Kirkliston – an ancient Scottish village and the Independence Referendum

On the very edge of the City of Edinburgh council and lieutenancy area lies the village of Kirkliston. I moved here almost thirty years ago from Durham, from a village whose Saxon name means The Cliff of the Demon.  Thirty one years on from that move, on September 18th 2014, Scotland will vote on its independence.

The population of Scotland on census day in 2011 was estimated to be 5,295,400, but until Release 2 of the 2011 census data is published, I only have the 2011 Census data to go on, which shows a population of 3,043 for Kirkliston, a figure that undoubtedly will have risen sharply because of extensive new housing development since 2001. (Wikipedia mysteriously quotes a figure of 6,912(!) for 2001 – God knows where they got that… )

A WEE BIT OF HISTORY

The village, a kind of node among farmland in what was West Lothian, was called variously Listone, Listun, Listona. The prefix Kirk was added sometime in the 14th century, but parts of the church date from the very late 12th century (1196), and a stone in the kirkyard proclaims its 800th anniversary in 1996. So the auld kirk pre-dates the Union by 511 years - over half a millennium of a proudly independent Scotland - four years after William the Lion, King of Scotland, had humiliatingly bought his crown back from Richard the Lionheart in a deal brokered by Pope Celestine III, 360 years before Scotland broke with the Papacy in the Scottish Reformation. Come to think of it, Robin Hood (if he existed) would have been fighting with the Sheriff of Nottingham around that time.

Kirkliston Kirk was already 39 years old when the Estates of Scotland (the first Scottish Parliament) met in the village in 1235. The oldest house in the village now is Castle House, within which is a marriage lintel dated 1683. In 1298, Edward the First of England made camp at Kirkliston, heading for Falkirk to meet up with William Wallace on my birthday. Wallace lost Blàr na h-Eaglaise Brice, the Battle of Falkirk, and resigned as Guardian of Scotland.

Charles the First passed through in 1663 on his way to Linlithgow Palace, and in 1745, Bonnie Prince Charlie, heading south to Derby, also passed through the village, stopping only for a quick haircut at George’s Hair Design. In 1787, Rabbie Burns passed the night at Castle House, which was then an inn.

THE VILLAGE AS IT IS TODAY

Kirkliston has seen many changes over its long history. The railway came – and went. The Distillery came – and went. Drambuie, a key employer in the area for many years, came and went.

So the era of the village as a base of industry and employment for locals has ended. Today most villagers work elsewhere, apart from the solid local small businesses. Main Street and the crossroads are the focal point for these, with Frank McMullan’s garage at the east end, the Co-operative Store at the crossroads and a group of small businesses along the Main Street, culminating in Kirkliston News and Georges Hair Design at the east end.

The focal points of village life for many are the Kirk, the new Community Church in the old Masonic Hall in the Main Street, the bowling club, the community centre and the leisure centre and of course the library. The excellent primary school is also highly significant to those with young families, There is a community nursery school, private nurseries, sheltered housing, and the annual Children’s Gala is focused on the young people of the village.

There is now a very wide range of housing in the village, and it has developed from the ancient village, epitomised by the Kirk and Castle House, to the mainly Victorian ‘old village’, into successive new developments, with a huge recent surge of new housing projects, including affordable housing part-funded by the Scottish Government.

The building industry is the first to feel to icy breath of recession and the first to sense an imminent recovery. The number of new developments suggests a confidence in Scotland’s economic and social future that I find exhilarating and encouraging.

THE VILLAGE AND THE REFERENDUM

Kirkliston embraces all social classes, especially if one includes Newliston House and Dundas Castle in the scope of the village, and it undoubtedly spans all shades of political opinion - and none.

How aware are the people of Kirkliston of the huge event in Scotland’s history that is approaching fast – the choice that must must be made in 476 days time on the future of the nation – the Referendum on Scotland’s independence on September 18th 2014?

I fear I am not best equipped to answer that question, except impressionistically, because although I love the village and have lived here very happily for three decades, I am not highly involved in the daily life of the village, in the way that someone with a young family at school would be, or a local business person. I am not a church member, nor do I bowl, and I have no real involvement in community activities, in the way that many admirable village residents and activists do – in the community council, in their churches, in village events.

I sense no high awareness or interest in current political events, but I do recognise a commitment to organisations and events that tend to emphasise the status quo – things as they are, not as they might be.

There has been no big, colourful event that might engage people’s interest in the way that seems necessary in this age of celebrity culture. Only the dedicated canvassers and leafletters will get this feel, and as the 476 days tick away and we get closer to the fateful day, I can only hope that the people of Kirkliston awaken to the magnitude of the choice they must make on September 18th 2014 – to vote YES, NO or not to vote at all – in a referendum that will affect every aspects of their lives, their families lives, the lives of their children and grandchildren  for generations to come.

This is not just another election – a choice for five years, with an opportunity to choose again if the wrong choice is made. The last choice of this significance was made over three centuries ago, in 1707. A vote for YES is a vote for a radical change, but a NO vote is not a vote for the status quo, because the status quo is evaporating before our eyes.

A YES vote – in my view – will be a vote for a challenging future, with no easy guarantees and many uncertainties, but a future that will be in our own hands - the hands of Scots - to determine. A NO vote will be a vote to leave control in the hands of a system that has, spectacularly, criminally and sordidly, failed in every aspect of its governance and institutions, a system where power and influence are concentrated in the hands of a few in the South East of England, remote from the priorities and everyday life of Scots. I believe Scots – and Kirkliston residents old and new – can do better in an independent Scotland, with a Parliament in full control of our affairs just 12 miles from the Main Street.

But that decision will be made by the people of Scotland, in cities, towns and villages across Scotland, and I will abide by their choice.