John Gorevan

Larkhall.

Inn’s links with the past.

Mr. C. M. F. Ewing, Larkhall, immediate past president of the Scottish Licensed Trade Association, has completed his project at Millheugh, the Apple Bank Inn, where the opening ceremony was performed by Mr. Raymond Miquel, vice-chairman of Arthur Bell & Sons, Ltd.

Mr. Ewing in his invitation to his distinguished guests, dug into the records and said:

Apple Bank Inn, picturesquely situated on the banks of the River Avon, offered at the time of its purchase in 1968 both an opportunity and a challenge. The opportunity was there to retain and perhaps even restore the atmosphere of the old village of Millheugh; the challenge was to the imagination and to the ingenuity of the modern tradesman in his use of present day materials and skills to evoke the past.

To this end the original stonework of both the exterior and the interior has been laid bare and the Angler’s Corner has been so named because of the long- established tradition of fishing in the Avon.

The tables used in this area are cut from yew trees which lined the avenue leading to Hamilton Palace. Further to this purpose the original 18th century door of Mauldslie Castle has been restored and erected and the peal of bells on the West wall, cast in 1792, by virtue of their antiquity take one’s mind and thoughts back to the past.

The motif, adapted for the use in the sign at Apple Bank Inn, originated from so far in the past that its meaning, at the outset, has been lost in a tangle of folk tales and local gossip. Sufficient is it to say that over the years it came to be accepted that the Adam and Eve symbol was an integral part of Millheugh and that these primal parents presided over a local Garden of Eden.

The modern interpretation, though more prosaic, continues in the same theme. Adam with the serpent, Eve with the fruit; palm trees suggesting an idyllic site and the branch of hospitality, and dominating all the sun dial reminding all humanity of its mortality.