After 149 years, the Auld Kirk church was bound to need some repairs.
The Bradford West Gwillimbury Local History Association has made the restoration of the Presbyterian church its special project over the years — raising funds and carrying out repairs that have included a new roof, front door replacement, and now the restoration of its windows.
And on June 10, residents will have an opportunity to see the work that has been done at an Old-fashioned Sunday at the Auld Kirk.
Edgar Lloyd, a descendent of one of the families who founded the church, was on-hand to watch the restored windows set back in place recently.
“When I was growing up, we’d come by here, but never got in to see it,” he said, adding the church has been closed to the public since the late 1800s.
Once the repairs are complete, the Auld Kirk will “be usable,” he said.
The historic church, located at 3380 Line 6 in BWG, was built by pioneers returning to Ontario from Lord Selkirk’s Red River Settlement.
In 1819, they took up land in the newly-surveyed West Gwillimbury Township, in the area of the fourth, fifth and sixth concessions, an area that became known as the Scotch Settlement.
The 17 founding families built a Presbyterian church and schoolhouse soon after their arrival in 1822.
The log building was eventually replaced by a frame structure, and then, in 1869, by the brick church that now stands on the site.
The new church was only used for a few years before it was closed.
The fact that the Auld Kirk has survived for nearly 150 years is a credit to the local families that tended the churchyard and cemetery — and the heavy shutters added to the windows in 1929, which kept out vandals and the weather.
In recent years, however, the building began to show signs of abandonment. The roof was leaking, interior plaster was peeling and flaking, windows were broken, and there were several break-ins.
That is when the BWG Local History Association stepped in — replacing the roof and making other repairs, investigating the exact location of the graves in the adjacent cemetery, and encouraging the town to play a more active role in the preservation of the historic building.
The association, thanks to research by the late Donald McGugan, discovered the Auld Kirk, although built as a Presbyterian Church, was in fact owned by the United Church of Canada. The town purchased the Auld Kirk in 2012 for $2 and designated the building as a heritage site last year.
The municipality installed a security system at the church, and it has carried out other repairs, but it is the association that has undertaken most of the work, including the most recent project: full restoration of the church’s six large windows.
The work was done by Bruce Chambers of Bond Head’s Bruce Chambers Period Furniture Ltd.
Chambers, who also recreated and replaced the heavy front doors at the Auld Kirk, noted the window restoration project was a different kind of challenge.
“It’s been a real process,” he said. “The hardest part was getting the windows out.”
The windows were pulled in February, stripped of their paint, the putty removed and the panes reset.
“Luckily, there was no rot anywhere,” Chambers said.
The windows had been protected by the shutters, but the glass had to be replaced once the joints in the window frame were reglued and repainted. The old panes no longer fit the tightened frame.
There were other challenges, including having to order new window putty from a U.S. company, and it was difficult to match the authentic cranberry glass in the upper gothic windows, he said.
Huronia Glass in Barrie was able to find a shade of glass that matched, he added.
Chambers did all the preparation and restoration work, and his father, David Chambers, did the reglazing and painting of the exterior frame.
The window frames were made of painted old-growth pine on the interior faces in order to look like oak.
The hardest part of the project was removing the windows and window stops, Chambers said.
“The fun part is putting everything back,” he said. “This is rewarding. This is when you see what it was like in its original state.”
See the restored church this weekend:
WHAT: Old-fashioned Sunday at the Auld Kirk
WHEN: June 10, 1-4 p.m.
WHERE: Auld Kirk church, 3380 Line 6, BWG
COST: Donation; All proceeds will go to Auld Kirk’s restoration
Bring a lawn chair. There will be musical performances and refreshments. Guest speaker is Rev. Jonathan Dennis, minister at Fraser Presbyterian Church in Tottenham.
