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Tillicoultry ( ;
Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...
: Tulach Cultraidh, perhaps from older Gaelic ''Tullich-cul-tir'', or "the mount/hill at the back of the country") is a town in
Clackmannanshire Clackmannanshire (; ; ), or the County of Clackmannan, is a Shires of Scotland, historic county, Council areas of Scotland, council area, registration counties, registration county and Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in Scotland ...
, Scotland. Tillicoultry is usually referred to as Tilly by the locals. One of the Hillfoots Villages on the A91, which runs from
Stirling Stirling (; ; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Central Belt, central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town#Scotland, market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the roya ...
to St. Andrews, Tillicoultry is situated at the southern base of the
Ochil Hills The Ochil Hills (; ) is a range of hills in Scotland north of the River Forth, Forth valley bordered by the cities of Stirling, Perth, Scotland, Perth and the towns of Alloa, Kinross, and Auchterarder . The only major roads crossing the hil ...
, which provide a spectacular backdrop. The River Devon lies to the south. The river also runs through neighbouring villages
Dollar Dollar is the name of more than 25 currencies. The United States dollar, named after the international currency known as the Spanish dollar, was established in 1792 and is the first so named that still survives. Others include the Australian d ...
and Alva to the east and west respectively. The former mining village of Coalsnaughton lies just south, whilst
Alloa Alloa (Received Pronunciation ; Scottish pronunciation /ˈaloʊa/; , possibly meaning "rock plain") is a town in Clackmannanshire in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It is on the north bank of the Forth at the spot where some say it ceases to ...
lies southwest. The "hill" referred to in the first etymology is likely to be Kirkhill, at the east of the town. The alternative Latin etymology, ''Tellus culta'', the cultivated land, suggested by Rev. William Osborne, minister of the parish from 1773 to 1794, is also possible. However, as both etymologies could equally be applied to many places in Scotland, both are suspect, as neither define the town in a unique manner.


History

The estate of Tillicoultry was taken from Aleumus de Meser in 1261 by Alexander III for failure to render due feudal services. The estate had originally been received by de Meser's father, also Aleumus, from Alexander II. It was then granted to William Count of Mar and remained in possession of the Mar, and then by marriage of Margaret, Countess of Mar, to
William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas (c. 1323 – 1 May 1384) was a Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish nobleman, peer, magnate, and head of the Black Douglas family. Under his leadership, the Black Douglases continued their climb to pre-eminence i ...
, the Douglas family until 1483,Fraser, Sir William, ''The Douglas Book'' vol iii, p23, Edinburgh 1885
/ref> when it changed hands to the ancestors of Lord Colville of Culross. By 1634 it was sold to Sir William Alexander of Menstrie (later, 1st Earl of Stirling). Between 1644 and 1840, ownership of the estate changed hands frequently. The origins of the village lie in the Westertown (previously Cairnstown) area, where the road to Stirling crossed the Tillicoultry
Burn A burn is an injury to skin, or other tissues, caused by heat, electricity, chemicals, friction, or ionizing radiation (such as sunburn, caused by ultraviolet radiation). Most burns are due to heat from hot fluids (called scalding), soli ...
. It is thought that the centre of Westertown was probably in the area now known as Shillinghill. There are records of a
Parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...
existing in Tillicoultry from 1639, and knowledge of cloth manufacture dating from the 1560s. Traces of a
Druid A druid was a member of the high-ranking priestly class in ancient Celtic cultures. The druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no wr ...
circle, sixty feet in diameter, were found in the eastern area of the parish at the end of the 18th century. A
Pictish Pictish is an extinct Brittonic Celtic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from late antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited number of geog ...
fortress stood upon the Castle Craig, near the current site of Craigfoot Quarry on Wood Hill, to the west of Tillicoultry Glen. This has long since been ruined, however legend has it that the stone of the fortress was employed in the building of
Stirling Castle Stirling Castle, located in Stirling, is one of the largest and most historically and architecturally important castles in Scotland. The castle sits atop an Intrusive rock, intrusive Crag and tail, crag, which forms part of the Stirling Sill ge ...
. Due to the rapid growth of the village during the 19th century, there were problems with overcrowding, poor housing, high infant mortality, water supply and drainage. In an attempt to address these problems, Tillicoultry
Burgh A burgh ( ) is an Autonomy, autonomous municipal corporation in Scotland, usually a city, town, or toun in Scots language, Scots. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when David I of Scotland, King David I created ...
was created in 1871. It lasted until 1975 when it disappeared as a result of local government reorganisation. Around 1930, one of the first bus stations in the country was built at Murray Square to serve the eight bus services which terminated in the town. The original glass and
cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...
shelters were replaced by modern shelters some time ago. Despite the growth in car ownership and the corresponding decline in
public transport Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...
, Tillicoultry, and indeed all the Hillfoots villages, retain a regular bus service. The old Harviestoun estate, where Archibald Tait (1811–82),
Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...
, spent much of his boyhood, lies East-North-East of the village.
Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the List of national poets, national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the be ...
visited the estate in the summer of 1787, during his stay he wrote ''The Banks of the Devon'' and ''Fairest Maid on Devon Banks''. A commemorative
cairn A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...
at the roadside, near the east lodge to Harviestoun, marks this event.


