If you take a walk around the village today there is still some of the old Barnton still visible such as the quaint row of back to back houses on Bell’s Brow at the top of Barnton Hill built in 1810 to accommodate labourers. The Parish church built mid 1800’s and the Vicarage stand proudly on Church Road overlooking the Brunner Mond chemical works and are two of the more architecturally desirable buildings which remain in the village. Further along at Church Road junction stands the old Police Station which was built in 1902 for the sergeant who lived on Bells Brow. It contained an office, an interview room and three cells.
There are two main recreation parks to help accomodate the growing number of children in the village. Nursery Road Recreation Park used to be called the ‘Old Rec’ and has been developed by Barnton Parish Council in recent years on land formerly bought and leased by Brunner Mond and Company. Runcorn Road Recreation Park was developed on land left over from the Cockshutts Field housing development built along Runcorn Road. The land was generously given to the Parish Council by Mr and Mrs H. Hazelhurst to commemorate the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.
Barnton became known as “Jam Town” long before the council estate was built. It was known as that in the late 1800’s due to so many people owning and not renting their homes. “People in Barnton eat Jam butties so that they can own not only their own houses, but buy their neighbours too!” Below are some extracts and pictures kindly provided by Mr G.H. Buchan, author of ‘BARNTON – A Portrait of Times Past’ and ‘BARNTON – Through Changing Scenes of Life’ which we hope will provide you with a flavour of the old Barnton.