Previous editions of The Story of Carmunnock ended at this point. In updating it and doing a complete revision for this new printing, some changes from present to past tense as well as some alteration and addition to text have been necessary, and a lot has happened in and around Carmunnock in this last decade of the century, which must be recorded here.
In 1991 the booklet The Carmunnock Heritage Trail was published by Glasgow City Council, funded by the Southeast Management Committee and Carmunnock Preservation Society, and five Heritage Trail bronze plaques were placed to tell the village’s history - at the church gates, at 8 and 10 Busby Road, 8 and 8A Kirk Road, 2 and 4 Kirk Road and at the Low Green.
The City of Glasgow had been a smokeless zone for some time when Environmental Services decided in 1992 that even this out-lying village, the last district in Glasgow’s area to be brought under the ruling, must comply to minimize pollution of the atmosphere. The remaining owners of open fires must use the new smokeless solid fuels, and have to be careful that their chimneys emit no more smoke than is necessary.
As Carmunnock’s population increased in recent decades, the authorities soon regarded the drainage and sewerage systems in our area as being under considerable strain and the problem was becoming serious. In addition the air at the sewage plant down Pedmyre Lane, just beyond Windyriggs, had for many years been polluted and unpleasant. To help sweeten this and to take in some smaller systems where building had taken place in the village, the pipe at Pedmyre Lane was diverted a little in the 1980s. This was only a temporary measure until in 1993 the fields down the west side of Glasgow Road were dug up and a new larger pipe was laid by West of Scotland Water to take Carmunnock’s sewage to the treatment plant at Castlemilk.
The work of laying the pipe had not long been completed when another project was carried out on those fields north-west of the village. The organisation known as Tree-Wise, making use of the employment and training initiative funded by the Glasgow Development Agency, carried out several acres of tree-planting in 1994-95. Whereas the plantings of broad-leaf varieties such as oak, ash, alder, birch and rowan as well as some larch and pine are mainly for environmental improvement, the extensive area of willow will soon be harvested and offered for art projects such as weaving and sculpture, the rest of it to be chipped and mulched and used for shrub beds and footpaths. Tree-Wise are responsible for the project management for the next 10 years. Thereafter, it will be operated by the City Council.
After years of trying, the Greenlees of The Craigs were at last granted planning permission to build on their land. In the cold days of February 1996, the first trees were cut down to clear the site. To some extent, the conservation efforts to save this tree-covered area long favoured by birds had failed, but happily, the landscape from Busby Road, still with a good proportion of trees, looks little different.
The Greenlees built their new house in the grounds, taking the name The Craigs with them, and Cala Homes built four detached houses on the old mansion’s lawn and shrubbery, thereby considerably diminishing the size of the original garden. Now known as Braeuhor, the 19th century mansion is owned, suitably, by people called Craig, and the tree-lined drive from Busby Road leads up to the old and the new, known as Newcraigs.
On the adjacent piece of The Craigs’ old ground, the owner of the house built in 1981, entering off Craigsheen Avenue, has already built a neighbouring one, and is currently putting up another house in line with it. In addition, at 17th century Pedmyre House off Busby Road, the Goodmans following the Raits there, have just carried out a substantial refurbishment.
In May 1996 the Preservation Society erected a small cairn and plaque in the Glebe in appreciation and fond memory of Sandy Crane and his wife Nessie. As Chairman of the Society for many years, Sandy, with his quiet but persistent persuasiveness, had done much for the village and will not be forgotten.
As one of the village’s main sources of water from the 18th century, the Doo Well on Waterside Road opposite the Glebe, still with its pump and steady flow into its trough, was well worth restoring. With a grant obtained by the Society from the City Council’s Environmental Improvement funds, this restoration was carried out and a plaque placed in October 1996.
The old fork signs or finger posts in the village, rusting and broken, were in some need of restoration, and in 1997 the Preservation Society again received a grant from the Environmental Improvement funds for the signs to be remade. Once more they stand clearly pointing the way and the distance to the next village, handsomely reminding us of past days.
At the north end of the village the house on Windlaw Road that had been known as The Studio was vacated, vandalised, burnt and had to be demolished. In 1997, Mr. Sam Scrimgeour built his new house on the site at 17 Windlaw Road. By now, several Council houses at Hillcrest, Stuart Road and Old Playing Field Road have been bought from the City Council by their tenants for private ownership.
On the east side, Eastfield Garage on Cathkin Road, once Connell’s Smiddy (successor to their 17th century one in the centre of village) became Eastfield Coachworks specializing in panel-beating and the paint-spraying of motor vehicles. However in 1997, the proprietor Mr. Brolly (of Mill Cottage, Philipshill) closed the business and built 6 semi-detached houses on the site - 14-24 Cathkin Road.
But in the centre of the village changes had already taken place. Old Sandy Jamieson of the well-known local family, and proprietor of Ashtree Garage for 58 years, died aged 89 in 1993. The following year his widow Jessie Baird, born and brought up on Gallowhill Farm, left her native Carmunnock and went to live in a home. Mr. Jim Gilliland of the Jet Petrol Station and Tyre Sales business further along the street bought the garage for storage purposes and Ashtree House with its long back garden.
