A long-awaited memorial garden to East Neuk-born Minister Thomas Chalmers, who helped revolutionise the Church of Scotland in the mid-19th Century, was officially opened in Anstruther.
The garden is located on the corner of Haddfoot Wynd and East Green, Anstruther, behind the Scottish Fisheries Museum and below the site of the former Chalmers Church.
The memorial garden was formally opened by the Reverend Arthur Christie, minister of the Anstruther, Cellardyke and Kilrenny churches, and the public were invited to attend. The opening was timed to coincide with the Anstruther Harbour Festival weekend.
The garden has been under development for a number of years but has finally become a reality, thanks to the hard work of the TCWG committee, Fife Council councillors and officials and funding from the Heritage Lottery, Leader in Fife, Awards for All, Fife Council community services, Fife Environment Trust, Anstruther Common Good Fund, Townscape Heritage Initiative and the Skiffington Trust.
The memorial garden had long been the dream of Alex Darwood, who, with his wife Margaret, lived in the Thomas Chalmers birthplace house in Old Post Office Close. Sadly, Alex died earlier this week, just days before seeing all his efforts officially recognised. The former head teacher and historian was arguably the leading expert on the life and achievements of Thomas Chalmers.
Thomas Chalmers was born in Anstruther in 1780 and was an extremely gifted child.
He became minister of Kilmany Church, where he became an inspirational preacher and large crowds came from far and wide to listen to him.
His fame became such that he was invited to join the Tron Church in Glasgow, which had a parish of 12,000.
In 1817, he was invited to London, where he caused a sensation, the essayist William Haslett was spellbound and remarked that Chalmers spoke with “prophetic fury”. Thomas Carlyle, the famous Scottish philosopher, writer, essayist, historian and teacher, said: “It is not often the world has seen men like Thomas Chalmers, nor can the world afford to forget them.”
In 1823, he was appointed professor of moral philosophy at St Andrews University and later in 1838, he became professor of divinity at Edinburgh University.
In 1843, Chalmers led more than 400 ministers and elders from the Church of Scotland general assembly to Tanfield Hall in Edinburgh, where they all signed the famous Deed of Demission, which led to the formation of the Free Church of Scotland.
Chalmers was instrumental in establishing approximately 700 churches, 600 schools and three theological colleges.
He died in May 1847 and his funeral was the largest seen in Edinburgh with some 100,000 onlookers lining the streets.