John Jackson: ‘For the benefit of all – Scotland’s first public lending library’: Thursday 5th October 2023

For the opening of this year’s programme, KDSA welcomes one of its members, John Jackson, who will speak on Innerpeffray Library. The library in rural Perthshire is the oldest public lending library in the UK, having first opened its door to borrowers in 1680. It is a remarkable historical survival from three and a half centuries ago, and remains a focus of interest for historians and academics, as well as a delight to tourists and interested visitors today. It is like nothing else – no longer a lending library, not quite a museum, but with a new life around education and community. We hear its story in this presentation.

The interior of Innerpeffray Library. (© M.Jackson)

John Jackson is a former physics teacher and retired Church of Scotland administrator. He last spoke to the Society in 2019 when he presented the history of Arran as recorded in some of his extensive collection of antiquarian books on the subject.

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.

UPDATE: Doors Open Day and Old Aisle Cemetery Walk, Saturday 9th September 2023

The Society's exhibition on significant personalities buried in Kirkintilloch's Old Aisle Cemetery opened on Saturday morning, 9th September. This was part of its contribution to East Dunbartonshire Doors Open Day and will be available for viewing until Saturday, 16th September.

The William Patrick Library with the Doors

Open Day banner. (© I.S.Ruddock)

Part of the Antiquaries exhibition in the William

Patrick Library. (© I.S.Ruddock)

In the afternoon of Doors Open Day, a guided walk was led by the Antiquaries around a selection of the graves featured in the exhibition, with the assistance of Alistair Strang, a Commonwealth War Graves Commission volunteer guide, who described the work of the Commission and gave brief biographies of some of the First and Second World War casualties buried in the cemetery. To finish off the tour, Kirkintilloch photographer and entrepreneur, Edward Z Smith, entertained the large group of participants by outlining the history of the 'Spider Bridge' which previously crossed the southern end of the Old Aisle Cemetery. This wrought iron bridge was part of a right of way from Waterside to Lenzie station, and was the result of the campaign by John Ferguson (also in the exhibition) in 1885, but was demolished in 1987 and not replaced.

The participants in the guided walk in the Old Aisle Cemetery
hearing about the history of the site and the belfry. (© I.S.Ruddock)

The group at the monument to Father James Bonnyman, the first Roman
Catholic priest appointed to Kirkintilloch for an extended period and who
was responsible for the building of St Ninian's. (© I.S.Ruddock)

Photographer Edward Z Smith, an enthusiast
for the much lamented 'Spider Bridge', giving
the story of its construction and demolition.
(© I.S.Ruddock)

Alistair Strang, representing the Commonwealth War
Graves Commission, describing its work and
the backgrounds of some of the casualties buried
in the Old Aisle Cemetery. (© I.S.Ruddock)