page_title: Houston, Renfrewshire
section_title: Religion
hierarchical_section_title: Houston, Renfrewshire / Religion
caption_attribution_description: English: St Peter's Well, Houston - view from the east &amp; opening. A rare example of a covered holy well near the site of an old chapel.
context_page_description: Houston, is a village in the council area of Renfrewshire and the larger historic county of the same name in the west central Lowlands of Scotland.
  Houston lies within the Gryffe Valley on the banks of the River Gryffe 6 miles north-west of Paisley and is the largest settlement in the civil parish of Houston and Killellan, which covers the neighbouring village of Crosslee and a number of smaller settlements in the villages' rural hinterland.
  The village grew around a 16th-century castle and parish church dedicated to Saint Peter, which gave the area its former name of Kilpeter. The present day old village dates mainly back to the 18th century and was a planned community, replacing earlier buildings. Historically, the economy was based around agriculture and, in common with a number of other Renfrewshire villages, cotton weaving. The old village was designated as a conservation area in 1968.
  From the middle of the 20th century, a larger area of residential settlement expanded the village into nearby areas such as Craigends, removing the open country between Houston and Crosslee.
context_section_description: Houston's has a long association with St Peter, providing the village's historic name of Kilpeter. Its current parish church, Houston and Killellan Church or Kirk, lies in the grounds of Houston House. The Kirk was constructed in the 1870s, replacing a church on the same site constructed in 1775, and dedicated to Archibald Alexander Speirs of Elderslie. Following his death aged 28 while sitting as Member of Parliament for West Renfrewshire, his mother provided the building costs as a memorial.
  The current parish dates from 1771, when the parishes of Houston and Killellan were united. The former parish church in the nearby hamlet of Killellan was known as the Church of St Fillan, which the name of the settlement derives. The former church building was left redundant by the unification and was abandoned. The ruin, dated 1635 but believed to have originated in the 10th or 11th century, still stands some 4 miles (6 km) west of the centre of Houston on the Barochan Cross Road. This church is now held by the Kilallan Kirk Preservation Trust following its donation by Elderslie Estates in 2005 and is a scheduled historic monument. An annual evening service is held amongst the ruins in July by the congregation of the united parish. The church's manse, which is immediately adjacent to it, also finds continued use as a private residence and is thought to be the oldest existing dwellinghouse in Renfrewshire. St Fillan's Holy Well and St Fillan's Seat are located near to the old kirk.
  St Peter's Well stands in a field below Greenhill Farm on Chapel Road close to the site of a pre-Reformation chapel and is a rare example of a covered or house holy well, the waters of which were once thought to ensure the safe return of travellers such as pilgrims.
  The Houston and Kilellan church hall on Main Street was built immediately following the Disruption of 1843 as a separate congregation forming part of the Free Church of Scotland, and later the United Free Church of Scotland being known during this time as the West Kirk. Following the reunification of the United Free Church and the established Church of Scotland in 1929, the West Kirk existed as a second Church of Scotland congregation in the village until a fire destroyed much of the building in March 1941. The lack of a building caused the two congregations to again worship in the same parish church. The West Kirk building was fully restored by 1953, taking its place as the church hall it remains to this day.
  Houston and Kilellan Kirk is currently the second richest church in Scotland, after Paisley Cathedral.
  St. Fillan's Roman Catholic Church, also on Main Street, was established in 1841 on a property called "Four Windings" now remembered in the name of an adjacent street.
caption: St Peter's Well, a historic holy well beside the village.
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