Alva Parish Church
Alva Parish Church
Alva Parish Church, also recorded as St Serf’s, is a Church of Scotland kirk on Stirling Street, Alva, Clackmannanshire, standing above the town on the traditional site of the medieval church of St Servanus.
- Location
- Alva, Central
- Country
- Scotland
- County
- Central
- City / town
- Alva
- Address
- Stirling Street, Alva, Central, FK12 5EH
- Postcode
- FK12 5EH
- Built
- 1815 rebuild of a 1631–32 church; towers added 1877
- Denomination
- Presbyterian
- Dedication
- Serf
- Parish
- Alva
- Grid reference
- NS 887 973
- Opening hours
- The church and halls are normally open on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday between the hours of 10.30am and 12.30pm.
- Access
- Accessible toilets in church. Level access throughout. Level access to the main areas. Non-accessible toilets in church
Overview
Canmore records that the church of Alva was granted to Cambuskenneth Abbey in 1260. Alexander Bruce, proprietor of Alva, built a new church in 1631–32; a stone with the Bruce arms and the date 1631, and a lintel inscribed 1637, are built into the west gable of the present building. The New Statistical Account states that James Raymond Johnstone wholly rebuilt the church in 1815, fitting it for 586 sitters.
The Third Statistical Account describes later Victorian change: in 1877 two stunted towers were added, the laird’s loft was removed and the galleries enlarged, turning a T-plan country kirk into a Victorian auditorium. The present building appears entirely of the nineteenth century apart from the reused seventeenth-century stones. The church is not listed; Scottish designation records belong in further reading rather than the English or Welsh list-entry field.