Our Eye on Millig columnist, Leslie Maxwell, explores the story of the former Hermitage House in Helensburgh – and explains how the house will be remembered in the regenerated Hermitage Park.

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HELENSBURGH people attending the recent Remembrance Sunday service in the specially re-opened Hermitage Park saw a series of slabs lying flat in the central area of the park.

A £3.3 million project to refurbish the park, assisted by the Heritage Lottery Fund, has led to its closure in recent months, but parts were re-opened to allow access to the Garden of Remembrance on Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday.

The service and wreath laying took place as usual in front of the newly repaired Cenotaph originally designed by leading burgh architect and artist Alexander Nisbet Paterson.

Not everyone realised the significance of the nearby slabs, but they are an important link to the park’s past.

Archaeologist Fiona Baker, one of the key figures in the conservation project, tells me: “The footprint of Hermitage House, which for some years was a hospital for war wounded, has been laid out in sandstone slabs so people will be able to understand where and how the house stood in its grounds.

“In addition there will be wind-up audio interpretation posts and also some interpretation panels — bronze metal plinths — with information on the history of the house and hospital, and other things in the park.

“We did a community archaeological dig on part of the house foundations in early June in which 154 school children took part.

"Nothing exciting was found in archaeological terms — but the kids had a great time getting dirty and they did learn a little about archaeology!”

Hermitage House and its grounds were adjacent to the Malig Mill, at the rear of the Victoria Hall, and the Mill’s Lade, a lake where Hermitage Bowling Club stood for many years.

In the World War One the house became an Auxiliary Military Hospital.

It is not known when the house was built, but by 1879 it was occupied by photographer John Cramb, who came to the town from Glasgow in 1868. It had been renamed The Hermitage.

He died in 1894, and after the death of his younger sister Susannah in May 1911, the house and grounds were sold to the then Helensburgh Town Council.

The mansion was partly used as a museum, until the start of World War One when it became Hermitage Red Cross Auxiliary Hospital.

Men from the Royal Army Medical Corps transported wounded men from Stobhill Hospital in Glasgow, and they also served as orderlies in the hospital.

They were joined over the years by 50 nursing staff from the Woman’s Volunteer Aid Detachment. They could provide beds and tend to 24 patients at any one time.

A number of local women met their future husbands during the course of their work at the hospital.

The wounded men in their blue uniforms were a familiar sight in the town, being wheeled around by their nurses. Recreational opportunities included croquet, drama and outings in horse-drawn carriages from Waldie & Co. in Sinclair Street.

The hospital grounds, a conservatory and a stable were also made available by the Town Council to the Dunbartonshire Herb Growing Association for the cultivation and drying of medicinal herbs, such as chamomile and deadly nightshade.

Girls from St Bride’s School, now part of Lomond School, worked on the plot.

The late Mrs Hilda Purvis, daughter of artist and ‘Glasgow Boy’ James Whitelaw Hamilton, worked voluntarily at the hospital.

She recalled later: “I did mostly cooking, and that was where I learnt to cook.

“A hut placed in the grounds in the war years was put to good use. It was used as a crèche for working wives to leave their children, a bit like a child welfare unit.

“It was run like a day nursery, and I believe was very advanced and a great boon for the mothers.

"I also used to go there to help, and weighed the babies and poured tea for the mothers.”

From 1918 the house served as an annex for Hermitage School until new buildings were completed in 1926, and it then became a council parks department workshop and store.

It was demolished in 1963, and a small gazebo shelter was erected on the site. A target for vandals, it, too, was later demolished.

The condition of the park gradually deteriorated, but in 2011 a group of concerned residents came together to set up a new organisation, the Friends of Hermitage Park, with a view to restoring the park its former glory.

They began with small improvements, and this led to the current project.

In addition to the improvement to the memorial gardens and the creation of the footprint of Hermitage House, the master plan includes the play park to become a kitchen garden, redesign of sports area to adventure play, crazy golf and fountain plaza, a new pavilion with covered deck area to incorporate a café, toilets and community space, and more seating in sheltered areas.

Additional car and cycle parking is also planned.

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