AYRSHIREHISTORY.COM - LATEST NEWS FROM THE OFFICE

While on the subject of obvious errors, (which none of us are above I hasten to add) I will draw your attention to an error of judgment in the Mauchline Ware Collectors Club Magazine. Thanks to Jimmy Davidson for lending me the publication.

In the April 2010 edition, a photograph appeared within the pages, labeled as Mauchline Boxworks on fire. The said building in Mauchline, while the victim of a fire, was certainly not in the photograph published in the journal. The photo has been on line here for many years, and is of the old mill in Catrine on fire in the 1960's. Did not the coloured image give some indication that the date was probably not in the 1930's?? Is that the guy who was playing with matches that is jumping the wall??? lol...

You can see from the photo given below that the Mauchline factory looks nothing like the large mill building.

It was drawn to my attention a couple of years ago, that a book had been published about Mauchline by Historic Scotland. I urge the reader to have a look what a group of so called experts have put their names to, published and expected libraries and schools etc to use as gospel!!! Have a look and ask yourself this. Would you like your kids to be punished by an equally ill informed teacher for correctly answering that Burns died in Dumfries, and not in Mauchline?? Have a look at the above link, and see if this resembles a small typing error that can happen to the best of us. Incidentally, research for the book also included the "Burns Bible" for Mauchline, John Taylor Gibb's Mauchline Town & District book.

I have been digging around in the archives here at ayrshirehistory.com and found a few odds and ends that have been waiting for a long time to be used on line. I have made a small file with selected pages of an old autograph book from WW2 which belonged to a nurse at Ballochmyle. Tnx to the Quinn's of Kilmarnock for the book, about 10 years ago!!! Should be on line in early August.

I have also been looking at the best way to use some material that is hidden away from public view, which I have only bad quality photos of. I could really do with scanning much of the material I have in mind, from the former collections of John Taylor Gibb, but it is not kept in Mauchline any more.

July has been quite a constructive month as far as ayrshirehistory.com goes. I have added a load of pdf files of text from the Mauchline area to the historical reference area. I have been doing a lot of scanning of my own old photos and documents in the background, so hopefully there will be a flow of updates again for a while. .

I am unsure how collectable these letters will be, as Farquhar-Gray is reputed to have been the JP that carried out the marriage ceremony for Burns and Jean Armour. (A couple of conflicting stories with that one) A bit about John Farquhar-Gray can be read on the following pages from Robertson's book, 1824. JF Gray is the same chappie who formed the Sorn Curling Club, way back in 1795.

Last year when this web site was redesigned, and a few other towns added, a blank page was included for Auchinleck and Cumnock, on the assumption I was going to find some time to add a few extra pages. Now time has finally permitted me to add some Auchinleck material. I have discovered in an old scrap book, some Curries lemonade bottle labels. which inspired some scanning of the said labels.

Sorn has been very isolated since the removal of much of the bus service at the beginning of the year. But by a quirk of fate, there is a superb service now, even if it is only for three weeks or so. The Ayr, Kilmarnock and Glasgow buses all pass through the village right up until the last bus at night. This is because the Cross at Mauchline is closed for major roadworks. This is so handy for anyone wishing to go out for a pint at night to Mauchline, Killie, Ayr, Cumnock, etc. I doubt that a one man crusade to keep the service on after the roadworks are finished would have any impact though...!!! lol... Unfortunately there has been some questionable negative publicity in the press regards this service.

Some bright spark has decided that traffic lights are required on the New Brig in Sorn. So now, in addition to the already man made traffic noise we have to endure in the village caused by the speed humps, the (local??) government are imposing this ridiculous idea of traffic lights on the bridge in this formerly quiet village. How ignorant is this?? I find it sad there is no one to stop them conducting this vandalism to our village.

