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Email: info@kinnairdhouse.co.uk
Book extracts
The following extract taken from "Hard as Nails" by Geoff B Bailey pg169-171
The 28th April 1941 saw the first course commence at the newly opened No. 2 GHQ School at Kinnaird House, Larbert. The course was for newly appointed adjutants/quartermasters. This school was specifically set up to train HG from the whole of central Scotland, including men from Glasgow and Edinburgh, and was known as No. 2 War Office Home Guard School. One of the subjects taught was ambushes and the 3rd Stg HG Battalion was asked to provide the demonstration party. This it did from the opening, one day each week, for many months. The men felt honoured to undertake this duty and gained useful experience. It was at Kinnaird House that the officers and NCOs the battalion were introduced to the Northover Projector by the inventor himself. Other well known visitors included Lt Tuner Lesham RA, who on 26th March 1942 lectured at Kinnaird House on ‘Paratroops in Crete’. This led to a redeployment of the local HG to defend Grangemouth Airfield.
Les Barnes was a driver with the School of Artillery at Woolwich in 1941. Late that summer, at the age of 23 years, he was posted to Larbert. It was a long train journey north over night and he was tired and hungry when he arrived at Kinnaird House. He was shown to his billet — one of the wooden huts under the cover of some large trees near the house. After a sleep he was advised to go to the Salvation Army canteen in Stenhousemuir Main Street for a good feed. With some fellow members of the School he set off, but in King Street they were ambushed by some locals who invited them to a 21st birthday party. It was here that he met his future wife for the first time.
Part of Les’s job was to pick up new batches of HG officers from Larbert Station in the army lorry and drive them to the House. When the train was delayed — and wartime schedules were always speculative — he had to wait in the Station Hotel, making it quite a worthwhile job! Some of the HG men he met came from as far south as Carlisle. He then helped to teach the arrivals how to use weapons and artillery from an Enfield rifle up to a 4.5ins gun; the latter using dummy shells. Discipline was strict and the trainees also stayed in wooden huts on the estate. The House was used for classrooms to impart the theoretical aspects of the weapons and tactics. It also accommodated some of the officers and administration. There were about 15 officers and5 drivers attached to the School and they considered themselves to be an elite unit.
William Sharp remembered attending Kinnaird House for what he called ‘over—night games’. The men slept in the outbuildings on palliasses, known as ‘hat biscuits’, with a single blanket, to get them accustomed to battle conditions. The day started at 4.30 am with the sound of a bugle. During the day the sections attacked each other, yelling and screaming.
Despite the use of live ammunition, there was no sentry at the entrance to the estate and it was not unusual to have to chase local boys wandering around. One of the things that the boys were looking for were the base plugs from exploded hand grenades. These thick metal discs had embossed lettering on them giving the codes for when and where they were manufactured and the type of variant they were. This made them highly collectable and in the days before Pokemon cards, with football cards unavailable, the base plugs were eagerly swapped and widely traded.
The School was at Kinnaird House for a little over a year when it was transferred into a set of travelling wings to coach the HG personnel in every part of the country, including the Hebrides. Writing shortly after its closure, late in 1942, Alexander Keith related the following story of the School and its HG occupants:
At one time the school was located in a mansion that had — in what might be called happier times — been part of a lunatic asylum. The Commandant, an Englishman, took special pains to point this fact out to the students at the beginning of each course. A few remnants of the earlier population of the building still clung to its neighbourhood, and wandered about the grounds, unperturbed by the detonations of sub-artillery and the racket of the whole canon of grenades. At one course, held during the worst of the great snowstorm of 1942, the students were returning from a sortie, ploughing their way, silent and weary, in the wake of their spry Instructor of Tactics, through a foot of snow, and hoping the canteen would contain enough to rectify the balance in frames not as young as they once were. As they neared the house they passed a small group of erstwhile patients. One of these, with a pitying glance at the column of speechless trainees, remarked to his companions, “Stupid b—-—-—s.” When the course closed the students had been unable to make up their minds whether the man was daft or fey. (A G Street, 1943, From Dusk till Dawn, p.llO-lll)
The grave of Robert Bruce by Ian Scott, Falkirk Herald
Email published 21 April 2017
There is a street in Larbert called Robert Bruce Court and it’s a fair bet that many people believe that it is a salute to the great King of Scots who triumphed at Bannockburn in 1314.
