Industry
As Stirling established itself as a county town, related industries developed to serve the district - coal mining, brewing and coopering, brickmaking, nailmaking, tanning and the famous Kinross coachbuilding company (which received its Royal Warrant from Queen Victoria in 1837). The town also became a market centre with a wide selection of shops and services ranging from grocers, butchers and dairies to the photographers, milliners and hairdressers which served people from a wider surrounding area. Railways also spawned a thriving tourist industry, still a vital part of the local economy.
Even the famous Wallace Monument
was built by local subscription.
During the 20th century, this gradual evolutionary progress
went on. While the town lived through two world wars at great human cost, but virtually undamaged, the
town council tackled slum housing and deprivation in the 1920s, poverty and
unemployment
in the 30s, and urban regeneration in the post-war years with few financial resources but a great feeling
of social responsibility.
For all its royal history, Stirling is still a people's town.
© Copyright 2008 Stirling Council. All rights reserved.