Imagine my surprise when driving towards Muirkirk, I spotted a large NO TO TRAFFICLIGHTS IN SORN banner on the gable end of the Post Office!! I was so surprised I halted, ran inside and signed the petition in block capitals!! I was under the impression no one else apart from me cares about the stupid proposed one way traffic on the bridge, and potential extra traffic noise that will be created by these lights, like that created by the wonderful speed humps that have been imposed on the villagers. Seems I was wrong. Well done to all concerned for organisation of this petition. Is the issue here only the lights and not the whole general mess that has been made of the Main Street, including a give way at the bottom of Dalgain Brae, on a blind corner!! Clever??? Safe??? Or a ridiculous abuse of power??

I have made no mention here of the public money wasted on this unnecessary and unwanted rubbish that is seemingly being made obligatory.

Ask yourself this. Are those that make these rules the same mob with "adolf mentality" that made up the rules so that as it stands bin men won't lift rubbish, firemen won't rescue people etc...

About three years ago I was a witness to two ambulance drivers / workers refusing to take a man to hospital after a head injury, because he couldn't give permission to be taken to the hospital. It didn't need Sherlock Holmes to see the poor chap hadn't a clue where he was, far less being fit to make that judgement. Imagine lying almost unconcious on the ground in need of medical treatement, and these guys won't help you, because you don't give them permission to be treated. I really should have redialed 999 that evening.

Ask yourself this. Who is it who makes up these ridiculous rules, and why is there no one to stop them? I certainly never voted for the speed hump and health and safety government at the last election.

I was talking to "RAB DOON THE STREET" recently, who commented that there has not been much done to the web pages in a while. True I thought. Must try and get back to it. Well I have added a few photos from material recently acquired, and some bits and pieces that have been lying around for years. I have to thank Muir Nisbet and Rosina Mabon for their recent additions to the collection, and Jen Gibb in Winnipeg. Thanks to all.

We have had such a long and quite hard winter for a change, and now we are into a nice warm summer so far. Long may it continue.

The other SORN IN THE SNOW photos that I took during the winter months and promised to share, have never materialised. I may get some more on line in the future though. Keep watching the latest updates.

Yes, a typo crept in to the main contact page, and I wondered why e mails were bouncing to James Taylor at the Muirkirk desk. All fixed now, and working. My humble apologies for that.

I must get back to work with this site. There has been virtually no input this year so far. Hopefully that will change shortly.

Have been back at work again, just adding a few items that have been waiting for some time to be put on line. I have had some correspondence from Stroma Leith, who's family came from Netherplace in Mauchline. Stroma has sent various interesting photos etc.

I have had some nice correspondence with Lynne in the states, who sent some photos of her father, who died in the aircraft accident in the 1950's in the moors near Blacksidend. I have added these items to the site, as well as a couple of other newspaper clippings that I obtained from the local museum.

(Lynne, I have tried e mailing you back, but the e mails are bouncing. But rest assured, I have your e mails with the attachments)

It will also be my intention to include many more of the 1000 odd photos I took during the snow at the festive season. Imagine trying to take so many with an old film camera!!

As I have stated in the past, I am still on the look out for passionate, trustworthy people to join ayrshirehistory.com to ensure it's contingency. That could mean long term clubs, organisations, or individuals. I will steer clear of quickly formed groups that may be doing something for the community only because they have achieved substantial amounts of grant money. These groups tend to disband as fast as the money runs out.

I have another enquirey, but we have still to hold a get together with the group to make sure everyone is in agreement and heading in the same direction. Details will follow.

I have to say that the minimum qualification required is the ability to read. lol...

There have been many dubious news articles about the cold weather snap here in Scotland and the UK as a whole. There are many people nowadays who seem to think it is their right to have a man walking 5 feet in front of them with a brush at all times, incase they should slip!! It is winter for god sake, and with that can come snow. Yes, the white stuff. It's not a new invention. You'd think some country folks around here had never seen snow before, to listen to them.

