Irvine

Read and share memories of Irvine and Ayrshire inspired by Frith photos

Crossing the moor

My secondary education was completed after spending 4 years at Irvine Royal Academy. The school was broken into two buildings known as the old school (pictured) and the new school in Kilwinning Road. Classes were conducted between both buildings and often meant crossing the moor to and from either building. This was fine and considered a great timewaster in good weather but was a pain in pouring rain and ice & snow etc.

The old school was a beautiful building which was loaded with character and that also included some of the teachers who could be characters in their own right, the older of whom wore the black robes and generally carried a belt for discipline, although I ...read more here
Contributed by Margaret Hubble

Crossing the moor

My secondary education was completed after spending 4 years at Irvine Royal Academy. The school was broken into two buildings known as the old school (pictured) and the new school in Kilwinning Road. Classes were conducted between both buildings and often meant crossing the moor to and from either building. This was fine and considered a great timewaster in good weather but was a pain in pouring rain and ice & snow etc.

The old school was a beautiful building which was loaded with character and that also included some of the teachers who could be characters in their own right, the older of whom wore the black robes and generally carried a belt for discipline, although I ...read more here
A memory of Irvine contributed by Margaret Hubble

Killie

My memories have a date range from 1958 to date. Although I was born in Irvine due to my mother needing urgent medical assistance I was brought up in a town that I grew to love  and found easy to defend against anyone who barracked it.

I lived with my mother and father originally in Paxton Street which looked onto the bleechy (childrens' play area) which backed onto the cemetary of the St. Andrews Church.

Like my Dad, I went to nearby Bentink Primary School and during lunch time would go to my Gran's in Richardland Road which had a great view of the woollen mill and the comings and goings around that area.

In 1959 we moved ...read more here
A memory of Kilmarnock contributed by JOHN STEWART

Through my grandfather's eyes

My grandfather, James Cunningham Smith,  was a native of Beith, born in January, 1888,  who came to San Francisco just three weeks before the earthquake and fire of April 17, 1906 that nearly destroyed the entire city.
My knowledge and love of Beith comes from  the fortnightly editions of the Beith Supplement that regularly arrived at my grandfather's home in San Francisco his often speaking fondly of his  hometown. He would reminisce of his beloved sport 'football', or soccer as we in America know it, the afternoons indoors spent playing cribbage when the weather was too cold and wet for outside sports, and it seemed to me, as we sat there playing our own cribbage match, that it was an ...read more here
A memory of Beith contributed by James Miller