Annual General Meeting and 'What Lies Beneath: The Geology of Kirkintilloch...': Thursday 21st April 2022

This session's Annual General Meeting will be held on Thursday 21st April 2022 at 7.30 pm in The Park Centre, and is an opportunity for all members to have their say in the running of the Society. The various activities since the last AGM will be reviewed, the accounts will be presented for approval, and the office bearers and committee membership - for which nominations are sought - will be confirmed.

Following the business part of the meeting, Dr Murray Reid, the Society's Secretary, will present 'What Lies Beneath: The Geology of Kirkintilloch And How We Know What It Is'. This will be an overview of the geology of Kirkintilloch and District, including what can be seen and identified when walking locally.

The Campsies viewed from Kirkintilloch. (© J.M.Reid)

All evening meetings of the Society are at 7.30 pm in the Park Centre, 45 Kerr Street, Kirkintilloch, G66 1LF.

Paul Bishop: Kirkintilloch and the Flax and Linen Industries: March 2021

Prof Paul Bishop, a member of the Society, is a geographer and retired academic from the University of Glasgow with interests in local  history and industrial archaeology. In this talk, he presents an overview of the linen industry in Kirkintilloch and district, including the various stages from the harvesting of flax through to the weaving of linen.

The video can be viewed directly by clicking on the above image of the first slide in Paul's presentation, or by going to the Society's YouTube channel which can be accessed by clicking here.

Don Martin: The Peel of Kirkintilloch: December 2020

The third of the 'virtual' meetings in the 2020-21 season of the Antiquaries is a talk on Peel Park by Don Martin, the Society's Secretary, entitled 'The Peel of Kirkintilloch'.. 

Don is a retired librarian who is well known as a folk singer, and author and researcher of Scotland's history and its railways. In this short talk with a local theme, he outlines the history of Peel Park over the past two thousand years. 

Peel Park, Kirkintilloch. (© Edward Z Smith)

The presentation can be viewed directly by clicking on the above image of Peel Park or by going to the Society's YouTube channel which can be accessed by clicking here.

Ivan Ruddock: Archibald Scott Couper - Kirkintilloch's forgotten pioneer of chemistry: November 2020

The second of the 'virtual' meetings in the 2020-21 season of the Antiquaries is a talk on Archibald Scott Couper by Dr Ivan Ruddock, the Society's President. Couper was born in Kirkintilloch in 1831, had a brief career as a research chemist in the 1850s and then returned to Kirkintilloch where he died in 1892. 

Ivan is a physicist and retired academic whose research has focused on optical physics; he has also led large European physics projects, and been active in developing physics education and promoting the public understanding of science and engineering. In the short talk, he outlines Couper's life and career, and assesses his contribution to chemistry. 

This presentation with local connections lasts for less than half an hour and can be viewed directly by clicking on the above image of the Archibald Scott Couper or by going to the Society's YouTube channel which can be accessed by clicking here.

Murray Reid: What Lies Beneath: October 2020

The speaker at the first of the 'virtual' meetings in the 2020-21 season of the Antiquaries is Dr Murray Reid, a member of the Society's committee. Murray is a recently retired geologist who spent part of his spare time during lockdown investigating the geology of Kirkintilloch and its surroundings. Here he presents some of his discoveries and illustrates them with his own photographs.

The Campsies viewed from Kirkintilloch. (© J.M.Reid)

This talk on the local area lasts for just over half an hour and can be viewed directly by clicking on the above image of the Campsies or by going to the Society's YouTube channel which can be accessed by clicking here.

Paul Bishop: Kirkintilloch during and after the last ice age: Thursday 1st Febuary 2018

The Last Ice Age was responsible for much of the landscape, landforms and soils we live on. As the ice ground its way from the highlands to the sea, it carved great valleys (glens) and moulded the land surface. The sea was more than 100 m lower and the Earth's crust was depressed by the great load of ice weighing it down. When the ice melted, the sea returned and the Earth's crust rose again as the weight of the ice disappeared. The land surface then started its long recovery from the deep blanketing by ice, as vegetation slowly returned to the thawing landscape. 

Prof. Paul Bishop is a geographer and has recently retired from the University of Glasgow. In this talk he explores the various lines of evidence around Kirkintilloch and nearby areas for the presence of this ancient massive ice sheet, and then shows how the landscape recovered from the deep freeze.

British ice coverage during the last ice age.
(Reproduced with the permission of the British Geological Survey
© NERC. All rights reserved.) 

Bardowie Loch - an example of a "kettle hole" created by glaciation. (© P. Bishop)

All evening meetings of the Society are at 7.30 pm in the Park Centre, 45 Kerr Street, Kirkintilloch, G66 1LF. 