No it isn't clever to go to the shop in your silly carpet slippers. Living in the country, you might expect more people to have a decent pair of boots to walk outside on the snow. If there were any Scandanavian or Canadians listening to these crybabies, or watching the TV reports about the "awful snow conditions" they have had to bear, they would just laugh at them.

I hate to think where we will be in another 20 years, with this. Maybe everyone will just be sat on their couches waiting for the cooncil to come and spoon feed them? (This was edited from the original idea sitting somewhere else waiting for something to get "dichted"....lol)

Using the river Ayr as a guide, I can say that in Sorn the river was frozen solid in January 2010 and able to take the weight of heavy men easily. It is still solid as I type this, on 14th January.

I can say that looking back through some old photos, I find the river was also frozen solid in 2002, and really frozen around 1997 or 1996. I have also photos from 1981 when there was a big freeze. There must be photos of dates in between, but finding them could be a problem I must approach an amature weather enthusiast who wrote down the wind and temperature etc for many many years.

I am not sure I hear much from the global warming scare mongerers and money grabbers over the last few weeks of low temperatures. Scientists here in the UK were well and truly caught with their trousers down, when hackers got in to a research centre's PC system and nicked a load of e mails. They were caught red handed fixing and manipulating figures related to controvertial supposed global warming, and fixing figures to the desired government results!! This seems to have been washed under the carpet, and not the continous headline news it should be!!

A download of 60 meg is on line of all the emails which contain the details. Here are a few links.

Anyone with an interest in the Global Warming SCAM, should perhaps watch "The Great Global Warming Swindle", see below.

American talk radio hosts don't miss the liars and hit the wall. Listen to this poor quality recording of one taken from an American MW station on 1180 in Rochester New York, WHAM.

Anyone interested in this subject should watch the excellent documentary, THE GREAT GLOBAL WARMING SWINDLE. Here are a few words about the documentary.

"The Great Global Warming Swindle is a controversial documentary film by British television producer Martin Durkin, which argues against the scientific opinion that human activity is the main cause of global warming. The film showcases scientists, economists, politicians, writers, and others who are sceptical of the scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming. Publicity for the programme states that global warming is 'a lie' and 'the biggest scam of modern times.'"

CHALMERS "JOKE" GOUDIE: Another death in 2009 was Chalmers "Joke" Goudie, on hogmanay. Joke as he was known also made many contributions to ayrshirehistory.com in the earlier days of the archive. It was due to Joke's persistance that we managed to find Billy Girvan, who had the old movies of Sorn shot by his father Harry in the 1960's and 70's. Such a time has passed, that I have to think hard of the percentage of the villagers in Sorn today that will even remember "Wee Harry". Maybe it's higher than I think.

JIM NISBET: 2009 saw the death of Jim Nisbet, a contributor to ayrshirehistory.com, and a man who shared much information and local stories in the early days of this archive. Jim lived in Fir Park. Jim was an example of one of the contributors to this archive who had some other material in the form of old cine movies that have not been archived yet, and probably never will be now. This is why local historical records and information need to be saved.

ELLA ANDERSON: Ella Anderson, wife of the late Bobby of Meadowhead, Sorn also passed away in 2009. Ella lived in Fir Park in recent years, and is pictured here on this web site receiving an award for the village from none other than Princess Anne.

GORDON CUNNINGHAM: Old school chum and in later years, drinking buddy Gordon Cunningham passed away unexpectedly in 2009, long before the traditional three score years and ten. Gordon was also a great help to ayrshirehistory.com, and provided web space at one stage when no one else would. He lived on the Catrine Road at Olive Lodge, once home to "Auld Andra Strachan" and Maj, who had the Brewery Bar in Catrine.

GEORGIA ROWE: Young Georgia Rowe of Dalgain Drive also passed away in 2009, a mid a media frenzy.

WILLIE LYLE: Contributor and old pal from Mauchline Willie Lyle died in September 2009. Willie's collection of glass negatives and slides taken by his former relative John Taylor Gibb have also been safely scanned and archived.

