Rather than embark on a
campaign of renovation and refurbishment tastefully combined with new building
in the 1950's and 60's, a concept which did not arrive until later in the
century, the Council instead decided to demolish entire,
unique communities of weavers cottages and build anonymous, bland council
housing. The emphasis throughout the country at that time was on the
provision of decent housing at reasonable cost. Unfortunately this policy resulted in the loss of picturesque,
architecturally unique areas of Tillicoultry, such as the Shillinghill area of north west Tillicoultry (Westertoun)
pictured above.
Murray Square with the Rose
and Rock Gardens and the Thomas Murray Howff for Aged Men opened in November
1936, pictured in the 1950's.
The Bus Station (Murray Square)
in the background, opened in 1930, was one of the first to be provided in
Scotland. At that time 334 buses on weekdays and 427 buses on Saturdays used Tillicoultry as a stopping point or terminus.
Having not learned anything from the folly of a previous council in Shillinghill (mentioned
above), the council have recently demolished the Thomas Murray Hauf and
bulldozed the Rose and Rock Gardens because of vandalism (strangely enough
the local Police Station is not even one hundred yards away) and a general
lack of maintenance to which the council would not commit itself.
Thus
another two unique and visually pleasing features of Tillicoultry's heritage
have succumbed to the arrogance of ignorance and vanished.
The corner of the
Rose and Rock Gardens is visible in the foreground of this picture taken
from Moss Road in the 1960's. The house to the left of the clock has had a
loft conversion and now has two dormer windows since the previous picture of
Murray Square was taken. The clock, pictured in prime condition, survives to
this day as one of the remaining distinctive landmarks in the town. It was
presented to the Council in May 1931 by Thomas Murray, Provost from 1928 to
1930 and from 1936 to 1941.
