The Story of Stepps

Down the Years

At the beginning of the twentieth century Stepps was fast developing into an extremely desirable place to live. It still had some way to go, however, as was pointed out in the columns of the Glasgow Evening News in June 1904:

In this Utopia we have no gas for lighting purposes, no public-house with a ten o'clock movement to worry us, and no police office. The drainage system is simplicity itself: there are no drains. We have a Vigilance Committee which includes the entire population (480). There are few trains, the last two from town in the evening being 8.30 and 10.55 - an interval of two hours 25 minutes between them... The golf club (which is growing a fine crop of hay at present) is very practical, and plays for prizes of cheese. The bowling club died a natural death before it existed. The air is very fine at this time of the year, when there is no manure at the station.

A proud resident was quick to leap to the defence of the place (in every respect except for that of the train service!):

Stepps is really a good, safe, healthy place, with many advantages, if only there were more trains, especially between 8 and 10pm. Gas lighting is expected to be introduced next winter, while in regard to the absence of a public-house the desire is that long may that continue. A policeman visits the place four times in the 24 hours, while the population is almost 900. The scythe is shortly to be applied to the golf course, while the bowling club proposal is not quite dead. The manure waggons are now unloaded a quarter of a mile away, and if only Stepps had a better service of trains the people would be quite happy and contented.

For the remainder of the twentieth century Stepps enjoyed the same "ups and downs" as most other places. A very important ceremonial took place in the evening of 29th June 1910, when the Public Park was declared open by Col. Alexander Sprot of Gamkirk & Stravithie. This area of ground, stretching across from Lenzie Road to Blenheim Avenue, had previously been offered by the Colonel to the Parish Council, but had been declined because of legal difficulties in connection with the tennis courts on the site. Some local men had stepped in with an offer to act as Trustees if Col. Sprot would donate the ground to the community per se, and this he had readily agreed to do, even providing financial assistance to the extent of £100, to establish the trust on a sound footing. At the ceremony music was provided by Mossbank Industrial School Pipe Band.

Twenty-eight local men were killed during World War I, some of them at the Battle of the Somme, in 1916. The war casualties included Andrew D.Montgomery, the first Club Captain of Stepps Hockey Club. Inauguration of the War Memorial (originally sited at the foot of Blenheim Avenue) took place on 16th April 1921, with A.B.Macdonald as Chairman, and the unveiling carried out by Col. Sprot (by then Sir Alexander). A dedicatory prayer was said by the Rev. Malcolm Sherman. Five months later a Memorial Tablet was unveiled in the hall of Stepps School, in honour of fifteen former pupils who had perished in the War. An old Stepps resident recalled the harrowing nature of the first Armistice Service at the War Memorial when "people wept openly for fathers, husbands sons and sweethearts" who would never return. During World War II local men staffed an Observers Corps post at the top of Lenzie Brae, and Stepps School was employed as an Evacuation Centre, with staff acting as billeting officers. The school was closed for the day on 7th May 1941, because of an unexploded land mine in the vicinity. After the War about £2,600 was raised for the local Welcome Home Fund. A "Welcome Home Ceremony" was held in the Public Park on 8th September 1946, when local ex-servicemen were presented with £5 each, together with a card bearing the words:

The residents of Stepps, Millerston and Craigendmuir place on record their appreciation of your service in defence of our lives and liberty, their joy at your safe homecoming, and their wish that health and happiness may be yours in many peaceful years to come.

The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth, in 1953, was marked by the removal of the War Memorial to a new site a short distance westwards along the main road, and the creation of a Garden of Remembrance there. Some local people were unhappy that the Memorial should be interfered with in this way, but most were pleased with its new setting. Also in 1953, a new fire station was provided for the village, by rebuilding the old stables at Mount Harriet House. It remained in use until the mid-1970s. In more recent years the most significant improvement has been the construction of the 4½ mile Stepps Bypass, to motorway standards, effectively re-routing the heavy traffic which had been such a hazard to community life in the village. It was opened on 8th June 1992 by Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, MP, Scottish Office Minister for Roads & Transport.

The recent reorganisations of local government have been very confusing for Stepps. Until 1975 it was in the Ninth District of the County of Lanark. It then became part of the Strathkelvin District, within the wider Strathclyde Region. Stepps was accordingly linked more closely to the town of Kirkintilloch, in particular. From 1996, however, Kirkintilloch moves into the new East Dunbartonshire local authority, while Stepps goes into North Lanarkshire, consolidating its southern associations once again.

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