Have not done any work on the site for a few months, but with the snowfall just before Christmas, some superb photos have been taken around Sorn, where the snow was the deepest for many years. Some spectacular postcard photos have been taken, and at the time of writing, it looks like we are in for a white Christmas.

It is with great sadness that I have to report today the passing of Willie Lyle. Willie of Auld Avenue, in Mauchline has been a great assistance and influence to ayrshirehistory.com since about 2001.

He was well known in the Mauchline area for many years for his unique "magic" lantern slide shows.

His collection is the original work of Mauchline photographer, author, minister and local historian John Taylor Gibb. JTG was also the first president of the current day Mauchline Burns Club. Many of the images were used in the 1910 book by John Taylor Gibb, "Mauchline Town & District".

Willie's father fell heir to the slides, and used to show them around Mauchline with his lantern projector. Willie started showing them along with his father, until he eventually fell heir to the collection himself. There were two separate slide shows. The popular "Auld Mauchline" show, and a "Burns Slideshow", which included shots from further afield, and views relating to Robert Burns.

Willie had one of his projectors stolen from a locked cupboard in Poosie Nansie's many years ago, but had enough spare parts to build another projector up and he was able to continue his shows from time to time. During one of the Mauchline Holy Fair's perhaps 2005 or so, Willie returned with a traditional lantern projector show in the Church Hall, like he used to do in years gone by.

The collection can now be seen here on these pages, many of them used in the "Mauchline high res slides" pages. The first archiving work was done on the lantern slides though, and these first digitised images can be seen under the "private collectors" page.

In 2002, Willie's collection of glass negatives was given the first glimpse of daylight for 40 years or so. So many unique gems of old Mauchline were found in this collection, including the only known photograph of Smith's Boxworks, where the fire station is today. These were scanned and incorporated into a modern day high res web slide show. Willie had also been back on the road every now and again with myself and the collection of digitised images. This was the modern day lantern slideshow, but played back on a multimedia projector. The results were simply awesome.

Willie had the idea at the back end of 2008 to gather together a collection of images of "Mauchline People At Work", and create a DVD. After a long time in production, this 90 minute DVD was finally completed in July 2009. The DVD is not for sale or resale, but it is available to all here on these pages in a compressed format. A link to an AVI file of the movie is listed below, or linked via the Mauchline Reference section of this web site.

The movie is dedicated to the memory of Willie Lyle, a man who took pleasure in sharing his treasures with the world. Never before have I seen a large private collection of high resolution plates. They are truly a local historical treasure.

As a footnote, Willie worked at the sawmill in the Haugh Road, as well as at Auchmillan, and is not Willie Lyall who ran the shop in Loudoun Street. This is a question I have often been asked.

The annual doors open day caught up with us again at the weekend of 6th September. This is the day when many museums and historic buildings in Ayrshire are open to the public, some of which are not normally accessible. I had grand illusions of going around the county to various sites that were open. In the end, we made it to Auchinleck Hoose, Barr Castle in Galston, and Loudounkirk. Often the doors open day is at the end of the month, but I think it was still quite a success, due to the publicity in the local press. (I for one was caught out by the date, even though I had picked up a leaflet earlier in the year) Well done to all concerned for the organisation and taking the time to open on a Sunday.

For the record, I DO NOT accept dubious e mails or dubious file attachments, and neither do I subscribe to any of the dubious log in only / members only type web sites. If anyone wishes to get in touch, send a proper and simple e mail. I do not click on dubious looking unknown links.

One of the many Ayrshire sightings of the large black cat / puma type animals has taken place in Sorn Village in the last week. The animal was seen by an anon member of the community. The woman in question, who asked not to be named was adamant that the sighting in the young wooded area behind the football field, was certainly not that of a dog, or any other household creature.

"It was much too large to be a domestic cat", she said, "And being a dog owner, I certainly do know the difference. It had a long tail, and was walking in the unique way that cats do."

