One of the earliest references to the Greenside is from Rev. William Abercrombie in the late 17th Century: “[A vennel] from the chief street to the Green which is a pleasant plott of ground enclosed round with an Earthen wall wherein they were wont to play at football but now at Gowfe and Bypasse bowls.” However, it was also a place of education and progress, housing J. M. Rennie’s Greenside factory and the Auld Greenside Schule (The Parish School). The Greenside became a playground for these children.