Links Memories of the Glen Village area emailed to us from a former resident, David B Smith - “When I looked on the Google Earth site and looked at the area of Glen Village and was surprised at the amount of houses, and where they built them and the amount of trees that they have planted because when I left this was all fields  and farmland. The round hill just up from the Laughing Greeting bridge was formed with the earth that was left over when they excavated the canal at this point.  When the village was started there used to be two rows of houses  one was called the front row and the other was the tunnel row, also there was the Redding cooperative building and the miners welfare built in 1924. This was the first school that I went to for the first 2 years and then went to Comely Park school. The football pitch used to be made of ashes on the playing surface. The swing park used to be covered in ashes as well and there used to be concrete slabs below the swings, it makes you think between then and now what they lay in the playgrounds now. We used to walk through the dark tunnel but there was no lights in the tunnel or hand rail to protect you from falling in the canal, you just used a stick and tapped the wall at the side of the tunnel, you always knew you were in the middle because both the ends were the same size. Walking from the darkie and  passing under the laughing greeting bridge onwards heading east you will notice that there is stones sticking up out of the ground spaced at 2 feet between each stone.this carries the full length of the canal. This was so the horse did not end up in the canal when pulling the barge they used to clip with their hooves. Carrying on under the brickie bridge and pass the 8 holes in the wall, this is because when the wind is blowing from the east the water is pushed to the Falkirk end, and this was to let the excess would flow into the burn.  Carrying on the towpath you come to the middle of the 8 holes and the next bridge there is a deep ditch man made this was where they could drain that part of the canal for maintenance to the canal, this was achieved by using the loch gate that used to be at the next bridge,it was below the tow path below the bridge.   Carrying on from here you would come to a stone mile post this used to be situated in between the two bridges at the middle ,this is not to say that it is still standing these days. Passing under the 2nd and 3rd bridges you would have come to a path which was locally known as lovers lane. This eventually  led to the old hall glen road coming out just at the home farm. Carrying on the towpath you would pass Nobles detonator factory where the buildings were hidden by trees and the roofs were covered with turf, it was very hard to see them. We used to also dam the burn at the fox covert  go swimming in the summer but it was alway cold no matter how hot the sun was. When the canal froze over in the winter we used to play football on the ice it used to be a great laugh falling and rolling about on the ice. In the summer we used to dam the burn at the bridge where you see the horse towing the barge  on the canal also the other picture on your leaflet the sight is no different than it was when i used to go about. One year on the canal bank just past the 8 holes  there was a wasps nest every 2 feet for 50 yards but it never  happened again. When the wagons used to come up from the pit there was two sets of rails one on top of  the other, the top set was used when the wagon came out the pit, and headed for the building that housed the tables, when it went into the building it would be placed in a large drum and turned 180 degrees and emptied onto the tables where it was cleaned of all rubbish this rubbish was loaded into the wagons returned on the bottom set of rails and pulled up to the top of the bing and emptied at different areas of the bing. The good coal that was sifted from the dross and waste, was dropped down into the rail wagons underneath , when filled removed to the weigh bridge along from the tables and then sent  to its destination. Where I used to stay in Glen village there used to be only green fields and planted with crops where now there is houses. In 1955 we used to cross the road and watch them plough and harrow the field all the work done by horses, watching the one behind the horse doing all the different things in the field during the year and then watch them harvest the crops and cutting the corn.Then you would walk towards the train bridge and see them making haystacks in the field not as they do today by baling the hay. Walking further along Hall Glen Road you would come to stone houses where the farm workers used to live. Carrying on further down the road you came to what was known locally as the "square turn" and in the field was an escape route from the mine the entrance to the mine was off the Slammanan road. Carrying on down the road eastward you would come to the home farm where you could watch the blacksmith at work working with the horses. After a couple of years it all became mechanised. We also used to watch the men working on the railway doing maintenance work, when the rails needed sorted or the sleepers needed levelled up they would fit what looked like old fashioned kitchen scales with different markings, they would set them up to the rails maybe numbering 7or8 in total, when the train ran  past them it would show how many trays of chips were needed to put below the sleepers, if it said 4 you put that amount of chips below, the tray was a brass plate 4feet by 1 foot. The chips were very small, after this was done they would carry on the next part and repeat the operation. These chips were kept in wooden boxes at the side of the track. We used to watch the Pullman train which would pass the train bridge at 10-30 am and came back at 8- 30pm. When my father worked in the mine they used carbide lamps, you used to spit inside the lamp this produced a gas and then you turn the wheel to produce a spark to get the flame. If my father brought home a biscuit or a sandwich it always tasted different not a horrid taste just different. My father used to have his sandwiches wrapped twice because of the little flies that covered between each layer of paper. We used to go up to the top of the coal bing to watch the men working to get rid of the waste moving the rail track to a new position after being told the position which were relayed by phone. I can still picture in my mind where all the buildings were even though the football pitch is now in it's place. When they used to make bricks at the brickworks they used to wash the coal as they thought it would make a cleaner brick when it was fired. The dust that was produced from this was dumped further up the site and is locally known as the duff. We used to watch them loading up the kilns after it was loaded they would brick up the opening leaving a 12 inch square opening and fitted a slab in this space, which was removed so they could keep the fire burning as it had to burn for 72 hours non stop. The clay pipes were fired in circular kilns as the bricks were fired in rectangle kilns.                                     At the back of my house at the bottom of the hill was the canal and the terminus for the coal that was brought from the mines, all that was left was the foundations for the turntable and how they used to move it to the barges. For years there used to be a sunken barge lay here and when the canal froze over we used to play on it and pretend we were on the high seas.”