Blog Archives

King's Park; Stirling's Overlooked Jewel

30/7/2013

A Conference with this title will be held in the Smith Art Gallery and Museum on Saturday 31 August.

This is a FREE EVENT though there will be a collection towards the cost of the venue; OWN LUNCH but the Smith has an excellent cafe.

Speakers will include SLHS members John Harrison and Stephen Digney.

The event is hosted by the King's Park History Group, an independent group of specialists recognised by Historic Scotland. ALL WELCOME.

The conference comes at a critical time, when the future ownership and management of these major landscapes is under discussion. it provides the first ever opportunity to look at the landscapes in their wider, historical contextt.

The local importance of these landscapes is obvious; for leisure, for tourism, for views, for wildlife. Culturally, they are important at a European level, rare survivors of the royal past.

So, whatever your interests, come along, listen and contribute.

You can download the flyer here. For fuller details, including speakers and times, click here.

Brass Bands in Stirling and Locality

23/7/2013

We have had a very interesting enquiry about Brass Bands in the Stirling Area and any help would be much appreciated.

Gavin Holman writes:

I am carrying out research in the history of brass bands in local communities, and would like to ask if you know of any information about any such extinct bands in your area.

The late 19th and early 20th centuries were the "golden age" for these bands numbering, it is said, up to 40,000 distinct bands at their peak. Many of these bands were associated with local industries, often being a "works" band. Others provided a musical focus for many small towns and villages in the days before the gramophone and the wireless. Today, in contrast, only some 1,500 or so are left active in the UK.

Sadly many of the bands left little in the way of information about their existence, and what does exist is widely scattered with individuals, local archives and national collections.

Part of my research is to identify these lost bands, to collect together material to provide a central database of information – containing a mixture of primary information as well as references to material held elsewhere (e.g. in local archives).

Any information you can provide would be gratefully received. Whether actual information or pictures of any bands, or pointers to resources, or sources for further investigation. Even knowing that a particular band existed is significant!

Currently much of the information I have collected is available online, as a freely available resource, at http://www.ibew.co.uk - in various locations, for example, in the Reference section under "Extinct Bands" or "Vintage Pictures".

Gavin adds;
I do have a little information about Stirling bands, though very scant at present - and I'm sure there will have been others over the years and in neighbouring villages/towns, though you are correct in the difficulty in distinguishing between the brass and flute/pipe bands some times.

Stirling Burgh Band - Active in the 1890s and in 1928, conducted by W. Drummond.
Stirling Public Band - Active in the 1980s

And he provides a link to the super photo (above); for starters, does anyone recognise any of the players or the location?

SLHS adds that the Stirling Journal Index 1820-1869 mentions:

Auchterarder Brass Band, 1855; 1859
Deanston Brass Band, 1856, 1857, 1858, 1859, 1860.
Dunblane Brass Band, 1863, 1864, 1865, 1866.
Stirling Brass Band, 1866
Stirling (Bruce and Thistle) Brass Band, 1865, 1869.
Tilllicoultry Brass Band, 1869
Whins of Milton Brass Band, 1858, 1859, 1863.

There are other references to 'instrumental bands', tuba bands and others; And, of course, the Index goes on to 1970

This would be a wonderful project for someone to pick up locally and feed into the wider, national picture; it's what local history is all about. Why not give it a whirl?

Anyone interested do please get in touch; we will be happy to advise.

Fenton Family History Enquiry, Barnton Street, Stirling

22/7/2013

54 Barnton Street on 21 July 2013.

We have had an enquiry from Danial Stredder who writes;

These questions are associated strongly with our family ties to Stirling. My Mother Gayle Stredder whose mother was Williamina McKenzie Carmichael whose parents were Isabelle Fenton + Douglas Carmichael. We would like the information on Isabelle's Father John Fenton.

Questions:

1) I believe John Fenton either owned or rented 54 Barnton Street, Stirling (A Jewelers) somewhere perhaps in the mid to late 1800's??. If we could please have any information surrounding him, his family or the business that would be terrific?

2) If we could get some history of the building itself such as; was it always a commercial business building or did it start as something else? We believe the family might have lived in the same building for a time? I believe it still has residence living in upstairs quarters.

3) Also could we date how old the building is/when it was built?

4) With regards to any pictures, newspapers, photo's etc we would be grateful if we could receive any of them as originals or hard copy? .

I have posted a modern photo of the site above. Danial had noted that it might earlier have been an optomertrists; it was, for many years, the site of Dolland and Aitchison, opticians and is now Boots Opticians.

The development of the site can be followed on the Ordnance Survey maps (http://www.nls.uk/collections/maps and go to View Maps and then to Series Maps); the building appears between the early 1890s and 1913.

The Street Directories will also be useful; see the enquiry about Robina Horne on this website in June 2013 for access to those via National Library of Scotland website.

A further source would be the Valuation Rollls; these record liability to a property tax, from 1855 onward; they give occupants, owners and other details. Selected years are available online via the Scotland's People website;

Otherwise, I think this is a standard genealogical matter and the census returns etc will be the best route.

Danial was also interested in the arrangement of shops at ground floor level and houses above; this was very common in Scots towns, at least back to the sixteenth century, with the ground floors used for a variety of commercial purposes or even as stables etc and people living on the upper floors; access to the residential floors was usually direct from the street and did not involve going through the shop. Nor did the occupants of the shops necessarily live in that building.

Anyone who knows more about the premises or has old photos etc can get in touch via the enquiries link [email protected]

King's Park; Stirling's Overlooked Jewel

Brass Bands in Stirling and Locality

Fenton Family History Enquiry, Barnton Street, Stirling

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