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Our Houses, Their Stories
A biography of the houses in the village of Cairndow
Send us comments, or information about your house
Cuil Cottage, 2007 |
Cuil Cottage, 1947 |
How
it all began....
One
of the first things we did was to photograph all Cairndow houses.
And in our early days Alice Beattie meticulously recorded data about
who lived in which house from the first 1841 census. More
recently, as we collected, scanned and catalogued our photo collection
we began to amass a photo gallery of people who had lived, and live,
in Cairndow. Out of this emerged the idea "Our Houses: Their
Stories".
Alice
has not only provided, from her own archive and memory, some of the
most enchanting material, but once again has been the driving
force gathering photos and reminiscences.
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Alice at work & her sketch of her
childhood home - Glaschoine |
Glaschoine 1940's and 2007 |
Interim Exhibition
In
order to raise awareness of the work HWA was undertaking,
and to encourage people to contribute further, we showcased the findings
of several months work at the Cairndow village hall. The
two day event focused on seven houses - photographs, local knowledge,
plans (where possible) and architectural studies for each.
The exhibition was well received and confirmed our belief that this
information was indeed interesting to all. Encouraged
by the success of the exhibition
we made steps to take the project further.
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Exhibition Sat. 24th and Sun. 25th of March 2007 |
An Example....
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East Lodge
This tiny lodge once housed 14 people! Hugh Ferguson, born in 1829, lived there with his wife Sarah and their 12 children.
By the time of the 1841 census, three elder children had left and obviously feeling the house a bit roomy, they took in a lodger - a gardener.
Hugh emigrated to New Zealand via Australia where he worked in the gold fields of Collingwood.
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East Lodge 1939 - 1942
The
excerpts below are taken from information given by Helen Dunion
(nee Hepburn), now living in Canada. Helen
was evacuated from Glasgow at the beginning of the war, to stay
with her Grandpa and Granny, Mr & Mrs Ure (pictured below right) at East Lodge. Mr Ure was the gate keeper and kept
the drives tidy.
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"On
the next wall was a huge sideboard with cupboards &
drawers & a mirror. On top of that there were
pictures & a glass chicken with a lid. This is where
the peppermints were kept. "The
toilet was across the avenue, down a
little
curved path to an outhouse with a chemical toilet.
Toilet paper was tissue
paper
squares and the tissue from Mandarin oranges at Christmas!
"Outside
the house there was a large box on legs with a fine wire
screen door. That was our fridge."
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East Lodge
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Mr & Mrs Ure
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We
have begun to understand the impact of a house on families,
and individuals, on how you live - "a house is more than just bricks
and mortar". Perhaps this raises questions about what is and
isn't important for dwellings in the future.
The Next Stage
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To
put together a funding application for some two
years work. This will include upgrading a database
that will suit, or can be adapted to suit our needs.
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It needs to be very
visual, with old and new pictures of each house, inside and out, and any
unusual or architectural features. There will
also be audio recollections and a list of the owners/occupiers through the
years from 1841 to the present.
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The cataloguing of all the data onto the database
will be time consuming. However it is essential
that it fits our purpose and that it can be
constantly
updated for the future.
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Dunderave Cottage 1950's |
Dunderave Cottage today |
Features |
While
compiling our funding application we, the community and our professional
consultants will discuss our ultimate goal - comprehensive
exhibition at a National Museum? DVD? Book? Village
party etc. etc. etc.
With special thanks to:
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