New Cumnock in the Sixties

In the foreground are McKechnie's garage forecourt and Gold's Building which was originally two shops, one of which was owned by Templeton's with apartments above, which I believe were converted to four apartments. Alec McKechnie lived in the bottom flats at one time. To the right, it could be this was the preparation for the sports field and car park which opened around 1971.

John takes us way back to the 30s, 40s and 50s when he recalls Mrs. Marion McKechnie living in the first white house on the left. Mrs. McKechnie owned the garage, Mac’s bar and of course the paper shop. Then there were two houses which were demolished before the picture was taken. These were owned by the Co-Op and the first one was home to Feegie McDonald. The father, Feegie senior, was a store milkman and a WW1 veteran and played for the Glens at Connelpark. There was also a daughter Jenny, and sons Ronald and William, the latter became known as wee Feegie. The brothers raced pigeons and had their dookit behind the house.

Picture eight shows the back of the Co-Op building looking directly at Mckechnie’s garage and the Gold Building covered earlier. Willie Trotter tells of how Trotter’s began life in a small outhouse behind Templeton’s, possibly one of these, before moving to the Gold and Anderson owned shop in 1915. The upheaval next to the garage could be because of preparation for the then new running track but I personally believe this is not the case, albeit I cannot offer another explanation. These pictures appear to be from the late 1960s and I recall the running track opening in 1971.

John Walker takes us back in time again and informs me that behind Gold's Buildings Mick Shankland had his plumbers’ shop, where he and his eldest son Bob worked for him.

Picture nine shows Mac's Bar run by Andrew (Leal) McKechnie who lived with his family on the premises. Next came two single sisters, Agnes and Mary McKnight and a young Tony McKnight. Then there was "Toe" Melvin and his family, and at the end, the gas show room before the road down to the gasworks. Several of the outbuildings are shown but the main tank would have been just out of the top of the photo had it still existed. The furnaces have been demolished and not present in this picture.

The outhouses and stores of the next three shops can be seen in the top right although the shops are just out of the picture. They were Benedetti's fish and chips and ice cream shop, Hyslop the ironmonger and Bain, later Paton, the butcher.At the bottom right on the corner of the Stamp Brae, can be seen the gable end and sign board of what had been Robert Hood's and later Stewart and Orr's boot repairers.

The next picture shows Halls factory or Afton Dyers as it later became and in the bottom right, the stables of Inverafton better known as the chemist these days. Inverafton was once the chemist and doctors abode when it was built with St. Blain’s becoming the doctor’s surgery many years ago. The latter is now in private ownership and the village has a medical centre.

The houses at Glebe Street can be seen across the Afton. James White and his wife Julia Gibb once lived upstairs on the first block on the right. Through the wall lived Willie McKnight

Halls of course has has been levelled in 2009

On the left in picture 11 is Jock ‘Cairter’ Campbell’s building situated at the bottom left of Mason Avenue. He also had a house near by which has been demolished. At the turn of the century but nearer Greenhead playing fields was where Greenhead rows were. During the 30s and 40s these lay derelict and close by was a well known area with the young men, which was used to play the game of tossing.

In this picture we can see Richmond the bakers on the main road and Charlie Lucas’s bookies followed by Bridgend Bar. There have been numerous variations of shops beyond that selling items such as fishing tackle, videos and today at the far end is a bakers and a butchers.
Behind the shops we can see wooden garages, which were common around the village in the 60s and 70s. Hamilton Drive, Glenafton Drive, Lanehead and Afton Bridgend spring to mind for having a line of wooden garages.

On the middle of picture twelve at the entrance to Mason Avenue was Peter Luni’s excellent fish and chip shop, known to the weans as the Tallies. This was a favourite haunt of mine after a day at the swimming pool or an evening at the youth club or cubs. I can still smell the chips!

Another trend that has long gone is the vans. Back in the 60s and 70s we had a van for every occasion. Davie Frames fish van, Jimmy the fruiter, the fish and chip van, Glendinnings bakers, Neilly's and Googlimoochi's ice cream van to name a few. Next to the Tallies, is the Temple Brae that heads up to Dalhanna Drive and brings back memories of another thing the village had plenty of......Short-cuts. There aren’t many streets in the village that didn’t have one or two lanes leading into other streets. In winter, a bucket of water down them and you had amazing slides to play on.