Flowing to a land of peace We watch her gentle stream Old Churches, schools ravished by time Reflect her gentle beams. Starry nights and sun-filled days Upon her granite poised Where children played upon the bridge O´er shadowed now with noise. Yet peace she brings with every stone Where faltering birds do nest And otters with their children come To take their peace and rest. In her divine appointed flow Fear leaves no saddened thoughts For change is named upon her brow With no heightened sense of loss. And by her banks sweet angels flow Attending to their wards while we stand upon the bridge alone With only darker thoughts. Yet sweet repose and Love are here For all who hear her song Far away from bills to pay And every sense of wrong. Her gentle flowing higher streams Do guide us in our thoughts to a peaceful place of mind flowing o´er the darker rocks. ´Tis good for us to stop and hear Her gentle peaceful flow While Angels pass with quieter thoughts Allowing us to grow.
Kilbirnie / North Ayrshire
Willlie Rabey´s Reading Room, Glengarnock Steel Works
This was the first library in North Ayrshire.
Kilbirnie Home Guard 1940s?
James Clifford
James, later known as Jaime (Jamie) Clifford was a 19th century protestant missionary who went from Kilbirnie Gospel Hall to Argentina. Ironically he was born in a house which sat on the present site of the Gospel Hall at Schoolwynd.
It was noticed that he had great oratory skills when he gave speeches for the Independent Labour Party. He initially attended the red kirk across from St Columbas before his religious conversion.
He became very well known in Argentina and is buried out there. Visiting Kilbirnie a few times after he left. His son Alejandro Clifford continued his work in Argentina.
His biography in Spanish is here
“Willie Mackie´s Homecoming” #kilbirnie #northayrshire #scotland
Willie Mackie left Kilbirnie Scotland to emigrate to the USA as many people did before him, in search of a better life. As the title suggests, this was his homecoming celebration in Kilbirnie Gospel Hall Brethren Assembly.
This photo would be from the 1930s. Im not sure if he returned to the USA at a later date or settled in Kilbirnie again.
Poem About The Bing (Fudstone, Kilbirnie)
The bing was a huge mound of gravel and stone which was left there after the housing estate was built in the 1950s. It was replaced with a kids play area in the 1980s. The other Warriors bing in the Largs Hills was presumably called that because of where the Battle of Largs took place,
O the years upon the bing, with cousin Margaret children played,
Climbing up with all our power by Newhouse drive where people stayed,
Amid the thorns and grey cement there seemed a moment, time well spent,
And sliding down the gravel slope, I skinned my knees without a hope,
My grannie waiting at the door, with borax, plasters by the score.
O the hills we thought were steep, when now an older life we keep,
Mountains, slopes upon our minds, perhaps a bing of different kind,
Climbing o’er our darker thoughts, just like the thistles we did trod,
Lessons from the bing well learnt, of my granny’s soothing balm
O how that Love returns to me, and brings with it a sense of calm,
And behind the trees sat Warrior’s bing, perhaps a sign of future years,
With bigger slopes and hills to climb amid the darker fading years.
The Hawthorn – Kilbirnie auld cemetery poem
Daniel 2: 21
Upon the leaf of hawthorn green appears a drop of dew, with spiders webs reflecting frost upon the bush´s hue.
And comes an Angel staff in hand, reflected in the drop, where Lord and Lady Crawford lie, with sticks and lollipops.
As the sun does take a turn, the whited ground turns green, the Angel walks towards the gate and light shines in between.
And as the dew dries for the day, a sign that autumn comes, as well as days where dew will stay till sunset has begun.
And as the Angel´s shadow moves along the back kirk wall, acid rain from steel work days the people do recall.
Her sandals bare, they leave a trace of markings in the clay, where snowdrops rise beneath her feet on snowy winter days.
And to the gate she slowly walks, her staff upon the ground, with every turn a splash of white can surely here be found.
By the sign of service times, a smaller crack appears, a line upon an ageing brow brings a grandson´s fears.
And as she leaves, our minds are changed but not filled up with fear, her coming speaks of life more meek with passing of the years.
Kilbirnie & Beyond 