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Auchincruive

Auchincruive maps

Historic maps of Auchincruive and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis.   View all Auchincruive maps

Auchincruive photos

We have no photos of Auchincruive, although we do have photos of these nearby places:

Ayr| Stair| Alloway| Dalrymple

Auchincruive area books

Displaying 1 of 2 books about Auchincruive and the local area.   View all books for this area

Memories of Auchincruive

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Ayrshire memories

Primary School

St Quivox had a primary school in the 1950s and while my family lived in farm cottages near Prestwick airport, my brother and I attended the school. The only two teachers were a married couple but I cannot remember their names. We had to move from the area when the cottages we lived in were being demolished because another runway was to be built for the airport. That said, it was a nice area to live and we often walked to the beach at Prestwick or Ayr. However, I do not have such happy memories of the school, for example at the Christmas party every child got a present except my brother and I merely because we had not been at the school long enough. My father was a farm worker and, as is well documented, such workers moved around the country on a regular basis but being left out at Christmas never happened at any of the other schools. I was at 11 primary schools during the years 5 and... Read more

Annbank Hotel

I remember my dad asking me to go to the hotel in Annbank for his fags (funny how it was always at night), if it wasn't for the promise of getting a bag of crisps for going, I'd surely never go. This was the most scariest hotel, in the most scariest wood I'd ever seen. Sadly in the mid 1960s the old place got knocked down. Now that time has passed, I always think of the old hotel with affection. I no longer live in Annbank, I live in Barnsley, South Yorkshire now, but I always make a pilgrimage to my old home and stand where once the hotel stood, overlooking the river Ayr.

Does Anyone Remember The Rag And Bone Men?

High Street 1900
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Does anyone remember the rag and bone men that used to come round the scheme looking for old rags etc? I was so desperate to own a red balloon, nothing was to stand in my way, but where would I get enough good quality rags from? Being a wee lassie and not really understanding,that you shouldn't take your mums best towels, and sheets got me into hot water. My poor wee mum had to chase the rag and bone man down the road to retrieve her stuff.........I got to keep the balloon as the old man had a good laugh! Does anyone remember the bird on a stick? It used to whistle when you spun it round your head, it was great fun! I have so, so many happy memories of growing up in the 1960s and maybe that's why I tend to live in the past too much... It's a fault of mine.

Holiday Memories

Happily walking along Ayr beach with an ice cream from the Wellington Cafe, paddling in the sea with my parents! Eating wonderful fish and chips on a windy day. Getting breakfast rolls from one of the many bakers to take back to my aunt's. Going skating at the ice rink with my cousins.

Fish & Chips

Having fish & chips from the Vesta Cafe on the New Road, they were the best.
Playing the puggy at Favali's in the New Road.
Playing down at the Newton Shore.  Skating at Ayr Ice Rink.
Climbing the fence and getting into the dog track from Elmbank Street on Sunday morning to pick up anything of value the drunks had dropped the night before at the races, usually money. Working for Cowan the Butcher as a delivery boy and apprentice.
The Odeon club for kids on Saturday morning, to see Flash Gordon and the likes.
Newton Park Higher Grade School.

The Mid Fifties

I recall my pals and I going to Ayr harbour and picking up the herring and mackerel, which dropped off the baskets when the boats were unloaded, and selling them round the nieghbours' houses. Herring were 1 old penny and mackerel 2 old pennies. Today (2008) a herring costs £1 each! 240 times dearer.
We would make dens up Craigie Woods and sleep out. No dangers then. My wee sister aged 4 walked to High Street from Fotheringham Road and got a bus to to Heathfield School and back herself. Try that today!!
Cheers, Jimmy Manson, Ayr.

Dalmilling Primary School

In the 1960s, I remember watching Dalmilling Primary being built from my Ganny's window, my first day there when I was about eight and meeting all the new pals, school sports that I was useless at, egg and spoon was torture and getting into trouble for holding it down with my thumb, skinned knees from doing the sack race, scrap books, beds, drawn with those chalk ornaments I won at Cadonna's Shows, frying pan lollies, gobstoppers, love hearts, MB Bars, the Ritz, Gaumont and Orient Picture house, getting let in the back door of the Gaumont, one pal paid, and let the rest of us in, the bug hunter, Dettol-aaarrrgh! writing my name on the pavement with tar using a lolly stick, rounders, kick-the -can, chap-door-run-away, sitting in a big inner tube from a tractor, at least 6 of us, going from the big dam to the wee dam down the river Ayr, Curry's ginger, cream soda, the ice cream from the cafe at the Low Green down Ayr... Read more

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