Laid out below is an extract from the Third Statistical Account of Scotland. This excerpt, written in 1961, was published in 1966 for volume 18 of the accounts, this volume entitled "County of Stirling and County of Clackmannan". Alloa, located within the County of Clackmannan, comes under the editorship of The Rev. T. Crouther Gordon, with overall organisation being carried out via Glasgow University.
The Third Statistical Account of Scotland – Volume 18, (1966)
Chapter 13
ALLOA BURGH
(County of Clackmannan.)
by the REV. DR. T.CROUTHER GORDON.
The town of Alloa with a population of more than 13,000 people is by far the largest single community, and, situated on the river Forth, is the only seaport in the county. Although the administrative centre of the area, it is not the county town, since it has assumed importance only during the nineteenth century and was indeed in 1697, when Slezer made his sketch, little more than a village under the shadow of Alloa Tower.
It is bounded on the east by Clackmannan and on the west by Tullibody and gained significance because it offered the most suitable bridgehead from the Inch of Alloa and the south side of the river, offering access to the county generally, and because it was a convenient cross-roads for the lines of communication within the area. To the present time the roads and the railways intersect at this point. If Severus with his Roman legion in 209 A.D. found it a strategic site, others to the present generation confirm the fact. The most acceptable derivation of the name "Alloa" is from the Celtic ath-luath meaning ‘a swift ford,’ an onomatopoetic word appropriate to the Forth at this point. Although the modern spelling does not go back beyond 1675, the name is mentioned in the royal charter of 1398 (Reg. Great Seal, 1.641), giving Alloa to Sir Thomas Erskine. Flanked by carse land to the east and to the west, the town itself, rising gently to the north-west, covers an area of 1,074 acres and is situated in latitude 56° 7’N and longitude 3° 46’W.
The town itself presents the impression of vigorous life and activity and indeed there is plenty of money and there are plenty of people about. The shopping centre is very busy and within easy reach of the homes of the people and the industrial concerns. At certain points the streets are narrow and re-development is urgently required. The business premises are for the most part short-frontage buildings, with a dwelling or a store above, typical of country town building of a hundred years ago, and only a very few structures could be called architecture at all. The Town Hall, St. Mungo’s Parish Church and the County Library, once the Museum, have real character, but the average erection is tiny and undistinguished, too old to be attractive but not old enough to be of antiquarian interest. This is the aftermath of the industrial development of the last hundred years, with its almost criminal lack of planning.
Alloa has been noticeably prosperous for many decades, although individual businesses and industries have risen and fallen in the meanwhile, because the spread of trades and crafts has been so wide and varied. Fashion, for instance, might end the shawl and tartan trade, but textile firms like Patons went ahead and developed into world-wide markets and more than absorbed any surplus labour. A parallel movement was the creation of limited liability companies out of the small family mills and factories. This has involved linkages with concerns that operated south of the Border so that a steady stream of operatives and executives has come north to an environment alien to their own and few have been integrated into the life of the community. The economy of the town is based on four specific industries, wool, liquor, engineering and glass-making.
The woollen trade, no doubt, originated in the sheep that grazed on the Ochils and certain it is that for more than two hundred years it has been the backbone of the commercial prosperity of Alloa. When the fishing and other interests failed, as a result of the Union of 1707, several adventurers developed the processing of wool, but these have all vanished except the firm of Patons & Baldwins. From a very humble start in 1814 John Paton built up his reputation and a business which by 1872 employed 450 workers; by 1951 the employees had risen to 2,055 and in 1961 totalled 1,730. It is of Interest to note that 450 of this last total travel from outwith the county, and that 1,175 are women on full-time and 130 are women on part-time evening shifts. The average male wage is £13 5s. a Week and the female wage is £6 11s. 3,500,000 lb. of wool are produced and 8,000,000 lb. of yarn are finished each year. The size of the Alloa mill may be gauged by stating that there are 29,000 spinning spindles, using 13,2300 units of electricity a week, a coal consumption of 15,000 tons a year and a floor area of 865,000 square feet. The finished yarn goes to the whole world and the brand of wool is famous on every continent. None of the original Paton family are on the directorate and a significant change in recent years was the transfer of the head offices of the firm to the new factory at Darlington in Yorkshire. While a costly new dye-house has been installed at Alloa there is an unexpressed dread that gradually the activities of the firm will become centred in England rather than in Scotland.
In 1925 a fine Sports Pavilion was built at the west end of the town where activities of a social and recreational type are vigorously carried on. Until the last decade the outstanding feature of this business has been the living and intimate contact between director and worker and the splendid record of public service given by the directors and owners to high causes in the community and beyond. Within the last year, however, an amalgamation of Patons & Baldwins with J. & P. Coats of Paisley, with a stock value of more than £45 millions, has been announced and this spells the end of an era when owner and worker knew each other by their Christian names.
Knitwear.
A closely related industry is that of knitwear and Alloa now possesses one of the most attractive and modern factories in the whole country for the production of the world famous Donbros garments, which are sent around the globe. Fortunately this large concern, with a capital of more than £1 million, is still guided by the Donaldson family, for the present Chairman is the great-grandson of the handloom weaver who, in 1862 started in Alva the business of producing tartan cloths, head shawls and rugs in the colouring and design of the clans. His staff of twelve weavers, after making the shawls and rugs, carried them over the Ochils to Blackford, where they were washed and finished. By 1888 the handlooms were moved to larger and more convenient premises at Hallpark in Sauchie and within two years a steam engine was installed to provide motive power for the increasing number of looms. Jacquard looms were brought over to Scotland for the manufacture of honeycomb shawls, but soon it was decided to change over from weaving to knitting and for this the Raschel machine was introduced with very satisfactory results. Fifty machines were thus ready to take advantage of the boom in knitted jumpers and cardigans which followed the end of the first world war. By means of circular and other machines a whole new range of styles was offered to the British buyer. The twenty inter-war years showed expansion, but all fashion business was stopped by the second world war. Since 1946 the development of the concern has been almost spectacular. Amalgamation was effected with the Kidmar Hosiery Company of Glasgow. A large overseas trade was opened with the United States, Canada, West Indies, Africa and the Far East. A special aeroplane and pilot were used to make contacts and to save time for the executives. A spinning mill in Yorkshire was purchased to make the group self-sufficient. In 1956 an attractive new factory was built at Lornshill, at the western extremity of Alloa, with a floor space of 80,000 square feet, which in three years has been increased to 160,000 square feet to meet fresh demands for orders. In this new factory alone 750 skilled workers operate the most complicated machinery and receive attractive wage returns. A further 500 operatives are employed by the firm. To meet the changing market, new man-made fibres are being brought into use, although wool remains the basic material. There are now 16 subsidiary concerns, scattered across the world. Even greater trade might be done but for the U.S.A. quota system of imports.