The truth is very different and takes us back to another turbulent period in Scotland’s history when the battle for religious power was at its height following the Reformation of 1560.
Robert Bruce of Kinnaird was born in Airth Castle to aristocratic family with ties back to ‘the Bruce’, and was destined for a career in the law. While studying at St Andrews University he came under the influence of John Knox himself and after years of wrestling with his conscience turned his mind to the church. He discovered in himself a great power as a preacher and was soon attracting attention in the court of King James V1.
Bruce’s high family connections and legal training made him a powerful ally for the young King and he was soon one of the inner circle that shaped religious and political events. He was appointed to Knox’s old pulpit of St Giles and was more or less in charge of Scotland while James was in Denmark to collect his new wife.But all was not well between the two. Bruce was suspicious of the King’s changing theology and James for his part thought his former friend might become a rival: “Master Robert Bruce I am sure intends to be King and declare himself heir to Robert the Bruce”.
The big fall out came in 1600 when the King ordered all Ministers in Edinburgh to condemn the Gowrie brothers as traitors from their pulpits. Without proof Bruce refused and as a punishment he was banned from preaching and then exiled from Scotland. He was allowed to return home though banished to Inverness.
Finally he was confined to his home at Kinnaird and not allowed to travel more that two miles from there.
At this time the old church at Larbert Cross was in ruins with services in the parish taking place at Dunipace which was then joined to Larbert. Robert Bruce tells us that he and others decided to restore both church and services: “Captain William Bruce and Master Livingstone began it and I came the third restoring the walls and pulpit”.
From then on every Sunday he preached with great power against the changes to religious practice ordered from London by James and his son Charles 1. Thousands came to the village to hear him and he soon became one of the key figures in the evolving Scottish covenanting tradition.
He died at Kinnaird House in July 1631 and 4000 people came to his funeral, an astonishing number given the size of the population at the time.
His gravestone is inscribed CHRISTUS IN VITA ET IN MORTE LUCRUM or ‘Christ is my advantage in life and death’. It now stands inside the church and his grave in the churchyard has a later inscription which says that he was buried below the pulpit of the old church.
The Kinnaird House of Bruce’s time was replaced in the 1700s and that building was itself demolished and a new house built in the late 19th century.
The intensity of Robert Bruce’s religious conviction may be a bit strong for our modern taste but there can be no doubt that he was a man of high principle who lost everything to defend what he believed in. He was also one of the most famous men in Scotland once described by the King as “worth half the kingdom”.
extracted from
Where Iron Runs Like Water!
A New History of Carron Iron Works 1759-1982
by Brian Watters
Houses were built for the miners and included the Red Row at the village of Carronhall and nearer to Kinnaird on the "Longdyke", there was the "Red Houses" and the "Square of Houses". As late as 1871, there was the village of "Old Engine", on the north side of the Bellsdyke Road close to the eastern entrance to Kinnaird Estate. This was the site of the "Engine Pit", used for many years to pump water from the Kinnaird coalfield. Some of the miners lived at Back 0' Dykes and at Bensfield, the latter at that time was a small "steading" to the east of the present day farmhouse of that name [which today stands opposite the site of Back 0' Dykes]. Another village complete with a school was established near to Cuttyfield Farm and given the name "Kinnaird"; it was built by James Bruce. In Carronshore itself, the Bothy Row was home to many miners. Both villages at Carronhall and Kinnaird had their own friendly societies, early forms of insurance schemes. These operated independently from the main "Carron Founders Friendly Society” at the Works, as Carron Company had refused the miners entry to it, believing that it would encourage absenteeism at the pits. THE CARRON COLLIERIES
Extracted from The History of Stirlingshire
Chapter XVIII. Kinnaird and Dunmore
Immediately to the east of the Kinnaird mansion – a house built to be lived in, not looked at – we have one of the prettiest objects on this old estate, in the form of a magnificent arcade of lime trees. Within the garden there are also two planes of gigantic dimensions, growing side by side, with a rustic seat between, which were planted by Bruce, the preacher, and his wife in commemoration of their marriage. It was here where the distinguished divine passed away, without pain or sickness, in August, 1631, aged seventy-seven years. When his sight failed him, he called for the family Bible, and asked his finger to be placed on Romans viii, 28, and told those present that he died in the faith of what was there contained.
