On the west side of the Bonny Water at Bonnybridge a low-lying park was used in the early 20th century for the occasional public event. It was kept in pasture and the east-facing valley slopes formed a natural theatre. It was also conveniently close to the village centre. To the west it was bounded by the railway, but that did not matter as there was little housing in that direction and access was down a track off the main street from the north, opposite to the Royal Hotel.
The park had long been known simply as “Jenny’s Park” and came into the ownership of Duncan Stewart who had set up a building company in the town called Duncan Stewart & Sons. In 1934 the firm gave permission for the Bonnybridge Carnival Committee to hold its first gala day there on 18 August. There were many events at the gala including a fancy-dress parade, a baby competition, an old men’s race, and wrestling. The main feature was a procession of the school children from Anderson Public Park at the east end of the village to Jenny’s Park. On the way it stopped at the Bonnybridge Memorial Park where the queen-elect, Jessie Porteous, placed a wreath at the foot of the monument. By the time that it arrived at Jenny’s Park a crowd of almost 4,000 was waiting for it. It was such a success that it was repeated the following August – Molly Shanley was the queen that year. At the ceremony, on 3 August 1935, John Stewart of Duncairn, representing the firm of Duncan Stewart & Co Ltd and the family of the late Duncan Stewart, presented the title deeds of the seven acre field as a public park to the Central No 2 District Council represented by Councillor DH Mann. It was also announced that the field would henceforth be known as the Duncan Stewart Public Park. The Council had great plans for the site and immediately intimated that a public subscription would be opened to fund improvements. The first priority was seats, and then drainage. The low-lying part of the field adjacent to the river would require filling up. Other suggestions such as an open-air swimming pool and a pond for model yachts were not going to be achieved in the short term. That December the community presented John Stewart with a silver salver in recognition of his public gift.
The Bonnybridge Co-operative Society donated swings to the park and Smith & Wellstood Ltd presented seats. The gala was again staged in what was now the Duncan Stewart Park in August 1936 and 1937. There was a hiatus in 1938 but it returned in 1939 with music by the Tannochside Harmonica Band, the Banknock and Haggs Pipe Band, the Allandale Pipe Band, and so on.
Despite the commencement of the Second World War, Bastable’s Shows appeared in the park for a two week period in May 1940. This included scooter cars, Ben Hur, hobby horses and swings. As the war deepened, part of the park was given over to allotments in 1941. Then, when it was all over, a drumhead service was held there in June 1946, followed by Victory celebrations in Anderson Public Park.
The war had interfered with the programme of improvement at the park and some members of the public had grown impatient. So it was with a touch of relief and disbelief that they noted in 1947:
“that Jenny’s Park, that monument to lethargic officialdom, is at long last to have a course of beauty treatment… the tipping of rubbish which was to have effected a levelling out process has gone awry and a miniature bing is arising in its place in certain parts” (Falkirk Herald 3 May 1947, 4).
Drainage was to be installed and the made-up ground in the north-west corner was to be levelled. However, it was the autumn of 1951 before, after a gap of 24 years, junior football was re-introduced to the village with the formation of a new club, the Bonnybridge Juniors, to play on the new pitch. The pitch was not in a fit condition and its construction had upset the other members of the community who used the park. Their feelings were again vented through the pages of the Falkirk Herald:
“I would be pleased to learn through the medium of your newspaper what right a football or any other organisation has to charge for admission to a public park. The Duncan Stewart memorial park at Bonnybridge has been fenced through the middle and a style erected for the collecting of charges. Not only so, but they are collecting before people get to the park at all. I understand that about £3,500 to £4,000 has been spent trying to make a football pitch. A bulldozer was in use for weeks levelling the ground and burst the drainage system, and a fortnight ago about 50 men worked all day on the Sunday to try to make it fit for a match on the Monday, but oh, what a failure! (8 September 1951, 5).
To make matters worse the swings had been taken to Longcroft, the seats were rotten, and the iron fence at the entrance was down.
In 1953 a tree blocked the free flow of water in the Bonny with the result that part of Duncan Stewart Park flooded and sand was deposited. Some football matches had to be moved to other venues. The wooden pavilion subsequently caught fire and had to be replaced by one of brick. The park continued to be much used and the Falkirk and District Motor Club held a motor cycle rally there that year and the Bonnybridge Highland Games were started. The main user remained the football team and its fans. In 1971 an adventure playground was installed in the north-west portion of the park.
The drainage of the football field was a perennial problem and was not fully resolved until 1996. In that decade the park was one of six in the Falkirk District to be awarded Queen Elizabeth Field status to safeguard it as an open space and this is commemorated by a plaque near the main entrance.
By the first decade of the next century the park had four main areas: a play area with equipment for a wide range of ages; a sports pitch with changing facilities and a running track; a multi-use games area (MUGA pitch); and a large open area of grass. The majority of the park is now mown grass with some amenity tree and shrub planting. With the end of the gravel extraction in the adjacent lands of Bonnyfield that area was made into a local nature reserve and a link path was put in from the bottom of the Duncan Stewart Park.
Falkirk Local History Society 