Cross Keys Inn.

Ferguson’s Tavern.

Wheat Sheaf Inn.

In the NEWS 1971…

Two Ex-Ranger Score.

Three former Rangers players suffered mixed fortunes at the sitting of Falkirk Burgh Licensing Court. Successful in applications were Alex Scott, at present with Falkirk, and former Ibrox striker Max Murray. But an applicationm by Alex Ferguson, Falkirk F.C’s top scorer this season, to open a public house and restaurant in Cockburn Street, Falkirk, was continued for one month. Scott won his licence for a new pub in the Tamfourhill area, despite objections from local tenants.

The Rev. James Robson, ministert of Camelon St. John’s Church, announced after the magistrates had granted the application that he would appeal on behalf of the tenants at the confirmation court.

Max Murray is the new licence holder of the Roman Bar, in Camelon.

An Ayr town councillor who recently won an appeal to the Secretary of State for Scotland against the refusal of his own authority to grant planning permission for a new hotel in maybole Road, was granted to liucence by the Burgh Licensing Court today. He is Councillor Adam Neil, who formerly held the licence for the Craigie Inn, now demolished.

Falkirk.

Town’s bid to stop too young drinkers

A town’s Publicans and police have introduced new measures in a bid to stamp out a plaque of under-age drinking.

A number of hotels in Falkirk have upped the minimum drinking age from 18 to 21. And the police have increased the number of visits they pay to the teenage tipplers haunts. A police spokesman said that the problem had been on the increase over the past couple of months.

Under 21 ban

“There seems to be more of these cases coming to light than we should be getting,” he said. “However, we have been stepping up our activities to deal with this.” The problem was highlighted this week when eight youths, two 16 year olds, and six 17 year olds, were each fined £5 at the town’s Burgh Court for under-age drinking.

At the Park Hotel, Arnothill, Falkirk, where some of the youths were discovered, the management immediately slapped on an under 21 ban. “We don’t want to scare away the 18 to 21 year olds, but we have our licence to think of and we have to protect ourselves,” said a spokesman.

Abuse

The town’s oldest pub is also considering banning under 21s. Alex Reid, of the Wheat Sheaf Inn said they had been getting large numbers of young people coming in at Weekends.

“It is very difficult to tell what age some of today’s youngsters are. Anyone we think is under 18 we refuse to serve, but you have to stand a lot of abuse. “We are thinking of putting a ban on under 21s on Fridays and Saturdays.” he said.

Falkirk.

The following lines, copied from a pane in the window of a bedroom in the Cross Keys Inn, Falkirk, the time or occupy the space to say that they form one of the stray productions of our ploughman poet, Robert Burns. The second line the writer, now become acquainted with them for the first time. In the month of August 1787, Burns, accompanied by Mr M. Adair, afterwards Dr Adair of Harrowgate, set out from Edinburgh on a short tour. He rode on horseback, and came first to Linlithgow, where he was created a burgess of the town. From Linlithgow he passed on to Falkirk. Here he put up at the Cross Keys Inn, in those days important as the house in Falkirk at which the stage coach stopped to effect a change of horses. He left the following morning to visit Carron, where, on the window of the inn, he also inscribed a verse, the subject of which is Carron Iron Works, and the sentiment strictly satanic.

The bedroom which he occupied at the Cross Keys Inn, and which we have just seen, is a very small one. It is situated in the upper storey of the inn and looks into the main street. The lines which we give above written on the centre pane of the lower row in the upper portion of the window, and bear the date 25th August, 1787. The hand-writing is legible, what the schoolboy knows as half-text, and may be read without a pause. As a relic of Burns the value of the pane may be realised when we say that one hundred pounds has been offered for it.

In 1893, The Cross Keys Inn was the property of Mr W Gow who acquired the inn in 1887. It was visited from all parts, attracted by the pane alluded to. Until quite recently the members of the Falkirk Burns Club met twice a year, on the 25th August and on the anniversary of the poet’s birth, in one of the apartments of the inn. The room, however, in which they assembled, capable of seating from forty to sixty persons, was to small for the augmented membership of the club.