tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31832195687843996222024-03-17T21:27:44.658+00:00Kirkintilloch & District Society of AntiquariesAll content copyright of Kirkintilloch and District Society of Antiquaries, Authors and Photographers.Number10oxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03299748501853320430noreply@blogger.comBlogger186125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183219568784399622.post-49227166817241510972024-02-29T20:26:00.003+00:002024-03-17T21:27:13.882+00:00Local History Month: 'The Old Aisle Cemetery - some people of note': The Park Centre, 2 pm Wednesday 20th March 2024Kirkintilloch and District Society of Antiquaries will be holding a special open meeting for the annual Local History Month 2024 at 2pm on Wednesday 20th March in the Park Centre, 45 Kerr Street, Kirkintilloch G66 1LF. The presentation will be based on the exhibition and guided walk on the same theme held by the Antiquaries for Doors Open Day in September 2023. After an introduction to the Ivan Ruddockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227314658303540878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183219568784399622.post-32763688869175926812024-02-26T22:26:00.002+00:002024-02-29T20:27:51.036+00:00James Mearns: ''What the Romans did for Glasgow Archaeological Society': Thursday 7th March 2004Jim Mearn's presentation will relate the history of Glasgow Archaeological Society (GAS) from its foundation in December 1856 to the present day. It will mention some of the interesting people who have been members of the Society, such as Miss Cranston of tea room fame; William Blackie the publisher; Lord Kelvin, several Lord Provosts of Glasgow, a Confederate General and a Kirkintilloch native, Ivan Ruddockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227314658303540878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183219568784399622.post-22608310921308740762024-02-09T10:40:00.000+00:002024-02-09T10:40:04.668+00:00Members' Night 2024: 'A new lease of life': Thursday 15th February 2024The Society's annual Members’ Night will be held on Thursday 15th February 2024, and this year the theme will be 'A new lease of life'. Seven members will contribute this year and it is anticipated that the theme will be interpreted differently by all concerned with subjects including the restoration of buildings, motor cars and railways. This meeting has always been a Ivan Ruddockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227314658303540878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183219568784399622.post-82131282361170070622024-01-20T22:49:00.002+00:002024-01-24T15:49:24.797+00:00Nina Baker: 'Human spiders spin and spin - ropemakers and rope making in Scotland': Thursday 1st February 2024Dr Nina Baker has previously spoken twice to the Society, both times during the pandemic when in-person meetings were not being held. The first was a pre-recorded talk entitled 'Scotswomen working in engineering' which was posted on the Antiquaries YouTube channel in January 2021, and the second - 'Daughters of Vulcan: women and the Glasgow Hammermen' - was delivered live by Zoom on 7th October Ivan Ruddockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227314658303540878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183219568784399622.post-84075667076779729762023-12-21T01:01:00.000+00:002023-12-21T01:01:17.029+00:00Don Martin MBE: 'Local history in folk song': Thursday 11th January 2024Don Martin retired in the early 2000s as the reference librarian for East Dunbartonshire and has a national reputation as a historian, author, and photographer. He was also Secretary of Kirkintilloch and District Society of Antiquaries for 41 years until 2021. During his career as a librarian, and in retirement, Don has been a prolific researcher and author on mainly Scottish history and culture.Ivan Ruddockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227314658303540878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183219568784399622.post-74002738127668823802023-11-16T23:18:00.001+00:002023-12-03T13:55:42.296+00:00Al Fleming and Linda McIntosh: ‘The 1941 German air crash at Lennoxtown, 7th May 1941’: Thursday 7th December 2023 On 7th May 1941, a Luftwaffe Junkers Ju88 aircraft taking part in a large raid on Clydeside, was shot down by a Boulton Paul Defiant nightfighter of 141 Squadron operating from RAF Prestwick. The bomber crashed on Blairskaith Muir between Balmore and Lennoxtown with two of the four man crew being killed and subsequently buried in Lennoxtown's Campsie cemetery, The grave of one - Hauptmann Gerd Ivan Ruddockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227314658303540878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183219568784399622.post-81155053531143683622023-11-16T15:56:00.000+00:002023-11-16T15:56:31.351+00:00Visit to Fairfield Heritage, Tuesday 14th November 2023On Tuesday 14th November 2023, 20 members of the Society were welcomed at the start of a two hour semi-guided tour of the museum which was opened in 2014 by Govan Workplace Ltd. This magnificent A-listed former office headquarters was built for the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Co Ltd in 1891 and bought in 2009 from Clydeport for £5.8M. The preserved architecture, with its restored tiledIvan Ruddockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227314658303540878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183219568784399622.post-82394987086939505382023-10-19T23:17:00.003+01:002023-10-20T16:53:08.809+01:00Bruce Keith: ‘Are we nearly there yet? – milestones in Scotland’: Thursday 2nd November 2023'Are we nearly there yet?' is a