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Bicket Family Reunion - 5th -7th August 2023 - not just for Bickets !

 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...

From Kilmarnock to Formosa - Thursday 1st June 2023

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...

Last talk of 2022-23 session and AGM

 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/...

KDHG mentioned in a motion in Scottish Parliament

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....

National Transport Trust Red Wheel at Troon

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 and best wishes for 2023

Merry Christmas to all our members and friends. Hopefully 2023 will be a happy and peaceful time for you and your families. ...

The Rise and Fall of Kilmarnock by Eddy Burns

 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...

HM Queen Elizabeth II

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...

2022-23 Talks

 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...

Notice of 2022 AGM

 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...

Talk scheduled for 25th January will go ahead

 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...

Cancellation of talk - Tuesday 11th January 2022

 Unfortunately we have had to cancel our talk on Tuesday 11th January. We hope to reschedule this in due course. ...

First talk of new session - Tuesday 5th October 2021

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...

Glencairn Aisle, Kilmaurs - Open to public on Saturday 4th September

 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...

Johnnie Walker in 1940s & 1950s - can you help?

 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....

Kilwinning Heritage talks in June 2021

 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...

Stirling to Essen by Roger Leivers

 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...

Troon and The Great War by Gordon Hunter

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...

Mayflower talk by George English - Friday 12th March

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...

Fund raising campaign

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...

Notice of AGM - Tuesday 9th February 2021

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]...

Alexander Brown Robertson (1884-1939) - can you help?

 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

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...

Virtual lectures - next one due 1st December 2020

Following on from our recent trial runs, we plan to have a presentation via Zoom on Tuesday 1st December when Bill Fitzpatrick will talk about the RNLI.If members check their inbox there will now be an invite with joining details waiting there. We have had between 30 and 40 participants at the trial...

Can you help Ayrshire Magazine for an article on Kilmarnock's industrial past?

Ayrshire Magazine are working on a piece for the next issue of the magazine - deadline October 21- on Kilmarnock's industrial past.  They are looking, ideally, to speak with people who perhaps remember those days - 1960's probably to the mid 1980's and would be delighted to hear from anyon...

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Kilmarnock & District History Group

Kilmarnock
Ayrshire
KA1 3HY

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