DUNTOCHER
Wikipedia tells us that Duntocher means "the fort on the causeway". Duntocher expanded due to housebuilding by Clydebank Burgh Council after the Second World War, although the area was never formally absorbed into the burgh. When burghs were abolished by local government reorganisation in 1975, however, Duntocher was included in the larger Clydebank District, which existed until the creation of West Dunbartonshire in 1997. Further housing was built by the Wimpey firm in the late 1960s and early 1970s, on what had been green belt land. Along with Faifley and Hardgate, Duntocher falls within West Dunbartonshire's Kilpatrick ward with a combined population of 12,719 in 2011. [Wiki].
Duntocher historically had several cotton and corn mills, driven by the Duntocher Burn which is the traditional boundary between Duntocher and neighbouring village Hardgate. [Wiki].
The Antonine Wall runs up from Old Kilpatrick to Goldenhill Park and then eastwards approximately in line with Faifley and Hardgate. See ANTONINE WALL : GOLDEN HILL PARK, DUNTOCHER
Local historian Dave Carson has written an interesting article on Duntocher which can be found in the link below. He notes :
Among the early written records on Duntocher is a reference in the Paisley Abbey rental book of 1460, which notes that a cornmill was leased by Thome de Strabrock. The mill was located beside the burn at the east end of the village and it remained in use until 1820. The Roman wall crossed the Duntocher Burn close to the cornmill and the current bridge is still known as Roman Bridge. It is unclear when it was built but in the west parapet, a stone in the style of a Roman distance slab with a Latin inscription, explains that the bridge was repaired in 1772 by Lord Blantyre. [David Carson].
William Dunn, who was born in Kirkintilloch in 1770, trained as a cotton spinner in Glasgow and then spent four years learning iron-turning and machine making. In 1808 he bought the Duntocher Mill and over the next 23 years he acquired Faifley Mill, the Dalnotter Iron Works and built Hardgate Mill. He came to own much of the surrounding land and eventually employed nearly 2000 people in cotton manufacture, agriculture and mining. [David Carson].
The Dalnotter Iron Works was established in Duntocher in 1773 by Glasgow merchants, the name being taken from an earlier works at Dalnotter in Old Kilpatrick. They set up a slit mill in 1771, which used rod iron from the Carron Iron Company of Falkirk. Known as Murdochs Hudson and Company, they made a wide range of small tools and agricultural implements, mainly for export to America. Following the American War of Independence the company lost much of its market and went into decline. The building was bought by William Dunn in 1813 and rebuilt by him as Milton Mill for the production of cotton. It was destroyed in a fire in 1886 and never rebuilt. [David Carson].
Duntocher Mill spanned the Duntocher Burn to the north of the Great Western Road Bridge. It was built in 1786 for the manufacture of coarse woollens, however, it went into decline and was unoccupied when it was purchased in 1808 by William Dunn, who converted it to produce cotton. Like Dunn’s other mills it ran into trouble in the 1860s when supplies of raw cotton dried up during the American Civil War. It continued under different owners, making yarn and thread until the 1920s. [David Carson].
Joseph Irving writing in 1879, covering some of the same ground gives us more detail.
We have now reached in our survey the lands of Duntocher, with which is connected what is probably the most interesting feature in modern history of the parish under review. [Old Kilpatrick]. In 1808, William Dunn, eldest son of William Dunn, proprietor of Gartelash, parish of Kirkintilloch, acquired the mill at Duntocher, then idle, and which had previously been used only for spinning woold and cotton yarn. Having succeedd to the Gartelash property on the death of his father, Mr. Dunn, even at the time spoken of, had made a fair start with those machine works in Glasgow which afterwards became so famous throughout Britain. He fitted up the Duntocher mill with his own machinery, and succeeded so well that in a few years he purchased the neighbouring Faifley mill from the Faifley Spinning Company. These mills he continueed to enlarge and improve till his business reached a point far beyond their power of production. He was then compelled not only to extend the old, but to erect entirely new works. About 1813, he acquired from Messrs. Dennistoun the Dalnotter Iron Works, used pricinpally for slitting and rolling iron, and, eight years afterwards, erected upon their site the Milton mill, unfortunately destroyed by fire in 1846. The Hardgate mill, continhuous to his other works, and erected in 1831, was destroyed by fire in 1851, but immediately rebuilt, on a different site, by Alexander Dunn Esq. on a far larger scale. It was to the enterprise of Mr. William Dunn that Duntocher owed its origin in a great measure, and certainly years of prosperity. In addition to the properties connected with his various mills, Mr. Dunn acquired, by large and successive purchases, a very considerable extent of landed property in the parish, comprehending the lands of Duntocher, Milton, Kilbowies, Balquhanran, Dalmuir, Duntiglennan, Auchentoshan, Loch Humphrey, and others. The sole architect of his large fortune, William Dunn was a man of indomitable perserverence, great self-reliance, and unsullied intergity. He managed his exttensive concerns with care and talent, and was much esteemed amongst the population conencted with his various establishments, amounting to several thousands. Charitable, yet unistentatious, and uniting a strict sense of honour and rigid truthfulness, a liberal spirit in all his dealings, he was in every way worthy of the high-position which, by his vigour and ability, he had attained amongst the merchants and landowners of the west of Scotland. In private life he was beloved as a gentlman of unassuming manners and kindly disposition; and although he did not aspire to any official situation of distinction; he at all times liberally contributed to promote public good. [Irving].
CARSON, DAVID - CLYDEBANK LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY: https://clydebankhistory.org/conc/index.php/clydebank-history/neighbourhoods/duntocher/
DUNTOCHER FACEBOOK - Duntocher Past and Present: https://www.facebook.com/groups/duntocherlocal