celebration of Scottish milestones - not just distance markers and waymarkers, but much else asides. In his talk on Thursday 2nd November, Bruce Keith will discuss early means of measurement and maps, and the travellers of the 18th and 19th centuries whose journals laid the foundation of the Scottish tourist industry. He will also celebrate the 'Top 50 Scots', the Ivan Ruddockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227314658303540878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183219568784399622.post-43721680312504166092023-09-23T21:21:00.003+01:002023-09-23T21:53:38.620+01:00John Jackson: ‘For the benefit of all – Scotland’s first public lending library’: Thursday 5th October 2023For 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, Ivan Ruddockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227314658303540878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183219568784399622.post-753189212042187362023-09-11T23:30:00.013+01:002023-09-26T16:55:02.406+01:00UPDATE: Doors Open Day and Old Aisle Cemetery Walk, Saturday 9th September 2023The 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 DoorsOpen Day banner. (© I.S.Ruddock)Part of the Antiquaries exhibition in the Ivan Ruddockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227314658303540878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183219568784399622.post-1666249424956696642023-08-30T22:07:00.008+01:002023-08-31T10:11:18.945+01:00Doors Open Day and Old Aisle Cemetery Walk, 9th September 2023This year's Doors Open Day in East Dunbartonshire is on Saturday 9th September 2023. The Society's contribution is an exhibition in the foyer of the William Patrick Library profiling significant personalities buried in the Old Aisle Cemetery, Kirkintilloch. In connection with the exhibition, which this year will be on view for the following week, a guided walk around a selection of these graves Ivan Ruddockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227314658303540878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183219568784399622.post-48175440099610551932023-05-28T21:24:00.000+01:002023-05-28T21:24:15.961+01:00Visit to the Museum of Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Tuesday 23rd May 2023Members of the Antiquaries were able to visit the museum recently opened by Friends of Glasgow Royal Infirmary (GRI). Seventeen members accepted the invitation and were welcomed at 11.30am on Tuesday 23rd May 2023 by a volunteer guide from Friends of the GRI. We were informed of the 200 years history of the hospital which was designed by the Adams family and opened in 1794 in grounds adjacent to Ivan Ruddockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227314658303540878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183219568784399622.post-32724567568886968092023-04-16T00:01:00.002+01:002023-09-23T21:12:53.104+01:00Annual General Meeting and 'Every contact leaves a trace': Thursday 20th April 2023This session's Annual General Meeting will be held on Thursday 20th April 2023 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 Ivan Ruddockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227314658303540878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183219568784399622.post-49065377289443754862023-03-24T22:47:00.001+00:002023-03-24T22:47:18.665+00:00The Society's contribution to East Dunbartonshire's Local History Month: 2.00pm, Thursday 23rd March 2023As originally planned, the Antiquaries had arranged for the Chair of the Alexander Thomson Society to give a talk on the life and work of Alexander 'Greek' Thomson, from his start in Balfron to becoming one of Scotland's most famous architects. His influence is most obviously seen in Glasgow, but also throughout the West of Scotland including Lenzie. This would have been the Society’s Ivan Ruddockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227314658303540878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183219568784399622.post-74888783133454700002023-03-20T20:56:00.007+00:002023-03-21T11:43:01.963+00:00CANCELLATION: Scott Abercrombie: Alexander 'Greek' Thomson': 2.00pm, Thursday 23rd March 2023Unfortunately, due to illness, the advertised talk by Scott Abercrombie on Alexander 'Greek' Thomson on Thursday 23rd March 2023 at 2.00pm will not take place. This event would have been the Society's contribution to East Dunbartonshire's 2023 Local History Month. In its place, Ivan Ruddock, the Antiquaries President, will present 'Memories of the Glasgow Garden Festival'.The talk will be given Ivan Ruddockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227314658303540878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183219568784399622.post-80109166735608810822023-03-17T21:09:00.004+00:002023-05-28T00:28:32.388+01:00Visit to Central Gurdwara, Berkeley Street, Glasgow: Tuesday 14th March 2023In spite of the forecasted early morning fall of snow, 20 members of the Society made their independent way by public transport and by car to the distinctive flag pole at the front entrance of Central Gurdwara Singh Sabha, Berkeley Street, Glasgow for a prearranged tour. On arrival we were greeted at 11.00.am on Tuesday 14th March 2023 by our guide with whom the visiting arrangements had been Ivan Ruddockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227314658303540878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183219568784399622.post-14600989250129429912023-03-09T22:23:00.001+00:002023-03-09T22:26:58.714+00:00Scott Abercrombie: Alexander 'Greek' Thomson': 2.00pm, Thursday 23rd March 2023Each year, Kirkintilloch and District Society of Antiquaries hosts an event in the programme of East Dunbartonshire's Local History