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Alexandria in the Vale of Leven is the largest of several small towns sandwiched between Dumbarton near the Clyde and Loch Lomond just to the north. Due to the industrial nature of the area and a spate of high unemployment in the early part of the twentieth century, the Vale of Leven was one of the UK's most reliably left-wing constituencies.
While the first Working Men's Association had been formed as early as 1838, it was the economic contraction after World War I that drove locals hard to the left. Until the governmental reorganization in the 1970s the Vale of Leven's local council was the only one in the UK where the Communist Party ever held a majority. Even today one of Alexandria's thoroughfares is called Engels Street.
History
The industrial nature of Alexandria and the Vale came about quite late. Until the last two decades of the eighteenth century Alexandria consisted of a huge oak tree at a crossroads and a nearby grocer's shop and residence. The Fountain, a monument in the town centre, marks the spot where the road to the Leven crossing, now called Bank Street, intersected the main north-south route, now Main Street. In 1865 the tree died and was removed and the Fountain was set up a few years later. Alexandria is named for Alexander Smollett, a local landowner who was MP for Dumbarton in the 1840s and 1850s to whom the Fountain is dedicated.
When housing was needed for the workers of new industrial facilities in the area, the relatively broad flat plain at Alexandria presented an attractive prospect for development and so its growth as a population centre began just before 1800. In the nineteenth century Alexandria residents worked diligently for political reform. Meetings were held under the Old Oak, and after its demise at the Fountain. Speakers came from all over the UK to speak at Alexandria. Giuseppe Garibaldi spoke to a meeting at the local football ground, and so did Laos Kosher, the hero of the revolution in Hungary.
A number of fine buildings went up in Alexandria in the late nineteenth century, most built of red sandstone. The 1885 Gilmore Institute is still used by the West Dunbartonshire Council, and the 1892 Women's Institute is now the Masonic Temple. St. Munro's Episcopal Church was built on land donated by the Smollett family, a later namesake of the first Alexander having left the Church of Scotland for the Episcopal congregation due to a conflict about someone who sat in his pew uninvited one Sunday.
Tullychewan Castle, built in 1792, was demolished in the middle of the twentieth century and its site given up to roads and housing estates. Only the South Lodge of the castle still remains adjacent to the entrance to Christie Park. The Park itself was built in 1902 in an atmosphere of controversy. Employees of the Croftingea works got a yearly bonus as part of their wages. On one occasion John Christie, one of the owners, decided to hold back the bonuses and use the money for the park. The Cenotaph that stands there now is a later addition, built to commemorate the local dead of World War I.
Alexandria's most famous building may be the Argyll Works, locally known as the torpedo works. It was here that Scottish motorcars were built and, after the demise of the auto industry, that torpedoes were built for the Royal Navy. The facility's fantastic façade and marble staircase are now part of the Loch Lomond Outlet Centre.
Activities and Attractions
The Vale of Leven Golf Club is a parkland course with beautiful views of Loch Lomond, but golfers will likely be too distracted to enjoy them. The course is extremely challenging, with burns snaking across most fairways and a large resident population of sheep.
Alexandria is situated a short distance from the south end of Loch Lomond, the whole of which is contained in Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. One Visitor Centre is located at Loch Lomond Shores, and another at Balloch Castle, a Scottish Baronial structure set in a walled garden. The loch is open to and teeming with watercraft of all sorts. The West Highland Way runs the whole length of the west side of Loch Lomond, making it a paradise for long distance walkers. Cycling and equestrian sports are also popular pastimes, as is watching the incredible variety of wildlife in the park.
Access and Places To Stay
Alexandria sits on the A82, and enjoys regular bus and train service to Glasgow. Available lodging and dining run the gamut from the B&B and takeaway level up to luxury hotels and full service restaurants, and plenty of pubs exist to serve visitors' entertainment needs.
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