Lennoxtown

History

The focus of the Lennoxtown area used to be the busy Lennox Mill, where tenants of the Woodhead estate brought their corn to be ground. There were several corn mills in Campsie Parish, but this was arguably the most important. Lennox Mill was located in the vicinity of the recently demolished Kali Nail Works.

A significant event in the history of the locality was the establishment of the calico printing works at Lennoxmill during the late 1780s, on a site adjacent to the old corn mill. Calico is a type of cotton cloth, and the printing of cotton cloth was soon established as a major industry in the area, also at Milton of Campsie. It was to provide accommodation for the block makers and other cotton printing workers that the village of Lennoxtown was established, during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Streets of houses were planned and built according to a formal plan. Lennoxtown was at first known as 'Newtown of Campsie', to distinguish it from the Sirktown' or Clachan' of Campsie, at the foot of Campsie Glen.

During the 19th century Lennoxtown grew to be the largest centre of population in Campsie Parish. Another important industry was soon established – a chemical works, founded by Charles Macintosh (of waterproof clothing fame) and his associates. At first their principal product was alum, a chemical employed in the textile industry. Alumschist, the basic ingredient in the process, was mined in the area. The works came to be known as the Secret Works, presumably because of the need to keep the industrial processes secret.

During the 1790s many of the Lennoxmill workers supported the political reformer Thomas Muir of Huntershill in his campaigns to establish democracy in Scotland, and a Reform Society was set up in Campsie in 1792. However, the parish minister, the Rev. James Lapslie, saw to it that there was also some opposition to Muir's ideas in the area. An important milestone in the drive towards democracy was the establishment in 1812 of a local co-operative society, the Lennoxtown Friendly Victualling Society, one of the earliest of its kind in Scotland.

The growing importance of Lennoxtown was underlined by the removal of the parish church from the Clachan to the New Town during the 1820s. Plans for the new church were prepared by the architect David Hamilton, who was also responsible for the nearby Lennox Castle. A Roman Catholic church was erected in 1846 (originally St Paul's, later renamed St Machan's), one of the earliest post-Reformation Catholic churches in Scotland, apart from those in cities and large towns.

The decline of the industries that flourished during the nineteenth century, and also the later nail-making industry (and indeed the famous Victualling Society) has left Lennoxtown in a kind of post-industrial limbo, from which it has been difficult to escape. Slow progress continues to be made.

St Machan's

St Machan's Primary School was opened in 1964, replacing a smaller school on Bencloich Road. The old building was then used as the Campsie Recreation Centre, until demolition in 2009. In 2009, St Machan's had 200 pupils. It is a feeder school for St Ninian's High School in Kirkintilloch. In 2009, St Machan's had 200 pupils enrolled in the school and would later move on to St Ninian's High School which enrolled 757 pupils in 2009. In 2013, there was a petition in order to get a skate park to replace the old recreation centre and was handed out in the local businesses to get members of the local community to sign.

Lennoxtown Primary School

In 1839 the Lennoxtown New Subscription School was given a grant of £280 from the government in order to rebuild. The school was made up of two large buildings and opened in 1840. It had a room for over one hundred primary age pupils and a second room for infant pupils. A new school was built in 1896 and expanded to seven classrooms for 458 pupils. The Lennoxtown Public School was reduced to the status of Lennoxtown Primary School in 1963, with secondary pupils instead attending Kilsyth Academy. Lennoxtown Primary enrolled 128 pupils in 2009.

The Community Hub

A Community Hub is set to be built on the Main Street as a focus for the delivery of public services. It will bring together the existing East Dunbartonshire Library, the NHS Clinic, which will contain a dental practice and GP consulting rooms. and the Housing office in one building. Completion is due in November 2014. One of the oldest surviving branches of the Co-operative is to be demolished as part of the development. An attempt to have the building listed was unsuccessful.

Lennoxtown Railway

The railway to Lennoxtown was an extension of the Glasgow to Edinburgh line. The first five and a half miles of this line, from Lenzie to Lennoxtown, were built by the Edinburgh and Glasgow railway, under powers obtained in 1845 and it was officially opened on 5 July 1848. The railway was initially intended to serve the print fields at Lennoxtown but it eventually allowed passengers and provided this service as far as Aberfoyle. The passenger service was discontinued in October 1951, the transportation of goods continuing but only as far as Lennoxtown from 1959. The line closed completely in 1966. Lennoxtown Station won first prize for being the best kept railway station in Scotland in 1897 and then for 7 years in succession from 1922 to 1928 and again in 1930 and 1931.

Lennoxtown Training Centre

It was announced that Celtic training ground was going to be built in Lennoxtown' in 2005 by the then manager Gordon Strachan. The 50 acre training ground was built on the grounds of Lennox castle and was officially opened in October 2007. The facility has three natural grass, UEFA match-size pitches and one full-size, all weather, artificial pitch which is floodlit. There is undersoil heating, a state-of-the-art gym, a sauna and steam room and changing facilities. Local football teams, such as the Campsie Boys' Club, train there once a week. Celtic liaise with the local schools (St. Machan's and Lennoxtown Primary School) to allow occasional use of their training facilities. There are educational facilities for the young Celtic Academy footballers at the ground and arrangements for them to attend St.Ninian's High School in Kirkintilloch. The school football team use the training ground facilities. Stuart Findlay was part of the initial intake of this scheme in 2009 and now plays for the under 19s team and on occasion the main team.

Town hall

In the 1860s a town hall at Lennoxtown was built, now called the Campsie Memorial Hall; construction began in 1866 and was funded by subscription. Two years later, the hall was opened. Altogether, it cost £1,340. In the 1950s the District Council took over the hall in order for the building to be renovated.

The threat of the Campsie Memorial Hall being shut down in 2010 due to lack of funding, made the residents of Lennoxtown come together to offer up their own solutions. More than 150 people attended a public meeting to talk over plans for the hall and around 35 residents signed up to be on the committee for managing the town hall The hall itself was taken over by volunteers from Lennoxtown in late 2012 and has been thriving since. In 2013, they were given a grant from the EDC Civic Pride Fund and received funding from the Big Lottery, which were both used to improve the hall.

Notable people born in Lennoxtown