A Vase from Glengarnock Church

I acquired this large brass church altar vase in a bundle of metalwork. I was mainly after a brass ecclesiastical table-top lectern to keep my diary on, and these two items presumably came from the same church.

The urn reads:

‘Presented 1957 to Glengarnock Church by Agnes Kerr in Loving Memory of her Father Andrew Kerr, her mother Abigail Morrow, and her sister Ann Kerr’

These Kerrs are no relation to mine, at least not close ones. Mind, mine had left Ayrshire for India in the first half of the nineteenth century, apparently from Kersland, which is in the same parish. So there could be a distant link.

This vase would have been bought by Agnes in the hope that it would remain to beautify her church and remember her loved ones until the end of time. Something to be filled with Daffodils every spring. Instead it was unsentimentally sold off with all the furnishings. Although a simple and pretty object, I don’t want to sell this on for fear it might get melted down, or the inscription sanded and buffed off. It would have been an act of love for Agnes to have this engraved and donated and that seems worthy of preservation. They often came as a pair, so its possible it had an unengraved twin which has since been separated.

So what’s the story behind this object? Fortunately there’s enough information in the inscription that we can tell its past.

Agnes Kerr

Agnes Kerr was born in March 1907, at Glenview Auchengree in the parish of Dalry. In the birth register her father’s profession was given as a mechanical engineer and that her parents had married on 26 July 1904 in Kilbirnie.

Following on from that lead, the marriage register for the parish Kilbirnie tells us they married in the Glengarnock United Free Church of Scotland. Presumably that would be the same church to which the vase was presented. At the time of their marriage Andrew, aged 29, of Auchengree Dalry was an engineers, the son of Robert Kerr, engineer, and Agnes Kerr, nee Murray. Abigail, aged 32, was a dressmaker of ‘Station’ Glengarnock. Her parents were Archibald Morrow, engineer, and Ann Morro, nee Coombs.

In the 1911 census we find their household ‘Glenview’, and we see all four people mentioned on the urn, which is quite heartening. Andrew was aged 36 and his occupation was given as a cashier in engineering and ironfounding. He had been born in Dalry. Abigail was 38 and was born in Ireland. Ann Kerr, Agnes’ elder sister, was 5 years old, born in Kilbirnie, while Agnes was four.

The 1901 and 1891 censuses tells us that Andew’s father Robert was an Engineer and Ironfounder, born about 1848 and the family lived in ‘Low Auchingree Glenside Cottage’. This Robert is presumably part of Robert Kerr & Sons Engineers & Ironfounders of Glengarnock (see below). Robert’s like-named father was also an engineer. Robert junior died in 1934.

Andrew Kerr died in 1934.

Glengarnock United Free Church

The National Records of Scotland hold records for the church from 1869 to 1978, which is presumably when it closed. It had opened as a United Presbyterian Church, then became the United Free Church after 1900, when the UP Church merged with the Free Church of Scotland to form the United Free Church of Scotland (U.F. Church).

The majority of the United Free Church later reunited with the Church of Scotland in 1929. Hence the 1965 Ordinance Survey map shows the building labelled as Glengarnock Church (Church of Scotland). The church was apparently demolished in 1989, although the top of the steeple was kept and survives in the village..

---

Robert Kerr & Son Invoice Transcription

Not being able to let this thread rest, I acquired the below invoice from the firm of Robert Kerr and Sons, Engineers and Ironfounders, Auchengree Engine Works, Glengarnock. These were addressed to Mr John Crawford of Langbar, a farmer. These are quite striking reminders of how industrialised farming could be in this period.