May 28th 2004

Maybole Golf Club has re-formed and competitions are now well underway. Winners so far are: more

May 21st 2004

Maybole’s Davie Anderson will taking part in the Star o’ Rabbie Burns competition at the Waterside, South Harbour Street, Ayr next month. The Waterside was formerly the Boathouse and the competition will be held on Wednesday June 2 from 8pm.

May 14th 2004

May 7th 2004

Maybole Bowling Club opened season 2004 with President Jim Harper and  Vice-president Elspeth Wotherspoon welcoming a large turnout of old and  new  members as well as guests from Coylton, Dalrymple, Wattfield, Seafield,  and Irvine Fullarton bowling clubs. more

The complete text of the headlines above follows.

May 28th 2004

P7 pupils at Cairn and St Cuthbert's get together weekly to take part in the Junior Achievers Award.  Last week they were visited by fire officers from Strathclyde Fire Brigade and as well as a talk on the brigade they thoroughly enjoyed a tour of  the  Road Rescue vehicle.

This year the UK Chess Challenge attracted over 70,000 children from over 2,000 schools. The tournament begins every spring and pupils of Maybole’s St Cuthbert’s primary school would like to thank Mrs Siegrun Macgilchrist for her dedication and time spent teaching them to play chess every Wednesday afternoon. Siegrun also runs the first stage of the Challenge and St Cuthbert’s prizewinners received their awards last week. They were: 1 Ali Roy 2 Amy Strang 3 Alice-May Morris. Ali went on to compete in the next stage in the Megafinals which were held in Dunfermline and won all her games. Now she will travel to Manchester University on July 10 to represent St Cuthbert’s primary school at the Gigafinals.

The S3 XL Club at Carrick Academy last week presented their findings on “Maybole – Past, Present and Future” in an illustrated talk by members. The had invited quite a number of local groups to their presentation and all were welcomed by Hayley McCulloch. “Thank you for taking the time to be with us today”, she said before handing over to the first speaker Lee Mc Culloch who spoke on “Maybole Past”. He said that the club had thought the best start would be to speak to members of the Elderly Forum. “This turned out to be a great idea, “ he added, “and we found out lots about employment in the past, what life was like during the war, what games people played and much more.” “We found out about the boot and shoe factories which were the main source of employment in the areas for many years; the last factory burned down in 1962; we had a tour of the castle with Mr Kiltie and learned lots from the Maybole web site. We had a guided tour round the town’s historical sites and learned a lot from Mr Cook about how Maybole evolved. We learned about transport in the past and how the station used to be a lot busier than it is now. One of the ladies from the Elderly Forum remembered when we relied on horses for transport. She used to do the milk round in Maybole by horse and cart at 6.30 in the morning. We found out about some of the schools before Carrick Academy was built. The main one was Ladyland School. Rev Whiteman was able to tell us a lot about how our churches have changed over the years. Traffic wasn’t the problem it is today as the streets were much quiter. More people used public transport so there was less congestion and the streets were cobbled. PC Thornton gave us information on policing. In the past each of the villages would have had its own police office. Communication was a lot more difficult and all records were handwritten into big logbooks. Police got around on bikes and whistles were used to signal for help. Alex Jones spoke on “Maybole Present” adding that his group had decided to look at today and how things had moved on from past times. On buildings he said, “New buildings have replaced many of the original ones; the town is much busier; there are not so many factories and the main A77 runs through the town heading for Stranraer.” “The main street is always busy,” he continued, “and parking is a problem with heavy traffic often parked to unload goods to local shops. The two churches used by the Church of Scotland in Maybole are old and difficult to heat and as they are listed buildings they can’t be modernised.” Kevin Haywood then posed the question “What does the future hold for Maybole?” He said that quite a few people had been able to give them their ideas on this. “Plans have been in existence for some time to build a bypass round Maybole,” he said, “and this would solve the problem of traffic passing through on the way to Stranraer. Plans are also underway for a new Parish Centre in the town to take the place of the existing churches which will be sold for housing. It will provide a much needed multi-purpose building for the community.” Kevin went on to describe the changes to the school as it changes to cope with demand. “There is a lot of building going on in Maybole,” he continued, “and this may mean that the schools will be busier. The streets may also be a lot busier in the future.” He speculated on police communications as well adding, “Police cars will have computers on board which will allow information and photographs to be printed out while on location rather than having to go into the office. Radios will be smaller and double as mobile phones improving communication.” He concluded, “The XL club has enjoyed completing this project and we would like to thank all the people who have helped us in any way. Without the Maybole web site most of the work would have been incomplete.” On behalf of the guests Rev Dave Whiteman thanked the club members for inviting them saying that the presentation had been “absolutely brilliant”.

