Author: mctaggartjoseph7

Beith Auld Kirk pictures

These pictures of the inside and outside of Beith Auld Kirk are very striking.  The first line of pictures show a monument

One version of the story tells me that  this is  a monument which was installed up at Spiers School. After that was demolished in the 70s the monument was removed and placed behind the Kirk in 1985…. in the Kirk yard where you can still see them today. Another person told me these were actually from Gielsland House and are called “the Gielsand marbles”.

If you know the history of these, please let me know.

 

Co-op and School at the Den (Barkip)

The Den was a hamlet on the main road between Beith and Dalry  – it had it’s own school, bank and shops, Episcopal church etc and was demolished in the 1900s.  You can see the pictures above of the Co-op and School which was known as Kersland Barony.

The Den (Barkip) was largely replaced with the Lambert which became known as the Lambar, then langbar and subsequently “corrected” to Longbar by the council. It is easy to see how that could have happened with the number of Northern Irish accents around at that time.

By the way – I’ve moved this site to a now host, corrected the broken links  and moved in existing subscribers.  If you see any problems, let me know.

 

General Mathew of Place – Death Intimation

This is from the newspaper “The Scotsman” dated August the 4th 1932.

This is the man who unveiled the War memorial and was something of a war hero locally and nationally. He was married to Lady Janet Muir Knox and lived at Place House, across from the Golf course which was demolished some years back. If you want to know more about him, you can click here https://josephmctaggart.org/major-general-sir-charles-mathew/

They are both buried in the family vault – if you go the the huge imposing Knox monument in Kilbirnie old cemetery you will find it just next to there. There is a huge headstone which resembles a birthday cake, which when moved opens up a huge vault underneath. Last I heard it was completely flooded inside. There are more details in the Knox section of this site.

ِDennyholm Street, Kilbirnie (again)

I have attached some photos. On one you can see Dennyholm street houses (left bottom – they look like chalets) and on the other a map showing that “the Dennyholm” (street) ran parallel to Newton Street but was on a level at the back and beneath the street. (next to number 836 on the map). The street itself ran all the way into the mill complex.

The other two photos show: the entrance to the mill complex and the demolished site before they built the new housing estate.

The North Ayrshire Directories of that time describes them as “a long row of houses prone to flooding.” The census of 1921 shows them as having only 2 rooms each. You can see them in this photo, to the left, bottom.

I have colourized this for a better effect.

The area has been completely replaced with the Dennyholm Wynd Housing Estate.

In the 1900s the street had shops and a school. Dennyholm Street no longer exists.