Electrical Engineering.
In the south-west part of the town a quite new industry was started in 1903 by the British Electric Plant Co., manufacturing electric motors in a difficult and highly competitive market, but it was re-formed as the Harland Engineering Co., under the dynamic leadership of Mr. F. C. Anderson and Mr. C. A. Atchley, who so developed its inventions and activities that by 1919 interlock and electric centrifugal pumps made in Alloa were helping industry at home, as, for instance, in saving water-logged Scottish pits, and also as far afield as Canada. Further research and improvements opened fresh markets in South Africa and India, in Russia and in Holland. Alloa products have also been found useful for the Hydro-electric schemes. The works have expanded to an area of 8 1/2 acres and manufacture complete ranges of centrifugal pumps, electric motors, generators, alternators, water turbines, rotovalves and spray nozzles. Oil refineries, Water-works, and paper mills all are indebted to the Alloa factory for indispensable machinery, and even the making of linoleum is benefiting. Harland plant is found in mines of all kinds throughout the world, while cane and beet sugar industries have increased efficiency by the same means. It should be stated, also, that during the second world war the company executed large orders for the War Department in the shape of aeroplane parts and instruments, and made a creditable contribution to the effort to win the war. The progress of the business in 50 years is worth recording, for starting with £35,500 it has buildings, plant and machinery to-day worth more than £704,000, and while the first year's wages and salaries amounted to only £12,000, in 1952 the sum was as high as £469,000. Thye total assets of the firm in 1959 were £3,156,000. There are now 1,100 employees, the vast majority of whom are men. Nearly all the workers are recruited locally, but a considerable proportion of the executives are drawn from England and these seem to find it difficult to integrate into Scottish life and customs and habits. It is considered an excellent firm in which to be trained, but the most ambitious seek and get good appointments outside of the firm. At the same time, the worker forgets that Harlands operate in a highly competitive market, that dividends to shareholders amount only to 4 3/4d. out of every pound, and that if prices were not cut down to the keenest, there would be little Work in the Alloa factory for them. In a survey of their first half-century the directors declare, 'The assets we most cherish are the livelihood of our employees, our good name which is wrapped up with our standards of service to our customers and, by a just return for the use of their capital, the goodwill of our many shareholders.'
Alloa Ale has been famous for generations, and no account could be complete without reference to this industry. It appears as early as 9 March 1645 in the kirk session records of Alloa, but it was from the middle of the eighteenth century that the product became well known, owing firstly to the artesian well in the town and also to the quality of the malt available in the district. The original George Younger started off as a brewer in 1762 at the Meadow and the business later acquired the Candleriggs vats in 1852 and the Grange brewery in 1919. In 1903 the firm marketed a sediment-free, bottled beer, which, becoming popular, necessitated a bottling factory at Kelliebank and later led to the Scottish Central Glass Works to make the bottles. Fluctuations in trade, resulting at the one time from the rubber boom of 1911 and at another from the first world war, have disorganised the export market, but Production has increased, so that now more than 600 men and 120 women are engaged in producing some 72 million gallons of beer annually in the whole Alloa area, while one firm aloe paid no less than £1.3 million in duty in 1949. But again the same story must be told of amalgamations, for Youngers has recently been incorporated into Northern, now Caledonian, Breweries, and other firms in Alloa like Calder's are caught up into the Ind Coope group of brewers, with large English connections. Thus the direct personal links are vanishing.*
*The activities of the Alloa Brewery of Messrs. Younger's have ceased as from January 1964.
Glass-making.
This is an old and well-established industry and goes back to the period when a brisk commercial contact existed between Alloa and Denmark. About 1750 certain Danish workmen set up a glass-work near the quayside of the Forth, and backed by the eager and public-spirited Lady Frances Erskine, who brought glass-workers from Bohemia via the Baltic, and with salt from Kennetpans, sand and kelp from the Forth and coal from the Mar collieries, the raw material was ready for the production of bottle glass, a commodity in demand by the Leith wine importers. The eighteenth century wars made the trade uncertain and by 1767 the Mar interest was sold out to thers, who in turn sold out to Archibald Geddes and Thomas Elder in 1788. Meanwhile the works expanded from one and a half acres till by 1841 they covered six acres. With a capital of £60,000 the new company launched out into the making of table glass and introduced decorations into bottles and flasks, and this despite the crippling Excise duties on glass from 1745 till 1845. Crown glass was yet another branch of manufacture at the works, but this ceased in 1839, although no less than 200 men had been employed on it. The Seton-Stuarts ran the works until 1872 and developed the trade, especially in wine and claret bottles for the new crop of merchant princes of Victorian times, but it was when the Mitchells in 1873 took over that the greatest development took place. In 1878 the bottle blower earned 27s. for a 52 1/2 hour week and a ‘gatherer’ only 21s. Mechanisation started with the Owens automatic machine in 1907, and this has continued with increasing rapidity until the present. The first World war saw an enormous increase in output, for the import of bottles from the Continent ceased and the Alloa Works in 1915 were producing 8,400,000 bottles per annum. The slump after the war brought difficulties, but these were surmounted, and with the increase in the consumption of soft drinks and the use of bottles for milk for cleanliness, output soared. By 1949, 180 million bottles of all kinds were being manufactured, some 18 per cent for countries abroad, the types ranging from milk, beer, coffee essence, medicine and sauce bottles to preserve jars and whisky quarts. The hegemony of the Mitchells passed and by 1936 the direction of the works was in the hands of new executives who took full advantage of the prosperity offered by the second world war. Continental imports being again stopped, sales were advancing by more than 10 per cent each year. In one year, 1946, new machines from America and other improvements cost the company £183,000. Little wonder that the capital had to be increased in 1947 to £241,500. Glass-making is now a highly scientific process and the works are equipped with an elaborate laboratory and several scientists. In addition there is a fully-developed welfare staff, who aim at good relations between management and workers. for the making of clear glass, silver sand is brought from Belgium, Holland or Northern Ireland, nitre from Chile, calcined alumina from Fifeshire, selenium from Canada, cobalt oxide from the United States and arsenic trioxide from Sweden.