Maybole Community Council Annual Report: Last week Maybole Community Council held its AGM for the final year of its three year term of office from 2001 – 2004. Office bearers who had been elected for the year from April 2003 – March 4 were David Kiltie, (chairman); Peter Mason (vice-chairman); Anne Walker, (secretary); and Jim McDermott, (treasurer). In his report Mr Kiltie said that the community council had been represented on the Town Twinning Association, Maybole Community Development Group, Carrick Crime Prevention Panel, Carrick Community Transport Group, the local Sports Association, the Community Association, Maybole Sick Nursing Association, Maybole Carnegie 21st Century Halls Committee and the new Association of South Ayrshire Community Councils. That Association was formed to allow community councils to share information, experience and examples of good practice; provide mutual support on matters of common interest; raise standards of practice among Community Councils; become involved in discussions about policy development and other strategic matters with public bodies serving the South Ayrshire area; and provide training and related opportunities for community councillors. “Following the recent community council elections,” he said, “a number of key individuals who were involved in the Association are now no longer community councillors. At present, there seems to be a lack of drive to take the Association forward. Last week I met with the chairman of Prestwick South Community Councils to discuss this situation. We feel there should be a further attempt to see if there is interest in the Association and have arranged a meeting which will be held on Monday 21st June here in the Town Hall. The purpose of this meeting will be to finally confirm if Community Councils wish to have an Association.” He then thanked to all community councillors who put in extra work as part of all these groups. May-Tag Ltd is seen as the “training wing” of the community council and several members serve on the board of directors of the company which is a registered charity. “May-Tag Ltd has now moved out of Maybole Castle into the new Resource Centre,” he added, “which should put it in a good position to provide training to more people.” Mr Kiltie went on to describe the background to the new resource centre. “Maybole Community Development Group finished its project at the end of May 2003,” he said, “and the company has now been wound up. Maybole Community Council played a lead role in the group and all members are grateful to the National Lottery Charities Board, Scotland for the grant of £176,377 over the three years of the project’s life. An application to the Community Fund to enlarge the project into North Carrick was unfortunately turned down last May. When MCDG closed May-Tag started a pilot scheme to assess the feasibility of a resource centre in the High Street and Councillor Andy Hill arranged a grant to help fund this. We now have a project approved by the Community Fund to operate a Resource Centre for the town and the grant for this exceeds £188,000. The project will develop and co-ordinate the capacity of the voluntary sector in the town. It will provide a range of training opportunities for volunteers working in community organisations, establish a meeting place and office facilities for groups to deliver their activities and develop networks between voluntary organisations to enable co-ordination of activity. There have also been discussions with the local Fairshare Panel with regard to employing someone who would work in the local villages.” On other involvement he commented, “As in previous years we worked closely with the Maybole Branch of the Royal British Legion Scotland playing our usual enabling role in the Armistice Day and Remembrance Day Services. Once again we ran the Jean Falconer Literary Competition in conjunction with our local schools and we thank them and our judges for their continued support. We agreed to price new trophies and to look into sponsorship. We are delighted to see Maybole Historical Society is capturing some of Rev Roderick Lawson’s monthly letters in electronic form and we are happy to have played a small part in this. This project should make them more accessible in the future. If anyone knows of other copies of these documents the society would be delighted to hear from them.” Mr Kiltie commented, “Our web site - www.maybole.org - goes from strength to strength. March 2004 was a new record with 735,488 page hits! The time spent online was 2,514 hours - that’s the equivalent of approximately 105 days. April was a little less at 672,289 hits which is the second highest ever total. Last year the web site achieved over 400,000 page hits a month so you can see how popular a resource this has become. We have contributors from all over the world and several people are now finding their way here to trace their family roots. Dave Killicoat, vice chairman of Maybole Historical Society, has been a tremendous source of help with this. Once again I must pay tribute to our web master Rich Pettit of Clearwater, Florida, USA, who traces his roots to Carrick’s capital. He and his wife Elaine and their two sons Nick and Mark visited Maybole again last June for the gala weekend and we were able to thank him in person for all he has done. We also thank everyone who has contributed photographs, articles and memories to what has been described by many as a wonderful web site.” During the year the community council gave grants of £50 each to Primary schools in the Carrick Academy cluster for their tapestry project; St Cuthbert’s Primary School, one of only five schools chosen to take part in a national project to adopt a historical building; and David Donald, a local thirteen-year-old who is off to Thailand in July to take part in the World Amateur Muay Thai Championships. Finally, Mr Kiltie comprehensively thanked everyone who had helped the council in any way over the past 12 months.

