Postcards from Kilcreggan

Comment on postcards

If anyone has wondered about the heap of rubble and rocks lying in the foreground of this postcard of Kilcreggan village (top right) I can explain.

You will note that there are only four buildings shown, two to the left of the rubble mound and two to the right. The rubble would be the start of the construction of the Fleming's bakehouse being built behind the left-hand building (latterly demolished in the 1970s) and also the construction of what we always called The Cottage, a small two storey house next to the bakehouse to accomodate the various jobbing bakers employed in the bakehouse during the busy summer season.

After these two buildings were put up my Grandfather then built Firth View in the vacant space and becoming the fifth of the houses making up Kilcreggan as it is now. Having previously built Woodly Bank and the Hotel.

My Grandmother ran the building latterly known as Argyll House as the Kilcreggan Temperance Hotel ( second from the left in the postcard), I was born in the ground-floor flat of Firth View ( unbuilt in the p/c) and my parents lived in that same flat right up to their deaths in the 1980s, although they also lived in every one of the other buildings!

Incidentally the lane which runs uphill from the middle of the village to Argyll (the Middle) Road was always known as the Temperance Brae beacuse it lay beside the Temperance Hotel which despite its name was no stranger to the demon alcohol. Even the Duke of Argyll of the day would stop there for a wee dram with my Grandfather on the way back to Rosneath Castle from church on a Sunday. He attended church in Kilcreggan because he had a disagreement with the minister at the Rosneath church.

I think that the church referred to is the one shown here (bottom right) standing at the junction of the old Fort Road and the main road called the Ferry Brae with the Ferry Cottage shown on the left part way up the hill. It was a Wee Free Church and had nor organ to sing to. Instead My Grandfather was the Precentor and struck a tuning fork to give the congegration the right key to start the hymn singing.

The Duke turned a blind eye to the drinks as he was the equivalent of the Licensing Board of the day and had only licensed the Ferry Inn at Rosneath Point for the sale of alcohol in all of the parishes under his control from Mambeg to Coulport.