A Local Legend - Spectacle E'e Falls

After spending time in my hometown last year it struck me how I love a the history of the area and there are stories that are told, ones that only small town like mine seem to tell. One such story, has inspired my first collection of 2025, the legend of Spectacle E'e Falls. It is a tale of forbidden romance, revenge and countryside living. 
The legend has it in 1801 there was a mill that sat alongside a waterfall on the road towards Sandford. There was a young man, who took quite a liking to the miller's daughter. When the miller came to know of the romance, he put a stop to it immediately. He disapproved of the young man for his daughter and put an end to the affair. The young man, notably angered by the miller retaliated by placing spectacles on the thatch roof of the mill, the sunlight shone through the glass setting the roof on fire, burning the entire mill to the ground. The area around the waterfall has since been renamed Spectacle E'e (eye) Falls.
What I love about this story is that it has a Romeo and Juliet feel to it, set in the rural landscape of Lanarkshire. There are just enough details for you to paint your own picture as to what happened next to the pair of star crossed lovers. It is these ideas that inspired me to create the pieces that will sit within this Spectacle E'e Falls collection.

As for the mill, the ruins of the mill are still present along the falls, The original mill ground corn into flour, after the fire it was rebuilt and began producing cotton fabric. Sadly by 1897, the water powered mill closed.