It is worth noting that from 1945 to 1951 the men engaged on production increased by only 16 per cent but the output actually trebled, which is a great tribute to the efficiency of mass production. But the Alloa Glass Works is no longer a local concern, a proof of native drive, vision and vigour. It has been sold out to United Glass of Great Britain, another indication that big business is getting bigger, the owner is farther and farther removed from the worker and the human element is being lost.
The Eglinton Glass Works were started in 1908 in order to supply Younger & Son with bottles for beer, because German competitors had ousted British manufacturers from the market and then raised their own prices prohibitively. The enterprise was so successful that two other brewers, Tennents and William Younger, co-operated with the Alloa firm under the name of Scottish Central Glass Works Ltd. This company, employing about 200 men and some women, confines its product to the needs of the brewing industry.
Besides these glass-making factories there is also a work for bottling beer, which employs 54 men and 15 women. Nor should it be forgotten that ancillary to this industry is a copper work, established for over a century and now owned by the Distillers Company, and box factories for the despatch of bottles of all kinds.
Shipping.
The picture presented in the New Statistical Account of shipping at the port of Alloa is one of great prosperity. The railway system had not reached the county and the roads were still unsuited for long-distance traffic, so that coasting-trade was flourishing. The registered tonnage at the port amounted to 9,662 and consisted of ships 'of a very superior class,' one such ship, the Isabella of 423 tons, having brought the first cargo of tea out of China to Leith. In 1838 no fewer than 1,250 were cleared of the port, taking 80,000 tons of coal. About 1857 the Leith trade declined, owing to prohibitive levies and a bonded warehouse was established at Alloa. Thus for a decade or so the port touched its most prosperous level, but the coming of the railway system, the rivalry of Dutch traders, the opening up of the coalfields of Fife and the development of Burntisland and Granton all had an adverse effect on shipping in the port. To meet this an Act was passed, Which allowed £35,900 to be spent on modernising and equipping the harbour, followed in six years by another £15,000. Even so, traders found it more convenient to use the free port of South Alloa for quick access to Glasgow. By 1890 it is recorded that 732 vessels arrived from foreign ports, and 1,048 sailed thence, while 425 vessels arrived from coastwise ports and 306 departed thence. In 1892 the Trustees of the Harbour sold out to the North British Railway Company, which explains why it belongs to-day to the British Transport Commission. The building of larger ships, which encountered difficulties on the shoals and mudbanks of the river, together with the lack of adequate loading facilities, drove shipping to larger docks, but a steady trade was sustained until l9l5, when the river, for security reasons, was closed to shipping. In 1935 there were signs of a revival of business but the second world war brought collapse. In 1951 no more than 25 ships entered the dock, bringing silver sand for glass-making and fertilisers. Some coasters brought cement. No coal was exported at all. Esparto grass, silver sand and other raw materials required by the industries in the county now come to the modern docks at Grangemouth. It has been decided by the parties concerned that dock should be closed and the formality of a Parliamentary Bill will this year complete the process. Opened as a dock in 1863, and harbourms during the century ships from the Baltic, Odessa, Black Sea ports, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, Finland, Germany, Greece, France and America, its day is over, a fascinating chapter of history is closed and the Customs House at Alloa has now shut its doors.
Ship Building and Repairing.
Fundamental to the shipping of the port has been the building of vessels for coastwise and foreign trade, and this industry has continued for many centuries at Alloa. These ships varied in size from 300 to 400 tons and one of 450 tons was launched in 1840 for the East India trade. With the arrival of the steel ships and the use of steam for power, a new technique was needed and the fortunes of the industry varied considerably. It is, however, worth recording that in 1919 the Forth Shipbuilding and Engineering Company made history on the river by constructing a vessel, the Tours of 7,000 tons, the largest to have been built on the Forth up to that time. She was launched by the late Hon. Victoria Bruce of Kennet House, Clackmannan, on 28 February 1920. It is significant that the ship was engined not at Alloa, but at Newcastle-on-Tyne. In recent years the repairing of small ships has been the principal occupation of the yard. David Allan in his sketch of the Dry Dock, dated 1791, shows a fine ship The L. Marr in dry dock for repair, and this essential work still continues. Especially during the two wars excellent work was done in maintaining minesweepers, trawlers and all kinds of small craft. Even to-day the dredging plant of British Railways is maintained in the yard. Repair and renewal of Diesel engines has been a speciality, and protecting ships against magnetic and acoustic mines in war time. It was reported in January 1961 that the last of two tugs, the Elsandra of 82 tons, has been sold for breaking-up, which leaves now only the Fresco, still a seaworthy ship, of all the towage vessels once plying from the port of Alloa. The S.S. Juno, well known at the Clyde resorts, was finally, along with other ships, broken up at the Alloa yard. As a result of lack of work on ships, the workers are now engaged on engineering and boiler-making repairs in nearby factories and mills, and the yard's 80 craftsmen carry out heavy and light electric welding.
There are two box factories in the town, which are now ancillary to the brewing and distilling industries, but these are not large employers of labour. George Sellar & Son moved their agricultural engineering works from Huntly during the First World War to Alloa, requiring a special train for the operation, since when they have continued to produce tractor ploughs, broadcast machines, harrows, turnip sowers and other equipment. More than 100 workers are engaged on these and other machines for use in all parts of the world, and particularly in India, Egypt and Eire. In the Forthbank area during the First World War an aerodrome and factory were established to assemble Caudron aeroplanes for service and to train pilots and crews. Sir Alan Cobham used this small aerodrome in 1933 to give pleasure flights, during his tour to popularise flying. During the Second World War the Motherwell Engineering Company used the harbour basin at Forthbank to assemble a large number of landing craft, for use in all parts of the world for operations and particularly for D-Day in Normandy. There is, also, a foundry at Sunnyside, which makes general castings, especially chairs for the railway-lines, Which are in demand both at home and abroad. The 94 workers are kept well-employed, The copper works of Messrs. Abercrombie in Broad Street, a firm of long and high standing in copper craftsmanship, has now been taken over by the Distillers Company. The Earl of Mar and Kellie is by charter obliged to maintain a mill in Alloa, and this is operated under a lease of 999 years by Gray & Harrower, who have have up-to-date Swedish grain cleaners and supply various kinds of cattle and pig feeding. Liquaphalt, a high quality surface dressing which is used in the making of roads, is now made in a factory at Forthbank; the making of cement roofing tiles also employs about 50 men; and a saw mill has been producing 2,000 tons of props a year for the pits and mines of the National Coal Board. To illustrate the variety of industry, it may be noted that a clothing factory, evacuated during the second world war from London, has taken over the offices of the now defunct shipyard and, employing some 35 women, produces ladies’ suits for the home market. These “ Tailor Maids ” are all despatched to London, but many find their way back to the Alloa shops under the stamp of G.D. & M., Goldsmith, Dicker and McAdie. A new industry came to Alloa in 1946 when the Sunray factory was established in the premises of the Harland Engineering Company, producing the EZEE kitchens. This plant makes 40 different types of kitchen units of stainless steel, the minimum unit being a sink, a refrigerator and a cooker. The Council Of Industrial Design have awarded the product the Council’s diploma. Some 60 workers are engaged on this project.
