In 1961, after years of persevering, Mrs Rita McNiven decided to close her little shop in the cottage-tenement on Kirk Road, and for a while only the houses in the building remained occupied. As time went on, the tenement becoming more dilapidated, was condemned and emptied; the door hung awkwardly on its rusting hinges and the windows were boarded up.
Before long the Wilsons next-door to us decided to have the forestair on their house removed: it and the tumbledown washing-house at the back, they said, were darkening their rooms. For a while the stairhead at the front stood on its own; then the base of it was made into a porch and plants sunned themselves in its windows. Much later, in 1967 or 1968, old John Wilson died aged 96 and his beautiful lawn at the back, kept expertly scythed for so long, grew into a hayfield.
Miss Nan Twaddle was alone now in the cottage building across from us facing the church gates and by autumn 1961 her health was failing. Trips to fetch kindling had ceased. The hens were taken away - as from other yards in the village a year or two later - and all was strangely quiet. Then the building stood empty and I missed my old neighbour. Two years went by and in 1964 they came with a bulldozer and, to our horror, they knocked down the two 18th century cottages. We couldn’t believe it! In present-day conservation, the good stone walls at very least would have been kept to build a new house on that most attractive of situations.
Sam Little’s coal-cart horse, frequently stumbling on its rounds, finally died of old age and weariness. For a while the empty stable and shed at the far end of the wrecked cottages on Kirk Square still stood. Then they too began to fall and the ruin with its lopsided roof was left there. No one cleared it away. No one seemed to care. It was on someone else’s land. Nearby was the decaying, ivy-covered schoolhouse on Manse Road and further up, Jimmock’s derelict old toll-house on the corner.
When Anne (of the shoe shops), sister of Toni Gilmour (the city florist), gave up her nice tearoom next to the Co-op’s store, it was taken over by a Mr. Jackson (thought to be a relative of the one of Jackson’s Lands). Soon he developed this corner site into The Neuk Licensed Restaurant - the smartest, most lavishly furnished place Carmunnock had! Then one dark night in March 1965 it was burnt down. Now its ruins stood charred and ugly in the very centre of the village.
I feel bound to report that there was a time in the 1960s when there were many tumbledown parts of Carmunnock. They were noticeable. In addition, some older houses appeared shabby, unpainted and dirty. No one tidied them up. There was for a while, I remember, even a rather depressing neglected look about the whole place.
But I cannot end this chapter on such a downcast note when right in the middle of the years to which I refer, something happy and highly important took place in 1967 - our church in Carmunnock celebrated its bicentenary.
A long list of events marked this great year in our village’s history: A Scottish night was held in January, a St. Valentine’s Dance run by the Youth leaders in February, Olivet to Calvary was sung by the augmented choir on Palm Sunday, there was a Spring Fayre and Daffodil Tea run by the Woman’s Guild and the Mother’s Group, a Brownie display, Morning Service conducted by the Rev Henry M. Gibson was broadcast from the church on the Radio’s Home Service on Sunday 30th April, the Youth Fellowship ran a Car Treasure Hunt and the school children acted out a Miniature Wedding in May. Gala Day with the Crowning of the Gala Queen took place on the Green in June and an Open Air Church Service was held there the same month.
In September the Scouts ran a Car Treasure Hunt, the Youth Club held a Barbecue and there was a Bus Outing to Dunblane; an Any Questions Evening with the team consisting of Mrs Mary Dunn, the authoress, the Rev James Currie, Mr. S. A. J. Oldham of Glasgow Parks Department and Mr. Jack Steel was put on by the Men’s Association in October, and the Woman’s Guild held a Hallowe’en Party for all the children.
In November there was a concert by the Scottish Junior Singers, Jack House talked on old Glasgow and Carmunnock, a 4-day exhibition of Carmunnock relics was held as well as photographic competitions, the play Bachelors are Bold was produced, Madam Stuart Stevenson opened the Woman’s Guild Sale of Work when the Rev John Smart, minister here from 1913-28 and Mrs Smart also attended, and a Special Service of Thanksgiving was held in the church - the Rev Robert Paterson of Kings’ Park Parish Church the guest preacher - at which a new Pulpit Bible and Organist’s Psalter and Hymnary were dedicated to mark the year.
December saw the Fashion Frolics 1767-1967 by the Young Wives and Mothers, there was another Scottish Night, and a Nativity Play acted by the Sunday School children. £100 from the Bicentenary Fund was sent to Carmunnock Church’s missionary partner Miss E. S. Alexander of Chogoria in Africa to help equip the hospital there and the remainder of the Fund helped to buy the plot of ground north of the church where The Neuk Restaurant had been, on which a garden was laid out.
Our village church, following earlier ones from many centuries ago, was itself now 200 years old, carrying on its Christian work from those early times into the present day and from now into the future. It is the centre of Carmunnock, several of its kirkton cottages still close by. With the church so encouragingly starting out on its new century, quite clearly we cannot allow the rest of the village with its ancient history and interesting image to crumble into shabbiness and decline.