A book by local historian Alison Dryden, who died in 2009. Published posthumously by Strathblane Heritage Society in November 2012. Paperback, 218 pages. (Available from Strathblane Heritage, £8.50)
From the mid 1800s, the rural parish of Strathblane was undergoing an industrial transformation. The burgeoning printworks and the printworkers’ houses dominated the landscape; the building of aqueducts for the Loch Katrine water supply brought many more workers into the village; and the arrival of the railway was proving a boon to the printworks and agricultural trade.
The hundred years that followed saw many changes – the extension of the railway, the closure of the printworks, the deadly realities of war, improvements in living conditions, the gradual demise of farming, and more leisure time to take part in social activities.
By the 1970s, evidence of the village’s industrial period had all but disappeared. New housing estates had expanded the village, and there was a brand new primary school and doctor’s surgery. The railway had closed, more people owned cars, and commuting from the village to work elsewhere had become the norm.
Today Strathblane, with its dramatic setting along the banks of the Blane Burn at the foot of the Campsie Hills, remains highly popular with walkers and other visitors and is a delightful place to live.
The village already boasts an account of its early days up to the mid 1880s, published by local worthy John Guthrie Smith in 1886. But in 1993, local residents interested in their more recent village heritage put out a call for historical material, and were overwhelmed with the response. With that, Strathblane Heritage Society was born. From the memories and records gathered under the Society’s auspices, the author, Alison Dryden has created a compelling social history of the village and its people