Crimond Church

File:CrimondClock.jpg

The church clock, bearing the inscription "The hour's coming", has an extra minute between the eleven and twelve making for 61 minutes in the hour. The clock was gifted by Dr James Laing from his Haddo Estate in the early 19th century.{{Cite web |url=http://www.abdn.ac.uk/slavery/4p2.htm |title=A North East Story - Scotland, Africa and Slavery in the Caribbean |access-date=2015-10-15 |archive-date=2015-11-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151115112515/http://www.abdn.ac.uk/slavery/4p2.htm |url-status=dead }}{{failed verification|date=October 2021}} The clock is now powered by electricity, but the original mechanical movement is displayed in the church in memory of late councillor Norman Cowie OBE who raised the funds for the electrification of the clock. In 1949, when the clock was being repainted, the extra minute was removed, but thus caused such a furore that it was restored.{{cite web |title=History |url=http://crimondchurch.com/history/ |website=Crimond Parish Church |access-date=3 June 2020}}

The church's fish-shaped weather vane was lost for many years but was found in the 1990s and reinstalled at the top of the spire. The vane had previously been the target of vandalism, showing bullet holes from an air rifle.

The pipe organ is a two-manual instrument built by Conacher and Co., one of only two in Scotland (the other is in St Mary's Cathedral, Aberdeen). It was restored in 1985.

The hymn "The Lord's my Shepherd", a metrical paraphrase of 23rd Psalm, is traditionally sung to the hymn tune {{Smallcaps|Crimond}}.{{cite web |title=Hymnology |url=https://hymnology.hymnsam.co.uk/j/jessie-seymour-irvine |website=hymnology.hymnsam.co.uk |access-date=3 June 2020}} It is thought that this tune was composed in 1871 by Jessie Seymour Irvine (1836–1887), daughter of the minister, Rev. Alexander Irvine (1804–1884). The tune was first published in The Northern Psalter (1872) but was attributed to David Grant. According to some accounts, Grant had only provided the harmonisation and that it was Irvine who wrote the melody, although this claim has been disputed by some scholars. Hymnals now generally now credit the hymn to Irvine.{{cite book |last1=Humphreys |first1=Maggie |last2=Evans |first2=Robert |title=Dictionary of Composers for the Church in Great Britain and Ireland |date=1997 |publisher=A&C Black |isbn=978-0-7201-2330-2 |page=180 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WSLUAwAAQBAJ&q=The%20Northern%20Psalter%20(c.1872)%20crimond%20david%20grant&pg=PA180 |access-date=3 June 2020 |language=en}}

{{cite book |last1=Ewan |first1=Elizabeth L. |last2=Innes |first2=Sue |last3=Reynolds |first3=Sian |last4=Pipes |first4=Rose |title=Biographical Dictionary of ScottishWomen |date=2007 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-2660-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zs6qBgAAQBAJ&q=%22How+far+is+it+to+Crimond%3F%22&pg=PA180 |access-date=3 June 2020 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Browse |first1=Mark |title=O Little Town |date=2015 |publisher=Lulu.com |isbn=978-1-326-29701-5 |pages=25–27 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=878ECwAAQBAJ&q=Jessie%20Seymour%20Irvine&pg=PA25 |access-date=7 June 2020 |language=en}}

A set of four etched glass panels inside the church commemorate Jessie Seymour Irvine as the composer. The panels were installed in 2002 in memory of a previous minister, Rev James E Lyall (d.2002) and are illustrated with imagery of Jesus as the Good Shepherd and with musical notation from the first line of the hymn tune.{{cite web |title=O Little Town: Crimond |url=https://hymntunes.blogspot.com/2015/07/crimond.html |website=O Little Town |access-date=7 June 2020 |date=4 July 2015}} Both Jessie and her father Alexander are buried in the family grave in the churchyard of St Machar's Cathedral in Aberdeen.{{cite book |title=Records of Old Aberdeen, MCLVII-[MCMIII] |date=1909 |publisher=New Spalding Club |page=247 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rVkJAAAAIAAJ&q=Rev.+Alexander+Irvine+crimond+minister |access-date=7 June 2020 |language=en}}

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{{Cite book |last=Henderson |first=John Alexander |url=http://archive.org/details/aberdeenshireepihend |title=Aberdeenshire epitaphs and inscriptions : with historical, biographical, genealogical, and antiquarian notes / by John A. Henderson |date=1907 |publisher=Aberdeen : Printed for the Subscribers, 1907 |others=University of Guelph Library|chapter=Crimond|pages=70–77}}

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• [https://cos.churchofscotland.org.uk/church_finder/profile.php?property_id=19588 Crimond Church Profile on the Church of Scotland website]

Category:Churches in Aberdeenshire

Category:Category A listed buildings in Aberdeenshire

Category:Listed churches in Scotland

Category:1812 establishments in Scotland

Category:Churches completed in 1812

Category:Buildings and structures in Buchan

Category:Gothic Revival church buildings in Scotland