Some members of the Tackety Bit Club went to Loch Shira near Inverary at the weekend and cycled up Glen Shira and they then climbed onto Beinn Bhuidhe on what was a misty day. As they came off the top making for Beinn Chas and back to their bikes, the day cleared and provided good views. Other members were not so lucky when they were in Strathfarrar. Going onto Sgurr na Ruaidhe it was a bit misty but carrying on over the tops to Sgurr Fhuar-thuill it got very wet and stayed like that for the rest of the day.

Maybole Golf Club has re-formed and competitions are now well underway. Winners so far are: April medal – Paul Ferguson (better inward half) 69-4 = net 65 Runner-up Billy Taylor 77-12 = net 65 President’s Cup Billy Taylor with a net 136 after beating Ricky Scott after an 18 hole playoff Dulux Cup Alistair McDowall 81-19= 62 Runner-up Alistair McDowall Jnr 83-17 = 66 May medal John McGregor 73-9 = 64 Runners-up Michael Thomson 80-14 = 66 David Blane 76-10 = 66

May 21st 2004

Former Maybole man Robert Boyle returned home from Canada to visit his mother and sister and discovered they had planned a surprise 50th birthday party for him. Robert was a pupil at Carrick Academy and emigrated with his wife Lynn in 1978. He is a manager with an aerospace company and lives outside Toronto with Lynn and their son Stephen, 16.

Tributes were paid last week to the incredible service of Ian Wallace to Maybole’s fire service. Ian and wife Mary celebrated his retiral after 36 years and 151 days with family, colleagues and partners on Saturday evening when he was presented with a fire fighter statuette by Jim Davidson who has taken over as sub-officer.

At Maybole Historical Society’s AGM last week all the office bearers and committee were re-elected with no other volunteers coming forward. The meeting was well attended and they all had a fascinating "behind the scenes" tour of Rozelle House and the activities of the Museums Service in the charge of Liz Kwasnik. Vice chairman Dave Killicoat said afterwards, “I think what amazed most of them was the care that is actually taken of anything that is entrusted to the care of the Museums Service and how keen they are to have a facility to display local artefacts back in the community they came from.” The society is working with Cassillis and Culzean Estate to open Maybole Castle to the public and the opening dates and times planned so far are

SUNDAY 30th MAY                           1.00 – 4.30 p.m. WEDNESDAY 2nd JUNE                    6.00 – 9.00 p.m. SATURDAY 5th JUNE                        1.00 – 4.30 p.m. WEDNESDAY 9th JUNE                    4.30 – 7.30 p.m. THURSDAY 17th JUNE                      6.00 – 9.00 p.m. THURSDAY 1st JULY                        4.30 – 7.30 p.m. SUNDAY 11th JULY                           1.00 – 4.30 p.m. WEDNESDAY 14th JULY                  1.00 – 4.30 p.m. SATURDAY 24th JULY                      10.00 a.m. – 1.00 p.m. SUNDAY 8th AUGUST                      1.00 – 4.30 p.m. SATURDAY 14th AUGUST                1.00 – 4.30 p.m. WEDNESDAY 18th AUGUST            1.00 – 4.30 p.m. SUNDAY 22nd AUGUST                    1.00 – 4.30 p.m. WEDNESDAY 25th AUGUST            4.30 – 7.30 p.m. SUNDAY 5th SEPTEMBER                10.00 a.m. – 4.30 p.m. (DOORS OPEN DAY) TUESDAY 14th SEPTEMBER            6.00 – 9.00 p.m. SATURDAY 18th SEPTEMBER         1.00 – 4.30 p.m.

BIGGER AND BETTER DISPLAYS THAN HAVE BEEN SEEN BEFORE WITH ACCESS TO EVEN MORE AREAS OF THE CASTLE

Maybole branch of the Royal British Legion Scotland are holding a D Day 60th anniversary church parade on Sunday June 6. They will meet at the Greenside at 9.45am and march to the Old Church via School Vennel and High Street. After the service the parade will start from Barns Terrace via Redbrae and High Street to the Town Hall for a civic reception. The march past will be taken by Major George Hay, Scottish Yeomanry.

