Ian Scott: Centuries of history vanished below shining streets of Falkirk's Howgate

The name tells us that it was the ‘gate’, or road, that runs along the ‘how’ or shallow valley of the West Burn which once flowed down past the infirmary and along Cockburn Street.

When it reached the point where the roundabout is today it turned along Burnhead Lane and out towards West Bridge Street.

Near the roundabout there were stepping stones to allow pedestrians to cross the water which was eventually piped underground in 1870 after repeated flooding caused problems for the tanners as well as local residents.

Of course it is still there, flowing under our feet though there is a bit on the surface outside the old infirmary known for a couple of centuries as Jenny Mair’s Burn.

Jenny was born in 1780 and owned a cottage nearby and used to sit on a chair by the burn passing the time of day with anyone who came along.

She would be delighted to know that we still remember her and that the stream that bears her name has been beautifully restored as part of the refurbishment of the front part of the demolished Royal Infirmary.

From the roundabout the Howgate climbed up towards the town where it entered two other lost closes, Sword’s Wynd named after one of Falkirk’s ancient families and Robert’s Wynd which once housed at least two public houses, the celebrated King’s Head and the Guildford Arms.

As far back as 1641 James Sworde was Procurator Fiscal and Baillie of the Falkirk Regality Court and many of his descendents held high office in the town as well as owning farm land in Mungal.

My favourite one is Andrew who married a widow called Isabella Brock 1819.

When he died a few years later he left her loads of money which she used to buy land at the bottom of Hope Street where she built a new house.

This she named ‘Brockville’ in memory of her first husband James Brock and so it has remained though no longer home to the Falkirk ‘Bairns’.

In one of the Sword’s Wynd buildings the Scottish Temperance League was established in the Victorian era which must have been very welcome in Falkirk High Street, I don’t think!

More popular was the nearby Waverley Public Wash House and Baths run by Mr Dewsnap which was “a much desiderated convenience and a marvel of moderation in respect of tariff”.

I remember the Howgate in the 1950s with the line of old houses with forestairs on one side of the street and a number of shops on the other.

There was a plumbers merchant, a furniture shop and a ‘jenny a’ thing’ second hand shop as well as Munnoch’s upholstery factory.

Across the road was Mitchell’s Dairy with a byre at the back where the cows were milked and at the very top the red brick printing works of George Inglis which was just about the last building left standing before it all disappeared.

In the 1970s the houses were demolished and the ground was used for years as a car park before eventually vanishing with centuries of history below the shining ‘streets’ of the new Howgate Centre.

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