2017

NS3975 : St Serf's Church: Dixons' Memorial Tablet

taken 7 years ago, near to Dumbarton, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland

St Serf's Church: Dixons' Memorial Tablet
St Serf's Church: Dixons' Memorial Tablet
For a view in context, showing this tablet at the eastern end-wall of the ruin, see NS3975 : The ruins of St Serf's Church. For more detail about the ruin itself, see NS3975 : The ruins of St Serf's Church.

The tablet commemorates members of the Dixon family, of Dumbarton Glassworks. It features the Dixon Crest and the motto "Fortes Fortuna Juvat", and it is dated 1885, though it features additions down to 1916.

See Link (from one of my articles), which mentions that the Dixons, who acquired the Levengrove Estate early in the nineteenth century, ploughed up the ancient burial ground here, so that only a couple of the older stones survive. They then used the ruin of St Serf's as their own family mausoleum.

As well as the tablet shown in the present picture of the eastern gable, note the mortar shapes in the lower halves of the empty spaces to either side; I take these to be traces of other modifications that were made in the nineteenth century in order to make this ruin into a family mausoleum.

Long ago, this was the parish church of Cardross, with a cluster of buildings beside it (the clachan of Little Kirkton or Under Kirkton). A plaque is on the north side of the ruin: NS3975 : Plaque beside the ruins of St Serf's church.
Ruins of St Serf's Church

This was the ancient parish church for Cardross Parish. Its ruins are located in what is now Levengrove Park – Link – and some much later memorials for various members of the Dixon family (who were connected with Dumbarton's Glassworks) are now located within its walls. See Link (in a Geograph article) for further comments.

Levengrove Park :: NS3974

The lands of Levengrove were originally part of an area named Ferrylands, so called because, before Dumbarton Bridge was built in 1765, the River Leven was crossed by means of a ferry. John Dixon, a Dumbarton merchant, acquired Levengrove in 1805 from Richard Dennistoun of Kelvingrove (in Glasgow).

The Dixons built Levengrove House (demolished c.1880), whose former grounds make up much of what is now the park. In 1885, Levengrove Park, 32 acres in area, was gifted to the town of Dumbarton by Dr Peter Denny and John McMillan (son of local shipbuilder Archibald McMillan), the expense to them being £20,000.

The park contains the ruins of St Serf's Church – Link – anciently the parish church of Cardross. That church was at one time part of a cluster of buildings, a clachan, that is marked as "Little Kirktoun" on the Pont/Blaeu map of the Lennox. The ruined church was later used by the Dixon family as a burial place: see Link (in a Geograph article).


Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   © Copyright Lairich Rig and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
Geographical Context: Religious sites Derelict, Disused Ruin: Church Primary Subject: Ruin Image Buckets ?: Closeup other tags: Levengrove Park Memorial Tablet Click a tag, to view other nearby images.
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NS3975, 671 images   (more nearby 🔍)
Photographer
Lairich Rig   (more nearby)
Date Taken
Sunday, 27 August, 2017   (more nearby)
Submitted
Wednesday, 13 September, 2017
Subject Location
OSGB36: geotagged! NS 3935 7500 [10m precision]
WGS84: 55:56.4671N 4:34.4257W
Camera Location
OSGB36: geotagged! NS 3934 7500
View Direction
EAST (about 90 degrees)
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Image Type (about): close look 
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