It disappeared into the young woods, behind the goal post in the centre of the football field.

This was quite a rare daytime sighting, and down at village level, not in the country area!!!

Some years ago, maybe around 1999, one was seen on the road by a woman driving home from Mauchline late at night. The yellow eyes and the large black feline outline caught the car lights around closing time one night. Her drunken passenger missed out on the sighting, as he had fallen asleep between Mauchline Cross, and the crossroads at Oxenshaw/ Montgarswood, where the animal was crossing the road!! The passenger in question was Kenny, the founder of ayrshirehistory.com!!!

A sighting was made again from around the same time, at dusk on an autumn or winter's evening. A large black cat like animal was bounding along the edge of the woods to the left as you climb out of Sorn towards Muirkirk. This was seen by two people walking a dog, but viewed from from quite a distance away, there is nothing more in the way of a description to offer. The animal did have a cat like appearance in its running.

There are regular sightings of these elusive creatures, and one of these days someone with a reasonable camera will get close enough to take a reasonable photograph of our undocumented wildlife of Ayrshire.

A new DVD featuring Mauchline at Work over the years was completed in July 2009. The inspiration for this project came from Willie Lyle. The source material comes from the archives of ayrshirehistory.com and is from many different collections, and not exclusively from that of Willie Lyle. The DVD is only being shared amongst local people in the Mauchline area, and is not for sale or resale. However, anyone who downloads this from the web is free to buy a round the next time we meet in Poosie Nansie's!!! The AVI version does not have the DVD menu structure, but should play OK. I might have noticed an odd stutter on the avi version, maybe not. Anyone who has success in downloading this, do contact ayrshirehistory.com and let me know how you get on.

The titles still give the address of ayrshirehistory.eu, which was a temporary address while the .com domain was being reclaimed. A new and updated version will be uploaded in due course, with only the .com address. The content will however be identical.

The file is large, 650 megabytes, so a fast broadband connection will be required. During trials, a friend in the next village with a broadband speed 10 fold that of my own out here in the sticks, brought the file down in an amazing 15 minutes!!!

There are a number of players which will show an AVI file. One of the better ones that plays multiple formats is VLC player. It copes with virtually any video format, and is free!!

August has been an exceptionally productive month for ayrshirehistory.com. The most productive in years. The inspiration for this activity stems from the eventual successful reclaim of our old domain, after the company who we were dealing with for the last couple of years, vanished overnight. This page will read like a kind of a BLOG, with the latest from ayrshirehistory.com, if there is anything worthy of reporting.

A plan of myself and others for many years was to visit the Island of Ailsa Craig, home to the stone used at Mauchline for the production of curling stones. Not exactly in keeping with the theme of ayrshirehistory.com and the old photographs, yet the expedition to Ailsa Craig seemed somehow historical in nature. It has been decided to include many of the photos here, links to be found in "other" - "Site Index" within the pop up menu system. The waters around the Island look black in parts, I dare say because of the dark cliff faces. Remains of the industrial past litter the landing area around the lighthouse. This can either be classed as industrial heritage, or some may suggest, litter on a grand scale. There seems to be no mood to clear up the rusting pieces of rubbish lying around. Different perhaps from the old buildings and railway line, which stand as a monument to the past. The trip was exciting and well worth the effort to climb to the top of the great lump of rock that is seen from most of the Ayrshire coastline. A sense of adventure seemed to be there, because of the fact we were gaining access to an uninhabited island, where precious few will have ventured, compared with for example Arran.

Looking around Kilmarnock and the surrounding areas in recent years, and one can hardly fail to notice the demolition work which is being carried out. In Kilmarnock, by Glencairn Square rubble lies from the old Safeway, recently demolished. The old Fine Fare has also been demolished and rubble left lying. In the middle of the rubble, a new so called "super" Tesco's has sprung up and opened it's doors. In West Langlands Street, a line of old buildings which included the Number 10 Bar have been demolished in 2009. The Dalespark Tavern has been demolished in recent times and the site cleared.

