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Mauchline
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Historic maps of Mauchline and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Mauchline maps
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Memories of Mauchline
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Ayrshire memories
Aroon'' The Raws
AROON THE RAWS
l9th.March, 1980
Memories of bygone days,
We now live in different ways,
A modem world..treats us proudly,
This we acclaim, oh so loudly,
Yet somewhere, hidden in our minds,
We all live in different times,
Mine is runnin’ doon the raws,
Late for schule, get the tawse,
Big Annie, pokin’ on ma airm,
Though awfu’ sair, it did nae harm,
Keekin’ in the Readin’ Room,
See the smoke go swirlin’ roon,
Joiner Tham’s horse an’ cairt,
Sittin’ high, an’ feelin’ smert,
Maggie Hazel’s cups o’ peas,
“Sa’t an pepper”? “Yes please”,
Doon tae Neillie’s,pinchin’ eggs,
Through the nettles, stingin' legs,
Sneakin’ ahin’ the playgr’un’ wa’,
Rabbie’s gairden’s lookin’ braw,
Tumshies, grosits, carrots tae,
We’ve got enough, we’ll away,
Johnnie Widburn roars an’ shouts,
Will the snotter put oot his dout,
Roon the loch for stankies’ nests,
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.
Happy Days
To me there is nowhere like Skares was, and anyone who came from there will say the same. Everybody knew everybody else and they were always ready to help anyone that needed it. You could go out and leave your door open without worrying about anything being pinched. In the summer we used to all go on a picnic doon the blackwater when it was nice, and we'd go for walks roon the pluck. My mother sometimes took us up to the Covenanters monument up the Knockdunder hills. She used to take us picking rasberries to make jam in the summer, and when the brambles were ready she'd take us to pick them and scribes to make jelly. It was guid. We used to take our mother's clothes pole and loup the burn. At Halloween we'd go roon knocking on doors and we'd sing or say a poem and get sweeties, nuts and fruit. We were always made welcome. At Hogmanay some folk would go first fittin'. My granny (Meg... Read more
Born Near Stewarton, Lived In Newmilns For 11 Years
I lived in the pre-fabs built a few years after the war, on Strath Crescent. That would have been around 1953. Later, those 'white boxes' were to be demolished, so we moved to new council semi-detached houses at Persian Sands (I don't know what it's called now) near Greenside (I think that was the name) Park. I recall walks along 'The Broon's Road', playing near The Meal Mill, being in the Newmilns Boys' Brigade, 'scatters' at weddings at all the churches, buying 'The Beezer', 'The Dandy', 'The Hotspur' and 'The 'Beano' at the newsagents. While on Strath Crescent, I remember 'The Bleachfield', 'The Bing', and 'Heron Nancy's' (I always wondered how it got that name). I moved to Canada when I was 12 and often wondered what happened to childhood friends and classmates that I of course lost contact with after emigrating. I'd love to get in touch with some of them after 46 years. I wonder if they stayed in the area or moved to other parts.
Good Old Days at Symington Primary School
My name is Agnes Mawhinney, my fondness memory is going to the old primary school on Symington Road North with my brother Arthur. The class rooms were big with big high ceilings, the toilets were outside across the playground and you had to hold on till playtime to go to the toliet. Playtime was the best time because you were able to skip with your pals and the boys played tag. I remember when the nit nurse would come in to check our heads and the dreaded brown envelope we had to take home to our parents if we had any nits. The nurse also came into give us our jabs and I remember dreading my turn. On sports days we had potato spoon races on the playing field. One person I remember is a boy called Alan Love. Then we moved to the new primary school on Brewland Road in Symington. The scool was just built and in the spring the class planted bulbs in the garden. I made... Read more
Fishing at Craufurdland Lake.
I was born in Armour Street in Kilmarnock in 1959. Around 1963 we moved to Onthank. I went to Onthank School. My friend Bryce Herbert and I from about the age of 10 onwards used to go to Craufurdland Lake to fish for Perch and Pike. On Saturday mornings we would knock on the door of the castle in the picture. An upstairs window would open and we would shout up asking for permission to fish in the Lake. If "Mr Craufurdland" as we imagined he was called said yes, off we went. If no, we walked home again. The Lake was and is a magical place for me although now it is a trout fishery and all of the beautiful lilies and reeds are gone.
Hogmanay in Kilmarnock
Sometime in December of 1953 I was posted to Preswick Airport from London Airport, being a motor cycle Constable with what was then the Ministry of Civil Aviation Constabulary, for a tour of duty of one month, the police motor cycle, a 350cc Matchless was shipped from London by train.
It had been reported that cars were mistaking the single runway for the main road to Glasgow, however during my tour I didn't come across any such incident, although it was bloody cold riding a motor cycle eight hours a day.
But the fondest memories of that time I have are first-footing on new year's eve with three pretty Scottish girls in Kilmarnock, being a tall, dark, stranger I was pushed into various homes with a piece of bread in one hand and a piece of coal in the other, giving the promise of food and warmth for the year, all new to me being an Englishman.
As I seem to recall this lasted for two... Read more
