Inspired by Bleachie Park's ruin

Fifty years ago, there was an earthly paradise known to generations of children as the Bleachie Park.

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The 'park' was a thicket of hawthorn trees and shrubs where blackbirds, thrushes, dunnocks, chaffinches and warblers nested.

Located off the back road between the Thorn and Foxbar, opposite Abbey Cemetery, the Bleachie got its name from the belief it was once a drying green for bleaching textiles.

The park - which included a dam known as the Bleachie Pond - was also known as Tom Hart's Field after a local farmer.

According to legend, a farm-worker and his horse plunged into the pond one dark night and were drowned.

I discovered later that the pond was on the site of the 19th century Auchenlodment Colliery and could have been a flooded mineshaft.