East Dunbartonshire Doors Open Day 2016: Tom Johnston's Kirkintilloch, Saturday 10th September 2016, 2.00 pm

As part of East Dunbartonshire's 2016 Doors Open programme, Don Martin, the Society's secretary, will lead a guided walk round sites in Kirkintilloch associated with the famous Scottish politician, and historian Tom Johnston. The walk will depart from outside William Patrick Library at 2.00 pm and will include buildings used for emergency council services during World War 1 when Johnston was a member of Kirkintilloch Town Council. The full programme for Open Doors may be found here.

Ivan Ruddock

It's official! Alexander Bain is the father of television

The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in the United States announced today (2nd September 2015) that an Emmy has been awarded to Alexander Bain to recognise his invention of scanning and image transmission. The Emmy is the television equivalent of the Oscar and is one of the highest honours associated with this particular medium, and Kirkintilloch and District Society of Antiquaries played a part in this decision.



The Emmy 
(© National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences).

Alexander Bain (1810-77) was born in Watten, Caithness and died in poverty in Broomhill Home, Kirkintilloch. For a few years he was a successful entrepreneur and business man, and although his achievements include the invention of the electric clock and important contributions to the electric telegraph, he is now known worldwide as the inventor of the fax machine. This early form of image transmission combined elements of electric clocks and telegraphs but the breakthrough was the concept of dissecting an image, sending it as a varying electric current in a wire, and then reversing the process to reassemble the image. It was the first time that an image was ever transmitted from one location to another and is the basis of the process used later by the developers of mechanical and electronic television. The link with the fundamentals of television was explored by Ivan Ruddock in "Alexander Bain: The Real Father of Television?" published in the Summer 2012 issue of Scottish Local History.

Alexander Bain in 1876 (© IET).

Alexander Bain's headstone in Kirkintilloch's Old Ailse Cemetery.

Ivan Ruddock

The Lion Foundry on BBC Alba: Wednesday 24th June 2015

BBC Alba is showing again the 1978 series, Diary of Britain, which focuses on the lives of fifteen communities throughout the United Kingdom.

Episode 2, broadcast on Wednesday 24th June 2015 was "Men and Iron" which followed the work of Kirkintilloch's Lion Foundry between the 11th and 15th of December 1978. It is available here on BBC iPlayer until 19th July 2015.

Local History Week 2015

This year’s East Dunbartonshire Local History Week will be held from Saturday 7th March until Saturday 14th March. As usual the Antiquaries will contribute their own event. This will be a talk on ‘Rita – the Muse: the Origins of Japanese Whisky’ by Peter McCormack and Janice Miller of East Dunbartonshire Leisure & Culture, at the Barony Chambers (adjacent to the Auld Kirk Museum) at 2.30pm on Wednesday 11th March. It will tell the romantic story of how Kirkintilloch woman Rita Cowan became involved in the export of a staple Scottish industry to Japan. A good attendance is expected and seating is limited, so members are advised to come early.

Rita Taketsuru (Cowan)

The majority of the Local History Week events are organised by EDLC, but like the Antiquaries several East Dunbartonshire local history groups are organising their own events. The Friends of Thomas Muir will have an exhibition of John Kay etchings ‘The Times of Thomas Muir’ at the Huntershill Village Coffee Shop, with a relevant talk at 7.00pm on Thursday 12th March (7.00pm). At Milngavie Heritage Centre (Milngavie Town Hall) there will be historical exhibition about villages adjacent to Milngavie, ‘Milngavie’s Neighbours’ (10th-14th March 10.00am-5.00pm). Villages covered will include Balmore, Bardowie, Baldernock aend Mugdock.

Don Martin: 'Kirkintilloch and Lenzie fifty years ago': Friday 21st November 2014

During the early 1960s the Society’s present secretary took a very large number of photographs of the Kirkintilloch/Lenzie area. His main purpose was to record local transport services, especially the declining railway network, the replacement of steam on the railways by diesel haulage, the disappearance of the Lawson branding on local buses, and the last years of the Forth & Clyde Canal before its 1962 closure. However, he also photographed many other local subjects, including street scenes. This year he has been re-visiting many of the sites to take 50-year equivalent views. Both old and new will be presented in this talk, postponed from Friday 10th October 2014.

Don Martin: 'Kirkintilloch and Lenzie fifty years ago': Friday 10th October 2014: Postponed

During the early 1960s the Society’s present secretary took a very large number of photographs of the Kirkintilloch/Lenzie area. His main purpose was to record local transport services, especially the declining railway network, the replacement of steam on the railways by diesel haulage, the disappearance of the Lawson branding on local buses, and the last years of the Forth & Clyde Canal before its 1962 closure. However, he also photographed many other local subjects, including street scenes. This year he has been re-visiting many of the sites to take 50-year equivalent views. Both old and new will be presented in this talk.