Friends of the Ochils Newsletter 15: September 1999Good old days?David Robertson prompts some Menstrie House memories and recollections What did the old Victorian parlour ditty awaken memories of - "The dear dead days beyond recall"? Yours truly, who although beyond his sell-by date does not qualify as an Old Victorian, dipped into the memories of a number of the residents at Menstrie House home for the elderly. Mrs Mary Dowell, aged 86 and a native of Fishcross, started work on a knitting machine at Murray's Hosiery in Moss Road, Tillicoultry, at age 14. Later she was a weaver at Porteous's. She recalled working long days, 8am until 6pm, at a wage of 7s 6d (less than 50p) each week. Mrs Dowell's grandfather, a miner at the Bank pit near Fishcross, used to "knock up" the mill workers in the morning. "He walked along the full length of the row and knocked until he saw a light put on," Mrs Dowell recalled. "We did not have very much, but we were very happy." Mrs Chris Looker, 90, stayed in Alva "all her days" and also worked in Porteous's in Brook Street - now the site of Alva primary school. She was a shawl machinist. Mrs Margaret Law, who with her mother and sisters ran the Scotch Restaurant in Alva for many years, lived in the lodge at Alva House. Her father worked at Boll Farm, a steading at the foot of Brook Street which was demolished earlier this year. She has happy memories of Alva Glen illuminations - her father helped to put up fairy lights each year, an annual attraction until the 1950s. Sunday band concerts at the foot of the glen were among other treats which have become memories. Hogg's lemonade factory in Devonside is now gone, as is the lemonade it made. Mrs Margaret Hogg, a nonagenarian and widow of the son of the founder, recalled the very big changes in her situation when she came to Tillicoultry from Bellahouston in Glasgow. The reminiscences poured out as the memories were stirred ... Mrs Dalrymple's "cafe" - a small room with a table and four chairs at the top of Burnside in Alva where one could get a penny glass of lemonade. Then there was Johnny Clement's tuck shop. He took sweets to the school playground on a tray. While wages were not very high, the mill girls enjoyed some perks of their trade - like the cardigan Mrs Dowell remembers costing five shillings. It, along with other garments with often imperceptible flaws, were among the bargains they enjoyed. |