An interesting article appeared on the BBC News website this week. It will certainly take many of you back to more prosperous times in Kilmarnock !Whisky, tractors, carpets and shoes: Kilmarnock in the 1950s...
Our first meeting of 2024 sees KDHG welcome Yvonne McFadden who will talk about Lost Mining Villages of Ayrshire.Open Space at Ayrshire College, Hill Street, Kilmarnock at 7.30pm.Visitors welcome (we usually ask for a £3 donation)click KDHG lectures for additional information...
Bicket Reunion in Kilmarnock 5-7 August 2023 Centrestage Long-standing readers of the Kilmarnock Standard may remember articles about the Bicket family tree appearing first in 1969, and then again in 1981. Since then ork on the family tree has continued, and as a result there will be...
Kay Park Church extends an invitation to anyone who is interested in little known aspects of Kilmarnock's history to attend a very special event. Dr David Liu, will travel from Taiwan to tell the story of "Kilmarnock to Formosa (Taiwan)". The connecting link between these two places was Dr David Lan...
The last talk of this session will take place on Thursday 23 March at 7.30pm when Ian Matheson will be in attendance. Ayrshire College Kilmarnock Campus as usual.The AGM will take place at the start of the meeting.https://www.kilmarnockhistory.co.uk/en/Lecture-Programme/...
Following on from our work to help get the Red Wheel installed at Troon Harbour, the group has been mentioned in a Motion in The Scottish Parliament this week....
The latest National Transport Trust Red Wheel Heritage Site was unveiled at Troon on 19th December. KDHG President Gary Torbett and Troon born and bred Olympian Brian Whittle MSP undertook the honours overseen by John Yellowlees, Honorary Railway Ambassador for ScotRail.A healthy group of just under...
Merry Christmas to all our members and friends. Hopefully 2023 will be a happy and peaceful time for you and your families. ...
An interesting video has appeared in the Ed Explores Scotland series on YouTube in which Eddy Burns travels to Kilmarnock - not too happy with Scotrail- and offers some thoughts on the 1970s redevelopment of the town centre, a topic we will explore on our first talk on 6th October. Grab a coff...
Kilmarnock & District History Group is saddened to learn of the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday 8th September 2022. As historians we have a sense of loss but, at the same time, a feeling of change as one era moves to another. To many of us The Queen has been the only M...
Please note that we have finalised our talks for 2022-23 - apart from some exact titles- and details can be found HERE . Meetings will take place on a Thursday evening this sessionWe will meet at Ayrshire College, Hill Street Kilmarnock except Thursday 20 October when we will meet in...
Members will have received an e-mail today advising if the agenda for our forthcoming AGM at 7.30pn on 22 March 2022.Please direct any queries to Gary Torbett...
We are pleased to advise that our talk on the history of Kilwinning Abbey will go ahead thisTuesday at 7.30pm in Kay Park Church hall, London Road, Kilmarnock...
Unfortunately we have had to cancel our talk on Tuesday 11th January. We hope to reschedule this in due course. ...
Apologies for the fairly short notice, but it has been an interesting journey trying to secure a venue for us to hold our first lecture where we can meet up in person since March 2020. We have been working with our friends at CentreStage and will be using their new facility at the old Kilmarnock Aca...
THE GLENCAIRN AISLE WILL BE OPEN THIS SATURDAY 4th Sept 11am - 3pm It is situated behind the church in Kilmaurs COME AND SEE It contains a wonderful monument sculpted in the year 1600 It shows the Earl of Glencairn and his family He is wearing a suit of armour wi...
Chris Ford from Ireland has been in touch as follows; I am trying to find out about the corporate history of Johnnie Walker in the 1940s and 1950s . My Grandfather Albert Green was Director of Sales then Managing Director about this time and I wanted to know the history since I never met him....
Our friends at Kilwinning Heritage advise of two upcoming talks;8th June 7pm - 3D Tower Scan Launch This will be the first time we have shown our 3D scan of the inside of the tower to the public and will also discuss how to go about doing it yourself. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/156...
Roger Leivers has been in touch with us as follows;..just wondering if your members might be interested in the book I published in 2017 called 'Stirling to Essen', the story of a Short Stirling bomber that crashed coming back from a raid on the 11th April 1942. The book tells the story of the...
Keen amateur historian Gordon Hunter has published what he describes as 'a weekly account of Troon during WW1, with everything from the weekly casualty lists, the huge amount of voluntary work, launches at the shipyard and rationing. I have also added some golf, bowling and football scores..'Gordon...
KDHG member George English, who spoke to us in March 2020, will deliver a talk on Friday 12 March at 6pm on '1620 - The Mayflower Journey: Who went, where from, and why did they go?'The European Society of Mayflower Descendants have organised this. Details can be found on the Research Through P...
Thanks for opening this article. One matter we discussed at our recent AGM was the fact that we have not collected any subscriptions this session and are therefore going to post a deficit for y/e 31 January 2021. However, we continue to incur unavoidable cost such as hosting the website, Zoom membe...
Members will have received notification of the AGM which was delayed in 2020. This will take place at 7.30pm on Tuesday 9th February via the Zoom platform.Members who have not received a notification or who would like to dial in via telephone should contact us via [email protected]...
We have received the following e-mail;Hello. I am an amateur historian based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I’m looking for a photograph of Alexander Brown Robertson, a noted mechanical engineer, who was born in Kilmarnock on 29 December, 1884. His parents were Andrew Robertson and Isab...
Merry Christmas to all or members and friends.It has been an interesting, challenging and extremely strange year. Hopefully everyone is in good health, good spirits and looking forward to a return to some sort of normality in 2021.We will hold a series of lectures via the Zoom platform in 2021 and w...