Church History

Stockbridge Parish Church is a congregation of the Church of Scotland and has existed in its present form since 1992. In the fifty years leading up to this date, a variety of congregations gradually came together so we can trace our roots in St Bernard’s Parish Church, Free St Bernard’s, The Davidson Memorial and St Stephen’s Parish Church.

We worship in the former St Bernard’s building in Saxe Coburg Street. The Stockbridge area was originally part of the parish of St Cuthbert’s. In 1823, the Kirk Session of St Cuthbert’s commissioned the architect James Milne to design a new church building for the rapidly expanding population of the Stockbridge area. A semi-circular apse was added in 1888. In more recent times the building has been carefully modernised to meet the needs of the present day congregation.

Many of the St Bernard’s ministers were famous in their day, but the one who is best known in the present is the Rev George Matheson writer of hymns such as O Love that wilt not let me go and Gather us in.

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