Maybole’s Davie Anderson will taking part in the Star o’ Rabbie Burns competition at the Waterside, South Harbour Street, Ayr next month. The Waterside was formerly the Boathouse and the competition will be held on Wednesday June 2 from 8pm.

Following on from the successful completion and opening of the skate park facility, Maybole Youth Action Group are preparing for their Annual General Meeting which will be held at 7.30pm in the Carnegie Building on Tuesday 25th May. The group will be moving on to look at the possibility of raising funds to improve lighting at the site and also to consider the feasibility of proposals for a youth cafe development. Involvement of young people in the group is no problem, but they could do with the support of a few more adults to help them put their ideas into practice. Anyone interested is invited to attend the AGM.

Maybole Cubs and Beavers recently did a Crocus Walk in aid of Breakthrough Breast Cancer and raised a grand total of £210.

Some members of Maybole’s Tackety Bit Club went to Shalloch on Minnoch from the Stinchar Bridge last weekend. On a misty day, a cuckoo was heard and a grouse and golden plover was seen. As they headed for Tarfessock the mist cleared and the rest of the day was excellent. Another group set off from Blair Atholl to climb Carn Liath, and it was sunny and warm but on the summit there was a bitter north west wind with a little snow when they moved onto Beinn a`Ghlo. On reaching Carn nan Gabhar it started to rain and the waterproofs were needed for the next hour, a truly “all seasons in one day” day.

May 14th 2004

Take two of Maybole's finest singer/musicians, add the words of Robert Burns, and you have the makings of a fine show. That's what Davie Anderson and Frances Dryburgh aim to deliver with their concert "Romancing the Bard". The pair are teaming up for the show at Ayr's Fairfield House Hotel (Sunday, May 30, 7.30pm) as part of the Burns an' a' that festival. Both Davie and Frances love the poems and songs of Burns, as well as being highly accomplished in more contemporary music. And they are well aware that the Bard's parents met, courted and married in Maybole. Tickets, £4, are available from Frances on 01292 262538 or Davie on 07812954778.

Maybole Community Development Group has been formally wound up as a going concern. The project had been funded for three years though the Community Fund and ceased operations in May 2003. A motion to wind up the limited company which ran the project was put to members of the group last week at a meeting in Maybole Castle. The group’s assets had been retained for use in a new pilot project run May-Tag Ltd, with some funding from South Ayrshire Council. This project had lasted much longer than intended, due to funding via the Maybole Charity Shop and Maybole Historical Society and in fact only ;closed at the end of April 2004. May-Tag has secured funding to continue this pilot project, based on further community capacity building for a three year period. David Kiltie, chairman of May-Tag Ltd, outlined details of the project, which has a wide brief to support community groups and may be open at weekends and in evenings as appropriate depending on demand. Encouragement of family history, tourism and community news editorial groups are included in outputs of the project, which will employ a Community Worker and two part time assistants. May-Tag is also moving its IT section into the same premises as the Resource Centre which is to enable future sustainability and mutual benefit to May-Tag and the project. Securing funding took longer and was more difficult than estimated but the Fair Share panel may be open to considering a further bid from May-Tag for a peripatetic worker for the villages. A motion to formally close MCDG Ltd was proposed by Dave Killicoat and seconded by Pearl Barton. No one present had any objection to the motion. Some short discussion took place about the new posts and it was agreed that the project community worker was a key post which needed a person of high calibre as getting things moving.

Last week members of Carrick Stompers Linedancers handed over a cheque for £1,162 to Maybole’s day hospital. The money was raised by taking the local charity shop for a week last month and will be used to buy equipment for patients. Janetta Thomson and her class wee thanked by staff at the day hospital for the brilliant effort is raising the funds.

The Tackety Bit Club members were at opposite ends of the country for the weekend before last. Some were down near New Abbey where they went up Criffel on an excellent day giving views to the Isle of Man, Lake District, the Lead Hills and Goat Fell on Arran. Other members were in Sutherland where they climbed Ben Hope on the Saturday, the weather was also very good and great views were had. On Sunday the climb to Ben Klibreck was rather misty but enjoyable as well.

