FALKIRK High Street on a bright Saturday afternoon.

Much of this pedestrianised precinct is today occupied by charity stalls, but if the volunteers at the Yes Scotland stall had worried that they might be rendered invisible in the throng, their fears were groundless.

The stall, opposite Marks & Spencer, has a busy time of it, dispensing information, wristbands, car-stickers and posters to those people who approach.

One of the volunteers, Lorna Binnie, says: "What I'm finding is that, as more people are getting engaged in the debate, more people are coming to the Yes campaign.

"You've got your solid Nos - the ones that don't want to engage, for some reason. They've made up their mind.

"But there are so many undecideds out there, and they're getting a huge awakening to this movement, a movement where we can have an independent country, which will be better for the majority of the people."

Ms Binnie said she was speaking in a personal capacity. She was also, as it turned out, speaking against a backdrop of pipes, courtesy of a nearby local pipe band, which seemed like a fitting soundtrack to the dreams of independence that she and her fellow volunteers are so keen to achieve.

For these Yes Falkirk volunteers, September 18 is a chance to deliver "a goverment that is honest and transparent and sincere, and cares for the people," in Ms Binnie's words.

Such a thing will, it is hoped, have a beneficial effect on the kind of ground-level issues - jobs and prosperity - common to every town.

The Yes stall is also outside a now-vacant shop unit, one of a number to be found in the High Street.

Both Better Together and Dennis Canavan, the former Falkirk MP who now chairs Yes Scotland, have described the town as a key battleground come the 18th.

Back in 1993, Falkirk witnessed a People's Referendum, staged to highlight public support for independence at a time when the idea enjoyed little support at Westminster.

It was chosen because it was seen by the organisers, the Coalition for Scottish Democracy, as representing a political microcosm of Scotland.

Of the 7788 ballot papers (out of 27,828) that were returned, 88 per cent voted in favour of an elected Scottish parliament - and 46 per cent wanted to see an independent Scotland.

Ms Binnie's fellow volunteer, Laura Murtagh, points out that people on both sides of the debate are campaigning without being paid, and refers to the stall as "our weapon".

Meanwhile, Yes campaigner Connor Cloughley, 17, said: "The UK is now the third most unequal country in the world. Westminster is continually not working in Scottish interests, and we're seeing this in such things as the bedroom tax.

"There are a million people in Scotland living in poverty. In some areas of Glasgow that's one in three children, which is shocking."

Falkirk has the Scotland's second-largest food bank, he added, and there were 47 across the country.

"We need a Scottish government that has all the economic levers at its disposal to create jobs. It could breathe life into the shipyards. We can be a powerhouse of industry as well as being a force for good in the world."

Nearby, however, Jim Delaney, a No voter who was emerging from M&S, said: "I sort of started out as Yes, a soft Yes, but I just now think it's too risky to break away."

Stories querying the extent of North Sea oil reserves "just make me think, how are we going to pay for it all?"

Later, when The Herald interviewed George Anderson, a 68-year-old local Better Together activist, a YouGov poll had made headlines by giving Yes a 51-49 percentage points lead.

"That is absolutely not what we've been finding on the doorstep across the whole district, from Denny to Grangemouth and Bo'ness," he said. Our polls have been pretty consistent since we started ages ago. Maybe we are looking at this through rose-tinted spectacles, but that is definitely the message we are getting, that people do not want the risks that come with independence.

"It's heartening when Falkirk people are listening and are prepared to talk, and take facts as being true. But when people are basing a lifetime's decision on sheer emotion and on what they read on Facebook..." he pauses. "But that's democracy. He adds, slightly ruefully: "Speaking of democracy... at our High Street stall two weeks ago, an old guy was shouting that we were a disgrace and we had no right to be there. We live in a democracy. He was missing the point.

"We get called traitors and quislings, and people shout in our faces. I mean, come on. I'm Falkirk born and bred, but haven't always lived here. To be told that I'm a traitor, a disgrace, that I should go back to England - that really hurts."

He says he fears the effect the referendum debate would have on Scotland.

He adds: "I'm extremely concerned for the future of Scotland, irrespective of the outcome on September 18, and fear a backlash from Yes supporters on a No vote.

"This campaign has unleashed a nasty undercurrent in Scottish society, where people feel free to stand and shout at each other. Especially against the English - that is disgusting."

Anderson, however, agrees with the view that Falkirk is something of a bellwether seat.

The district has industrial areas," he says, "plus areas of unemployment and deprivation, and some very rich areas as well."

He talks of the need to get the "silent majority" out to vote, including 16 and 17-year-olds and parents of young children. "The 16 and 17-year-olds who are looking for jobs - when you start explaining the consequences for industry and commerce of money leaving the country, they get the point.

"We've told local mothers that if we leave the UK, we lose the EU rebates that Westminster has negotiated - for example, we might lose no VAT on children's clothes.

"That's a tiny thing but it could persuade some people to vote No."