By Bill Heaney Pictures by John Paul Lusk
Smoke was still spiralling into the evening sky tonight from the wreckage of Dumbuck Hotel which holds a special place in the memories of so many local people.
Fire engines, heavy demolition vehicles and police cars were in attendance at the site and traffic taking the A814 low road into town had to pass the scorched landmark in single file at an appropriate funereal speed.
Wilful fire raisers had done their worst this time. Their first attempt to burn the Dumbuck down had left a sliver of hope that it might rise again like a phoenix from the ashes.
Now, however, all hope appears to have gone forever. There will be no more wedding receptions, civic receptions or people simply having a nice dinner and a glass of wine on a staff night out.
John Barleycorn aplenty will no longer be poured in generous measures and toasted by the Burns Club or lunches enjoyed by Rotarians or the Lions Club.
We can’t say for certain of course that the two fires which have scorched the rafters of the old hotel were started deliberately.
Police and Fire Brigade experts are working hard to find the cause of the blaze which has caused anger and dismay in the Dumbarton community which appears to be falling apart.
The old town is a shadow of its former proud self, the grey sandstone county town of Dumbarton with its Burgh Hall, the Municipal Buildings and Sheriff Court.
And the River Leven running through it down to Dumbarton Castle and the confluence with the River Clyde, the shores of which are sadly polluted with raw sewage.
It’s no longer a place to go for a paddle or a picnic, a boiling of spuds on a fire lit with sticks from the flotsam and jetsam washed up around the paddling pond.
Levengrove Park is the town’s saving grace, a credit to the people who have worked hard to retain the rolling lawns and flower beds. No credit at all to the Council, whose sad lack of acumen and foresight led to the closure of the Pavilion Cafe.
Thousands of people will see the flowers and trees in all their glory this weekend at the pipe band championships that have become so popular in Dumbarton.
The skirl of the pipes will echo along the dilapidated High Street with its traffic jams and shrouded shop fronts.
But the pipers will still walk with a swagger in their kilts for a dram and a pint in the Glencairn Lounge but sadly not The Waverley in Bridgend which has now closed after an attempt to revive it failed.
The local shops owned by local people are closed and shuttered with the only butcher doing business in the Bell Centre, the old High Church where the Rev Jim Thomson once preached.
Woolworths is the Captain James Lang now from Wetherspoons and Glencairn House is shrouded front and back in netting to catch the dirt and falling debris, where £8.5 million of “levelling up” money is being squandered on a new library.
The tailor shops have gone. Burtons no more. Claude Alexander No More. John Collier, the Fifty Bob Tailor No More. Even The Store, the Co-op by another name, has departed Dumbarton for more respectable environs. Who remembers their granny’s Store number now?
Birrell’s sweetie shop, Callaghan the fruiterer, Grant’s the butcher, Mason’s and Grant’s for furniture, Graham the Baker, Chalmers the jeweller, Easiphit and Stead and Simpson, we were well shod, the City Bakeries for cream cookies, afternoon tea and a game of whist, Paddy Harrison’s, the Burgh Bar, the Lennox Bar and the Galvanic.
A shirt and tie for a funeral you could get in Edwards’ or the Store drapery; a newspaper from Langland’s or Birkmyres and banks when you were posh if you had a bank account.
St Augustine’s, the Old Parish Church, the North Church and Hiram Walker’s offices along with Mac’s Bar and Miss McIntyre’s Ladieswear shop were in Church Place with Lawrence the Printer.
There were bookies even then and although they were illegal Charlie Young and Tommy Craig had their “blowers” up closes, one of which handily housed the local pawn shop.
Castle Street had the distillery and Kit Davison’s Emporium and the gates to Denny’s famous shipyard where the staff celebrated their annual Dinner and Dance along Glasgow Road in the Dumbuck Hotel. Memories were made of this … and so much more.
They came back to finish the job.
And with the old building gone no doubt a new housing development will most probably be waiting in the wings.