The shops of the town present a curious contrast in appearance and in content. Although there are some 170 businesses in the shopping area, only about 30 have modern, up-to-date frontages and by far the largest number are small and even tiny premises, unchanged since they were built eighty to a hundred years ago. A number of the national, multiple firms have branches in the principal streets, but both these and the local family businesses have been overshadowed by the outstanding success of the Co-operative movement. After two unsuccessful tries a society was formed in 1861 on the Rochdale model by eleven members, who subscribed five shillings each, a total capita of 55s. This shop was open in the evenings from 7 till 9, when the members themselves served behind the counter. Now followed the familiar pattern of development, a move from one shop to a larger and so on until to-day, with attractive premises in the main thoroughfares of the town, the Alloa Co-operative Society tops a turnover of £1 1/2 million per annum. With thirty trading points in the burgh this concern is by far the largest in the community. The distributive trades have been moving steadily towards better conditions and a shorter working day. There appears to be plenty of money in circulation to keep these many businesses prosperous and while some have changed ownership in the last quarter of a century, very few indeed have passed out of existence through bankruptcy.
Some formerly prosperous industries, however, are no longer active in the burgh. A pottery, which started in the middle of the eighteenth century, flourished in the middle of the ninetenth, producing glazed and finished jugs and bowls and marketing no less than 26,000 Rockingham teapots a week. Jet ware was also produced, of such excellent quality as to win awards at the exhibitions at Paris and Philadelphia. The firm secured craftsmen from Germany about 1870 to develop the engraving of crystal, which became highly popular, but by 1908 rail charges and foreign competition compelled the works to close down and move south to be nearer the main markets.
A larger concern was that of Charles Buick & Son, which, coming from Oakley in the 1860's as a brick work, developed into the manufacture of all kinds of pottery from field drains to flower pots and ornamental vases, chimney pots and many other products. Gradually, the firm moved into the new field of glazed toilet equipment and exported its wares to Australia and New Zealand, besides equipping the steamship lines with bathroom articles, as in the case of the S.S. Medina which took King George V to the Indian Durbar of 1911. Some 120 worker were employed, many to the third and fourth generation, so intimate and happy were the relations between master and man. Rather than see the character of the business altered by a take-over, and for other sufficient reasons, Mr. Buick has brought the concern to an end, not without generous provision for those who have served the business through the years, and the premises have been disposed of to the Carsebridge Distillery.
Another departed activity is the steamer service on the river. Groups of local men ran regular services on the river between Stirling and Leith before and after 1874. Cheap excursions were organised to link with coaching facilities to Culross, Dollar and Alva. Food and refreshments were provided, the stewards paying as much as £100 for their office. Right up to 1910 ships like the Princess of Wales and the Victoria were highly popular, and if the bridge at Alloa occasioned irritating delays, some ships with telescoping funnels and masts overcame this disadvantage. The rivalry of the railways, and of road travel, made the steamer traffic uneconomic and it dwindled to extinction, although as late as 1935 an occasional pleasure cruise on the Forth could still be seen of an evening.
It is of interest to record that as far back as 1768 the enterprising F. Guild started a printing office in Alloa, and this was succeeded by another in 1813, which in 1841 began the publication of the Alloa Advertiser, a monthly issue that later in 1855 became a weekly one. It also produced each year the Annual Register. This has now developed into the present printing business in Mar Street. The Clackmannanshire Advertiser, begun in 1844 and espousing the Tory cause in politics, continues still as the Alloa Journal and like its rival appears on Fridays. The Alloa Circular and Hillfoots record, acquired by the Alloa Advertiser some years ago, appears on Wednesdays. These papers have now no decided political tinge, and indeed are merged into the same ownership.
Since the New Statistical Account was written the roads of the town have improved out of all recognition, although some are as narrow and tortuous as ever. Unpaved, dusty in summer and muddy in winter, dumps for manure and garbage of all kinds, the streets were gradually improved from 1850 onwards by a scheme of stone causeways affording better run-channels and easier drainage. By 1895 pavements of the granolithic type were being laid. Toll bars were abolished in May 1880, although, curiously enough, the Hilton Road is still called locally 'The Tolls.' To-day all the thoroughfares are macadamised, the streets are well lighted with bright sodium and other electric standards, and dust-waggons of the latest type clear the dustbins regularly once or twice a week. A new trunk road is planned to by-pass the bottleneck of Drysdale Street, but certain properties have still to be acquired before the scheme can go ahead.
Great changes have taken place in the health of the citizen since the cholera epidemic of 1848 and the typhus menace of 1856, when a soup kitchen was opened and the regular scavenging of the streets was instituted. Thus began the idea of a hospital, which materialised in 1868 at Sunnyside Brae, where the Earl of Kellie donated the site and a gift of £300 for the erection of two fever wards and two general wards with 24 beds in all. The return of cholera in 1871 led on to the appointment of a Medical Officer of Health in 1891, who pressed for a joint isolation hospital, which was opened in 1895. Since then further wards have been added. Parallel with this movement was the urge towards a general accidents hospital and this was finally given by Miss C. Forrester Paton in 1899, Lord Mar providing the site at Sunnyside. It has now been improved and extended under the Hospitals Board and a new out-patients clinic established, with a resident surgeon and full staff of nurses. The late Countess of Mar and Kellie started a maternity and child welfare scheme in 19l7 on a voluntary basis, to which has been added a day nursery. The 26 voluntary health visitors of 1918 are now replaced by trained Queen's Nurses and health visitors of the National Health Service. The largest number of births take place at either Airthrey Castle or Stirling Royal Infirmary, although nurses are now equipped with analgesia appuratus for home confinements, which amount to 36 per cent of total births. Despite all these safeguards the mortality rate among births is high.