Week or Month. This year, Mr Scott Abercrombie, Chair of the Alexander Thomson Society will speak on the life and work of Alexander 'Greek' Thomson. Alexander 'Greek' Thomson (1817 - 1875) was a Scottish architect who was inspired by the style and motifs of Ivan Ruddockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227314658303540878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183219568784399622.post-18821370448655121622023-02-25T22:48:00.007+00:002023-02-26T16:06:27.597+00:00James Kennedy: 'It started with Rob Roy - film making in the Trosachs, 1911-53': Thursday 2nd March 2023Lights, camera, action!...Rob Roy is one of the best known works of Sir Walter Scott and, since the earliest days of the motion picture industry, adaptions of it have been regularly filmed in Scotland, including on location in the Trossachs. In his talk, Mr James Kennedy, will describe the background to how these films came to be made, including some of the personalities involved.Actor David Ivan Ruddockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227314658303540878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183219568784399622.post-804530575700970392023-02-13T22:14:00.001+00:002023-02-13T22:14:22.211+00:00Members' Night: 'A serendipitous discovery': Thursday 16th February 2023The theme of this year's Members' Night is 'A serendipitous discovery', interpreted in whichever way the participants wish. In other words, the topic could be a person, a place, a historical fact or an artifact. The format of the evening will be as in previous years - each contributor has the opportunity of speaking on his or her topic for about five - ten minutes with or without illustrations.IfIvan Ruddockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227314658303540878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183219568784399622.post-19134549905698204922023-01-20T22:09:00.008+00:002023-02-25T20:14:31.447+00:00Grant Pinkerton: 'Records and research using the CWGC archive': Thursday 3rd February 2023Almost everyone living in the United Kingdom is related to someone, however distant, who served and died in either of the two World Wars. That service man or woman is commemorated in perpetuity somewhere in the world by a headstone or memorial erected and maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), originally founded as the Imperial War Graves Commission in 1917 and renamed in Ivan Ruddockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227314658303540878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183219568784399622.post-18029996046799264362023-01-04T21:58:00.006+00:002023-01-20T21:12:39.417+00:00Carol Primrose: 'The history of Mavis Valley – a mining village near Bishopbriggs': Thursday 12th January 2023The 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 Ivan Ruddockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227314658303540878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183219568784399622.post-79705823959878274362022-12-06T23:21:00.001+00:002022-12-06T23:21:36.500+00:00Investiture of Don Martin's MBE: Tuesday 22nd November 2022In the 2022 New Year Honours, Don Martin was awarded an MBE for services to libraries and heritage in Scotland. This honour recognised his contributions during his working life as reference libarian in the William Patrick Library for East Dumbartonshire, and his roles as secretary of the Kirkintilloch and District Society of Antiquaries, editor of Scottish Local History, historian, author, Ivan Ruddockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227314658303540878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183219568784399622.post-56187490843300775492022-11-06T23:31:00.003+00:002023-01-04T18:40:58.238+00:00Paul Carter: 'Scottish Drove Roads': Thursday 1st December 2022Until about the early twentieth century, cattle were driven from the highlands and islands of Scotland to the markets in the lowlands from where they were sent on to towns and cities throughout mainland Britain. In this talk, Paul Carter will give a review of Scottish Droving during 1750-1850, and then follow in the drovers' footsteps through Argyll and the last stage from Fintry to the Tryst at Ivan Ruddockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227314658303540878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183219568784399622.post-12712485386871525112022-10-14T21:31:00.002+01:002022-11-06T22:24:02.886+00:00David McVey: 'David Gray - the evidence': Thursday 3rd November 2022David Gray, the Kirkintilloch poet, was born in the town in 1838 and died there in 1861. He studied at the University of Glasgow and then worked in London for a short time before illness forced him to return home.In his talk, David McVey will discuss the evidence for what is known about the poet using Gray's own body of work, other people's writings and the memorials in the landscape, including Ivan Ruddockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227314658303540878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183219568784399622.post-72073186500428793362022-10-01T21:06:00.006+01:002023-01-20T12:42:02.257+00:00Niall Logan: 'Some early local residents': Thursday 6th October 2022 For the opening of this year’s programme, KDSA welcomes Professor Niall Logan, formerly of Glasgow Caledonian University. He will give an illustrated talk on notable Baldernock residents and the development of the area over several centuries.(© N.Logan) Niall Logan held a personal chair in Systematic Bacteriology, and in 2017 was awarded the international Bergey Medal in recognition of Ivan Ruddockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227314658303540878noreply@blogger.com