It was within this house, too, that Bruce, of Abyssinian fame, met with the fatal fall. The trophies which he brought with him from abroad are here carefully preserved, and form an interesting little museum. There are among other memorials of the exploratory tour, a cloak and cap – hemp-woven, and clad with feathers of scarlet and black – which were presented to the traveller by the chief who murdered Captain Cook; a petrified impression of a horse’s knee-joint, wonderfully distinct; a phial of water from the "fountain" of the Nile; a numerous assortment of reptiles in bottles; the clock, carried by Bruce over his rambles, which has a pendulum of triangular devices’ a great old astronomical quadrant of brass, of two or three feet radius, a camel’s load of itself; some rifles, Turkish sabres, and other arms from the Levant; helmets from Otaheiti; various fragments of Egyptian antiquities; a number of small antique bronzes, and Greek and Roman coins collected by Bruce in the countries which border the Mediterranean. The works contained in the portfolios consisted of architectural drawings of the Roman triumphal arch at Tripoli, and of aqueducts and other ancient buildings, near the site of Carthage, on the north-east coast of Africa, and unpublished botanical drawings of Abyssinian plants; and likewise a host of other odds and ends, all interesting, more or less, from certain associative stories of their own. But there was also an Ethiopic version, from the Greek, of the Book of Enoch, which the traveller placed in the hands of his countrymen by his Abyssinian expedition. These prophecies of Enoch and Noah, were well known to the early fathers of the church, although they had been entirely lost sight of during the middle ages. The work, however, is generally considered apocryphal, and no doubt belongs to a period prior to that of the Christian era. The traveller had the panels of the base of the bookcase ornamented with figures, painted in the style of the Herculaneum fresco figures, by David Allan of Edinburgh, an eminent artist of that time.
Bruce was a keen sportsman, and used to go in the season to a place thirty miles off in the Highlands, on Loch Lubnaig, called Ard Whillary, the shooting and fishing belonging to which he rented. In an enclosure of a few acres at Kinnaird, he had some fallow deer, and would show his skill as a marksman, by bringing down a fat buck with his rifle, when he intended to give a venison feast. He had a pair of swans to ornament his pond, and the neighbours said he was wont to pass off his geese for swans too.
At Kinnaird, we are on the threshold of a vast coal seam. And connected with pit No. 10 is an old engine which was erected in 1786, by Symington, for Bruce, the traveller. Although now groaning sadly under the pressure of years, the huge machine, as a pumper, has still few equals in Scotland. Previous to 1775, all the hewers and coal-bearers connected with our colleries, were held in bondage as serfs, and were actually transferable with the pits to which they were attached. Nor did the Emancipatory Act of the year mentioned do more than set them nominally free.
Findlay Russell Farmer, campaigner and ice-cream entrepreneur
from 29th June 2005 Herald and Times archive with corrections
FINDLAY Russell, farmer and entrepreneur who campaigned successfully to widen the Glasgow-Stirling road, and was involved in founding Glasgow Zoo, has died at the age of 87.
