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Blackford Parish Church
Some of our history
The Parish of Blackford was formerly the Parish of Strageath founded by St. Fergus in the eighth century. (The name, like our linked Parish of Ardoch, comes from the name of a local Roman fort.)
The site of Strageath Church was thought to be too remote for the main part of the parish population (being seven miles away by the River Earn) and a new church was constructed at Blackford, with its first minister, Alex Gall, inducted in 1574.
The Parish name was changed to Blackford in 1617 by an Act of Parliament.
The Old Parish Church (below) is located on the hill to the north of the village. A service is held here at 8:00am on Easter Sunday morning. This church remains at the dead centre of the village standing as it does in the Blackford Cemetery.
The church was burned in the middle of the 18th century and rebuilt but in 1858 it was no longer big enough and the present church was built in its place, opening in 1859. The Old Parish Church survives as an unroofed ruin, with the bellcote of the church restored in 2007.
The bell from the Old Parish Church probably came from Strageath as the inscription on it is pre- Reformation. It can now be seen outside our church having been moved there and dedicated as our Bell of Hope in November 2018.
The former St Andrew's Free Church, halfway down Moray Street, was united with the Parish Church in 1950.
The Blackford Historical Society produced a Church Trail leaflet in June 2012 which can be read here.
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