The following post was kindly submitted to us by Gordon McCreath, who is a keen Ayrshire junior football historian. When Irvine Victoria were drawn to play at home against Cumbernauld United in the 1st Round of the Scottish Cup in 1967/68 they couldn’t possibly have known they’d be facing one of the greatest players ever to be produced in Scotland. …
New Exhibition: ‘They Wore It So Well’
We have a brand-new exhibition at our Heritage Centre in Saltcoats and it’s all about fashion! We are going back to the 60’s and 70’s for ‘They Wore It So Well’, an exhibition which celebrates the fashions from those two decades. The exhibition features a lovely variety of dresses, shoes, handbags and coats and it’s all from the collection of …
Willie Stewart: Brains in his Head as well as in his Feet
The following post was kindly submitted to us by Gordon McCreath, who is a keen Ayrshire junior football historian. To generations of Irvine schoolchildren he was Mr Stewart the Maths teacher at Irvine Royal Academy, but Willie Stewart had a second career as a player in both Junior and Senior football. The boot was on the other foot recently, when …
North Ayrshire’s D-Day Roll of Honour
Have you seen the latest addition to our website? We have prepared something special to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Operation Overlord and the D-Day landings: North Ayrshire’s D-Day Roll of Honour. Our website now has a permanent page dedicated to those from North Ayrshire who fell during the invasion, whose names are on the British Normandy Memorial. The British …
John Parkinson 1874-1918, Poet and Writer on Islam
This blog post was kindly provided by Christine Watson from Kilwinning Heritage. Check out their website to plan your visit to the Heritage Centre at Kilwinning Abbey Tower. Or why not give them a follow on their Facebook page? As part of the Kilwinning Heritage Trail, there is a blue plaque on the Main Street at the entrance to Garden Square which names John Parkinson, …
The Largs War Memorial has Been Added to the Stories Section
Another new addition to our ‘Stories’ section is the Largs War Memorial. Dedicated on the 19th of September, 1921 the memorial features three soldiers carved from white freestone by sculptor William Kellock Brown. The statue bears the names of 85 men who were killed in the First World War and 67 who were killed in the Second World War. You …
PS Waverley has Been Added to the Stories Section
The legendary paddle steamer PS Waverley is now in the Stories section of our website! You can learn all about the history of the PS Waverley, from it’s launch on the 2nd of October, 1946 to it being withdrawn from service in 1973 and ultimately sold to the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society for £1. The text, paintings, photos, programmes and …
The Witchcraft Trials in North Ayrshire
We are delighted to announce the addition of a wonderful piece of individual research relating to the whole of North Ayrshire has been added to the ‘Stories’ section of our website. ‘The Witchcraft Trials in North Ayrshire‘ is the latest submission to NA Heritage by regular contributor Heather Upfield. This well-researched piece incudes details of the victims of the witchcraft …
Duchess of Fife in War Livery
You might not know that, on the outbreak of World War II in 1939, most of the Clyde paddlers were called up for minesweeping – some of them for a second time, having played that role in World War I. Several were lost, and at the close of the hostilities only one replacement was built – The Waverley. Those that …
‘Health and Pleasure Cruise’
Our latest exhibition ‘Song of the River Steamers‘ is well underway and we are still finding gems in the collection of Charles Glen! While going through the wealth of resources and research of Charles Glen we’ve found this advertisement for a Health and Pleasure Cruise aboard the Duchess of Argyll in 1938. We do think it looks like great fun, …