A WARTIME ledger has revealed the extent of bomb damage caused to properties owned by the Church of Scotland during the Second World War.

The Register of War Damaged Properties has recorded every incident that befell churches at the hands of the German air force, the Luftwaffe, in the 1940s.

It sets out the date, the extent of damage caused and the cost of temporary and permanent repairs carried out to around 800 properties in communities including Glasgow, Greenock and Clydebank.

The ledger has been preserved for decades in the basement of the Kirk’s offices in Edinburgh and it will soon be deposited in the National Archives of Scotland to enable historians to pour over it for the first time.

A total of 89 cities and towns were bombed across Scotland by the Luftwaffe during the war and official figures suggest that an estimated 2,298 people were killed, 2,167 seriously injured and 3,558 slightly injured.

Research carried out by Les Taylor, author of a book titled Luftwaffe Over Scotland who said the figures were likely incomplete, revealed that the vast majority of casualties occurred during a two-night raid on Clydebank in March 13 to14, 1941 – an incident that left 528 civilians dead and more than 617 severely injured.

The ledger, which is more than 70 years old, shows that many buildings in the Dumbarton Presbytery area were severely damaged during the Blitz.

Bearsden South Church near Glasgow, now known as Bearsden Cross Church, had to be rebuilt after it was hit by an incendiary bomb dropped by a German warplane returning from the bombing raid on Clydebank.

The ledger states: “Totally destroyed – only walls standing.”

Audrey Taylor said: “The air raid warning went off and my father was out on duty on the road with the other men because he was an Air Raid Precautions (ARP) warden.

“My mother, my grandmother, who was staying with us, and I were under the dining room table in case a bomb dropped on us.

“That’s what we did because the Anderson shelter in the garden was always water logged and full of frogs.

“When the siren went off my mother always made sure she had her engagement ring on and her fur coat just in case she needed to sell them to buy food.

“My father came back in and said there was a fire at Bearsden Cross because the sky was alight and it turned out the church had been hit by an incendiary bomb.”

The 81-year-old, who recalled going to school with a gas mask round her neck, said she had been told the church had been turned into a make-shift refugee centre for people affected by the Clydebank Blitz and was full of straw mattresses.

She added: “It was devastating for Bearsden because it is was the only building hit.

“But it brought the community together and people really rallied round and we just soldiered on."

Her husband Peter Taylor, 84, said; “I remember being terrified because I was outside in the garden that night looking up and could see planes flying overhead.

“The skies were very clear and I was worried the bombs would come right down on top of me.”

Rev Bill Hogg, convener of the Church of Scotland’s committee on church art and architecture and minister at Sanquhar and St Brides’s churches, said: “This ledger provides an insight into what church people faced during the Second World War and how they must have felt threatened in their ordinary life.

“Damaged churches must have been quite devastating for communities because they are regarded as places of stability and continuity.

“What this register represents is the attempt the Church was making to keep things going.”