1st Secession (Burgher) Church, Tweed Brae, lead by Rev Thomas Leckie

Introduction
The St Andrew’s Leckie congregation’s place of worship was built as a memorial to the Rev Thomas Leckie, the Eastgate United Presbyterian congregation’s first minister, who served his flock for 27 years.Thomas Leckie died in 1821 leaving a widow and thirteen children. In 1874, at the funeral of his ninth son, the family decided to build a church in memory of their father. The foundation stone was laid in September 1875 and the church, which cost nearly £8,000, was completed in 1877.

A new hall was added in 1901. A bazaar was held to raise £600 needed to pay for this and a number of alterations to the sanctuary. The Apse has also been altered with the removal of the original organ with its integral pulpit and choir stalls.

The adjacent Old Bakehouse was acquired in 1980 when it was purchased from the Royal Bank of Scotland for £1 plus legal expenses! However, it required the purchase of a small piece of land to link it to the rest of the site, £13,000 and a lot of hard work to make it usable.

St Andrew’s Leckie Congregation
The current St Andrew’s Leckie congregation stems from the union of three separate congregations, each of which at one time, had their own building.

The West United Presbyterian Church , Old Town

The oldest of these congregations was established in 1791 as a Burgher Congregation, a breakaway from the Established Church. (the First Secession) This was the congregation to which Thomas was pastor.
It worshipped in a building at the foot of Tweed Brae known locally as the Gytes Kirk. After the construction of the present building, it was used first as a garage then as a swimming pool and is now a Church again, Peebles Evangelical Church.

The second oldest congregation was formed in 1827 as a congregation of the Relief Church, another breakaway from the Establshed Church). They originally worshipped in a building in Greenside (now a private house), but following a national union they became a congregation of the United Presbyterian
(UP) Church. In 1893, this congregation built a new Church known as the West United Presbyterian Church in 1893. It was built of red sandstone and stood at the foot of the Old Town and Elcho Street Brae. This building became known as St Andrew’s in 1918 when the West UP congregation united with St Andrew’s Free Church.

The third congregation was St. Andrews Free Church, formed in 1872 by yet another breakaway. They had their building in the Eastgate. Following the union of 1918, it was retained by the united congregations and was leased to the local authority until 1966, when the cost of maintaining the building became too great. It was sold to the county council and has now been developed as the
Eastgate Theatre and Arts Centre. Its bell was removed, recast and donated to St. Ninian’s Church of
Scotland, Corby, England.

As a result of a vacancy at the Leckie Memorial Church, the Presbytery called for a union with St Andrew’s Church. The Basis of Union was approved in 1976, leaving the question of how the buildings were to be used to be resolved in the next two years.

Although both congregations had strong sentimental attachments to their own buildings, pragmatism won the day. The Leckie building offered more flexible accommodation as the pews could be removed and replaced with stacking chairs, to provide sufficient hall space to meet the needs of the united congregation. Reminders of the St Andrew’s church do however exist in the pulpit, which was rebuilt here and the large cross over the communion table, made from fine New Zealand Kauri pine from the St Andrew’s pews.

Efforts to find an acceptable alternative use for the St Andrew’s (Old Town) building were to no avail and the property was eventually sold to the Ark Housing Association and the site used for social housing.

Service at the Leckie Memorial Church

A new century
Following the merger of the congregations, the church building has continued to adapt for a changing congregation to this current day. The construction of the ramp at the front door made access to those with limited mobility significantly easier as well as small children in pushchairs. Some of the changes in recent years have been less structural such as the installation of cameras to enable live streaming of services since Covid.

In March 2012, we welcomed our current Minister Rev. Malcolm Jefferson. The church has continued to grow as a family with a friendly all age congregation focussed on God at it’s heart. In recent years there has continued to focus on those outside the church with new ministries such as our counselling service, community cafe, boys brigade and toddlers.