IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
High Street, FALKIRK, FK1 1NW

Looking up at the 140 foot Steeple which was completed in 1814 - the third Tolbooth on this site. It was designed by David Hamilton and built from locally quarried sandstone. For many years it housed the town's jail.

Information in the window of the Category A listed http://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/LB31178 building: The town of Falkirk has had a steeple since the late 16th or early 17th century. The current steeple is the third Falkirk Steeple, but only the second one to occupy this site. In 1812 Glasgow architect David Hamilton was commissioned to design a new steeple. Building work began in 1813. The ground floor originally housed a shop. Above this was a small room originally occupied by the town’s jailkeeper. The next two rooms above were used as prison cells until around 1860. The heavy wooden doors and iron bolts can still be seen. The upper floor contained a meeting room with impressive views along the High Street. The new 140 foot steeple was completed in 1814. The steeple bell carried the inscription ‘May Falkirk Flourish’. In 1927 a lightning strike damaged the top 40 feet of the steeple, with repairs being made the following year. The steeple was fully refurbished in 2016 as part of the Falkirk THI Project. For more information and opening times visit Falkirksteeple.com

Category A listed http://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/LB31178 town steeple, built 1813-14. See Image for more information.

Weather vane on top of the town steeple in Falkirk. The 140 foot steeple was completed in 1814.

The Steeple stands alongside the Market Place on the High Street and is the third to occupy the site. The first was a 16th or 7th century structure which was demolished in 1697 having become unsafe. The second suffered from serious subsidence after its foundations became damaged – it was demolished in 1803. The current structure cost £1,460 to erect in 1814. It was designed by David Hamilton and built by Henry Taylor using sandstone from the quarry at nearby Brightons. It is 140 feet high and, at ground level, is 22 feet square, and has not been without further difficulties: The upper 40 feet of the tower were replaced after being struck by lightning in June 1927. A horse belonging to Barr & Co., aerated water manufacturers, was killed by the falling masonry and its driver injured. The town jail was once housed within The Steeple, and two cells on the upper floors, accessed by a narrow spiral staircase, survive.

Tolbooth Street in Falkirk is claimed to be the shortest street in Britain. Is it? Image

An impressive doorway to a Category B listed http://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/LB31176 building on High Street. J F Colley is a Goldsmiths shop. The Tollbooth Tavern is beyond.

The shortest street in Great Britain at just 17.67 metres (58 feet).

Public house in Falkirk Image

A delivery man wheels in a trolley with tins of beer to the Tollbooth Tavern. The delivery van is parked in the High Street. Tollbooth Street, which is the shortest street in Great Britain at just 17.67 metres (58 feet) is also a bit narrow for delivery vehicles.