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 …
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 …
Soldiering On
We have another exciting blog post and this time it has been written by our Collections Officer Louise and is all about a little ‘autographs’ book which was recently donated to our collection. I love an object with a story to tell and this little book that was donated this month gives us so many little snapshots of lives gone …
New Donations at the Museum of the Cumbraes
Recently the Museum of the Cumbraes welcomed two beautiful donations. The first is a model of MV Ashton, which was commissioned by Jim Thomson who then very kindly donated it to the Museum where it is now on permanent display. The second is our current exhibition Song of the Clyde: the story of the Clyde steamers. This wonderful collection was …
Our Singer Sewing Machine
Historic Environment Scotland recently put up a fascinating blog post on the history of Singer sewing machines, which you can read HERE, and it got us thinking about our own Singer sewing machine which is on permanent display at our Heritage Centre in Saltcoats. Donated in late 2021, this machine had belonged to the donators grandmother in 1919 and had …
Our New Joseph Russell Stained Glass Windows
Have you seen our two beautiful stained glass windows that we recently installed? We want to share with you their fascinating story and to do so, we have to tell you about an e-mail we received and then go back to the 19th century. In 2019 we were contacted by Dr Andrew Russell, who explained that we had some stained …
Private James Barrow, Dalry
We have recently received a donation of a photograph which has been quite timely given the recent Remembrance events. The photograph shows Private James Barrow of Love Lane, Dalry, who was born on 14 February 1896 and died in service with the Cameronians (1st Battalion Scottish Rifles) on 27 May 1917. He is buried at the Faubourg-D’Amiens in France. Prior …
New Addition to the Collection: Beithcraft Furniture
Those of you who have visited our wee heritage centre will know that space is not on our side! We have to think carefully about how we can make the most of what we have to display some of our wonderful objects. When we were offered a donation of two pieces of Beithcraft bedroom furniture, we knew that, despite the …