Whyteside polmont

The pasturage and mineral wealth of the area was exploited in the Hamilton interest for nearly two centuries before the local residents were strong and numerous enough to persuade the church authorities to separate them from Falkirk in and create a new parish of Polmont. At the time, and for decades thereafter, the village was little more than a collection of cottages on the southern slope of the escarpment which sweeps down to the carselands of the River Forth. Here a new church was built and probably a school of some kind, close by the mills and smiddy which served the farmers of the parish.

During the 19th century, long before the bridges at Queensferry and Kincardine spanned the Forth, all traffic from east to west and north passed along a road just to the south of Polmont village. It soon became the commercial heart of the village with small workshops, houses, schools, stores and inns. A mile to the south, the settlement of Brightons had grown up around a famous sandstone quarry which was in operation as early as the 17th century. The canal encouraged the development of industry and this was given further impetus by the arrival of the Edinburgh to Glasgow railway in The wealth generated by industrial success brought to Polmont the usual crop of fine mansion houses and elegant estates.

There was Millfield built by John Millar, secretary of the North British Railway Company and later the home of the Stein family whose fortune came from the manufacture of refractory bricks for the expanding iron industry of the Falkirk district.

And there were Polmont Park and Polmont House , mansions dating back to the late 18th century, and Polmont Bank which served as a nursing home and a hotel.

All four were demolished to make way for the post-war housing and commercial developments which have so, changed the character of the old village. Others like Parkhill the home of the Gray-Buchanan family survived though today, converted in to flats.

The old church, now a picturesque ruin covered in ivy, stands in the kirkyard. What provision was made for education in the early years of the new parish of Polmont is uncertain but by a building was provided by the heritors along with a new master, Thomas Girdwood, who remained in post for well over half a century and served as clerk to the heritors for an incredible sixty-two years!

Perhaps the most famous educational establishment in the parish was Blairlodge Academy opened in by Robert Cunningham, a Church of Scotland minister, who also played a significant part in the Free Church breakaway in Polmont in the same year.

The new school was for boy boarders and flourished under an innovative and dynamic headmaster J Cooke-Gray who took over in But there was an admirable practical strain to the curriculum and an emphasis on science which was unusual for the period. At the turn of the century Blairlodge was the largest school of its kind in Scotland and was the first to use electric lighting on such a large scale — it had nearly nine hundred bulbs at the same time as the people of Falkirk were being shown electric light as a novelty in a church bazaar!

After the death of Cooke-Gray in the school experienced financial difficulties and when it was forced to close in by an outbreak of an infectious disease, possibly measles, it never reopened.

Polmont today is a dormitory village with many new houses standing in what were once the grounds of the lost mansions. The people travel to the petrochemical complex at Grangemouth or commute daily to Glasgow and Edinburgh to work, and village life and community spirit is much more difficult to generate and sustain.

Close Menu Welcome. About the Society. Joining the Society. Larbert and the Great War. Around and About the Area. Antonine Wall. James G.

Carron Inn. Cross Well, Falkirk. Dobbie Hall. Falkirk Infirmary. Falkirk Police Stations. Falkirk Wheel. Steeples and Tolbooths of Falkirk. Torwood or Tappoch Broch. Burial Places. Airth North Churchyard.

Body Snatching in the Falkirk District. Chapel Yard, Bonnybridge. Denny Parish Churchyard. Erskine Churchyard. Falkirk Old Parish Graveyard. Falkirk West Church Churchyard. Kinneil Churchyard. Larbert Old Parish Churchyard. Larbert East Churchyard. Polmont Old Parish Churchyard. The Resurrectionist Gig. Slamannan Parish Churchyard. The Tattie Kirkyard. Airth Castle. Almond Castle. Blackness Castle. Castlecary Castle.

Castle Rankine. Elphinstone or Dunmore Tower. Herbertshire Castle. Skaithmuir Tower. Airth Parish. Airth Parish Church. Erskine Church, Airth. Airth Free Church. Stained Glass in Airth and Bothkennar. Hebron Hall. Carriden Parish Church. Kinneil Parish Church. Bothkennar Parish. Bothkennar Parish Church. Denny Parish. Denny Parish Church. Denny Baptist Church. Denny Broompark Church.

Denny R C Church. Denny West Church. Banknock R. Bonnybridge Christian Brethern. Bonnybridge Faith Mission. Bonnybridge Parish Church. Bonnybridge R. Church of Christ. Dennyloanhead Church. Dunipace Parish Church. Dunipace Free Church. Haggs Parish Church. Haggs Christian Brethern. Stained Glass in Denny. Falkirk Parish. Falkirk Parish Church. Auld Lichts. Bainsford Parish Church.

Camelon Evangelical Church. Camelon Irving Church. Camelon Methodist Church. Camelon Parish Church. Camelon RC Church. Camelon Trinity Church. Carmelite Priory. Christ Church. Church of Jesus of the Latter Day Saints. Dawson Mission. Falkirk Baptist Church. Falkirk Congregational Church. Falkirk Erskine Church. On two occasions, these proposals have been declined by Falkirk Council, then subsequently appealed by Eadie Developments Ltd at the DPEA - and have lost both appeals on account of the scale and massing of the proposed developments being inconsistent with both the local area and the local development plan.

Most recently, the Whyteside Inn buildings have been demolished and the site cleared. Whilst there are no currently active applications, all activities of the group in relation to any active application will be published in regular Newsletters to residents of Polmont, and also placed on this site.

Any new developments we are informed about in between the regular newsletters will be posted on the News page. Please see the latest newsletters for updates and advice on how you can help us campaign against the development.

If you have suggestions for actions we could take, or if you have news regarding the development of the site, please Contact Us. The new homes will become part of the Council's housing stock to help meet affordable housing demand in the Falkirk area. We plan on building a variety of homes from 1 bedroom flats to 4 bedroom houses to provide a broad range of accommodation. Please note these plans will also be subject to receiving all the statutory consents including planning approval. Hanover Housing Association.