Industry

The burn which runs off the Ochils and down through the glen into west of the village provided an attractive source of water for the early
textile Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, and different types of #Fabric, fabric. ...
industry in Tillicoultry, being used for the washing and dying of wool. During the early 18th century a cloth known as Tillicoultry Serge was manufactured by weaving
worsted Worsted ( or ) is a high-quality type of wool yarn, the fabric made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from Worstead (from Old English ''Wurðestede'', "enclosure place"), a village in the English county of Norfolk. T ...
with
linen Linen () is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant. Linen is very strong and absorbent, and it dries faster than cotton. Because of these properties, linen is comfortable to wear in hot weather and is valued for use in garments. Lin ...
. By the time of the
Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...
the burn was a recognised source of power, with the first mill being established in the 1790s. Many more
textile mill Textile manufacturing or textile engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful good ...
s were built along the burnside, by the 1830s, steam powered mills were introduced and by 1870 there were 12 mills employing over 2000 people. As the industry expanded, more workers were attracted to the village. The population of the parish, which had stood less than 1,000 at the turn of the 19th century, had grown to over 4,500 by the early 1850s. Textile mills and
coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...
mines remained the biggest employers of the local population until the first half of the 20th century. In the 1950s the most recent
colliery Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extra ...
to be worked, on the south bank of the River Devon, set new productivity records due to a high level of
mechanisation Mechanization (or mechanisation) is the process of changing from working largely or exclusively by hand or with animals to doing that work with machinery. In an early engineering text, a machine is defined as follows: In every fields, mechan ...
. Its impressive
adit An adit (from Latin ''aditus'', entrance) or stulm is a horizontal or nearly horizontal passage to an underground mine. Miners can use adits for access, drainage, ventilation, and extracting minerals at the lowest convenient level. Adits are a ...
entrance, now safely bricked up, can still be seen. In 1851, due to the importance of Tillicoultry as an industrial centre, it became the first Hillfoots village to have a rail connection. In 1921 Samuel Jones Limited established a paper mill at Devonvale, the current site of Sterling Furniture. In 1926, 33 people were employed at the site and the firm returned its first profit. By 1936, 238 staff were employed by the company. Sydney Platfoot was appointed Managing Director of the Devonvale works in 1922, he later went on to become town provost from 1930 to 1936. In 1964, the company merged with Wiggins Teape and by 1967 employed a fifth of the working population. Tillicoultry Quarries Ltd, as the name suggests, was established in 1930 by R.W. Menzies at Craigfoot Quarry Tillicoultry, and remains 100% owned by the Menzies family. Quarrying no longer takes places in Tillicoultry; the company's Head office is based in nearby Kincardine. Quartz-dolerite was first extracted in 1930 from the now inoperative Craigfoot
Quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...

map
, however quarrying had taken place on a smaller scale at the site since 1880. On 26 January 1949 the quarry was the site of a tragic explosion when a
magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...
containing 150 lb of
explosive An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An ex ...
detonated killing quarryman Alexander Honeyman and blowing out doors and windows in the Shillinghill and Upper Mill Street area.