Communications.
Alloa was linked by railway to Dunfermline in August 1850 to the accompaniment of large crowds and great excitement at 6 o'clock in the morning, and this line was incorporated into the North British Railway in 1862. Branches were run to Tillicoultry in 1851, as also to Alloa Harbour. But the greatest achievement was the building of the railway bridge over the Forth in 1882, the foundation Stone being laid by Lord Balfour of Burleigh and the work being completed in 1884 at a cost of £55,000. A new marshalling yard at Longcarse to cope with mining developments in the county is now in full working order. Inside the town, and besides the through routes of buses run by Messrs. W. Alexander & Son, there is a bus service which runs constantly from Beechwood in Sauchie to the centre of the town.
In 1860 the Magnetic and Telegraph Company extended their lines to include Alloa and by 1895 there were two systems of telephones in operation, the Postal Authority operating the trunk calls and the National Telephone Company the local ones. By 1912, however, these were united to become part of the national system. It is hoped within a year to introduce the automatic dialling system into the Alloa area. Advance in the postal service can be gauged by the fact that in 1850 this was carried on in the side room of a stationer’s shop in Mill Street with only one postman; in 1868 a larger place was secured in High Street and finally a new building was erected specifically for the purpose near Stripehead. But plans are afoot for a newer and larger building, as soon as a site can be found, which will not be easy.
Population.
When the New Statistical Account was compiled the population of Alloa stood at 5,434, the females exceeding the males by no more than 152. In 1951, 110 years later, the males numbered 6,487 and the females 6,949, making a total of 13,436. The 1961 census shows that it has risen to 13,895 of both sexes. During times of insecure employment and industrial recession as around 1860 and 1910 the population actually decreased, for many left the town for fuller employment in the Clyde area and many others sought their fortunes in America and the colonies. The predominance of women over men is accounted for by the fact that there has always been ample work for women, while the younger and more ambitious men sought promotion elsewhere. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that many of the promising men in the light industries in the town live in the more residential areas like Dollar, Bridge of Allan and even Stirling and travel quickly to business each day. It should also be remembered that in the first war 380 men and one nursing sister were killed and in the second world war 123 men, one nursing sister and one civilian were lost. The decennial census figures show that the population of the town has steadily grown and at present has reached its highest point. This does not mean that it has in composition been more or less static, because many of the industrial concerns have drafted staff from points in England to Alloa, some of the Alloa firms, like the woollen mills, have drafted their key men to Halifax and Darlington, and always there has been a steady exchange of persons through emigration and immigration.
Housing.
The housing position has improved greatly in the last 15 years. There are 4,923 houses in the burgh, of which 2,655 are owned by the local authority and 2,268 are owned privately. Most of the latter class of house were built of stone in the second half of the last century, and are without bathrooms; in many cases two or more families share the same toilets, which may indeed be outside the main building. These tenement properties have steadily deteriorated in recent years, through the operation of the rent restriction act, which has made them uneconomic to own, and also the rising cost of repairs. There are 709 four or five apartment houses of the cottage type or the bungalow type in the western and upper part of the town. The post war buildings are of brick and roughcast and look very attractive, commanding for the most part a wide view of the countryside. The increase in local authority houses has been remarkable, 1,260 new ones having been erected since 1951. Fortunately only 184 of these have been prefabricated, and they are being steadily demolished and replaced. Ten years ago 1,500 houses failed to reach contemporary standards, but to-day this number has been reduced to 495. In the lower part of the town considerable areas of semi-derelict houses have been cleared and replanned, with the result that industry can expand and modern structures replace the old properties. One striking feature is the creation of new housing areas on the outskirts of the town, such as those of Hawkhill in the east and Fairyburn and Inglewood in the west. These are laid out with beds of flowers and shrubs at convenient corners, and a genuine attempt has been made to add variety and avoid monotony in the design and character of the various avenues. While this has involved the use of good agricultural land, it has afforded to the average citizen a quite new type of living, so much so that a considerable number of highly-paid executives occupy these desirable homes at rediculously low rents, since the rent fixed is but half of the economic price. All these new houses have gardens, and the town council awards cups and prizes to encourage a keen interest in cultivating them. Many of the tenants are devoted gardeners, and indeed generally the garden is kept most attractively, but there are always the few who fail to appreciate the privilege.
Schools.
The New Statistical Account had something to say about schools in the town and remarked that 'The Academy is a handsome though small building, in the Grecian style,' but the Academy by 1879 had in fact a rector and two assistants and was maintained entirely by fees. There was, of course, the Parish School, with a master and seven assistants, his salary being £70 per annum, plus sums for acting as clerk to the heritors and as registrar of births, marriages, and deaths. Dr. Bruce was rector. An Infant School was built in Ludgate, which had three qualified teachers, and three pupil teachers, and though now a century old, is still in use for the handicapped type of child. About 1870 a Ragged and Industrial School in Broad Street taught some 25 boys and 10 girls crafts of various kinds. St. John’s Episcopal School, started by the Erskines, had a roll of 350 by 1879 and a Staff of seven, and by 1902, through grants and benefactions, a new building was erected in Grant Street. It is now a school under the local authority and has no episcopal bias. Smaller schools like Kilncraigs for young mill workers — ‘half-timers’ they were called and the Charity school have now vanished.
A new school was built in Sunnyside in 1894 to accommodate 800 pupils and the Grange School was opened in 1908. The Secondary Department of the Academy, the gift of A. P. Forrester Paton, was built in 1897, and a large wing was added in 1932. In 1958 a new Academy was opened in the higher end of Claremont and the former Academy buildings have been re-conditioned to accommodate the entire Roman Catholic children, numbering some 700. The Primary Department of the Academy has been on a fee-paying basis, although the fee has been rather a token payment than a full fee, but owing to shortage of buildings it has been moved around the town and is presently in part of the Park School in Broad Street. The local authority is considering the question of permanent accommodation. Some children succeed in securing places in Dollar Academy and thus the Alloa school is deprived of some of the most promising pupils of the town. A complete medical and dental service is provided in the schools, 90 per cent of the children have milk at the morning interval, and about a quarter of them have meals in school. In the evening the schools are used for Further Education, courses being given in engineering, mining, motor-mechanics, building construction, and commercial subjects, which lead on to the National Certificates. Beyond these, classes are held in bakery, dressmaking, dancing, cookery, arts and crafts and even golf tuition is given. Discussion groups and drama classes are patronised and a new scheme is being developed, whereby St. Andrews University will supply lecturers from its staff to sustain courses during the winter on science, philosophy and literature.