In the Irvine Valley, some questionable demolition orders have been carried out on some of the old buildings in the town centre of Darvel and Galston, including the old Barr School. The Higher Grade is still standing, but for how long.

Is it beginning to feel like the same kind of vandalism which old Kilmarnock suffered in the late 60's / early 1970's when the heart was completely ripped out of the town centre. Many of the old buildings were torn down to make way for tacky replacements.

Anyhow, I have been taking a number of photos of many of the buildings before they are turned to "stoor". I shall endeavour to reproduce these images on this web site in due course. The only problem with this is that I have not been quick enough in some cases with my camera. If anyone else reading these pages is like minded, and takes a lot of modern day photographs of the changes within the communities of Ayrshire, do get in touch via the contact button. (If interested in sharing your photos that is)

At the 2009 Mauchline Holy Fair, the Burns club attempted to break the record for the biggest Haggis in the world. This has recently been found to be successful. View the certificate below. Jimmy Davidson proudly shows off the certificate, August 2009.

In August 2009, The Royal Bar, or SMITHS as it has been known for some time, has ceased trading. A sign is now up on the door to the effect that all the beers and spirits have been removed and the alarm reset. This leaves but one public house in the village, The Brewery Bar. I would advise the Catrine residents to support the only public house left in town. From bitter experience, it is no picnic, living in a village without a village inn, as has been the case in Sorn for a number of years.

It seems that the government's stealth plan in trying to close the pubs is working. Their over priced duty, smoking bans, and even interfering with day to day running by changing the rules of license for the worse have all had a very negative impact on country inns. Around 2002, only a few short years ago, Catrine boasted four traditional public houses; The Old Mill Inn, The Honky (Volunteer Arms), The Royal, and The Brewery. The Burns was also on the scene a few years before that time. Now there is only one.

As happens most summers, I have had visitors from abroad, visiting Ayrshire, and Sorn in particular for various differing reasons. The guests this summer have included James and James Peden from Kentucky who wanted to see Peden the Covenanter's birthplace, as well as the cave known locally as Peden's cave. A few weeks later again covenanter enthusiasts from Holland paid a visit to Sorn. Bonnie Suchan and family from Canada also passed through, tracing the Baird family roots. And finally while the office was in a real turmoil, AJ Strathern and PJ Stewart from the States came through for a visit, and a cup of coffee.

It is always nice to see visitors who have connections with the area. Maybe I should make a page on this site with some photos and comments from visitors. Some of the these foreign visitors in the past have been extremely memorable.

That's the kind of entries which will no doubt appear in this blog from time to time. I formerly treated this web site as though it was going to be permanently housed on a government server, but since this seems to be something that will never happen, I shall share observations and bits and pieces here. From time to time, there may be comments which will appear to be less than tactful, if the need arises. I have a feeling this part of the web site could become more chatty. I will also include comments from readers if so desired.

I plan to include more photos of up to date outings, similar to the Ailsa Craig trip. I don't mean outings to the local pub!! I am also considering uploading a movie recently made named "Mauchline at Work", completed in July 2009 for Willie Lyle. The AVI file will be about 650 meg, but I have to make sure that it plays fine as an AVI. I seem to remember the initial AVI test was somehow ropey. Watch this space.

Finally took control of the old domain name "ayrshirehistory.com" from the wastelands of the web on 22nd July. See timeline on the contingency plans page. The temporary address of ayrshirehistory.eu will continue to be used for the time being, but I do foresee a time when it will only be links to the main .com pages. I have never found out why our old company vanished. I suppose it is just the way of the world.

Major facelift, for the re-launch of the old domain name again after about 9 months break. Design of the site has changed, with bright blue colours toned down yet again. I am not one for silly and pointless flashing lights and 70's "acid rock" colours on web pages. I will leave this chaotic, clumsy "flashing lights" type of site to the freebies like bebo and facebook. I have opted for the most simple approach I can think of. There are new pop up menus on the main pages, which will eventually end up on most of the other pages.