The Flood of 1877

Following a particularly wet summer and torrential rainfall over a 12-hour period, Tillicoultry Burn burst its banks on the morning of 28 August 1877. Flooding was widespread throughout Strathdevon, both Alloa Railway station and Alloa Brewery were submerged, crops were destroyed around
Tullibody Tullibody () is a village set in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies north of the River Forth near to the foot of the Ochil Hills within the Forth Valley. The village is southwest of Alva, Clackmannanshire, Alva, northwest of Alloa and ...
and there was extensive property damage in Dollar also. The Alloa Advertiser described the rainfall as 'not simply heavy rain; it was a terrific downpour- persistent, incessant, it fell in bucketfuls- to use our expressive vernacular it came down like "hale water"'. Workers in mills to the west side of the burn were trapped in their workplaces, unable to cross Mill Street due to the flood water. By breakfast time the houses and shops of High Street were under three feet of water. Three people, Castle Mill owner William Hutchison, dyer William Stillie and Isabella Miller, a young factory worker, were swept away when the bridge on which they were standing collapsed into the flood waters. The collapse was probably due to the impact of water-borne debris upon the embankment on which the foundation of the bridge stood. Both William Hutchison and Isabella Miller perished in the torrent, however William Stillie was rescued further downstream. Despite exhaustive searches, Isabella Miller's body was not recovered for several days. It was eventually discovered at Glenfoot, where the burn joins the River Devon. The village was deprived of water and gas supplies for a week following the flood. The cost of repairs to the Burnside amounted to £2,000.


The village today

As the textile and coal mining industries declined, Tillicoultry became a popular
commuter town A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...
. Many of the mill buildings have been converted into residential accommodation. Tillicoultry railway station, on the Devon Valley Railway was situated opposite Devonvale Hall, and closed in 1964. The Clock Mill, built by James and George Walker of
Galashiels Galashiels (; , ) is a town in the Scottish Borders with a population of around 12,600. Its name is often colloquially shortened to "Gala". The town is a major commercial centre for the Borders region with extensive history in the textile in ...
, is situated at the top of Upper Mill Street. The last production of textiles in the mill was by D. C. Sinclair & Son. They wove high quality mohair goods among others. It was turned into a museum, then a business centre and now residential flats. The village developed on a herring-bone pattern north of the main road. A series of diagonal streets, mostly lined with cottages, lie between the High Street and Walker Terrace, which run parallel. The eastern area of the village has more recent residential developments, dating from the 1940s to the present. Tillicoultry is perhaps now best known for its large retail outlet, Sterling Furniture, based in the former Devonvale
paper mill A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags, and other ingredients. Prior to the invention and adoption of the Fourdrinier machine and other types of paper machine that use an endless belt ...
complex, as well as for the adjacent Sterling Mills shopping centre. The Devon Way walkway links eastward to
Dollar Dollar is the name of more than 25 currencies. The United States dollar, named after the international currency known as the Spanish dollar, was established in 1792 and is the first so named that still survives. Others include the Australian d ...
. The village also has a 400-pupil
Primary School A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...
, which is situated next to the Fir Park artificial ski slope. For
secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...
aged children, the closest school is Alva Academy.


Notable people

* Captain J D Pollock, a
First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
soldier awarded the
Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious decoration of the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British decorations system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British ...
, was born in the village. * Major J L Dawson, awarded the Victoria Cross in the same action as Pollock, was also born in the village. Dawson and Pollock were second cousins. * Professor Sir Hector Hetherington (1888–1965) philosopher buried here, with his son
Alastair Hetherington Hector Alastair Hetherington (31 October 1919 – 3 October 1999) was a British journalist, newspaper editor and academic. For nearly twenty years he was the editor of ''The Guardian'', and he is regarded as one of the leading editors of the s ...
(1919–1999), editor of the Guardian, buried beside him. * Steven Miller, who plays
Lenny Lyons ''Casualty'' is a British medical drama television series that premiered on 6 September 1986 on BBC1. The series was created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin. It is set in the fictional Holby City Hospital, in the equally fictitious city of Hol ...
in the TV series ''
Casualty Casualty may refer to: *Casualty (person), a person who is killed or rendered unfit for service in a war or natural disaster **Civilian casualty, a non-combatant killed or injured in warfare * The emergency department of a hospital, also known as ...
.'' * Sam Fisher, professional footballer who plays for
Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...
.


References

* *
Statistical Account of Tillicoultry, County of Clackmannan 1791-99

Statistical Account of Tillicoultry, County of Clackmannan 1834-45

Clackmannanshire Council - Population Breakdown by Ward 2003

Tillicoultry East Ward Profile (PDF)

Tillicoultry West Ward Profile (PDF)


External links


Tillicoultry Library

Tillicoultry Primary School

Tillicoultry Golf Club



Tillicoultry Centenary Hall

Tillicoultry Centenary Hall on Facebook

Devonvale Hall

Tillicoultry online

The Woolpack Inn



Tillicoultry Bowling Club

Tilly Tea Room

Lemac Engineering UK Ltd.
{{Authority control Towns in Clackmannanshire Hillfoots Villages Mining communities in Scotland Parishes in Clackmannanshire