Stevenston - On This Day In History

[Penny Tray]

GLASGOW HERALD
11 DECEMBER 1899

STEVENSTON - BURNING ACCIDENT

On Saturday an old woman named Mrs Grant, a widow, who resides in Townhead Street, was severely burned about the head and shoulders through falling in the fire in her house.

[Penny Tray]

GLASGOW HERALD
12 DECEMBER 1896

THE LATE MR ALFRED NOBEL

In Ayrshire, where Nobel’s Dynamite Works are situated, although he was personally known to but a few, the news of Mr Alfred Nobel’s death has created a sense of loss, and stirred over a wide district, a feeling of much regret.

On the Ardeer sands, naturally as barren a region as the desert of the Sahara, a flourishing colony of which the late Alfred Nobel was the founder, has the since the year 1876, sprung into existence.

The area enclosed extends to about 400 acres, and in this place, formerly the haunt of screaming sea-fowl, employment is now given to about 1200 comfortably situated and well-paid workpeople.

The buildings in which the explosives are manufactured and the magazines in which they are stored, the latter surrounded by great ramparts of sand, are scattered amongst the dunes, only the tops of the taller buildings and the stalk vents being visible from the public roads in the neighbourhood.

Mr Nobel seldom visited this scene of activity which he had as it were conjured into existence, and which was the main source of his enormous wealth. The “factory” has always been in the hands of able managers whom he could trust implicitly. He was, however, occasionally seen at Ardeer, and the complete absence of “showiness” and ostentation in his personal appearance and manner was in the Stevenston district subject of common remark.

[Penny Tray]

GLASGOW HERALD
13 DECEMBER 1883

THE STORM – STEVENSTON

A considerable amount of damage was done to houses in Stevenston.

At Kerelaw some trees were blown down, but the greatest damage was done at Nobel’s Explosives Works, situated near Stevenston. The refuse acid shed, a brick building about 120 feet long and 30 feet broad, was blown down between twelve and one o’clock in the morning.

A workman, named WILLIAM LYNN, was injured by a quantity of bricks falling on him. He managed to get clear of the material and received medical attention, afterwards being taken to his home in Saltcoats.

The building is a complete wreck, the walls having been blown down and the roof crushed in.

Portions of the fence about the works have been levelled.

The chimney of a cottage near the works was also blown down, and many of the houses in Ardeer Square show traces of the severity of the gale.

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GLASGOW HERALD
14 DECEMBER 1849

MARRIAGE

At Breakplough, Stevenston, on the 11th instant, by the Rev. William Pinkerton, Kilwinning Free Church, Mr Archibald McLean, grocer, Glasgow, to Barbara, fourth daughter of Mr James McMillan, Stevenston.

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GLASGOW HERALD
14 DECEMBER 1849

MARRIAGE

At Saltcoats, on the 11th instant, by the Rev. James Elles of the United Presbyterian Church, Saltcoats, Mr Hugh Logan, to Mary, third daughter of Mr James McMillan, Stevenston.

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GLASGOW HERALD
30 NOVEMBER 1849

ASSAULT

As a respectable female belonging to Stevenston was returning home from Kilwinning on the night of Friday last, she was attacked and most severely assaulted by a man in the garb of a labourer.

An individual has been apprehended and charged with the offence; and the case is now undergoing judicial investigation.

GLASGOW HERALD
14 DECEMBER 1849

THE LATE BRUTAL ASSAULT NEAR STEVENSTON

The two supposed accomplices of Barr, charged with the commission of a brutal assault upon a female near Stevenston, a week or two ago, have been apprehended and lodged in Ayr Jail.

The three prisoners are miners, and strangers to the locality. We understand that crime of a somewhat similar kind has recently been committed with impunity in that district for sometime past, and now hope that an effectual check has been effected.

It is said, that the unfortunate female still survives, though in a weak condition; that she has lost the sight of one eye; and that the ear which had been torn in the struggle, will require to be amputated – the wound have resisted healing.

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GLASGOW HERALD
15 DECEMBER 1873

EXHIBITION OF THE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY

The exhibition and competition under the auspices of this society took place on Saturday in the Masonic Lodge Hall, Stevenston. There were about 100 entries. The attendance was large.

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GLASGOW HERALD
16 DECEMBER 1876

STEVENSTON ESTABLISHED CHURCH

A meeting of the members and qualified adherents of this congregation was held on Thursday evening in the church to take steps for the appointment of a minister in room of the Rev. James Cruickshank, resigned.

There was a good attendance, and the Rev. W. Lee Ker, Kilwinning, moderator of the session, presided.

A committee of 15 was appointed to select a leet of candidates.

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GLASGOW HERALD
17 DECEMBER 1898

FATAL ACCIDENT INQUIRY

At Kilmarnock Sheriff Court – before Sheriff Hall and a jury – a public inquiry was held as to a fatal accident.

An apprentice moulder named JOHN NIVEN, residing in New Street, Stevenston, while assisting to push a loaded waggon from the Eagle Foundry, Stevenston, where he was employed, to a siding on the Glasgow & South-Western Railway, fell in front of the vehicle, one of the wheels of which, coming in contact with his head, fractured his skull, causing instantaneous death.

The jury found accordingly.

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CASUALTY OF WAR
18 DECEMBER 1915

Died on service, Lance Corporal JOHN CONN, (31), Service No. S/79084, Corps of Royal Engineers – Theatre of war, France and Flanders – born at Stevenston; enlisted at Glasgow; wife of Rose Ann Conn, 83 Altyre Street, Tollcross, Glasgow.

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GLASGOW HERALD
19 DECEMBER 1888

A VIOLENT VAGRANT

At Kilmarnock Sheriff Court yesterday AGNES McCRORIE, a lame vagrant, wearing a crutch and having a child in her arms, was charged with having, on the 26th November, in a house in Boglemart Street, Stevenston, assaulted ROBERT MILLAR, and ELIZABETH MILLAR, Fish Hawker, Quay Street, Saltcoats, by dragging them by the hair, biting, and striking them with her crutch.

She pleaded guilty, but urged provocation. There having been previous convictions against her, she was fined in £3, or 30 days imprisonment.

[Hughie]

Kilmarnock Herald and Ayrshire Gazette
December 20, 1946

Let There Be Light.
Street lighting is to be recommended for the Shore Road-Chemical Road area which has been in darkness for some time. The lighting will be a temporary basis for some time being, and will be rigged from overhead cables which are already down at the dark patch. At the same time a recommendation is to be made that the pot holes along this road be filled in.