History of the Project

At the heart of the project lies a database inventory of Scottish church sites. Although now much broader in scope, the inventory was originally conceived in the mid 1980s to provide a basic level of information on churches and places of Christian worship in Scotland, from the origins of Christianity to the present day.

Now it has been expanded to include places used for worship be other communities- Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Chinese and others.

Beginnings

The original database was designed during a transitional phase in data management; many official bodies were still in the process of computerising their records. Since the first objective was to create a core of sites from official sources, much information from existing national and local archives was keyed in manually. The principal data sources at this time were printed listings from the National Monuments Record of Scotland (NMRS) and Historic Scotland, and lists supplied by many regional and district councils. Some regional archaeologists were able to provide sites and monuments records, and John Hume made available his extensive personal archive relating to churches. Churches in use were located through the year books and directories published by the various denominations.

This initial phase of manual data entry was completed in three years by one principal researcher using a desktop computer running dBase III. The researcher was backed up by temporary assistants, whose role became increasingly valuable as the project progressed. By 1991 a core dataset of more than 9,000 sites had been compiled.

Validation and Verification Phase

The official lists that had been incorporated during the first phase had been compiled for different purposes and contained different levels of detail about the sites: the church directories contained few National Grid references; whilst the archaeological and architectural sources were not especially concerned with the denominations or ecclesiastical use of the buildings. Thus, the next objective was to standardise the information. The sites were located precisely on detailed maps and provided with addresses and grid references. This work was carried out by two researchers using maps at the NMRS, and was completed for 90% of the inventory's sites by 1992.

Consolidation Phase

Since 1992, data for new sites has flooded in from volunteer fieldworkers, and the database itself has been migrated through various versions of dBase and, more recently, Microsoft Access (currently Access 2000). The inventory now contains details of nearly 11,000 sites, with raw details of many new and existing sites waiting to enter the compilation and data entry processes. The inventory also holds a large library of photographic images and lists numerous references.

Fieldworkers and desk-based researchers are briefed to check details of sites already in the database and to provide information on every possible place of worship, regardless of denomination. Standardised and structured report forms are used to record basic information on site situation, condition and bibliographical references. The volunteers are not expected to make stylistic or value judgements, though some are able to produce a documented chronology for a site, carry out detailed photographic surveys, or even compile architectural reports.

To ensure anyone who is interested can participate, Training Days are organised throughout the country to instruct volunteers in good practice procedures for building and site recording.