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ayrshirehistory.com PRESERVING THE PAST . . . . FOR THE FUTURE |
ABOUT US |
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. (Kenny Baird Nov 2003)
This site was officially taken off line on Tuesday 24th April 01 by the former host, South Ayrshire Council. We would like to express our thanks to South Ayrshire for providing the server space for the last three and a half years.
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.
Some
text and background information By Terry Harrison, Willie Lyle, Chris Lees,
Jimmy Taylor
Additional groundwork by Kenny Baird, Sandy McFadyean, Paul Haining, David Shaw
Other assistance, research, contributions and advice from:
Chris Lees, John Faulds, Stuart Robertson, Willie McClure, George Shaw, Sanny Wyper, Jim McMahon, Lynette Stewart, Jean Cunningham, Rachel McIntyre (Sorn Castle), Carnegie Library, Karen McFadzean (Sorn Inn), Eric Roxburgh, Derek Barbour (Sorn), Billy Johnstone, Elizabeth Robb, Craig Barbour, Robin Tannock, Jim Nisbet, Geordie Cameron, Geordie Smith, Thelma McGradey (Sorn Village Hall), Billy Gibson, Lindsay Clark, Hugh Harrison, Archie and Marjorie Johnston, Jean McKay, Ian Read, David Somervell, Stevenson's Dairy Farm, William Wither, Heather Goudie, Margaret and Lena Scott, William Girvan, Mr Barkley (Former Headmaster), Bert Logan, Margaret Morton, Judy A. Ollikkala, Ian Mason, Lord Norreys, Billy Frew, Billy Henderson, Mrs Anne McIlvean, Grace Goudie, John Kerr, Euan Kerr, John Clark Maddison, Hugh Ferguson, Nally Murray, Jock Foster & Murray Pringle, Ronnie Anderson, Sandy McFadyean, Kenny Neil, Sorn Primary School, Terry Harrison, Jimmy Taylor, Jimmy Clebo, John Jackson, Jessie Telfer, Guy Howie, Mac Forbes, Hughy Hodge (Auchmillan Hill), Ballochmyle Golf Club, Robert Lawrence, Norma Girvan, Nancy Moffat & Mauchline Spiders, Bert McGregor, Paul Haining, Jim Scott, The Burns House Museum in Mauchline, Isa Brown, Bert Collington, George Hardy, Francis McDowal, Jim Taylor [Lochhill], Bob Ramsay, Ronnie Lawrence, William Lyle, Derek Barbour (Failford), Mary Imrie, Pat Aitken, Ian Lyell, Paul Norman (Ballochmyle Inn), James Cook, Bill Blake, Jim Turnbull, Eric Hamilton (Perth), Prof David Purdie (Edinburgh), Mary Black.
Anon = Anonymous contributions, who did not want their name on the Internet.
A
lack of proper equipment is never helpful when operating on a shoestring, far
less working on a monster project such as this. I would therefore like to thank
the following people for allowing ayrshirehistory.com the use of various pieces
of equipment over the last few years.
David Shaw, Sandy McFadyean, Paul Haining, Gordon Cunningham, Carnegie Library,
Ayrshire Electronic Community, Alan Hopkins.
A
special thanks to the Baird Institute in Cumnock for access to their archives.
The institute is part of the Library and Information service of East Ayrshire
Council.
We
are proud to now have both Terry Harrison and Jimmy Taylor on board, sharing
and recording their wealth of local knowledge, as well as their large collections
of local historical material. Terry and Jimmy have been involved in local history
work for many many years.
In 2002 Willie Lyle of Mauchline has offered to share his very large collection
of glass slides, and negatives relating to Mauchline.
Thank you to Councillor Smith for his work in getting this site back up and running at AEC after South Ayrshire Council pulled the plug on the site, for no known reason.
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 encyclopaedia,
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.
The A4 size and larger documents are also high res to allow ease of reading, although the file sizes per page are a little on the large side.
The original ideas behind the web site was to also make public the original hi res scans, but this has been unable to put into reality.
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 14 inch monitor, you
can not afford any screen size reduction.
Worth noting is that since Internet Explorer 6, a nasty 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 extra toolbar clutter from the web, there is not much
room to display a large image. A silly brown square tool comes out of the bottom
corner sometimes if you are quick enough, which expands the image. This can
be switched off in the options if required.