In Scotland the “Disruption” of 1843 saw a third of the clergy and congregation secede from the Church of Scotland to set up the Free Church of Scotland. Many of the local landowners sought to suppress the upstart church by refusing its adherents permission to build places of worship on their land. One such was Sir James Riddell of Arnamurchan.
The Wee Frees came up with an ingenious solution, commissioning at the cost of £1,400 the Port Glasgow firm of John Reid & Co to build an iron ship on top of which was erected a large shed capable of holding up to four hundred people. In June 1846 the ship was towed to Ardnastang |Bay, near Strontian on Loch Sunart, and anchored about 150 metres short of the boundary of Sir James’ land.
It was used as a “floating church” and although it is not absolutely certain that the shed was built with corrugated iron sheets, most contemporary illustrations suggest it was. If so, it would earn the distinction of being Britain’s earliest tin tabernacle. Its floating days did not last long, though, as sometime around September 1847 it broke from its moorings during a storm and blown ashore. There it stayed and was used as a place of worship until 1869.
The rapid growth in urban population in Victorian Britain created a demand for new church and chapel buildings, one that the use of traditional building materials as espoused by the Ecclesiological Society could not meet. As well as being quick to construct by attaching the overlapping corrugated iron sheets to a timber frame above a brick foundation, they were relatively cheap to buy, costing anything from £150 for a chapel seating 150 to £500 for one accommodating a congregation of 350.
By 1875, hundreds of corrugated iron were being erected around the country, leading William Morris to complain that they were “spreading like a pestilence over the country”. While the use of corrugated iron offended the sensibilities of the likes of John Ruskin, who condemned it in his seminal book, The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1847), it served a purpose and advocates were keen to show its versatility by adding Gothic embellishments to their churches. Tin churches were still being built in the 1920s and 30s.
Next time we will look at the stories of two corrugated iron churches near where I live.
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