HAEIN bin born an raised in the wee East Ayrshire village o New Cumnock – ceptin fir a 20-year sojourn daein missionary wark in Sanquhar! – ah hae witnessed at first-haund the ebb an flow o wir wee village’s fortunes. Ma mither an faither owned McLatchie’s Nursery (mercat gairden, fruiterers an florists) we hud aiblins ane o the last horse an cairts in the West o Scotland. Ah’ve mind o hitchin a lift hame oan it frae the schuil in the late 1660s an stowin ma wame wi haundfous o strawberries an cherries! Nae probs wi the five-a-day back then!

New Cumnock wis boomin then; Hall’s sock factory, a shirt factory, an hunners, gin no thoosans, employed locally in mining at the likes o the Highhouse, Killoch an Barony pits. Then, wi the miner’s strike o 1984-85 it aa chainged.

New Cumnock in especial wis ah think doomed tae dee a lang an lingerin daith. A place that aince hud around 8,000 o a population at its peak saw its lifebluid slaely sype awa ower three decades. Ah made a poetry driven film aboot this caa’d Finding the Seam wi ma guid frien Tony Grace, film an TV lecturer at the University of the West of Scotland. The film chronicles the rise an faa o New Cumnock throu the prism o the mining industry an heichlichts mony braw locations locally associated wi the deep mining an opencast mining tradeetions. Aiblins ane o the maist muivin scenes in the film fir me wis when we filmed streets o condemned hooses, aroond whit wis Farden Avenue an Greenhill, then cam back a few weeks later tae film the empty spaces whaur these streets o hoose aince stuid.

Ah’ve mind these samen hooses bein thrang wi mining families; weans jimpin frae upstairs windaes wi Batman costumes oan! An queuin at Googly-Moochie’s ice cream van. Nou these streets are green fields aince agane – thair tarmac roads wi streetlichts, but nae hooses! Wir population nou is around 2,500.

Industry an the local economy wis aa but wiped oot. The Crown Hotel (alsae kent as The Coach House) haes bin an abandoned, rin-doon wreck fir decades. An eyesore that wis famously a focal pynt when Maggie Thatcher dee’d. The Iron Lady aa but wiped us aff the map – tho she aiblins ne’er hud heard o us. Aye, times wir haurd.

Sae whit o New Cumnock nou? The sauns hae reached their lowest in the gless, but the smeddum an speerit o her people hus ne’er dimmed! Thon reuch fairmin, mining, factory lass, warkin cless humour hus sair’d us weel! We aiblins hud nocht when times wir guid, sae we wir weel able tae thole it when times wir bad.

The New Cumnock Working Men’s Club still bides, a uisefu bield fir auld miners an retired factory haunds that provides a needful place fir birthday pairties, retirements an social dances. It remains when aamaist aa seemilar sic venues in Ayrshire hae bin demolished lang syne.

At last things are beginnin tae aiblins chainge fir the better. Tho it’s a strange irony fir an independence supportin Scots republican lik masel, that ah need tae hae tae tak aff ma bunnet tae the likes o HRH Prince Chairlie as the unlikely hero o this tale. Syne Chairlie bocht the graund (but rin-doun) kintra estate o Dumfries House – he collects kintra estates the wey some fowk collect coins or stamps – he hus taen a byordnar interest in his local community here. New Cumnock in perteecular seems tae hae foun an aefauld neuk in his hairt – fir he’s a man that fir certes hus a hairt! The turn-aroond fir Dumfries House an the surroundin airt hus bin naethin short o remarkable!

Chairlie seems tae hae the kindae global connections wha loe naethin mair than dippin intil their pooches tae get their nems oan an fund sindry big siller projects in oor airt. Wir verra ain hame-growne philanthropist Sir Tam Hunter husnae bin sweir either tae support Chairlie’s efforts.

The gowd pours in frae aawhaurs. Tho naethin tae dae wi Chairlie, New Cumnock hus in the past few years seen a brent new health centre bein built, an a £9 million rebuild/restoration o the primary schuil – the same auld Toun Schuil that me, Tam Hunter, a wheen o oor friens, an ither contemporaries (an ancestors) aa attended. But, likesay, this new siller frae The Great Steward of Scotland’s Dumfries House Trust, tae gie it its fantoosh title, is currently fundin a stairtlin transformation in the hairt o the village. The auld Toun Hall, bearin proudly its foundation stane o 1888, is juist nou cled in scaffoldin, wi a veritable airmy o hi-vis/hard-hatted warkers swarmin roond it lik bee’s roond a byke! The hall, whilk ettles tae be a multi-purpose modren day faceelitie, caterin fir aa sorts ae local groups, is due fir a graund openin later this year.

Across the road frae it they’ll be dingin doun the auld community centre an library tae mak wey fir a braw village square – an kindae surprisingly, they are verra supportive o the local norrie tae maintain an restore New Cumnock’s open-air swimin pool (ane o anely a hauntle o sic faceelities that kythe nou in Scotland, langside the likes o Gourock, Stonehaven an Tarlair) whilk is aye-an-oan a great favourite wi locals young an auld.

In ither wirds, the centre o New Cumnock is bein gien a hairt transplant that wull gang a lang wey tae impruivin the luik o the place, its speerit an its confidence.

It’s a gey queer outcome that the forces o capitalism that dinged oor wee village doun are the verra selsame forces that are nou biggin her back up agane. Gin anely we can nou attract mair local business an enterprise tae mak wir future that bit mair siccar then aiblins

New Cumnock haes at last turnt a muckle corner. Micht this be an indicator o Scotland’s fortunes?

Aye, lang socht fir haes cam at last say the fowk o New Cumnock! An nae mair carin, brave or daicent fowk wir e’er mair desairvin o’t.