IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Bellsmyre Avenue, DUMBARTON, G82 3AY

A detached cottage beside Stirling Road; see Image for context. See also Image There was a cottage called Bellsmyre here at the time of the first-edition OS map (c.1860). The OS Object Name Book describes it as "a cottage on the east side of the Trust Road that leads from Dumbarton to Bonhill". The name Bellsmyre was later given to the large area of housing that appeared to the east and south-east of the cottage after the Second World War. In Dumbarton Cemetery, near the Image, there is a gravestone, dating from the 1870s or 1880s, for the resident of "Bellismyre Cottage, Dumbarton". That form of the name is intermediate between the present-day Bellsmyre, and the much older Belliesmyre, which can be seen on certain old estate plans and in some Valuation Rolls. This older spelling does not appear on any OS maps. The name goes back several centuries. For example, a Teinds Valuation compiled by the parish minister in 1656 includes it among several other local place-names: the relevant entry is for "Guisholme with Belliesmyre" (for "Guisholme", see Image). [The Teinds Valuation referred to above is "The rentall of the stocked teinds of the Parishine of Dumbartane givin up be Mr David Elphingstoune, minister thereof", as given on page 281, in Appendix F, of "Dumbarton Common Good Accounts 1614-60". David Elphinstone, who compiled the Teinds Valuation given in that appendix, was parish minister at Dumbarton for about 30 years, from 1633 onwards.]

Image is ahead. Bellsmyre is also the name of an area of housing nearby. See the link just given for earlier forms of the place-name. The Image can be seen, left of centre, in front of Carman Hill.

The photograph was taken from Stirling Road, and shows the south-western edge of Bellsmyre.

The appearance of the buildings on this street has changed greatly in recent years. They looked very different about 30 years ago, when I passed through here more often.

This Brewers Fayre establishment lies at a convenient location for Loch Lomond road traffic.

The site is shown from another angle, a week earlier, in Image

Click on the end-note title for other views. In the present view, preparations for demolition are under way. The low building in front of the tower block on the right is the Cutty Sark Community Centre; it stands on the same site as the previous community centre, which had been called Howatshaws Hall, and which can be seen in an earlier view Image See also Image, corresponding to the present picture, but taken almost a year later.

Comparison with a picture taken about two months earlier shows the progress on the outer shell: Image See also Image, taken about two months after the present picture.

At the far right, on the other side of the road, is part of the Cutty Sark Community Centre. In the right foreground is the boundary fence of a mountain bike skills trail (shown in an earlier picture, Image). For a view from another angle, a week later, see Image

Compare Image, a similar view from a little over two months earlier.