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Elmbank Drive, ALEXANDRIA, G83 9EJ

Vale of Leven Golf Club was founded in 1907. Situated in Bonhill Alexandria, close to Loch Lomond, it boasts an 18 hole course with around 700 members.

Vale of Leven Golf Club founded 1907

John Neill's 1912 book "Records and Reminiscences of Bonhill Parish" offers, on page 43, an explanation for the name Jamestown. I cannot vouch for its correctness, but it is worth quoting here, for interest: "In 1773 a schoolhouse was erected at Dam of Balloch, now called Jamestown, from the fact that three feuars whose individual Christian name was James, had each built a house there."

This is a view, from Second Avenue, of the construction of Dalmonach Community Centre and Early Learning Centre.

Levenbank is a housing development, built in the last few years on what had previously been the site of Image Behind the photographer's position, the former site of Image is now occupied by part of the same development (for other views of the now-demolished structures that used to be here, see Image and Image). See also Image, a view from the other side of the river.

Main Street Bonhill, Bradleys Garage, white building now demolished and Greigs Mill in background.

J & W Greig Ltd, Yarn Spinning Mills Dalmonach Works, Alexandria, Dunbartonshire This used to a Wool and Yarn Mill and has now been knocked down to build Flats and Houses the white building used to be a Garage for many years.

This is what was left of Dalmonoch Works Bonhill now demolished in late 2006 and soon will be a housing development

The picture was taken from the junction with Image The area ahead is called Dalmonach (thought to signify "field of the monks"; compare Image). The green area in the foreground, to the left (north) of the road was, until recent years, the site of Napierston Farm: Image The area called Napierston was also known historically as Bonhill-Napier (there was also a Bonhill-Noble and a Bonhill-Lindsay; see Image). The land that came to be known as Bonhill-Napier or Napierston was granted to Duncan Napier by Walter, Earl of Lennox: "Walter bestowed the 'quarter' of Bonhill, lying next to the lands of Balloch, upon Duncan Napier, lord of Kilmahew, for services rendered by John Napier, his father, to Malcolm, Earl of Lennox, who was slain at Halidon Hill" [Joseph Irving in volume 2 of "The Book of Dumbartonshire" (1879)]. The battle of Halidon Hill took place in July 1333, and the grant is recorded as charter 68 in the Lennox Cartulary: "Carta terrarum de Bullul et Miltoun Duncano Naper", "charter of the lands of Bonhill and Miltoun to Duncan Nap(i)er". On the form "Bullul" for Bonhill, see Image A "Napierstoun" is shown, somewhere in this general area, on the Pont/Blaeu map of the Lennox (the map was published in 1654, but was based largely upon surveys carried out in the 1580s-90s). Roy's Military Survey (1740s-50s) likewise shows "Napierstown". By the time of the first-edition OS map (surveyed in 1860), Napierston Farm is shown here, with Woodside Farm a little further up Auchincarroch Road; that was still the case until less than a decade before this photograph was taken. When the extensive Strathleven Estate was sold off in lots in 1950, these farms made up Lot 7. In some respects, the prospectus treats them as a single entity: they are listed as "another extremely fine T.T. dairy farm known as Napierston and Woodside". The two farms latterly belonged to the same family, which accounts for the fact that there is now a prominent "Napierston Farm" sign on one of the large farm buildings of Woodside Farm. In 2007, shortly before the buildings of Napierston Farm were demolished, the area was archaeologically surveyed to determine whether there was evidence for the farm's location being at the centre of the medieval Napierston area (also known as Bonhill-Napier). No such evidence was found, but this was in line with expectations; it had been thought more likely that the core of the medieval settlement lay in what is now Bonhill (and it is probably that settlement, rather than the more recent farm, that was represented by "Napierstoun" on the Pont/Blaeu map).