Netherton

Blanefield Smithy

Blanefield Smithy

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...

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Whisky

Whisky

A Distillation of Whisky-Making in the Blane Valley As long as there have been humans, there has been alcohol. Production of wine and beer has been dated back 7,000-odd years in Central Asia, according to archaeologists.  But the origins of whisky distilling, at...

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Ballewan

Ballewan

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...

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Shops

Shops

Local Shops Over the years a surprising number of people have run shops in the community. Some have lasted longer than others, but all have been memorable in their own way. The fortunes of retailers have waxed and waned with the general fortunes of the community....

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School (1716 – 1966)

School (1716 – 1966)

Though the first Strathblane parish schoolmaster was appointed in 1716, it was many years before the school was housed in a permanent schoolhouse. This was finally built in 1781 at Thorn of Cuilt, at Netherton, which is the area now known as Blanefield.  This...

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Missing Men – William Rankin McLintock

Missing Men – William Rankin McLintock

William Rankin McLintock, Private Royal Canadian Dragoons, aged 30. William McLintock’s Gravestone A brief bleak item appeared in the Milngavie & Bearsden Herald in July 1917. Under the headline “Strathblane Soldier Killed”, it noted: “The past week has been a sad...

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Missing Men – James McKenzie

Missing Men – James McKenzie

James McKenzie, Private Royal Lancashire Fusiliers, aged 19. James McKenzie’s family was long established in Strathblane. His father, also James, worked at the waterworks and lived at Dumbrock. His mother Margaret Kennedy, though born in Busby came from an Irish...

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Missing Men – Alexander Buchanan Gilchrist

Missing Men – Alexander Buchanan Gilchrist

Gravestone at Bramshott (St Mary) Churchyard , East Hampshire. Alexander Buchanan Gilchrist, Sergeant/CSM Reserve Canadian Infantry, aged 30. On June 6 1906 Passenger Number 192 boarded the Allan Line’s SS Carthaginian in Glasgow bound for Montreal with the dream of...

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Missing Men – John Colquhoun

Missing Men – John Colquhoun

John Colquhoun’s Gravestone John Colquhoun, Private Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, aged 19 On April 14 1917 the Stirling Observer reported the “death of a Strathblane man”, aged 19. In fact, John Colquhoun had never resided in Strathblane but was one of many...

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STRATHBLANE WW1 PROJECT: 26 PHILIP BINNIE

STRATHBLANE WW1 PROJECT: 26 PHILIP BINNIE

STRATHBLANE WW1 PROJECT: 26 PHILIP BINNIE, SECOND LIEUTENANT SCOTTISH RIFLES, AGED 27. Park Terrace, Strathblane, where the Binnie family had their second home.It was demolished to make way for local authority housing in Park Place. “He spent a short holiday in the...

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STRATHBLANE WW1 PROJECT: 9 ALEXANDER LOWE

STRATHBLANE WW1 PROJECT: 9 ALEXANDER LOWE

STRATHBLANE WORLD WAR 1 PROJECT: 9 ALEXANDER LOWE, SAPPER ROYAL ENGINEERS, AGED 25 Alex Lowe's grave Steam train on the Somme 1918 with men ofthe Railway Operating Division Effie Lowe (MOBE) in her QMAAC uniform The lodge at Parklea (now Blanefield House) where Alex...

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STRATHBLANE WW1 PROJECT: 5 WILLIAM DEVLYN

STRATHBLANE WW1 PROJECT: 5 WILLIAM DEVLYN

STRATHBLANE FIRST WORLD WAR PROJECT: 5 WILLIAM DEVLYN, PRIVATE HIGHLAND LIGHT INFANTRY, AGED 22. Private William Devlyn, Highland Light Infantry, aged 22 Burnside, Station Road, Blanefield, home of William's mother, Jessie The Mons Star Diary extract from William...

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Edenkill/Edenkiln

Edenkill/Edenkiln

View from Old Mugdock Road, where a lone cyclist contemplates the grandeur of the Campsies. Edenkill (now Edenkiln) occupied the heart of the community we now call Strathblane and was one of the three villages that comprised the parish, along with Netherton...

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Netherton/Blanefield

Netherton/Blanefield

"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...

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World War Two

World War Two

6. Netherton cottages including Sunnyside 9. The "Noo Hooses" today The white building in the foreground is Sunnyside which was demolished by a landmine in March 1941 killing four people. During the Second World War Strathblane, in common with many other villages, was...

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Water

Water

Local Workmen with the Water BoardLeft to right : Tom McCulloch, Jimmy Baxter, Tommy Miller, David Getty , John Harkins The Glasgow Water Supply The Blane Valley is the final stage of what justifiably can be called one of the greatest civil engineering achievements of...

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Blanefield Printworks

Blanefield Printworks

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...

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Parish Church (1216-1982)

Parish Church (1216-1982)

“The church is a beautiful building of modern Gothic, reared in 1803.” Rev Hamilton Buchanan, Second Statistical Account of the Parish of Strathblane, 1841. Strathblane Church, 1897 (Photograph courtesy of Angus Graham) Early History The parish of Strathblane is more...

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Free Church

Free Church

John Guthrie Smith records that the neat little church and manse belonging to the Free Church stands on the site of the old village of Netherton and the first ordained minister was the Rev George Rennie. Early records indicate that by 1864 there was a sufficient...

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The Campsies and the Land of Lennox by Iain C Lees (1933)

The Campsies and the Land of Lennox by Iain C Lees (1933)

Extracts from The Campsies and the Land of Lennox by Iain C Lees, describing walks around Strathblane. (Blackie & Sons, Glasgow, 1933) Secrets of the Campsie Fells The rich valley of the Blane, which can be traced to its junction with Strathendrick, is the finest...

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Missing Men

Missing Men

For various reasons, a number of men from the parish fell in the First World War yet are not commemorated on the War Memorial. These men are also therefore only briefly mentioned in "A Village Remembers", a book about the men commemorated on Strathblane War Memorial...

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A Village Remembers: Strathblane First World War Project

A Village Remembers: Strathblane First World War Project

Families of some of the men on the memorial A Village Remembers (pdf)Download Contents Foreword by the Wright family Introduction by Anne Balfour (nee Johnstone) Jack Barr, inventor’s son Robert Blair, gardener James Cartwright, joiner William Cartwright, storeman...

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Revisiting Strathblane (1881) by William T McAuslane

Revisiting Strathblane (1881) by William T McAuslane

This poem was first printed in the Lennox Herald on 10 September 1881 and was “inscribed to AP Coubrough Esq, Blanefield Printworks”. McAuslane was clearly a friend of the Coubroughs, who owned the Printworks. It may be intended to voice the thoughts of Anthony Park...

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The Poems of Thomas Thorpe

The Poems of Thomas Thorpe

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...

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