Added a few extra towns and villages, to include a lot of images I have taken myself of more recent changes in the streets and avenues we walk each week. I have a lot of material which will be added in the coming weeks, so bear with me.

Beginning to create a constitution for ayrshirehistory.com. I now require reliable, trustworthy, passionate people. Passionate about their local heritage and villages. For so long this archive has been thrown from pillar to post by the former hosts in local government. Now is the time for action. We have to ensure the continuity of these pages for the future, for no other reason than much of the material simply isn't available in the public domain anywhere else, and much has already disappeared because of the death of some contributors.

I am amazed sometimes when my work becomes significant. This happened a couple of times recently. I was sitting in on an excellent talk about the life of Robert Burns, when the distinguished speaker proudly began to tell the audience about a government based web site having such a wonderful historic documentation of Mauchline from old times. I am sure you can imagine my consternation when a collection of ayrshirehistory.com images were displayed alongside the rest of the slideshow, while credit was openly given to an Edinburgh based concern. I questioned this in public, and was doubly assured it was material from the government based outfit. Later in the bar, I spoke to the speaker about ayrshirehistory.com, which rang bells with the gentleman. The error has since been cleared up, and was a genuine error.

Not a genuine error however was one character who even took it upon himself to copy both text and images from this web site, and mail the content credited to himself to a dubious Canadian based outfit called electricscotland.com. This was reproduced by the webmaster there, but taken back off line when the original source of the material was realised.

All that is asked is that the basic gentleman’s rule of use of material be honoured, and credit given to both this web site and the original donor of the image. That is why donor names are below most images on this site, and have been since day one. The Mauchline on line slideshow is a temporary exception, as the text for that is only half done.

(Kenny Baird, February 2006)

The main difference to the web pages as of mid April 2004, will be the new style front end, and menu system. It should in theory mean easier navigation of the site, as all or almost all pages are a mere click away from the front page. A lot of work is still to be done, and as time permits, it should eventually be done.

A reminder that if anyone is looking for specific files, some of the file names from the original work, were deliberately kept to 8 letters or less to suit old operating systems. Thus for example "page23.jpg" could have been "john_taylor_gibb_page_23". As long file names are common place, and have been for a number of years now, future files will have more descriptive titles. However there are no plans to change all the work already done. The time would be better spent adding new material. The site is still perfectly navigable. Some of the original files were made many years ago, and may look rather dated. The content will still be there, but in the early days, all the colours of the rainbow were used for text and links etc, simply because they could be. The old files are gradually being modernised, but the time factor creeps in again.

(Kenny Baird April 2004)

At last I have found the time to update the Website with an amazing on line slideshow of old Mauchline, over 300 new pages!! The images contained in the said show are mainly from the private collection of Willie Lyle. Willie has kept safe for over forty years, a collection of original glass negatives, which belonged to Mauchline minister, photographer and local historian, John Taylor Gibb. [1864 – 1948] The task to reproduce these images was by no means straight forward, and took many long hours in sometimes Baltic conditions. I therefore hope I can be forgiven if sometimes it seems there is little noticeable work being done to the site.

The original web site was designed around a screen size of 800 by 600, but in the case of the slideshow, I have used a screen size of 1024 by 768, to enable the maximum quality of the images to be portrayed. Some of the high res images on many of the over 1000 pages are also designed to fit nicely onto a screen of 1024 by 768. I know this makes it rather an awkward site, suiting both screen sizes, but it is unavoidable as technology advances.

Another long task is sorting out all the older images on the site which were used when the project was in its infancy. Initially most of the images were proudly displayed in an untouched, original faded and scarred state. In the last few years however most of the images have been cleaned, and touched up, and the effect is perhaps more realistic. With the collection of glass plates, the results have been described as awesome. The repairing of the original scans will take time, and therefore do not expect instant results. The web site is unfortunately a voluntary project, which takes up so much spare time.

