Cumnock History Group

About

We are a constituted Voluntary Group formed in 2014 by the late Bobby Grierson with over 100 members worldwide. Annual membership is £10.

Our ever growing website has comprehensive coverage of all things Cumnock including photographs, films, documents, research articles and much more.

Main Website:
http://www.cumnockhistorygroup.org

Meetings & Events:
The group normally meets on the 3rd Monday of each month in Cumnock. We invite guest speakers to present talks of interest to members. Since Covid we have been Zooming most of these meetings to reach our members.

Research and Projects:
Gravestone and Monumental Inscriptions - Members have photographed, documented and transcribed 10 local graveyards. You can have them mailed to you from here https://cumnockhistorygroup.org/product/memorial-inscriptions-and-photos/

WW2 Camp Pennylands - In 2016 we conducted a research project funded by the National Heritage Lottery into the WW2 camp at Pennylands in the grounds of Dumfries House estate.

Cumnock WW1 Soldiers - started as an investigation of the names on the men named on Cumnock War Memorial but soon expanded to cover all local men and women involved in the conflict. In 2018 we got funding to research and celebrate the centenary of the Armistice with various events culminating in a social event, a re-imagining of the Welcome Home Dance in 1919 in the Town Hall and the laying of stones painted with poppies by local school children naming all the local men who took part in the war.

Ploughing up our Past - In 2020 we began another research project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund under the umbrella of the Coalfields Communites Learning Partnership. Ploughing Up Our Past records the farms past and present in Cumnock and its three neighbouring parishes. We published a book available in our online shop.

Many A Lang Scots Mile is our current (2024-5) migration project: https://langscotsmilecumnock.blogspot.com/2024/08/spanish-ironworkers-fr...

Family history - A long running, ongoing project is to build an online family tree connecting people who lived in Cumnock. It is approaching 66,000 recorded individuals

The Management Committee from May 2024:
Chair - Kay McMeekin
Vice Chair – Sadie McNair
Treasurer – Elaine Corbett
Membership Secretary - Ailsa McInnes
With Anne Lawrence, Alex Lennox, Kevan Aitken, Scott Daily, Robert Stevenson

Location

Cumnock, KA18 1EY

Contact

Kay McMeekin
Chair