The latest Junior Secondary School has been erected at Forebraes and illustrates the newest ideas in school construction, with a roll of some 700 pupils, while the similar Grange School has almost as many.
Churches.
The pattern of religious life has greatly changed in the last century in Alloa. Small denominations like independents, Methodists and New Jerusalem Church have passed out of existence, under the pressure of changing conditions and Ideas, and the religious unit has tended to become larger. St. Mungo's Parish Church (the Rev. P.P. Brodie) built in 1819 to the design of James Gillespie, is a noble and impressively beautiful structure and easily the finest piece of architecture in the town. It was seated for 1,561 persons, although it is reported that 2,200 people attended the opening service. It has had in more recent years a distinguished succession of ministers, three of whom have been Moderators of the General Assembly, Namely Dr. L. MacLean Watt, Dr. Alexander Macdonald, and Dr. J. Pitt Watson. In 1936 the interior of the church was completely altered, the large galleries being removed, the roof renewed and the choir and pulpit area replanned. It is seated now for 900 persons. The number of members on the roll in full communion is 2,800, which compares favourably with the 1,210 in 1841. A Burgher congregation was formed in 1765, which by 1864 had become a united secession Church and later became the West United Free Church and, after 1929, the West Church (the Rev. D.S. Walker). The church was rebuilt in 1864 and enlarged in 1904 and has been enhanced since then. St Andrews Church (the Rev. Jas Stirling), which originated in a schism in the East Free Church in 1875, was built an 1881 and was supervised by the Parish Church until 1912 when it was created a parish church quoad Sacra. Chalmers Church (the Rev. F. Tidd), as the name implies, was started at the Disruption in 1843, and the present impressive edifice was opened for worship in 1856. Later, Dr. J. Harper Wilson was one of its ministers.
The Baptist Church is not mentioned in the New Statistical Account, although it is stated that a congregation was formed in 1838. By 1881 it was strong enough to erect the present church in Ludgate, the membership being about 100. The Scottish Episcopal congregation worshipped in a building in Clackmannan Road until 1869, when they moved to the new structure in Broad Street, designed by Sir Gilbert Scott. There were only 20 Roman Catholics in Alloa in 1841, having dwindled from 112 in 1838. Until 1863 they were served by a priest from Stirling, but a Mission was set up and when the Episcopalians vacated their building in 1869 it was secured for the Roman Catholics, who in 1878 added a small school behind the church. In 1936 a new school was built for them by the local authority at Hawkhill, but, this now proving inadequate, the whole school population has been transferred to the old Alloa Academy. The total catholic population is now reckoned at about 2,000, which includes Clackmannan and Sauchie Catholics. Recently a new chapel has been erected in Mar Street at a cost of some £50,000 and should seat about 500 persons. The Moncreiff United Free Church was originally the First United Secession and then United Presbyterian Church and was named after its first minister, the Rev. William Moncreiff. The smaller part of this congregation elected in 1929 to stay outside the union of the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church and were allowed to retain their building. There are also small groups of Salvation Army, Plymouth Brethren, Spiritualists and Elim Church adherents.
The religious life of the town may be reckoned healthy and active and within each church there is much service given to the cause and much good work done among the youth. Sunday School scholars number 1,200, Bible classes about 300, while youth organisations such as Boys' Brigade, Scouts and Guides are vigorous and well-staffed. women's organisations number some 600 members, while clubs for men and badminton clubs are very much alive. At the main services of worship there is a steady attendance of 25 to 30 per cent, while at the Sacrament services this figure is doubled and when special occasions arise, such as the Reformation Anniversaries, large numbers turn out. The habits of the people have changed so much in recent years that the evening services are now of little account. Very many members use their motor cars on Sunday for visiting and for pleasure outings, while others work in their gardens, play golf, or, as in the case of wives who have been working in shops or mills during the week, overtake the leeway of the housework. The advent of radio, television, Sunday newspapers and bus excursions has militated against full churches. There is a cooling down of the Victorian evangelical fervour, but great value is placed upon the sacrament of baptism, even by many who would not count themselves religious. Baptisms and marriages are now generally celebrated in church, a distinct change from last century. The old custom of ‘coffining’ services, once so highly prized, has vanished in the last twenty years. Although a considerable number of people have lost touch with the Church, there is no antagonism either to the minister or to the Christian ethic, and exceedingly few funerals take place without a minister officiating. A new departure to bridge the gap between the Church and the indifferent outsider is a system of industrial and school chaplaincies, which has been in force for some twenty years; while in the the hospitals, since they have been taken over by the State, provision is made for the services of a chaplain, appointed in rotation from the Church of Scotland ministers in the Alloa area. This multiplies the work and responsibility of the minister and with the administration of an active church imposes burdens on him which his predecessor in Victorian times did not have to carry; together with the pressure of the materialistic outlook, it makes his task very exacting indeed. It still remains true, nevertheless, that he is persona grata with the average citizen, his advice is sought, his influence is canvassed and he remains a very important man in the community.
A notable difference over the past century in the community is the appearance of a whole crop of voluntary organisations, all expressing one or other aspect of social interest. Beyond distinctively church bodies there are for women the Townswomens Guild, Excelsior Guild, Co-operative Guild, British Women's Temperance Association, the Business and Professional Women's Club, and for young people there are the school's Former Pupils Club, the Square Centre, the Y.M.C.A., Alloa Girls' Club, Alloa Gymnastic Club, and the Girls' Friendly Society. Other societies of a broader basis are the Citizens' Council, the St. Andrews Ambulance Association, the British Red Cross Society, the Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen’s Families Association the Philatelist Club, the Masonic Lodge No. 69 and the Order of the Eastern Star. A new feature, arising from the fact that so many of the working members of the community now reach retiring age, thanks to the improved health of the people, is the creation of a vital Old People's Welfare Committee, which sees to the interests of pensioners. There is a membership of 240 and a weekly meeting for social and friendly intercourse. Interest in the British Legion has almost ceased, the Society of Archaeology and Natural Science has shrunk to a select billiard and whist club, but Toc H meets regularly and does good work and the Scientific Film Society is active. A Rotary Club - an importation from America - has a weekly lunch and is always helpful, while bodies with special interests, such as horticulture, poultry, beekeeping, pigeons, fur and feather and canine clubs maintain their activities steadily.
