Lenzie
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Neolithic Carved Stone Ball
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3200 – 2500 BC
This Neolithic carved stone ball is the oldest artefact or man-made object in the Auld Kirk Museum’s collection. It has six equally proportioned and positioned knobs. It was found in a garden in Lenzie in the 1970s. Carved stone balls may be up to 5,000 years old. This example is made from rock that is common in the South West Highlands of Argyll and joins a small number of these stones found outside the north-east of Scotland. It became part of the Auld Kirk Museum’s collection in 2011 as a result of Scotland’s Treasure Trove system.
Carved stone balls come in various shapes and sizes and are of interest to mathematicians because of their geometrical sophistication. Maybe they were used as a kind of currency or a counting and numbering system? They suggest that Neolithic society was not as simple or primitive as previously assumed. The meaning and purpose of this object remains a mystery, and we will probably never know what it was used for. The most we can say is that it is a prized object now and it was probably a prized object 5000 years ago.
(Purchased with assistance from the National Fund for Acquisitions)
Maker/Manufacturer: Antiquity
Location of Origin: Found in Lenzie
Location Now: On display in Auld Kirk Museum, Kirkintilloch
Date: 3200 – 2500 BC
Size/Dimensions: 70mm diameter approx
Materials: Stone - Green/grey appearance. Area of rock origin – probably South West Highlands – Callander area/Argyll. Might be part of a rock unit called the ‘green beds’ of the South West Highlands. Green flaked appearance. Minerals: chlorite and epid
Accession Number: KITAK: 2011.4
Locations:
Lenzie villa plan
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1877
This is one of the earliest Lenzie building plans in the archives, for a large villa called 'Norwood', on Beech Road, Lenzie, constructed for Mr William Borland. The 1870s saw a building boom in Lenzie following improvements to the water supply. Many of the residents commuted to Glasgow via the nearby railway. This villa was later occupied by Dugald Drummond, a railway engineer employed by North British Railway, and then by David Perry who was Provost of Kirkintilloch from 1908-1911. Perry presented the town with the bandstand and drinking fountain which can still be seen in Peel Park today.
Maker/Manufacturer: Alex McKenzie, architect, 251 St Vincent Street, Glasgow
Location Now: East Dunbartonshire Archives, William Patrick Library, Kirkintilloch G66 1AD
Date: 1877
Size/Dimensions: 58 x 76.5 cm
Materials: Waxed linen
Archive Reference Number: BK/9/4/1877/3
Links:
Locations:
Stained glass window from Woodilee
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c 1880
Woodilee Estate was purchased by the Barony Parochial Board in 1871.
Woodilee Hospital was originally known as the ‘Barony Parochial Asylum at Woodilee’, and when opened in 1875 it was intended to house ‘pauper lunatics’. At its height it was the largest parochial asylum in Scotland with 400 inmates.
The building was enlarged in 1898 after the City and Barony parishes were amalgamated to form the Glasgow District Lunacy Board.
A villa was added in 1900.
It was taken over by the Corporation of Glasgow in 1930 and contained 1250 beds.
Upgrades were made during the 1930s to improve conditions and combat overcrowding, with sanitary annexes, bathrooms and ward kitchens upgraded.
A major extension to the Nurses’ Home was completed in 1939. Additionally a new Reception House and Sanatorium was opened in 1944.
Further developments took place after 1966, including a new reception suit and the phasing out of the farm buildings.
The hospital closed in 2000.
This stained glass was removed from the church.
Stoneware Bottle for ‘Invalid Stout’
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c 1900
Stoneware bottle for ‘Invalid Stout’ supplied by Benjamin Mackay, wine and spirit merchant, Queen’s Building, Lenzie.
Stout is characterised by its dark colour and roasty flavour. Invalid stout, also known as ‘milk stout’, was originally marketed as an especially nutritious health supplement, a sort of liquid food ideal for nursing mothers, invalids and the infirm. It was sometimes given in hospitals and often recommended on a daily basis to post-operative patients as ‘a tonic’: good for strength, nerves, digestion, exhaustion and sleeplessness. If you had ‘signed the pledge’ and were teetotal but feeling in need of ‘a tonic’ you could still drink beer for purely medicinal purposes with a clear conscience.
The reverse of the bottle reads: ‘If not returned will be charged’.
Pupils outside Lenzie Academy
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c 1900
View of the single storey building of the former private school, on the left, and a two storey wing added by the Lenzie Combination School Board in 1887, on the right. The photograph must have been taken before 1909 when the single storey building was demolished and replaced by a second two storey wing to match that added in 1887.
Postcard – ‘The Lady’s Mile’
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1905 Postmark
This postcard relates to an access controversy of 1904. The Lady’s Mile footpath ran between Boghead and Lenzie Station. Most of its route was on railway property along the south side of the line. The path was not an official right of way and to retain ownership the railway company locked the gates at either end from time to time, to the annoyance of local residents who vented their frustration by vandalising the chain that held the gate shut. However, a few months later, path users were forced to acknowledge the railway’s right and recognise that the closure had been intended to last about 24 hours.
