Introduction How is Strathblane linked to Black slavery? More than we might think. First some context. Two key dates: 1807, the abolition of the transatlantic trade in enslaved people and 1833, the abolition of slavery itself throughout the British Empire. In the past...
Perfect Christmas Gifts For Sale We will have our heritage map tea towels and our greetings cards for sale at the Strathblane Primary School Christmas Fair on Friday 6th December from 6 - 8pm. Tea towels are only £8 each. A pack of 6 different cards is £6, or grab a...
The Campsie Fells (‘The crooked fairy hills’) lie just a few miles north of Glasgow. They’re the highest and most extensive group of hills that form a more or less continuous range between Dumbarton and Stirling. To the west of the Campsies are the Kilpatrick Hills,...
Only £8 Our new map teatowel was launched at the Heritage Meeting on Monday 16th September. You can buy one now from the Thomas Graham Community Library. Older Strathblane residents may remember (and indeed still consult) the handy teatowel produced by Strathblane...
Blanefield’s charming art gallery is housed in a smithy that is thought to be around 300 years old, though its exact age is unknown. It is certainly one of the very oldest surviving buildings in the parish of Strathblane. It appears on John Grassom’s map of the area...
BALLEWAN Painting of Ballewan House, often known as The Ha', by Connie Simmers BALZEOUN Ballewan is an estate in the Blane Valley that was carved out of the earldom of Lennox. For two centuries it belonged largely to the Craig family, culminating in Milliken Craig...
Stained Glass panel from Maryhill Burgh Halls showing bleachfield workers The abundance of water meant that bleaching and water-driven industries were commonplace in the parish in the 18th century and lasted well into the 19th century. By 1870 most of them had closed...
By Dr Murray Cook As every patriotic Scot knows, the Romans tried and failed to conquer Scotland…the only nation in Europe to resist the might of the Eagles. Unfortunately, this is not really true. The Romans didn’t really try. They just gave up: the cost of...
STRATHBLANE FIRST WORLD WAR PROJECT: 6 GEORGE DON, GUNNER ROYAL GARRISON ARTILLERY, AGED 35. 82 Howitzer , 39th Siege Battery RGA,(George Don) “It was George’s wretched luck that married men under 41 were conscripted into the British Army on May 25 1916, less than...
According to John Guthrie Smith’s history of Strathblane, “the compact little estate of Carbeth Guthrie” was constructed between 1808 and 1817 by West Indies merchant John Guthrie. Guthrie was a prominent member of Glasgow’s “Sugar Aristocracy”. He had managed an...
"Nothing is now left of Old Netherton save the smithy and the school-house, and its very name seems likely to perish, for the factory originally called Blane Printfield has expanded to such ample proportions, and covered its environs with so many workers' houses that...
RAILWAY MANIA By 8.30 on the morning of Monday 1 July 1867 an excited crowd had gathered in Blanefield near the bottom of the Cuilt Brae to greet the community’s first passenger train. Britain was in the grip of railway mania. The 1861 Blane Valley Railway Act...
The Printworks (from John Guthrie Smith 1886. Photograph by John Coubrough) Block printing is the printing of patterns on fabrics using a carved block, usually made from wood. It originated in India around the 5th century BC but did not arrive in Scotland until the...
Blane Valley from the Cuilt Brae Until the mid-20th century farming was very much an integral part of the life of the parish of Strathblane. The school log contains frequent references to children skipping school to help with the harvest. The Blanefield printworks...
Ballagan House by Frederick Alsop, 1884, from The Parish of Strathblane by John Guthrie Smith, 1886 Strathblane Valley has a long history and Ballagan has been part of it since early times. When a cairn on the estate was opened, a cist containing ashes and a piece of...
A delightful memoir of a small girl’s life in Strathblane in the 1940s & 50s
The Strathblane Notebooks Life in a Stirlingshire Village before the First World WarBy Alex Urquhart edited by Anne Balfour Quotation from the headstone of Alex Urquhart's parents in Strathblane Cemetery Alex Urquhart (1894-1978) Strathblane Heritage Society...
The main source of early historical information about the area is John Guthrie Smith's book "The Parish of Strathblane and its Inhabitants from Early Times". This weighty tome was published in 1886 and contains vast amounts of information and is available to refer to...
The poet Thomas Thorpe was born on 9 March, 1829 in Milton, Dunbartonshire, son of a block printer at the local works. When he was five, he moved with his family to Strathblane. One of his earliest childhood memories was being with his sisters in a wood where wild...
Ray's Gazetteer, published in 1803, describes the parish of Strathblane in pre-industrial times, stressing the beauty of the Blane Valley with its spectacular views towards the Trossachs. Several errors are worth noting: it is not bounded by the Grampians and the...