Findlay never worked an eight-hour day when, in twice the time, he would achieve three times the output. Innovator and inventor, neither did he employ orthodox methods in having the Glasgow-Stirling road improved.
This was in 1953 and, after cannily surveying traffic on every major road in central Scotland, he was able to point out that the 25-mile stretch of single carriageway was "Scotland's busiest road". With an average width of just 18ft, it was also the narrowest. It was also some 14 years after original road improvements had been halted by war. Mounting the pressure was the Traders' Road Transport Association, founded by Findlay, and of which he just happened also to be chairman.
The road traders collared MPs, lobbied Westminster and engaged the press. Behind the scene, Russell used the embarrassment factor, erected homemade signs for several miles reading "You're on Scotland's most dangerous road", "1637 accidents in six years", and "What? No money", the last referring to the effects of the postwar credit squeeze. Russell could be awkward, but he also did his homework.
He discovered that when work had been halted in 1939, money had actually been granted. Therefore, he argued, it was still available. The upshot was a meeting with J Henderson Stewart, under-secretary of state for Scotland, and the building of the road to include a deviation away from Cumbernauld new town.
Born at the family farm of Haircraigs near Denny, and twice dux of Dennyloanhead School, he sacrificed the opportunity of higher education to help out on the family farm. He made his money by finding a niche, such as supplying Calor gas to the agricultural industry for home and dairy use. Always ready for a photo opportunity, he launched his enterprise with a propane-powered Ford Cortina offering sample runs from the Dobbie Hall, Larbert.
The venue was appropriate, given that the hall would have been demolished but for Findlay's efforts.
Findlay was nothing if not innovative - farm machinery, ice-cream production, vending machines and self-build homes all f lowed from the Russell mind and proved his Midas touch. In 1936 he pioneered a mobile milk bar to sell off his father's surplus milk, gained the interest of coach-builder Walter Alexander, and parked it at Callendar Riggs outside the old bus station, selling milk shakes. Two days before Rangers took on Falkirk at Brockville in the Scottish Cup tie, Russell gave the home team the run of the milk bar, reaping newspaper publicity by the column-yard.
At the opening of the Kincardine Bridge in 1936, Findlay had Bette Kidd, a young tearoom manageress, employed to staff one of his milk bars. She worked for him on another milk bar at the 1939 Empire Exhibition, and in 1940 they married.
He sold Haircraigs in 1947 to concentrate on his half-dozen businesses. By this time his icecream sales at the Highland Show - the days when the show moved around Scotland - had made a name for him, and he took a wider look at agricultural shows, supplying catering, tents, marquees and PA systems. Where he went, business followed, at shows, Open golf and motor racing.
His loudspeaker vans even had cigarette-vending machines.
After the Highland Show in Dundee when the turnover reached [pounds]3500 in one day and 35,000 customers were served, he went to the United States to find new ideas. On his return he invented an ice-cream server which kept several dozen cones crisp, with one ready for the next ice-cream. He relished his election as a member of the Institute of Patentees and Inventors.
Always interested in his community, he was a local councillor for more than 30 years, a special constable who rose to commandant, a Rotarian who won the coveted Paul Harris Fellowship "for service above self", a driving force behind Age Concern, and a constant worker for the Order of St John. He was at the forefront of the saving of historic Callendar House, and the restoration of Kinnaird House.
Passionately interested in animals, he was a founder member at the 1947 opening of Calderpark Zoo. Unsurprisingly, he gained the catering franchise, using the bodies of two Army lorries as kiosks. But when forced to stump up rates on them as permanent buildings, he made sure his new kiosks for Craigend Zoo (now Mugdock Country Park) were on wheels.
He was predeceased by his wife, Bette (Elizabeth Kidd), and survived by his children Margaret, Archie and Elizabeth, eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
John Findlay Russell, farmer, entrepreneur and campaigner; born June 19, 1917, died June 4, 2005.
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