Diary of a house

As a young family we moved into Mossgrove, Bridge of Allan, on St Andrew’s Day, 2001.

We had been looking for a new home for some time. Peter and Sian, unknowing of each other, spotted this advert in the Press and Journal:

When Peter phoned the Estate Agent to ask for the sales brochure the agent was taken aback: “I have already had a Dr Gordon on the phone asking about Mossgrove!” Sian, as ever, was ahead of me.

What follows is a diary of a house. Of course no house can offer a diary! But let us imagine that a house could!

A house is a place of family intimacy:

Houses are also familiar with loss:

21st January 1882, Mossgrove, Bridge of Allan:
Johanna Pullar Bruce died as a result of Tubercular infection. She had only just turned nineteen. The following month her mother Annie died of the same infection.

From first build, Mossgrove’s nearest neighbour has been the Fountain of Nineveh:

Children played below this fountain in the pool of its droplets.

Following the Bruce family, the Martin family found home in Mossgrove. John Martin, the patriarch, was a Draper. Sadly all ended with his sudden death in June 1893. He had not reached the age of fifty [the Mossgrove curtains dropped once again].

[1900]: From the turn of the century Mossgrove was home to the Stirling family. It was family home of the Stirlings for over 40 years.

James Stirling, the father of this family, had a passion for rearing poultry:

James Stirling was also a gardener:

James Stirling was a Grocer. His first shop in Bridge of Allan was on Henderson Street and his second shop on Fountain Road:

Nan, one of the daughters of James Stirling, regularly submitted poems and short stories to the Stirling Observer:

James Stirling, Grocer, Bridge of Allan, died suddenly as a result of a fall [on the day that Sian’s mother was born]:

Mossgrove is a villa in a village that has sought to maintain its village status.

Time passes – Listen – Time passes.