Stevenston - On This Day In History

Published stories from each town's past.
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John Donnelly
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Re: Stevenston - On This Day In History

Post by John Donnelly »

Thanks PT.

I never knew the man, (far too young), but do remember that he was highly respected in the town.

He should have been called Moses as he certainly prophesised the future. A voice crying in the wilderness. :( :(

Just had a letter to the editor published in the paper here on Monday. The Saturday edition had the sports section front-page with two star footballers celebrating goals; expressions and body language of pure aggression instead of joy and celebration.

I pointed out that this was promoting aggression in the sport, and they took my point, (so they said).

Monday morning front page was Frank de Boer, trainer of Ajax, with an even more aggressive expression after their win on Sunday.

I give up. :cry: :cry: :cry:

JD.
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Re: Stevenston - On This Day In History

Post by Penny Tray »

John,

You inspired to find out more and I see that the Rev. John Mackay Nimmo was a friend of Ian Hamilton who was involved in the theft of the Stone fo Destiny from Westminster Abbey in 1950. He even had Hamilton speaking at a hall in Stevenston where apparently he was cheered to a level the Rev. Nimmo claimed never to have heard before.

The Rev. Nimmo would appear to have moved on to Dundee where many believe a stone he accommodated in his church was the actual Stone of Destiny, a replica having been made and returned to Westminster Abbey.

It's amazing what you learn from tuning in to Threetowners.
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Re: Stevenston - On This Day In History

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Funny how things come around again.

Back in the 60's, I got to know Alasdair Taylor, the painter and sculptor who lived in the cottage at Portencross.

He told about being involved in the theft of the Stone and that the one returned to Westminster Abbey was a replica. He said he knew where the real one was, but refused to tell us.

I never knew about the Rev. Nimmo connection. Alasdair never mentioned his name, nor any of the other conspirators.

Strange to feel you've been in the presence of history.

JD.
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Re: Stevenston - On This Day In History

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8 FEBRUARY 1982

A Strathclyde Regional Council spokesman announced that all the 395 pupils at Glencairn Primary School, Stevenston, where a blaze destroyed a seven classroom block should be back in full-time education by next week.

Last night the cause of the outbreak, spotted by a woman walking her dog, was still under investigation.
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Re: Stevenston - On This Day In History

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GLASGOW HERALD
15 FEBRUARY 1954

The Rev. J Geddes Ritchie, who had been minister of Stevenston High Kirk for 26 years, died yesterday in a Glasgow Infirmary. A native of Paisley, Mr. Ritchie went to Stevenston from Lossiemouth. He had previously been assistant in Dumfries and was a chaplain overseas in the First World War.

A student of languages, Mr. Ritchie conducted a Greek class every Sunday.

He was a member of Melrose Masonic Lodge and a past-president of Ardrossan and Saltcoats Rotary Club.

He is survived by his wife and daughter.
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Re: Stevenston - On This Day In History

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20 FEBRUARY 1914

A disaster of appalling character involving the death of eight men and injury to other workers, occurred today forenoon at the Ardeer Factory of Messrs. Nobel's Explosive Company Limited.

The following persons perished:-

G Mansell, Burnbank Street, Stevenston;
J McManus, Glebe Street, Saltcoats;
W. J. Guiney, Limekiln Road, Stevenston;
W Kilpatrick, 32 Townhead Street, Stevenston;
W Armstrong, Breakplough, Stevenston;
D Begbie, 13 Parkend Road, Saltcoats;
H Taggart, Limekiln Road, Stevenston; and
D McLean, Manse Street, Saltcoats.

Kilwinning suffered much damage.
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Re: Stevenston - On This Day In History

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25 FEBRUARY 1865

There is a long and well informed letter in the Glasgow Herald of this date under the heading - DISPOSAL OF GLASGOW SEWAGE - and one section caught my eye.

"Dr. Hill's scheme to convey the sewage of Glasgow to sandy waste lands between Ardrossan and Ayr, if intended to establish a permanent grass meadow, is at least open to the objection that it implies the finding of a market for unwholesome milk and beef, which would have to be disposed of at any price. The best method of using the sewage would be to divide the land into sections to be successively covered with the sewage till its solids should be deposited and its salts absorbed by the soil, and then the plough to be forthwith set to work and ordinary agriculture proceeded with."

