I have started a new audio archive with many of my recordings about local history, South West Scotland and other things I have made over the years. You can hear it by clicking on the menu at the side of the site – I’m still testing it and adding new content. I am aware that right now everything is lumped together.
As I add more content, it will sort itself out.
On mobile devices, it is appearing at the bottom of the page.
Joseph.
You can access it here:
During the 1980s and a bit of the 1990s there was a museum under the Walker Hall – it was accessed via a small alleyway right next to the hall and the sign “museum” hung on it long after the museum disappeared. It was called the Stables museum because supposedly before the Walker Hall, there were stables there and also the remains of a very old medieval pub.
I have been in touch with the council to try and find out where the stuff went when it closed. They have given me a catalogue of stuff they hold from the museum which you can access here.
There are a few things missing though which I can clearly remember which you can see below:
It is possible that the picture was loaned either from the Knox Institute which was at the cross in Kilbirnie (it’s been closed for years though), the Masonic Lodge, the mill office or the main Walker Hall which the museum sat under. That would have been returned to wherever it came from when the museum closed.
The stone from the bridge on the other hand was fairly big and my guess is that it might be stored somewhere by the council or else left under the Walker Hall where the museum was. The lamp had long gone, it was only the stone that was left.
If anybody knows where these things are, please let me know because they should be catalogued somewhere to make sure they don’t get lost again so they hopefully can be preserved.
I have added an audio version to my book about the Knox Family of KIlbirnie.
You can hear it on the page, here.
This is William John Glass, he was my Great Grandfather. He married Sarah Hay in 1905 and lived in Glengarnock. At the time of marriage he was living at Auchengree, He had many brothers and sisters and came from a huge family. His parents had emigrated from Northern Ireland in the 1800’s, they were James Glass and Anne Moore from around Bushmills somehwere.
He died in Central Avenue, before it was rebuilt into private houses we know today. They are buried in KIlbirnie old cemetery in an unmarked grave.
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.
This was the old bakehouse at the bottom of Montgomery Street (the street was known locally as the Gom)
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.
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.
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.
