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". Cambus, 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 15
CAMBUS
(County of Clackmannan.)
By the Rev. Dr. Crouther Gordon.
It would be a mistake to lump together Cambus and Tullibody, although they belong to the same parish, for Cambus is about a mile south from the centre of Tullibody and it lies on the bank of the Forth. It has its own post office and general store and boasts of one public house. Until recent times it held its own Maypole ceremony and crowning of the Queen and when Tullibody was about the same size there was a healthy rivalry in this annual fete.
Although there has been no housing development in the village, as compared with Tullibody, the population has steadily increased, from 245 in 1911 to 325 in 1951. Until the arrival of the bus there was a live local interest and an intimate form of neighbourly living. Cambus could always boast over Tullibody that it had its own bowling green. A feature of distinction, also, were the salmon fisheries at Cambus, a lucrative industry, although it has declined in recent years owing to the pollution of the river. There is a record of a whale disporting itself near Cambus in the eighteenth century.
For centuries beer was brewed at the old Cambus Brewery, but it was Robert Knox, factor to the Abercrombys, who founded the firm in 1786, and handed it on to his children and grandchildren, until with the death of Thomas Knox, in 1950, the making of beer gradually decreased. In 1955 it ceased altogether. Empty for two years, the premises were purchased by G.P. Christie, who, after conversion of the buildings, began to produce whisky in February 1958. Work goes on night and day, seven days a week, and the annual output at present, with a pay-roll of 30 names, is half a million gallons of proof spirit. The average wage of the worker is £15 a week. Even more impressive is the large branch of the Distillers Company at Cambus, a towering structure, seen from all over the county, which although burned down in 1914 was reconstructed in 1937 and since then has been much expanded. With more than 200 workers, this modern establishment produces over 7 million gallons of proof spirit each year, and as a by-product it supplies feeding-stuffs for cattle all over Scotland and even beyond. Recently numerous large buildings have been erected for the storage of this enormous quantity of liquor.
It is clear that Cambus is now more active industrially than at any time in its history, and with this prosperity has come the disappearance of the old ways of behaving and thinking. Snug and intimate as were the old habits, life now, with greater mobility outside and television inside the home, is much more fascinating, people live longer and suffer less pain. If there is a looser attitude to morals and religion, there is also a more human view of the minister and the value of the Christian faith.
Written, 1961.