Local Endowments.
As the result of legacies and benefactions from public-spirited citizens a number of funds have accumulated in the town for the assistance of persons in special need. The Common Good Fund amounted at May 1950 to £4,793, derived from the sale of pieces of ground, fees, commissions and dividends, and is used for civic entertaining and other charitable purposes. David McWatt left £5,000 in 1910 for soup kitchens but this now is spent on Christmas cheer for old and young. Accruing from the Ragged School of 1856, a sum of £2,218 is now used to further the work of the Alloa Day Nursery, and the old Alloa Ladies Clothing Society has handed down £3,000, now used for clothing and for coals. Churches, too, have funds, such as those in Chalmers Church (£500) for the relief of the poor and in St. Mungo’s Church for providing the needy with coals in the wintertime. The West Church administers a fund of £2,000 for the maintenance of a town missionary. In education the Paton Trust of £6,000 is used for assistance to students at central educational institutions. The Alloa Academy has the Moodie, Blair and Calder bequests of £200, £250 and £250 respectively for disbursement among the pupils, while the Grange School has a Finlayson Fund of £250. More generally, Mr. Thomson Paton gave the impressive Town Hall, with its organ and library, the Public Baths, together with a sum of £3,000, and science and art class rooms. The Duncanson legacy was left for the improving of the public grounds of the town, such as Arnsbrae Pleasure Grounds and Public Park.
Personalities.
The family of Erskine has been the superior of Alloa since the fourteenth century, and still maintains a close link with the community. Walter Coningsby Erskine became Earl of Kellie in 1866, succeeding his cousin, and later in 1875 by a decision of the House of Lords he was declared to be Earl of Mar. He improved the house and gardens of Alloa, restored the Tower, erected the new St. John's church and in 1868 sponsored the first hospital. In 1872 Walter Henry succeeded his father, and he in turn was followed by Walter John Francis in 1888. By marrying in 1892 Lady Violet Ashley, daughter of the 8th Earl of Shaftesbury, the new Earl gained a brilliant and beautiful partner in the career of public service that lay before him. Together they represented the finest spirit of the aristocracy, dedicated to the common good. For a decade the community mourned their passing, but happily their grandson, John, and Lady Mar are continuing the family's tradition of service both to the county and to the Country as a whole.
David Paton in 1861 began a close family link with Alloa, both as business man and as a keen religious and social worker, and close behind him came John Thomson Paton, a shrewd executive in the mill, a keen politician, a great philanthropist, and with his brother, David Thomson, a generous supporter of the West Church. In recent days Alexander and John Forrester Paton showed noble examples of public spirit, the former giving his home at the Gean House as a holiday and conference centre, and the latter giving Inglewood as an Eventide Home to the Church of Scotland.
George Brown, Born in Alloa in 1818, emigrated to Canada, founded the Toronto Globe newspaper, became Prime Minister of Upper Canada and helped to arrange for the union of all the provinces in 1867. William McEwan was born in 1827, son of an Alloa shipowner, and moving to Edinburgh founed the large brewery concern of the same name and donated the McEwan Hall to Edinburgh. George Younger was born in Alloa in 1851, was educated at the Academy, and developed the Alloa brewery. As chairman of the Unionist Party (1916-23) he secured the end of the ineffective Lloyd George government. His brother, Dr. James Younger, took an interest in St. Andrews and gave the Younger Graduation Hall there. Another brother, Robert, entered law and rose to the bench as Lord Blanesburgh. Other interesting local links are with Sir William Ramsay, the notable classical scholar, professor of Humanity in Aberdeen University and authority on Asia Minor. His books on St. Paul’s travels and the book of revelation are now regarded as definitive. Major-General Sir William Morrison was the son of a land surveyor in Alloa and a Protégé Of Sir Ralph Abercromby of Tullibody.
Antiquities.
The antiquities of Alloa are duly listed in the Inventory of Ancient Monuments of the county, and these include the cairn and stone circle at Hawkhill, now vanished, the Celtic cross there, which still stands, and bronze age burial remains, some of which are in the National Museum of Antiquities. The original shaft of the town cross still remains in the ruins of the old parish kirk in Kirkgate, with the belfry and tower and a crude image of St. Mungo in a niche. Tobias Bauchop's house in the Kirkgate is a well-preserved and artistic specimen of the best craftsmanship of the seventeenth century, and was once home of the Divinity Hall of the General Associate Synod, where Professor Moncrieff taught from 1762 to 1786. The two obelisks, now at the entrance to East Castle Street, were originally designed by James Gibbs, architect of St Martin’s-in-the-Fields Church, and formed the entrance to an approach from the river to the former Alloa House. Alloa Tower is the largest and most impressive of all the antiquities surviving from medieval times. The Inventory Suggests "tentatively" the fifteenth century as the date of the earliest portion of it. The present writer suggests 1497 - 1502 as an even more definite date.(See a short History of Alloa, P.18) Now that the Alloa estate is being divided and used for a new housing area and the House itself is vacant, it becomes a matter of historical importance that the Tower, which is in good condition, should be carefully preserved.
The Way of Life.
Great changes have taken place in the pattern of living in the last hundred years. When the Rev. Peter Brotherson wrote his Account in 1841 Alloa was a snug little town with a population of 4,500 souls. Movement was restricted and so families became closely inter-married and the contact with the countryside around was intimate and constant. There was little leisure time to follow hobbies or individual pleasures and the life of the churches absorbed what interest there was beyond work. To-day Alloa is a thriving industrial centre, with ample opportunity of movement, travel and entertainment. The population is now very mixed, with an infiltration from the west of Scotland and not a few technicians, craftsmen and executives from England. The motor car and the ubiquitous bus have had the effect of leading townspeople to larger centres like Stirling, Dunfermline, Falkirk, Glasgow and Edinburgh for much shopping and also for the more ambitious entertainments like the music-hall and the theatre. There still predominates, however, the typical local worker, a man of steady, stolid temperament, displaying no enthusiasm, but reliable and conscientious in his work day by day, resentful of interference with his liberty and not easily moved from his accustomed ways. He has a deep suspicion of strangers, especially any who try to propagate some “ism,” either political or religious. The average citizen is honest, thrifty, respectful and concentrates on his job. His wife keeps a clean, often a spotlessly clean, house and a large number of wives now go out to serve in shops, hotels and mills to procure the extras, such as cigarettes and cocktails, for themselves. Even those who go out shopping of a morning find time and money to have a coffee in a cafe.
