This building was once the chamber and offices the Denny and Dunipace Burgh. It now houses one of the departments of Falkirk Council. The stained-glass window in the southwest wall includes a version of the old Burgh Seal.
As the name indicates this was the main building at Denny Railway
Station which was a terminus of the passenger network. Other freight
branch lines from Denny extended the network from the station:
a) the Ingleston Branch went across the Carron
to the Anchor Paper Mills and the Vale Paper Works, then on to the
Ingleston Mine which was adjacent to the main road to Stirling;
and
b) Stoneywood Branch which ran approximately parallel
to Duke Street
up the Carrongrove Paper Mills; and
c) Castlerankine Branch branching off from the
Stoneywood Branch (see map in 001 in Old Photos).
This is the traditional centre of Denny and Dunipace (although some Dunipace residents might dispute this!), with many of the shops and amenities within a short walk. The signpost here points back to sites 1 and 2, and on to the next Site 4.
Denny Bridge is the only road link between the two communities. The only other bridges which cross the Carron River are foot bridges. A path accessible from both sides of the bridge follows the River Carron, and is a pleasant country walk in the middle of the town. The route of Denny Bridge is a detour from the original bridge which was in line with the old Gote Loan on the 1896 map (Photo 001). Photo 111 shows this street today with the new medical centre building and further on is St Patrick's Primary School on the right.
This was the site of Herbertshire Castle owned by the Forbes family,
until it was destroyed by fire in 1914. The site is now a public
park maintained by Falkirk Council. From Denny Bridge there are
several paths leading up the hill to the site of the castle. At
the Northeast end of the Castle site is a tree of some antiquity,
indicted by it's girth which is about 20 feet. The tree is referred
to as a "Spanish Chestnut" tree, but unfortunately neither
the species nor the exact age of the tree is known for certain.
The area to the south of Milton Row once housed Carronvale House
set in its own grounds with a high surrounding wall and its own
lodge. Later, it was the site of one of the "Printfields"
factories for block printing of calico. Part of this perimiter wall
still stands, as shown, and in the 1830's shed-like houses for incoming
workers were built along it in a lean-to manner (see next item).
Later still, the area behind the wall was also the site of two mills,
the Anchor Paper Mills and the Vale Paper Mills. The whole site
from the wall down to the Carron River now holds a private housing
estate built by Henry Boot Homes in the late1970's.
The dark rectangles on the wall are the remains of the fireplaces of the lean-to houses built for in-coming workers in the 1830's. The story of these relics is recounted in “Corsets in Stripeside” by Bill Jarvis in the article “Black Watch in Nob Row”. The fireplaces are a reminder of a turbulent time in 1832, when an attempt to reduce calico print workers wages resulted in a general strike. The employers brought in other workers and housed them in lean-to shed-like dwellings along the wall down one side of Milton Row. They workers were called “Nobs” as a term of derision and were under threat by the strikers, so the Black Watch were called in to keep the peace. Hence the title of the article.
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