Here's a draft of the Stenhousemuir section. Along with this there will be some photos, kit pics, a map showing where it is, etc.
I know it's long for here, but, taking on board the misgivings already shown, any feedback would be appreciated.
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Stenhousemuir FC
The Town:
Stenhousemuir is a small town in the district of Falkirk, Scotland, situated to the north of Falkirk town. It has a football team and a cricket team. In 2001, the population was reported as being 10,351.
The town is home to the McCowan’s toffee factory, who make both traditional toffee, and also WHAM and Irn-Bru bars.
The Club:
Formed: 1884
Ground Name: Ochilview Park (opened 1890)
Capacity: 5,267 (2,117 Seated)
Pitch Size: 110 x 72 yards
Club Nickname: Warriors
Shirt Sponsors: POS Office Supplies
Honours:
First Division: 3rd (1959, 1961)
Second Division: 3rd (1994)
Third Division: Runner Up (1999)
Challenge Cup: Winner (1995)
The Ground:
On one side of the ground is the relatively new looking Main Stand (also known by the locals as the McCowans End, after the toffee factory in the same street). This small all seated, covered stand, runs for about half the length of the pitch and straddles the half way line. It has a couple of floodlights perched on its roof. Opposite to this stand the side of the ground is unused for spectators and just has the team dugouts and a row of small floodlights. A second more substantial sized temporary stand, has also been erected at the East end of the ground. At the West end of the ground is the medium sized Tryst Road Terrace. This terrace has no roof and on one side can be seen a Social Club which is owned by the Club. The opposite East End of the ground is again unused for spectators.
History: The first modern floodlit game in Scotland was played at Ochilview in 1951. Behind the ground looking towards the Ochils in the distance is the Tryst which was the largest selling market for farm stock for the drovers back in the 1700's and 1800's in Scotland.
Local Rivals
Falkirk, Stirling Albion & Alloa.
***
Area History:
The arrival of the Carron Ironworks in 1759 set off a train of events that would see the Falkirk area turn from the agriculture of the fertile carselands to the crucible of the Scottish industrial revolution. Iron foundries sprang up in every part of the district, but, as if to prove that agriculture and the land remained important, the great cattle trysts located by turns at Redding, Roughcastle and Stenhousemuir, expanded throughout the late 18th and 19th centuries to become the greatest sales of their kind in Europe, pouring tens of thousands of pounds into the local economy already benefiting from the new industry.
Life for the working population was often grim, backbreaking and ill-rewarded and the gulf between the haves and have nots continued to grow through the 19th and 20th centuries.
Over the last fifty years or so economic growth slowed down and the decline in heavy industry brought the end for mine, foundry and mill. New industries like the massive petro-chemical complex at Grangemouth helped ease the pain of change and now in the new century, service sector jobs and heritage related industry offer some hope for the future. The restored waterway, with the Forth and Clyde and Union Canals now linked by the fabulous Falkirk Wheel, is at the heart of this new opportunity.
Stenhousemuir History:
The origin of the twin villages of Larbert and Stenhousemuir lies somewhere in those dark ages when the nation of Scotland was beginning to emerge from the amalgam of Pict and Scot, Angle and Briton. We know that the crossing point of the Carron River was important to the Romans and that the road they constructed from Watling Lodge on the Antonine Wall at Camelon crossed the river by a bridge located somewhere near the present Larbert Old Parish Church. Traces of this road were still identifiable in the Torwood area as late as the 18th century. Torwood houses an even earlier archaelogical treasure, the remains of an iron age stone broch, a rare and fascinating constuction from around 500BC. Not far away is the ruined Torwood Castle dating from the mid 16th century, the home of the powerful Forester family, keepers of the royal forest.
One historic building which did not survive is Stenhouse, the early 17th century home of the Bruce family which was a splendid Scottish baronial building. It survived until the 1960s before being demolished. It stood to the north of Carron works in the vacinity of the present Lodge Drive, just yards from the site of the Roman monument, Arthur's O'on, demolished by Bruce of Stenhouse in 1743. The Bruce family also owned Kinnaird House and the present building is the third to stand on the same site. Two Bruces of Kinnaird, Robert the Minister of St Giles in the late 16th century and James, the famous 'Abyssinian traveller' in the 18th were figures of national importance.
The arrival of Carron ironworks in 1759 had an enormous impact on Larbert parish. Stenhousemuir began to grow in size and importance and workers flocked to the village and to the neighbouring settlement of Quarrol, later Carronshore. Not long after, the transfer of the great Falkirk Trysts to Stenhousemuir in 1785 further increased the economic well being of the area and the arrival of the Caledonian railway in the 1840s provided the impetus for a wide range of new industries which appeared as the century progressed.
A development which, in its own particular way, put Larbert on the national map was the Scottish National Institution for Children, established at a cost of £13,000 in the 1860s on more land bought from the Stenhouse estate. At around the same time on a nearby site the Stirling District Lunatic Asylum opened its doors and for more than a century the two provided care through changing times for those unfortunate enough to suffer from mental handicap or illness. In recent years a 'care in the community' initiative has brought about a massive reduction in the number of patients in both hospitals. Buildings are being demolished or sold and a modern industrial 'park' has appeared on the Bellsdyke Road. Soon the new Forth Valley Hospital will occupy the land to the west of the Stirling Road.
In Victorian Larbert new wealth brought fine new church buildings and the captains of industry, like Dobbie and Jones built superb villas in the village which were distinguished by an array of fine mansions and estates. Many of them have survived to serve the community in different capacities and Kinnaird, rebuilt for the third time in the 1890s, Torwoodhall, Beechmount, Carronvale and Carrongrange, among others, remain as a small reminder to todays villagers of the splendour of their local heritage, as well as the sweat and struggle of the working men whose hard labour paid for most of the grandeur.
***
Official Club website:
http://www.stenhousemuirfc.com/
Related websites:
http://www.stenhousemuir-mad.co.uk/ http://www.scottishgrounds.co.uk/stenhousemuir.htm
Norwegian Supporters Club:
http://www.stenhousemuir.com/
Club Contact details;
Mr David Reid
Chairman
Stenhousemuir Football Club
Ochilview Park
Stenhousemuir
FK5 4QL
E.mail : stenhousemuir.fc@talk21.com
Historical information provided by:
http://www.falkirkonline.net/
Please note: Information from the club's website has been used in preference to game info where they contradict (such as ground capacity in Stenhousemuir's case). The guides are meant to enhance the LLM experience by providing background on the club you may be managing, not providing game specific information. However, if you notice any factual errors, please contact us and we'll make any necessary corrections.
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