Two large trees from Maybole’s Greenside have been cut down bringing them to an end after what is thought to be 120 years. In the January, 1894 edition of his famous monthly newsletter, Rev. Roderick Lawson of Maybole West Church wrote “The only plot of ground belonging to the town is that little space of half an acre or so, which the new Railway Station has brought into prominence. For a long time our Green was a disgrace to us being a medley of scanty grass and sticky mud, through which in the winter season it was not easy to pick one's steps. But recently the towns-folk have made an effort, and at the expense of some £300, put a new face on matters, led roads through it, and surrounded the whole with a fringe of trees, and an iron railing.”

 

About 200 years earlier, Rev Abercrombie had written “At the head of the School Vennal there is a pleasant plott of ground, enclosed round with an earthen wall wherein they are wont to play at football, but now at the gowffe and byasse-bowls." It is easy to see how the "plott" might have been suitable for football or bowls, but the scope for golf must have been limited!

 

For many years, the Green was let annually by the Town Council for grazing, the usual rent being 15 shillings (75p). This practice, however, was gradually given up and the ground came to be used as a play-ground by the children attending the Parish School, and a stance for Shows at Fair time.

 

In the 1894 photo below you can see the young tree saplings.            Photo below a winter time scene from Greenside