There has been some dispute from time to time, that the credit for an image may not necessarily be to the original collector. All images on this site are credited to the donor of the material. Sometimes in separate collections, the same image will appear. Usually the credit is given either jointly, or to the owner of the image used, which would be the cleanest version. Remember that the original photographer in many cases does not even receive credit, and are generally unknown. The main concern is the fact that by having the image on this archive web site, the image has been preserved, in a non fading digital format.

A new idea has been brought into the site in February 2002. The private collections button takes you to just that.

Since Thursday June 15th, the site has been on line once more, thank you to the support of Ayrshire Electronic Community. Thank you to Councilor Smith for his help in arranging this. The technical side of this server seems to be extremely encouraging. The download speeds are far faster than the previous host.

This site is completely non-profit making and totally unviable as a commercial project, and therefore has to be supported by goodwill.

<ayrshirehistory.com> is now registered as the domain name. <ayrshirehistory.net> also takes you direct to the full address <www.e-ayrshire.co.uk/local/sornweb>. Thank you to sornmilk.com for their support in this department.

HISTORY OF AYRSHIREHISTORY.COM

This site went on line properly in early 1998, although a skeleton of the current archive. The preparation work was started in 1997, before even going on line.

The material here is for educational and historical purposes, and is available as a free standing, free to air web site to anyone around the world with Internet access. Although the concept of making historical collections available on the world wide web is a relatively new ideal, the history of the Internet itself goes back many years. The www [Internet] is in a sense the world's largest encyclopedia, and allows access in all corners of the globe. This technology is new and a mystery to many, but it is the best way of preserving our local history.

Many of the old postcards are great pieces of history, perhaps more so than many old personal photographs. The publishing firms had more experienced photographers, and in many cases, better (any) camera equipment than many homes had in earlier years. Sadly in recent years so much local history has been lost, which hopefully will never happen with what is left. So much material gets thrown out, perhaps unknowingly, by families of deceased. Much material has also been lost to collectors, which although still technically available, is as good as lost. A collectable old postcard can trade for quite a sum of money, and could easily end up not only out of the area, but outside the country.

OPERATION

This web site was originally constructed to make access available to as many people as possible, including anyone still using old software such as Windows 3.1 and old versions of Netscape. File names were originally kept to 8 letters or less, although now file names are much longer, and more descriptive, but always lower case. Some operating systems may be case sensitive. The desktop area was originally limited to 640 by 480, to cope with anyone who has an older & limited VGA monitor, but the common standard 600 by 800 and/ or 1024 by 768 is used throughout nowadays. Laptops and wider screen monitors have even higher res screens. All common screen sizes should be able to cope with the whole site.

Browsers:

The site was originally designed rather clumsily around Netscape 3 and 4, with the need to change the settings in the preferences to make the links look better. Now though there is no need, and the default settings of both Internet Explorer and Firefox happily cope with the site. Netscape now is virtually dead, despite it's initial popularity during the early days of the web.

Although some early browsers did not support frames, the main reason for having none is simply so that images can be seen full screen. This is a site of an archival nature. Frames reduce the size of the screen, and with a small monitor, you can not afford any screen size reduction.

Worth noting is that since Internet Explorer 6, a nasty new default setting means that an A4 page wont fit to the width of the page and let you scroll down, but rather fits the height of the screen. If the PC operator is one of these folks who downloads all the silly extra toolbars and clutter from the web, there is not much room to display a large image. A silly brown square tool eventually slowly appears at the bottom right hand corner sometimes if you are quick enough, which expands the image. This can be switched off in the options if required.

(Tools - Internet Options - Advanced - Multimedia - untick "enable automatic image resizing")

Response:

Response to this massive undertaking has been very good in the local area. The e mail support, and response in the guest book has also been superb. Read the guest book up to 2001 as one html file from here. More soon hopefully.