Kilbirnie / North Ayrshire, photos/images/video, Uncategorized

ِDennyholm Street, Kilbirnie

I have attached 3 photos.

On one you can see 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 mill was a bit further back.

The other two photos show the entrance to what was “Dennyholm Street” with a very long row of houses. We can only see the first house on Dennyholm Street on the colour photo which is sitting down from of what appears to be the back of a block of flats which are built upwards to Newton Street. The older photo shows a concrete shed in front of the same first house a little bit closer.

I initially thought that Dennyholm street would have been the blocks of tenaments built up to Newton Street but one of 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.

The area has been completely replaced with the Dennyholm Wynd Housing Estate although on Google Earth you can still see the same street, which is more like a lane now with those yellowish grey flats beneath the ground level of Newton Street.

In the 1900s the street had shops and a school. Dennyholm Street no longer exists and is simply the river walk at the back of Newton Street now.

Kilbirnie / North Ayrshire, photos/images/video, Uncategorized

#Kilbirnie First Parish Priest 1864 Death Certificate #northayrshire

Death Certificate of Father Thomas Patrick Lee, (at the bottom)  the first Parish Priest of Kilbirnie. He apparently was infected by fleas whilst giving the Last Rights aged 33.

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Kilbirnie / North Ayrshire, photos/images/video, Uncategorized

St Brigids Church History 1862-1962 #kilbirnie #northayrshire

please click here for the document (PDF)  Final page here

This 27 page document produced in 1962 looks at Catholicism on the west coast of Scotland and details how the  Church in Kilbirnie came to be  opened in 1862. It contains a photo of the first priest  ( I already posted his death certificate on this blog) as well as the  surnames of all of the first Catholic families to worship in the Church which is very good for genealogy researchers.  It gives a rare glimpse of Catholic life on the west coast of Scotland and also talks about the opening of the school as well as other Churches in the area.

Kilbirnie / North Ayrshire, Uncategorized

Mary (Maria) McTaggart 1887 – 1907

Maria McTaggart worked for W and J Knox in Kilbirnie and sadly caught her breast in one of the machines. She was a sister of my Great Grandfather Neil McTaggart.

She eventually died at the young age of 19. The family maintained it was because of her wound which became “cancerous”, yet there is no known link between a breast wound and cancer. That is now known to be an urban myth. She in fact died of a lung condition.

It seems the family were living out at “the Den” which was a little village called Barkip. It no longer exists but you can still see traces of it on the Beith to Dalry Road. It was disbanded in the early 20th Century and the people were moved to other locations such as the Longbar, Rows, Beith and Dalry. It had a Church, Bank, Post Office and school.

Kilbirnie / North Ayrshire, Poems, Uncategorized

The River Garnock at Grahamston Avenue #poem

Flowing to a land of peace 
We watch her gentle stream
Old Churches, schools ravished by time
Reflect her gentle beams.

Starry nights and sun-filled days
Upon her granite poised
Where children played upon the bridge
O´er shadowed now with noise.

Yet peace she brings with every stone
Where faltering birds do nest
And otters with their children come
To take their peace and rest.

In her divine appointed flow 
Fear leaves no saddened thoughts 
For change is named upon her brow 
With no heightened sense of loss.

And by her banks sweet angels flow
Attending to their wards
while we stand upon the bridge alone
With only darker thoughts.

Yet sweet repose and Love are here
For all who hear her song
Far away from bills to pay
And every sense of wrong.

Her gentle flowing higher streams
Do guide us in our thoughts
to a peaceful place of mind
flowing o´er the darker rocks. 

´Tis good for us to stop and hear
Her gentle peaceful flow
While Angels pass with quieter thoughts
Allowing us to grow.







 





Kilbirnie / North Ayrshire, photos/images/video, Uncategorized

“Willie Mackie´s Homecoming” #kilbirnie #northayrshire #scotland

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Willie Mackie left Kilbirnie Scotland to emigrate to the USA as many people did before him, in search of a better life. As the title suggests, this was his homecoming celebration in Kilbirnie Gospel Hall Brethren Assembly.

This photo would be from the 1930s. Im not sure if he returned to the USA at a later date or settled in Kilbirnie again.