Maybole’s web site continues to attract more and more hits from all over the world. Latest site statistics for the month of March show a new record at 735,488 hits! April was a little less at 672,289 hits but that was the second highest ever. Maybe the day less or the Easter holidays meant less hits.

May 7th 2004

Groundforces @ May-Tag are also holding a sponsored "Mostly Haunted" evening at Maybole Castle, which will involve spending the night at the Castle from 21:00 to 05:00 on April 30th - May 1st. The time would be spent much in the same way as Living TV's "Most Haunted" programme, setting up experiments, walking through the rooms, and spending time quietly in rooms including the turret and the cellars. Fionnadh said, “We are hoping to involve members of the Scottish Society for Psychical Research to help us identify any paranomal activities.” She continued, “The money raised would be used to help with the costs of showing our Patio Garden at Gardening Scotland 2004 in June and the Ayr Flower Show in August. This is a great way for the residents of the area to support our efforts and for our friends and families to become directly involved in helping us to reach these goals. You could sponsor the number of hours that we manage to stay in Maybole Castle, to a maximum of 8 or you could make a donation.” Sponsor sheets are being held at the Castle, Society Street and at MAP. For further information please contact Fionnadh on 01655 883765.

Maybole Indoor Bowling Club had a very successful winter season with an increased membership of 45. At the recent presentation of prizes in the Town Hall the following members were trophy winners:

Round Table Shield      T J Lucas

Ladies Championship    Mrs C Kerr      r/u        Mrs C Malone

Gents Championship     T J Lucas         r/u        F potter

Interpak Shield D Harvey         r/u        D Boyd

David Knox Trophy      Mrs I Johnstone            r/u        P Ogg

Peter McEwan Cup      D Harvey         r/u        P Ogg

John Wallace Cup        T J Lucas         r/u        D Harvey

The new winter session for 2004/05 starts on Monday September 13.

Maybole Bowling Club opened season 2004 with President Jim Harper and  Vice-president Elspeth Wotherspoon welcoming a large turnout of old and  new  members as well as guests from Coylton, Dalrymple, Wattfield, Seafield,  and Irvine Fullarton bowling clubs.  The results of the President v Vice-president match were:  President Vice-president  J Harper 10 E Wotherspoon 14  K Martin 12 J McIlwraith 5  A Davidson 17 D Goodall 4  F Potter 12 A Clark 6  A Brian 11 P McCulloch 5  62 34  Winning rinks  President Mrs I McIlwraith, Mrs E Hannah, W Crate, A Davidson.  Vice-president R Matless, W Chapman, E McLelland, Mrs E Wotherspoon

Zoe Jess, of Carrick Academy’s 4th Year xl club, handed over a cheque for £50 to Alex Kelly for HeartStart funds last week. The pupils raised the money by an enterprise project which produced Easter bags for young pupils. They will also be sending £40 to a children’s cancer charity. Pic shows some members of the xl club with 1st left Christine McLeod Principal Teacher Learning Support 2nd left Rodger Stewart head teacher 3rd left Zoe Jess 4th left Alex Kelly 1st right Sina Currie school nurse 2nd right Yvonne Kiltie youth worker

Maybole Historical Society will hold its 4th annual general meeting on Monday May 10 at 7.30pm in Rozelle House, Ayr. Under it constitution office bearers are elected for a period of two years and all those elected at the 2002 AGM are due to retire except the secretary Mary Henry whose co-option will have to be approved. Present office bearers, who are willing to stand again for their positions, are Helen McAdam, chair; Dave Killicoat, vice-chair; and Jack Boyd, treasurer. Committee members are William Connelly, David Kiltie, Alex Davidson and Arnold Lake who are also willing to stand again. Recently a Henderson postcard of Cloncaird Castle bearing the Maybole crest was acquired from a source in Grimsby. It was posted on march 1, 1903 to a Mrs Dunlop, 106 Green Street, Ayr and the message on the back reads “This is the spot where I am working. It is very cold here, snow falling today. Hoping you are all well at home as I am getting on fine here. James.” Does anyone know any more about this James Dunlop?

St Cuthbert’s Primary school’s PTA is holding a coffee morning in Maybole Town Hall on Saturday May 22 from 10am till 12 noon. Everyone is welcome and there will be home baking and crafts on sale. Entry is £1.

Maybole Community Council is holding its AGM on Monday May 17 in the Town Hall. As well as the annual reports community councillors are hoping to draw up a plan of action for the next three years. They would welcome input from members of the public who are all invited to attend.