Thomas Miur Festival: 13th -24th November 2014

The Thomas Muir Festival of local history, art and culture takes place in various locations in East Dunbartonshire during 13th - 24th November. The festival's programme may be accessed by clicking here.

Tom Dowds: 'The Scottish clergy and Bannockburn': Friday 7th November 2014

During this anniversary year there has been a great deal of interest in the Battle of Bannockburn, especially by way of attempts to reconstruct the different phases of the battle and establish the exact nature of the military activity that took place. However, the War of Independence was about much more than just military matters. Tom Dowds has researched constitutional aspects of the Scottish nation at the time, and especially the way that the Scottish clergy made out a strong case for Scottish independent nationhood, beginning with ‘The Pleading’ of 1301 to the Pope in Rome, involving three canon lawyers, and extending through to the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320.

UPDATE: Venue for Society's Meetings

The venue for the Society's meetings for this session will be the Park Centre, 45 Kerr Street, Kirkintilloch, G66 1LF. They will continue to be held on Fridays and there will be an extra meeting on Friday 21st November to replace the one that had to be cancelled. Unfortunately there is unlikely to be any parking in Kerr Street due to this being a residential area, and as it is a cul-de-sac, turning may be difficult.

Venue for Society's Meetings

As many members already know from experience, the first meeting of the Society's programme for this winter had to be cancelled because Riverside Church was not opened for us despite the date being properly booked. Please accept the apologies of the Committee for this disappointment and wasted evening. A couple of alternative venues are being investigated for the November meeting and, when confirmed, further information will be posted here and members will be informed.

A Warm Welcome Extended to New Members

As always, six lectures will be organized by the Society during the coming winter session, as well as a Members’ Night in February 2015. The first meeting of Session 2014-15 will take place at 7.30pm on Friday 10th October 2014 at Riverside Church, Lammermoor Road, Kirkintilloch. The topic of the lecture will be “Kirkintilloch and Lenzie Fifty Years Ago”.

The warmest of welcomes is extended to all persons wishing to join for the first time. You can just turn up on the night and join there and then, but as the membership team is likely to be busy, you might like to consider one of our various options for joining in advance. These are available by clicking here or going to the Membership page. The Society subscription for Session 2014-15 will be £10, which we believe represents good value for money. Arrangements for existing members are unchanged and they will be reminded by letter or email.

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.