Chapter 15

The Eighties

During the last decade, Stewarton has continued to expand. More houses have been built, the population has further increased, and new faces have appeared on the streets almost every week.

   No longer is Stewarton derided as being "at the back of beyond" .as it used to be back in the pre-1960s when few people came into the town voluntarily. Those who did were invariably men or women whose jobs brought them to Stewarton - school headmasters and teachers,  station-masters, bankers, and doctors. And they usually left as soon as they retired or could arrange a transfer.

   This state of affairs ended years ago and now Stewarton has become a pleasant and desirable place in which to live and raise a family. This has been proved by the large number who came from Glasgow and many other places to set up homes in the Bonnet Toun. And most of those have stayed and have no intention of ever leaving. Other folks even come to the town to retire.

   Back in the old days the small town on the banks of the Annick was a rather narrow-minded, parochial place in which everybody kent  everybody else, and everybody else's business too. While the inhabitants were friendly to strangers, they called them interlopers, even after years of residence. It was said that only those born and bred in the town had the right to call themselves Stewartonians.

   Some old diehards still retain these beliefs and wish that their beloved toun could revert to the so-called "good old days." But most have come to accept the fact that Stewarton today is really a better town than the unattractive and drab place it once was with crumbling buildings and ugly gap sites on the main streets.

   The folks who  came to live in Stewarton have either joined the local organisations or have formed new ones. Take any club, youth group, church, residents'  association  and  other  local bodies, and you find that the majority of the organisers are incomers.

   Stewarton and District Community Council is one of these organisations. It was formed a few years after the town council was disbanded and is an elected body which looks after the town's interests in matters relating to planning, transport, crime, and complaints from the public, etc. It meets in the Town Chambers once per month and the various sub-committees also meet monthly.

   Among its accomplishments have been the provision of a community bus, the play area at Standhead Park in conjunction with the Round Table, the notice-board at the Cross and the provision of electric motorised chairs for the handicapped. It was also involved with the Joint Network Group, including the Resources Centre, the  Cottage,  and  the  free  monthly publication "Stewarton News."

   According   to   Kilmarnock   and Loudoun District Council the population of Stewarton  in October,  1983 was 6,331. Today it is estimated at about 7,500 and likely to increase, for although there are no major developments in the pipeline,  small  estates  are  still  being planned.

   Council house building ceased in the late  Seventies  and  no   new  council properties  have  been  erected  since, although  most  of the  older council properties have been or are being modernised. There are no plans to extend this sector.

   House  ownership  has  increased dramatically over the last decade with the numerous new developments at the Kirk Glebe, Cocklebie, Holm Street, Avenue Square and at the top of Bowes Rigg. Many former council house tenants have purchased their houses from the District Council with price reductions depending on the length of tenancy.

   Stewarton's biggest problem in recent years has been the congested traffic and illegal   parking  on  the   main  streets. Difficulty  in  pedestrians  crossing  the streets, especially at peak times, has led to a petition being organised demanding pedestrian crossings, or traffic lights at the Cross.

   Stewarton in the late Eighties has become a small, bustling town with shops and stores to cater for almost every need.

Business in the factories, if not booming, is  good, and  although  most  males work outside the town, a fair number still manage to find employment locally as well as a large number of females. Sadly, unemployment is rife among the school leavers and that first job is hard to find. While some are employed in youth training schemes, this is often only a stopgap and not a permanent solution to a problem which has been a feature of the 1980s.

   Today,  there  is  no  doubt  that Stewarton had a guid concept of itself. This does not infer that Stewartonians, old and new, are arrogant or overbearing and that they imagine their town to be Utopia. It means that the residents are happy to live in the town of their birth or their choice, proud to proclaim it, and keen  to  make  it  an  even  better place.

   The town's motto is "Knit Weel," which is a tribute to the craftsmen and craftswomen  of both  the  past and present.  Stewarton's  two  decades  of transition are now over and it is to be hoped that the Bonnet Town will continue to be a "weel-knit" community for the generations yet to come.

 PROVOSTS OF STEWARTON