There is a singular lack of cohesion among the residents, for each type clings together, but there is no common meeting point, except perhaps the congregational worship of the churches, and even between these there are subtle distinctions. The community is just as materialistic as any other, but not more so.
Two factors have changed the habits of the townsfolk. One is the much shorter hours of work in the factories. Within the last few weeks, for instance, the day in the woollen mill has been reduced by half an hour to 5.15 p.m. This means a large amount of leisure time on the hands of the worker, which he uses in various ways. With the advent of television he and his family spend long periods gazing at the screen and with the advent of colour television in a few years’ time this way of spending the evenings will be even more popular. This also makes the average family independent of outside entertainment like drama, concerts, musical evenings or the Cinema. Indeed, a quite alarming and unpredictable drop in cinema attendances has compelled the big film monopolies to convert some cinemas into bowling alleys. The other factor is the advent of the motor car and the excellent facilities for bus travel. Every third family either has a car or has access to the use of a car, which induces them to range far and wide on a Saturday or Sunday or even on a summer’s evening.
On Sundays most of the people in the town take a long lie in bed with a late breakfast and a look at the Sunday newspaper. Some l2 per cent are astir in time to dress and attend morning service, while others loaf around or do some gardening. After a very light lunch, preparations are made either to receive or to visit friends, and in the summertime to drive off for a visit to some beauty spot with a picnic tea. Alloa is well situated for easy access to the Trossachs, the Fife coast, Perthshire or even the West Highlands. Others without transport take a quiet walk or watch the television screen. Upwards of 1,200 children will be attending Sunday schools and almost as many will be at worship with or without their parents in church. On the Weekday the average home is early astir, for the girls must be at the mill by 7.45 a.m., and the mother sends off the children to school. she herself, in one home out of three, will have will have either a whole or a part-time job in shop or factory. The children get the mid-day meal in school, so that the family do not meet again till tea-time. Some women go out to work for three hours in the evening in the mill, in which case the wife goes out as the husband arrives for his tea. In the evening some attend a voluntary organisation, church guild, sewing class, dancing lesson, or musical or dramatic group. A number of men nip out to the public house for a pint with the 'boys,' others dress and slip in to the cinema for a specially attractive film, and the rest, the largest part, just sit around the house and read, or watch the television screen. Thursday night introduces a variety to the extent that the coupons have to be completed for the football pools competition, based on the coming Saturday's football matches. In almost every home, even of church people, this is the usual practice. When it comes to Saturday there is a holiday air about the town and some plan is made for either a whole day or half-day outing. The local football club is well and loyally supported by the townsmen and several thousands will attend according to the interest and importance of the game.
This does not mean that sport as such is highly popular. The County Cricket Club is but indifferently supported and only by the upper social stratum of the population. Golf is much favoured by a certain type of technician and professional worker, especially on Sundays. Hockey is played only by the older school pupils and by industrial firms' teams. Bowls is a popular game in summertime with the artisan class and the clubhouses are used as a kind of 'howff' in the winter months. The number in cycling clubs is limited, although the young men and women in this sport are exceedingly keen, Sunday again being their field day.
So far as the higher cultural interests are concerned there is little to boast of. An Operatic Society stages an annual show, with an enthusiasm not always equalled by dramatic or musical brilliance, but always thoroughly enjoyed by performers and audience. The Drama Festivals, for a time highly popular and well-supported, have lately fallen off in quality and interest. The Archaeological Society, as such, has virtually died, and the coterie in power have no interest in the very subjects for which the considerable funds exist. Symphony concerts are a faded memory. The only music listened to is for jazz dancing, which is vitiated by commercialism. Interest in art is maintained by the exhibitions of work accomplished in the secondary schools, staged annually, and these are impressive. An exhibition of the works of David Allan, sponsored by the Town Council on the occasion of its centenary and organised by the writer, stimulated considerable interest and attracted many viewers. A vast amount of reading is done in the homes of the townsfolk, despite the distraction of radio and television. The arrival of television fid for a time affect the numbers of library books issued, but it is now found that plays based on literature stimulate the demand for books, and the numbers are soaring once more. Another interesting effect of the advent of television is that whereas the family of an evening formerly scattered to cinemas and outside entertainments, the home is becoming again the centre of life in the evenings. In view of the large number of new houses, the increase in comfort through better furnishings and carpets, and the greater margin of money for buying luxuries, it seems clear that life to-day as compared with last century is vastly more interesting and pleasant.
The other side of the picture is not so attractive. The civic qualities of authority and obedience have suffered grave deterioration and as a result of two wars parental control is almost non-existent. The religious sanctions, which once strengthened the father's influence, have ceased to operate, with the result that public property is now abused and destroyed by cliques of youths, whom summary punishment does not intimidate. While the Scout and Guide movements have some influence on a minority of the young people, whole blocks of youth misbehave in public, frequent billiard saloons, devote their minds to gambling and betting and make rowdy scenes at public dances. The figures for crime and delinquency are alarmingly high, while courtesy and consideration on the street and on public transport are at a premium. The town had been singularly free of sordid crimes, but there is a too blatant defiance of constituted authority in certain quarters and a cynical regard for the higher values of living.
The Church still plays a vital role in the life of the town, and if not a dominating part yet one which touches most people at some point in their lives. A strong body of office-bearers and women workers serve not only in the churches but also in the organisations, and the ministers are respected both for themselves and for their office. While some of the awe that once attached to them has ban shed, they function perhaps more effectively than their Victorian predecessors. The services of worship are certainly more interesting, stimulating and realistic than of old and the church as a religious centre is more in use for weddings, sacraments and other purposes, than in times when it was open only one day in seven.
The motto of the town is ‘In the Forefront’ and the future promises that with industry flourishing, population rising, and living conditions improving, it should prove as pleasant a place to live in as anywhere in the country.
Written, 1961.