Tag: glengarnock

Reminiscing

I always found it strange that my family hated reminiscing.

They were so busy obsessing about survival that there wasn’t a lot of time for sentimentality. Perhaps it was too painful or maybe they had some awareness it could make people sad.  I think this was common in Industrial communities.

Only when they were drunk could they relax enough to look back. Even then it was without photos or keepsakes. They rather preferred stories or maybe I should describe them as glimpses into the past.

It meant that I couldn’t get full pictures about what characters were really like. Only occasional stories.

Whatever the reason, academic storytelling was seen as a weakness possibly because it made something of the past which for them was just everyday life. I can understand that. They were hard days

Whatever the reason,  it was absolutely horrific living in such a controlled environment.

How the Longbar got it’s name.

I was trying to explain to a friend about the “Longbar”  when he asked me where the name came from.

It was built on top of another earlier group of houses known as “the Lambert”. Over time and with the number of folk moving in with different accents it then became known as the Lamber, then langbar wth the brogue northern Irish accent among others.

By the 1950s it had evolved into “Longbar” because people thought langbar referred to the Scottish word “lang” which meant “long” and the Government starting putting up signposts with the name.

Glengarnock Steel Social Night – Whist Drive, 1921

Names in this article and likely in the photo: James Gibson,  Mary Steele, G Jaffray,  E.Pirrett, M.Martin, Alan Walker,  Ed Kellett,  G. Hamilton, Doris Gaze, D McKee, Margaret Fulton,  WI Thomson, Tom Davidson, M. Kircaldy, (mentioned in some football results elsewhere)  E Hamilton, J. Graham, Alan Hamilton,  John Archibald, Bert Smith, WM Baillie.

The Reading Room #glengarnock #kilbirnie #northayrshire

Reading Room

North Ayrshire´s first library over at the Steel Works operated by Willie Rabey. It also held Brethren Assembly meetings before the Hebron Hall was opened in 1921. I recognise one person in this picture, Malcolm McMillan.

#northayrshire #kilbirnie : How the Longbar got it’s name #beith

I was trying to explain to a friend about the “Longbar”  (And how rough it used to be) when he asked me where the name came from.

It was built on top of another earlier group of houses known as “the Lambert”. Over time and with the number of folk moving in, it then became known as the Lamber, then langbar and someone clearly thought this was a bit colloquial so they finally corrected Lang to Long and it became “Longbar”.