Whilst Ardrossan is specifically mentioned I would have to think that one of the favoured spots for the deposit of this sewage would have been the sandy "waste lands" upon which 'The Factory' subsequently stood? Quite a thought!
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Re: Stevenston - On This Day In History

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26TH FEBRUARY 1971

A day which still lives in infamy for me, as the events concerned were what led to my exile Down South.

Susan

ICI REORGANISATION WILL LEAD TO REDUNDANCIES

"North Ayrshire, already badly hit by redundancies and short-time working, received a shattering blow last Friday ( 26th February ) when ICI, the largest employers in the district, announced that the two divisions at present working at Ardeer, Stevenston , would disappear in a rearrangement of managerial control.

The Nobel Division will have its chemical assets merged with those of Dyestuffs Division to form a new division called the Organics Division.

Dyestuffs Division will transfer its nylon polymerisation assets to the Fibres Division and the nylon salt assets to the Heavy Organic Chemicals Division which will be renamed the Petrochemicals Division.

Control of the Nylon Plant at Ardeer will be transferred to the Petrochemicals Division.

The Nobel Division commercial explosives will be formed into a subsidiary company which will be known as Nobel's Explosives Co. Ltd.

Although some parts of the business will grow, state ICI, it is expected that UK demand for nitroglycerine based blasting explosives will continue to fall as a result of the contraction and mechanisation of the coal-mining industry.With the opening of ICI plants in India and South Africa much of the export trade had been lost and the recent closure of pits by the National Coal Board had affected home sales.

At Christmas the chairman of Nobel Division, Dr Ernest Brookman , had called for improved performance. " Our profits have fallen at a much faster rate than the profits of the company as a whole ," he wrote. " Our profit/sales ratio is significantly below the company average and this is a most unsatisfactory state of affairs ".

There will be a reduction in the number of staff employed in the areas involved which will be achieved to the fullest possible extent by natural wastage.Some redundancies will be inevitable and every effort will be made to keep these to the minimum by redeployment elsewhere in the company. Employees likely to be affected will be informed as soon as possible.

The news of the threatened redundancies at Ardeer came as a shock to the district. Employees were told of the company's decision at meetings in the factory on Friday.

Mr William McCaig, district organiser of the TGWU, described the ICI reorganisation as " extremely disturbing " and " catastrophic " when he made a statement this week when he said: " It is one of the most vital changes ever contemplated at Ardeer and what is causing great concern to the trade unions is the fact that the company carried out no consultations at all with unions at any level, national or local. We can see quite a considerable loss in job opportunities for the North Ayrshire district. We are particularly disturbed at the type of employment that is affected. "

Mr David Lambie , MP for Central Ayrshire, within whose contituency Ardeer Factory lies, said this week he feared there could be substantial redundancies at Ardeer, especially in the business section.

Mr Lambie said that when Ardeer was the headquarters of Nobel Division it had been a source of power. In the reorganisation Ardeer was going to be ruled by two divisions whose headquarters would be in the south. He deplored this transfer of power and said the trouble with Scotland was that it had always been saddled with branch offices.

Ardeer, said Mr Lambie, had always been a major source of research, especially in pure science, and had been one of the major employers of graduates from Scottish universities. At the present moment the research department would be retained at Ardeer but a big question mark hung over it.

News of ICI's plans also caused great concern at Stevenston Town Council's meeting on Monday. The entire council agreed unanimously that representatives of the local burghs affected should meet with the company to discuss the full implications of the proposals.

After the town clerk, Mr James Campbell ,had read a statement from ICI, there followed a lengthy discussion when councillors warned of the calamitous effect the plans would have on the future of Stevenston and the surrounding towns.

The news was described as a disaster for the area by Bailie Samuel Gooding. He had been surprised by the plans for reorganisation and redundancies particularly as Ardeer had been described as a growth area and the factory site as priceless.

