Our Development Plan

Scottish Church Heritage Research (SCHR) was recently set up to take forward the project and to develop the database as a Gazetteer. To achieve this, the existing database structure has been reviewed and redesigned in a form more suitable for Web or hardcopy dissemination, and to facilitate cataloguing, preservation and rights management of SCHR's considerable image library. SCHR is aware of developments in data management, dissemination and exchange in the heritage sector, and is committed to enhancing the valuable resource with which it is charged.

SCHR continues to develop its strategy for carrying out the enormous task it has set itself. In the short- to medium-term, it is proposed that developments will concentrate in these areas: extending coverage and accelerating the laborious tasks of data entry and data verification; online dissemination of the inventory as a Gazetteer; and further developing community participation. The rate at which these developments can be achieved depends crucially on the fund-raising activities of SCHR staff and the support of its volunteer researchers.

Extend Coverage

SCHR has recently acquired significant new data on sites already in the database, and new sites not previously recorded. These are mainly contributions from interested individuals, who have been making their own records and are pleased to share them. Much of this work has been concentrated on architecturally important churches, Listed Buildings. Now it is important to extend the dataset to include all the 'ordinary', un-Listed churches, which are of such significance to their own congregations.

It is recognised that the dataset must be extended to include places of worship associated with non-Christian faiths, since they too form a significant part of the environment and heritage in the areas where they were built and their members live. A major phase of data entry is required to assemble all this information in electronic form.

The range of sites being recorded has therefore expanded significantly since the project started in the 1980s. The Gazetteer being developed from the inventory will include details of:

• Listed Buildings and Scheduled Ancient Monuments;
• Churches of all denominations and faiths currently in use;
• Church sites now known only from archaeological study;
• Data on ruined or redundant churches;
• Churches at risk;
• Churches converted to secular use; and
• Churches that have been demolished or still under construction.
• Mosques, Synagogues, Temples and other places of worship belonging to the many and diverse other religious groups which form part of modern Scotland.

When completed, the database will be the first all-inclusive list, from the humblest to the greatest of religious buildings and sites in Scotland, in use or abandoned.

Online Dissemination

This Web site is being developed to enable easy access on a site-by-site basis in the form of a Gazetteer. Where appropriate, each entry will include the name and address of each place, a short description, at least one photograph and a plan, if possible, with building dates, architects' names, information about events and people associated with each church, together with other details.

Ultimately, visitors to this site will be able to ask for simple information, for example, about how many churches are or were in any parish, through to lists of churches dedicated to a given saint, built in a particular year or belonging to a specific denomination or group. At the level of an individual church, it will be possible to obtain a list of all the readily available information sources for that church, and where these are housed, as well as a comment on the data - archaeological, genealogical, architectural style and other details.

We have recently enhanced our database coverage in Fife - data from this phase of research can now be accessed from this Web site.

Community Participation

Since the structures and places being recorded reflect the aims and aspirations of local communities, we believe local communities, with their special knowledge of their own churches, should be involved in this work. This will be carried out through conferences and practical sessions, in the field, in the office and in archives. Volunteers from almost every church will be recruited – in time!