News of Peace comes to Ayrshire 1918

In towns throughout Ayrshire, the arrival of news on Monday 11th November 1918 that an armistice to end the Great War had been signed with Germany brought crowds onto the streets. Workplaces and schools declared a holiday, bells were rung, and churches hastily organised thanksgiving services. Events in Troon were typical, as reported by the […]

Oldest known Ayrshire newspaper discovered

A remarkable discovery was made recently in a house in South Queensferry when a box containing old documents was investigated. The contents included early issues of the Ayr Advertiser, and the finder kindly posted them to the Advertiser office. One of them has turned out to be the earliest known surviving issue. The Advertiser was […]

South Ayrshire Council’s new online way to go back to the past

The new ‘Births, Marriages and Deaths from the Ayr Advertiser 1803 − 1835’, providing an online index to family history data from newspapers, is a joint project between South Ayrshire Council Libraries Service and Opportunities in Retirement Family History Group Ayr. If you would like to travel back to the past, and view details of […]

On the track of a pioneer railway builder: Thomas Hollis, civil engineer

A previous post told of Scotland’s first passenger rail service on the Kilmarnock & Troon Railway. In July this year, to commemorate the bicentenary of this pioneering railway’s completion, a new plaque was unveiled for Laigh Milton Viaduct – the world’s oldest surviving public railway viaduct. The plaque commemorates the great Devonshire civil engineer William […]