On the other side of the street, the old Boghead Inn, which was the Cool Jade Cantonese Restaurant from 1984, became the Copper Chimney Indian Restaurant at the end of 1996.
Finding it hard to compete with the Supermarkets as well as the change in dietary habits, Angus MacDonald closed his butcher’s shop at the corner of Drummond Place on Kirk Road in September 1991. The whole building owned by his family went up for sale. For two more years, however, he continued with his milk round. These days, after the milk has been uplifted from Parklea and other local farms by the Farmers’ Co-operative, Scottish Milk, it is delivered in and around Carmunnock by Wiseman Dairies Limited.
Drummond Place, originally a tenement of little houses, later containing The Cathkin Rest Public House and then Angus MacDonald’s butcher’s shop and the tea-rooms, was bought and extended. A Grantly Development of seven flats at 5 and 7 Kirk Road called Kirkgrove was completed in the old and new part of the building in 1998.
Gillian and Herbert Humphreys bought over the newsagents and grocery business at Campbell Place, 4 Busby Road, from Mrs Sandra Gray at Easter 1993. By this time, Mr. Robert Atkin was already shopkeeper at the general grocery store at 15-17 Busby Road, and soon became the Sub-postmaster there too. But it was one grocer’s too many. He tried unsuccessfully to introduce a tea shop in part of the building, until in the summer of 1994, Mr. and Mrs Ferris bought over the whole shop area, transforming it into the comfortable and attractive Laura’s Tearoom, serving morning coffees, lunches and afternoon teas. From then, the Post Office premises were separated into a shop next-door, Mr. Atkin continuing as Sub-postmaster. At the end of 1997, the Tearoom changed hands to be run by Mrs Audrey Stewart.
In Millennium year the Gala Queen was Jennifer Neill, supported by Ladies in Waiting Ann Martin, Fiona McDermid and Zoe Crooks, Retiring Queen Lynn Barclay and Flower Girls Amy Hunter and Sarah Cameron. Carmunnock’s Gala had started in 1952, when Elizabeth Connell of the blacksmiths’ family was the Queen. Fifty-one years later, Mrs Elizabeth Fisher made a special visit back to her old home village to crown the Queen of 2003.
The 2003 Crowning Ceremony
Platform Party: Mr. & Mrs Stewart Roy; Mr. & Mrs John Morton; Mrs Elizabeth Fisher (nee Connell), Councillor Alan Stewart; Rev. Gray Fletcher and MSP Mike Watson.
Royal Party: Queen, Kelly Morton; Herald, Callum Hunter; Ladies in Waiting, Olivia Mason & Megan McWade; Champion, Louise Miller; Herald, Pamela Cumming; Flower Girls, Rebecca McSherry & Eilidh Morrison.
To update briefly, in August 2001, the Rev. Gray Fletcher took over the charge of our church and parish. In September 2001 Mr. Stewart Roy became Chairman of Carmunnock’s Community Council, in 2002 Dr. Ian Preston of our Preservation Society; in May 2001 Mitchell’s Restaurant opened in the old Boghead Inn building; in April 2002 Stewart and Lynne Roy took over the Post Office, at the same time introducing a stationer’s and attractive gift shop in its premises; the following year Mr. and Mrs. McLean bought Laura’s Tearoom, and in August 2004 Javed Mukhtar became the proprietor of the newsagent’s and grocer’s.
The Tearoom, the Post Office and gift shop, the Restaurant and the Jet Garage businesses thrive and the newsagents and grocers in Taggs’ old premises at Campbell Place, an integral part of the village’s life for the past hundred years, is still essential to us today even though most folk have cars and the no. 31 bus transports passengers to the larger stores at Croftfoot or East Kilbride.
Green fields surround this village on the braes with its ancient origin and interesting history, the views to the hills and even some of the landscapes the same as in centuries long ago. Glasgow, in whose administrative area we are, respects our Green Belt, and on the south-east, the houses in East Kilbride’s Stewartfield district, only yards from the hamlet of Kittochside, stay firmly behind the north boundary road, Stewartfield Way.
As the new millennium begins, it is to be hoped that this boundary will remain. Four important projects should ensure this. On the north-east, Glasgow City Council are in the process of promoting Cathkin Braes’ big open stretch of land into the Cathkin Braes Country Park for conservation and for the benefit of both city folk and those living outside. Even Glasgow’s new landfill site at South Cathkin might help! On the south-east the James Hamilton Heritage Park and Visitors’ Centre close to 15th century Mains Castle near East Kilbride was opened in 1996.
And, in July 2001, having purchased additional land, the Museum of Scottish Country Life was established by National Museums of Scotland at Wester Kittochside whose historic house, farm buildings and land were gifted to the National Trust for Scotland in 1992 by Mrs Margaret Reid. Thus the rural life of communities throughout Scotland in the past, including on the farms in our district and in the old village of Carmunnock, will not be forgotten.