step of grey granite. The memorial sculptors are Messrs J & G Mossman, Glasgow. Annie Mylrea was born on the 14th of January 1856; she was the daughter of the Liverpool merchant Philip Mylrea. For anyone who wishes to more about her genealogy, a good resource is http://www.mylrea.com.au/ (the Mylrea Resources website), where (as of September 2016) the relevant PDF document, written by Diana Banks, is in the "Mylrea Stories" section, and has the title "Edward Mylrea snr (Lonan) 1743-1784". Annie Mylrea is also commemorated, in a different way, not far from the spot where this picture was taken: Alexander Street (Image), running south from Renton Trinity Church, has, on its western side, opposite a Masonic Hall (Image), a red sandstone building upon which is inscribed the name "Mylrea Place": Image - - • - - An aside: as noted above, the small burial plot shown in the present picture, which was for the Wylie family, is the only one in the churchyard of Renton Trinity Church; however, outside the churchyard, but only about 150 metres to the south-east of this spot, was an even more exclusive plot: as J Agnew observed in "The Story of the Vale of Leven" (1976), "like the Island of Bute, Renton possesses a one-man burial ground, but unlike Bute, shows no public interest in it". The reference is to the tomb of George Scott (now broken up), which was shown on early OS maps, and for which, see Image

For the church, whose spire is casting the shadow shown here, see Image and Image It has a burial ground, though a small one, which can be seen directly ahead: Image