Ardossan and Saltcoats Herald, 5th March 1971. Comprising extracts from several longer articles.
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Re: Stevenston - On This Day In History

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GLASGOW HERALD
21 MARCH 1968

TOWN WANTS ASSURANCE ON APPROVED SCHOOL

Councillor T Murphy, of Stevenston, told a public meeting yesterday of the efforts which the council had recently made to prevent Glasgow Corporation from building an approved school in the town.

The meeting, which was organised by Stevenston Ratepayers Association, was to alleviate local fears about the effect an approved school would have on the community and to allow public discussion of the problem.

Councillor Murphy said, "This school is now being built and there can be no question of having it being sited elsewhere, but we must ask for all assurances possible on security."
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Re: Stevenston - On This Day In History

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GLASGOW HERALD
21 MARCH 1967

BURNS MUSEUM ACQUISTION

The Tam O'Shanter Inn museum in Ayr - devoted of course, to the life and works of Burns - have acquired an Edinburgh Edition of the works of the poet once owned by William Muir, of Tarbolton Mill, a revered friend of the bard and celebrated through "Death and Doctor Hornbook".

The book was a bequest from the late Mrs. Jenny Brunt, of Rotherham, Yorkshire, a native of Stevenston, Ayrshire.

The volume was a family heirloom.

[The Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald BDM database suggests that the above Mrs. Brunt was Jenny Hillhouse McLachlan Tolmie who married Lawrence William Brunt at the High Kirk in the week preceding 6/11/1942.]
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Re: Stevenston - On This Day In History

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OTAGO TIMES
3 JANUARY 1899

ALEXANDER DICKIE, JUNIOR

On or about 23 March 1876, Alexander Dickie, Junior, son of Alexander Dickie and Ann Lunan or Dickie, ‘Carrickview’, Shore Road, Stevenston, left Glasgow as an ordinary seaman on board the sailing ship City of Dunedin, bound for New Zealand, and whatever his fate the following was the legal outcome, presumably to allow another heir or heirs to inherit.

A petition under “The Presumption of Life Limitation (Scotland) Act 1891,” has been presented in the Court of Session, Scotland, at the instance of Thomas St. Andrew Dickie, ....................with the consent of the Rev. John Livingstone, Minister of the Free Church of Stevenston; William Kerr, Ironfounder, residing at Stevenston; and Thomas Smith, Solicitor, Saltcoats, both in the County of Ayr, accepting Trustees of the Deceased Mrs. Ann Lunan (or Dickie), lately residing at Carrickview, Shore Road, Stevenston, widow of Alexander Dickie, some time Cashier at Port Dundas Distillery, Port Dundas, Glasgow, and afterwards residing at Stevenston as aforesaid, to have it found that Alexander Dickie, Junior, who was a son of the said Deceased Alexander Dickie, and who left Glasgow on or about 23 March, 1876, as an ordinary seaman on board the sailing ship City of Dunedin, bound for New Zealand, and who left the ship at Port Lyttleton on or about 16 July 1876, has disappeared and must be presumed to have died on 10 July 1883, or such date as the Court shall determine, in which Petition the following Interlocutor has been pronounced:-

“5 Nov., 1898 – Lord Kyllachy – The Lord Ordinary appoints intimation of the presentation of Petition to be made by advertisement once a week for two successive weeks in each of the Otago Daily Times, Melbourne Argus, and Glasgow Herald newspapers that all parties having interest in the matter may have due notice thereof.”
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Re: Stevenston - On This Day In History

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24 MARCH 1914

Third Lanark beat Stevenston United 1-0, after extra-time, in a Scottish Cup quarter-final 2nd replay at Cathkin Park.

Ther game was played in splendid weather before a crowd of 15,000.

The Stevenston United team, the same one as had contested at least one of the previous matches at Warner Park, Stevenston, was:-

Montgomery, Thomson, Roxburgh, Brown, Rae, Auld, T Hamilton, Paton, McCurdie, Farrell and C Hamilton.

Third Lanark, incidentally, drew Celtic in the semi-final. Celtic went on to win the Cup.
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