The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in what is now East Dunbartonshire saw a drastic change from a rural way of life to intensive industrial development, notably in mines and quarries. To service them, several new villages had to be built to house the workers yet within a century most of them had disappeared. One of them, Mavis Valley, has left enough of a footprint to suggest what life was like for the miner and his family. Surveyed and mapped in 2012, it is a rare survivor of industrial archaeology in West Central Scotland. In this talk, Carol Primrose will present the growth and decline of the Mavis Valley and describe what still remains to be seen at this location.
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| Mavis Valley (public domain) |
Mrs Primrose is a former librarian who, started in Glasgow's Mitchell Library after studying French and German at Glasgow Univeristy, and retired from the latter's library after twenty-two years during which she focused on staff training and study skills and information retrieval for students. Her career also included spells at Strathclyde University and two years in charge of the St Andrew’s House branch of the Scottish Office library in Edinburgh.
A subject specialism in archaeology led to a Certificate in Field Archaeology and membership of a number of archaeological societies including being President of the Glasgow Archaeological Society, Vice President of Archaeology Scotland, Chair of The Association of Certificated Field Archaeologists and Fellow of the Society of Antiquities of Scotland. She has taken part in several surveys and co-directed two in Arran, and, following retirement in 1998, she developed an interest in local history and directed a survey of Mavis Valley. She is currently Secretary of East Dunbartonshire History and Heritage Forum and a Trustee of Gavin’s Mill in Milngavie.
The meeting will be held in the Park Centre, 45 Kerr Street, Kirkintilloch, G66 1LF at 7.30 pm. The annual membership subscription is £10 and visitors are welcome at all of the Society's evening events.
