The Story of Stepps

Churches

By the end of the nineteenth century, despite the influx of people into the area, there was still no proper church in Stepps. People had to travel, usually on foot, to Hogganfield/Millerston or Chryston to participate in public worship. According to local tradition there had been "kitchen meetings", for prayer, at Stepps Hill, as early as 1862.

By the early 1880s there were Sunday schools and regular Sunday evening evangelistic meetings held in at least two houses - those of the Turtle family, at Stepps Hill, and Mr Alex Baxter, manager of Cardowan Fireclay Works, beside the works.

Sunday School Teachers

After the Union Hall was built in 1885, a range of religious meetings was held there, notably Mr Matthew Waddell's Bible Class, with membership of over a hundred, which he maintained there for twenty years.

With the rapid growth of the community of Stepps, however, it was obvious that a proper church would soon be required to serve the ever-increasing influx of people. But those were the days of division in the Church in Scotland. On the one hand was the Established Church, and on the other the Free Church and the United Presbyterian Church, which united in 1900 to form the United Free Church.

This was also a time of very strong political feeling, when variation in political views and allegiance was apt to coincide with differences in church adherence. It is no surprise, therefore, to find that, in the space of a few short years, two separate congregations were formed at Stepps.

The Established Church was the first to open, in 1900, but religious activity at the Union Hall continued, along the agreed undenominational lines, until the opening of the first U.F. Hall, in 1906.
St Joseph's R.C. Church, at neighbouring Cardowan, had been opened as far back as 1875, as a result of a petition from about 1,000 Catholics in several North Lanarkshire villages.

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