The Christmas present of a jigsaw I blogged about here has now been completed. It shows Boghead Park, former home of the mighty Sons of the Rock, Dumbarton FC. Completing it was a fine nostalgia trip for me.

Starting out:-

Pitch just about completed:-

Surprisingly the hardest part to complete was the crowd in the foreground:-

The photos in this post were taken at the Dumbarton FC 150^th anniversary Exhibition held in Dumbarton Library towards the end of last year.

The club’s biggest achievement was in being overall Champions of Scotland twice – shared with Rangers in 1891 and won outright the following season. See to the right of photo below:-

The rest of that information board relates to minor trophies, Charity Cups and the Stirlingshire Cup.  I took two photos of it since the angle wasn’t great for getting the whole board in:-

The Dunbartonshire Charity Cup was on display:-

As was the Dumbartonshire Cup:-

The club won the Scottish Cup in 1883 and is one of the few whose names are on the actual trophy as opposed to plinths below it:-

The Festival of Britain (St Mungo) Quaich was won in 1951. The picture below shows the Quaich and one of the mugs presented to the winning players:-

Festival of Britain Quaich inscription:-

The Scottish Football League Second Division Trophy (1972):-

William Denny & Brothers (known simply as Denny’s) was perhaps the best known Dumbarton shipyard and was a major employer in the town. When it shut down in 1963 it cast a palpable gloom over the town from which arguably it has never recovered.

The photograph below is of the shipyard in its heyday and along with the accompanying information (second below) is on display at the Scottish Maritime Museum building in Dumbarton.

Also on display there is a model of the shipyard in its location alongside Dumbarton Rock :-

The Dumbarton Football Stadium – home to the Sons of the Rock – now exists in the area where Denny’s fitting out dock lay. I’ll come later to the Denny Tank mentioned in the information below:-

For years on my way up to Brechin to see the mighty Sons of the Rock play at Glebe Park against Brechin City I have been passing this War Memorial – a granite pillar by the side of the B961 seemingly in the middle of nowhere at a junction with an unnumbered minor road (to the left in the first photo below.) There’s not really a place to park but on making that same trip in August 2018 I made sure to stop.

As you can see it’s beautifully kept.

The inscription reads, “In proud and loving memory of men from Carmyllie District who fell in the Great Wars 1914 – 1918. 1939 – 1945.” Great War names are below, plus one for World War 2.

A memorial bench is set behind the pillar:-

Great War names, plus one for World War 2:-

Again Great War names, plus one for World War 2:-

The lack of Second World War names on these rural memorials may be due a combination of the loss of men in the Great War and the decline in numbers of men involved in farming which occurred between the two wars as a result of mechanisation.

Home of The New Saints of Oswestry Town & Llansantffraid Football Club aka The New Saints or TNS, once known as Total Network Solutions.

Scene of the most recent historical achievement of Dumbarton FC, the mighty Sons of the Rock.

Since The New Saints play in the Welsh Premier League this also counts as a Welsh Football ground.

The ground is more or less in the middle of nowhere, across the main road which by-passes the town of Oswestry and up a narrow unlit road. And it doesn’t have much in the way of dedicated parking spaces.

Entrance Gates:-

From southwest. The structure on this side is a TV camera platform.

Main Stand from southwest. The word stand isn’t really appropriate. The brick structure is more like a social club with a small balcony fronting onto the pitch. It doesn’t seem to have seats. The covered area to the left here does, though:-

Main stand and north terracing/stand from southwest:-

Stadium from main stand, showing TV platform:-

Pitch and TV platform from northeast:-

Pitch and East terracing from northeast:-

North Terracing/Stand:-

Camera platform from north:-

Main stand and covered terracing from north terracing:-

Teams Shake Hands, Irn Bru Cup Semi-final, Park Hall Stadium, Oswestry, Feb 2018:-