Cornton – Our Story

(11 Cornton Road)

The small cottage at 11 Cornton Road is one of the oldest surviving dwellings in Cornton. It has variously been known as Redcott Cottage and Topsy Turvy Cottage.

The “Works” most recently used as a Scrap Yard by McCallum Metals & Waste Recycling LLP are listed as No, 9 Cornton Road and the building at the back left hand side of the site as you enter is included within that.

In 1837 Daniel McLachlan on behalf of Cowane’s Hospital, sold the site to Robert Smith and Thomas Graham. The mineral rights, trees and the “power to sink pits” were reserved by the Feu Superior who was Cowane’s Hospital.

At that time it is recorded as consisting of “ground extending to 1 acre 2 roods 5 poles and 23 yards” and “That they shall be bound to erect suitable buildings on the foresaid lot or piece of ground”. Additionally – “that the said Robert Smith and Thomas Graham and their foresaids shall have no right or title to object to the shutting up of that part of the Long causeway running from the entry of the Corntown road to the junction with the road thro’ Bridgehaugh farm.”

In 1873 a piece of ground previously occupied by the Forth Woollen Mill to the south of the scrap yard was bought from Wight Cumming by the trustees of the firm of William Edward Day &Co. and this increased the area of the site almost doubling the Scrap Yard’s capacity.

In 1923 an area of ground to the south of the property was removed from the Yard’s title and is now in Public ownership.

The cottage at No. 11 was occupied by James M. Brady, Vanman in 1940, (at this time the property belonged to Mrs Margaret S. Dawson, 2 Hillfoots Road Stirling.), Donald McCallum in 1989, by Julie Redcott McPherson in 1992 and Jointly by Magnus Redcott Gray and Moira Redcott Ritchie in 1999. The name “Topsy Turvy Cottage” first appears in the Electoral Register in 2001 when it is in the occupancy of Sharon McKenna and Louise Skinner. In 2012 the Cottage was separated from the yard and now takes the form of an independent dwelling.