This postcard is postmarked 12th December 1905 and is addressed to South India with Christmas and New Year good wishes.
Spider Bridge Postcard
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c 1908
The ‘Spider Bridge’ was built primarily as an access route for Waterside residents to reach Lenzie Station. This was necessary when the ancient thoroughfare through Woodilee grounds was closed after the building of the Asylum.
This spindly iron bridge was built across the Bothlin Valley in 1888 and was not received with enthusiasm at the time, however, it became a local landmark that was much lamented when demolished in 1987. It was once described by the Kirkintilloch Herald as a "giddy, shaky, spider-looking inclined plane over the valley….."
Lenzie Shops Postcards
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c 1910
In the mid-1860s, George Bennett, a builder, erected a two-storey terrace of shops known as the Post Office Buildings on the west side of Kirkintilloch Road close to the station.
With only a small number of local residents, the shops must have relied for much of their trade on Kirkintilloch folk going to and from the station, but their fortunes improved in the 1870s when the rapid development of Lenzie provided more customers.
Between 1874 and 1879 the number of houses in Lenzie more than doubled. At the same time, Benjamin MacKay, a grocer, took over one of the shops. He was a man of entrepreneurial flair who stocked ‘The Store’ with more than just groceries (he was the only licensed grocer in the burgh of Kirkintilloch), doing so well that he was able to build a new three-storey terrace of shops alongside the old one.
It was known as Queen’s Buildings because it was built in Queen Victoria’s jubilee year of 1887, and is seen here in the foreground with the older Post Office buildings beyond.
Beyond the run of shops is Heath Avenue.
By the time Benjamin MacKay retired in 1917 Lenzie had almost 400 dwellings, a public hall and several sporting facilities (bowling, cricket, tennis, golf) and had become a mature and thriving community.
Pte William Coutts photo album
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1918-1919
Private William Coutts enlisted in March 1917, and was drafted to Fort Matilda where he trained, before being sent to Salonica via France and Italy with the Royal Scots Fusiliers, arriving in February 1918. He received a Lance Stripe in April 1918. His battalion, the 77th Infantry Brigade was involved in a battle with Bulgarian troops in September 1918 which resulted in the subsequent retreat and surrender of the Bulgarians. He was promoted to Corporal in November 1918. Peace was declared world-wide in November of that year, but William was selected to be part of an 'Army of Occupation" since he had enlisted after January 1917. He was sent to Ruscuk, then Batoum, where his battalion was disbanded and he joined the 1st Battalion of Royal Scots to make up for men who had left for home. A peace deal was finally signed in June 1919, but William was sent to Constantinople in September 1919 where he joined the Argylls. He was offered promotion to Regimental Sgt. Major in July 1919, but turned it down. William was awarded the Distinguished Conduct medal in December 1919. William was a keen photographer, and this album features his fellow soldiers, the cities they were based in, and the local people. He also photographed impressive panoramic views of the landscape. After the War William married Jenny (Janet) Coutts and brought up a family in Lenzie. He became a pacifist and wrote his wartime memoirs
Jenny Coutts scrapbook
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1958
In 1958 Jenny (Janet) Coutts, Heath Avenue, Lenzie was elected as Kirkintilloch Town Council's first female Councillor. Mrs Coutts went on to become the town's first female Provost in 1964.
Mrs Coutts kept news cuttings relating to local politics and pasted them into scrapbooks like this one. The volumes are a fascinating record of her civic career.
Spider Bridge photographs
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1888 - 1987
Selection of photographs by Edward Z. Smith of the use and demolition of spider bridge in 1980's. “ When the Parochial Board tried to stop people using a path through the estate from Waterside to Lenzie Station they started a battle with local residents that was to last some years and result in the creation of a local landmark. Farmer James Cochrane first applied for an interim interdict in 1876 claiming rights along the path to cut peats. This dispute remained unresolved until 1885 when the board brought matters to a head by erecting and locking gates at each end of the path, stopping its use. Incensed by the Boards high handed behaviour a crowd of three thousand residents marched the gates, burst the lock and declared the path open. Their action clearly persuaded the Board to compromise and by 1888 a new path had been laid and a foot bridge erected across the valley of the Bothlin Burn. This spindly structure became known as the spider bridge , It was Lenzies most quirky land mark but by 1985, despite continued maintenance by patient squad, it had become a liability. A report to Greater Health Board recommended demolition. Local opposition, although vocal, was not perhaps as direct as it had been a hundred years earlier and the spider bridge was taken down in 1887.†Publication held in EDLC Archives.
Location of Origin: Lenzie/Kirkintilloch
Date: 1888 - 1987
Materials: Photographs
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