John Caldwell, born in Beith in 1873, served as a postman for 46 years and was the first postman in Scotland to use a bicycle to deliver letters. He has now been added to the ‘Stories’ section of the website where you can read more about this long-serving postie!
James Morrison the First Provost of Stevenston has Been Added to the Stories Section
James Morrison was elected as the first Provost of Stevenston in 1952 at the age of 92! He has now been added to the ‘Stories’ section of our website for you to learn all about this fascinating man. In 1870 James left school to start his apprenticeship as a baker, after which he was employed as a foreman in a …
George Wall: Johnny McIntyre put me to left-back
The following post was kindly submitted to us by Gordon McCreath, who is a keen Ayrshire junior football historian. George Wall began his Junior career at Dalry Thistle, playing alongside a young Jim Leighton, who went on to win 91 Scottish international caps during his career with, amongst others, Aberdeen, Manchester United and Hibs. At the other end of his …
Hugh Hogarth has Been Added to the Stories Section
We have added another new story to our ‘Stories’ section and this time it is about Hugh Hogarth, who founded the Baron Line. Born in 1840, Hugh Hogarth became a wealthy shipping shipping magnate who played an active role in the affairs of Ardrossan itself. In 1881 the Hogarth family were living at Clutha Villa, Montgomerie Street, Ardrossan. Interestingly the …
A History of Marymass
Marymass 2024 is now in the past but the history of the event goes back much, much further with origins in the 9th century! The first queen was Martha McHarg, who was crowned in front of Irvine Townhouse in 1928. Irvine Town Council and Carters Society suggested including children in Marymass and proposed ‘a Marymass Queen’, with the first Queen, …
Robert Smallwood – Re-united with his Past
The following post was kindly submitted to us by Gordon McCreath, who is a keen Ayrshire junior football historian. The wide-eyed 12-year-old Meadow fan reached his hands up as Bobby Carroll held out his trophy for the schoolboy to hold. It was the morning of the 1959 Scottish Junior Cup final and the players were having a pre-match breakfast with …
Genealogy is Moving
Some of you may have noticed an announcement on North Ayrshire Council’s page a couple of weeks ago about our genealogy and local history service, which is currently located in Irvine Townhouse….. We are really excited to share with you that we have closed the doors on the service in the Townhouse and are busy packing up all our treasures …
Our New Collections Section is Live!
Since the launch of our website at Christmas 2022, we have worked tirelessly on expanding the site: we have steadily added more stories which tell the history of North Ayrshire, we are delighted to say we have had more and more local historians contributing blog posts to the site and there has been so much more! However, one of our …
The Marymass Derby
The following post was kindly submitted to us by Gordon McCreath, who is a keen Ayrshire junior football historian. Over the years Meadow XI has dominated the traditional Marymass Derby against local rivals Irvine Victoria, but it wasn’t like that right at the start. Up until 1921 both clubs had enjoyed free Marymass Saturdays to allow the people of the …
Return of the Bell
We have had a lot of conversation in the Heritage Centre over the last while as to the whereabouts of the bell that used to hang in the bell tower in Ardrossan Parish Church, which is now the Heritage Centre. Over a month ago our lovely volunteer and local history enthusiast, Frances Gilmour, brought a post by Three Towns Explored …