Kirk's Close Bo'ness

[MonicaL]

Maybe a little here:

Coal 4- Sc. gate = way. The
whole roadway from top to-
bottom was known as the Coal-
gate. See School Brae.

A couple of refs to it (but from the way it is written hard to make sense of it  ). We need a visual, aka map 

http://archive.org/stream/borrowstounnessd00salmrich/borrowstounnessd00salmrich_djvu.txt

[fifer1947]

The Old Kirk seems to have been on Panbrae Road, but the area has been redeveloped several times by the looks of it.  The road on the east is now called Church Road.  Next but one road is called Church Wynd.   

http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/48148/digital_images/bo+ness+corbiehall+panbrae+road+old+kirk/??&sort_typ=collectionName&sort_ord=desc

[fifer1947]

Now this is more like it would have been back then.

http://www.bokonline.org.uk/

Go to the picture gallery right hand side below the calendar and check out the old black and white pic.  There's also a pic from before the spire was added (probably during building) dated circa 1888.

[Seoras]

Great photos fifer and right about the time I am looking at.Does that Church Wynd seperate the graveyards of Upper and Lower Wynd as that is where the gravestone in the photo is (upper I think).


Ah I see from Monica's map it would appear to,now I know where to go looking.

[fifer1947]

Great photos fifer and right about the time I am looking at.Does that Church Wynd seperate the graveyards of Upper and Lower Wynd as that is where the gravestone in the photo is (upper I think).


Ah I see from Monica's map it would appear to,now I know where to go looking.

Good luck Seoras, I hope I have the right place.  You could try contacting the church in advance it seems to be an active. knowledgable and lively congregation.

[Seoras]

Good luck Seoras, I hope I have the right place.  You could try contacting the church in advance it seems to be an active. knowledgable and lively congregation.

It looks like it fifer,I will be able to see for myself end of next month.I'm hoping not to spend all the trip in graveyards but I do have a few to visit.

[Seoras]

Trouble with finding these things is they draw you in more and encourage further parting of wallet and cash.It seems Alexander left his house in Corbiehall south side to his unmarried children John and Janet Gibb Brown to live in so long as either remain unmarried.John didn't wait for the ink to dry,marrying Johanna White in 1890 and Janet is out and boarding with her sister's family.

Alex left Janet a grocery and excisable liquor business,I'm thinking this was a shop,would there be any directories anywhere that may give a clue to it's whereabouts.

Also if anyone reading has connections with James Stenhouse an engineer in Bo'ness and married to his daughter Margaret Brown or Hugh Duncan,a brewer,married to his daughter Henrietta Brown,they are mentioned frequently as co-executors and inheritors,so feel free to get in touch for details.

[osprey28]

Hi Folks

I've been looking over some older threads and read this one.  I was born in Bo'ness in the early 1950's and lived there until I was 22 - when I was a kid I knew the town center very well. 

Here is a slightly different slant on the aspects of Kirk's Close.  If it was as suggested in the document that it was on the south side of South Street near to the old school this would be in the area at the bottom of School Brae.  Certainly in the 50's and 60's the area at the bottom of the Brae had many enclosed yards at the back of the shops - these enclosed yards were reached via closes from the front street.  There were no churches in the area (mission halls would not be deemed as churches by the locals - only Established Churches would have been known as kirks).

The Kirk's Close aspect may not have anything to do with a church.  On the North side of South Street (near to the bottom of School Brae) there was a butcher's shop - the owner was a man called Kirk (shop has been in his family for a few generations to my knowledge)

I don't think that Kirk's Close was an official name (I don't recollect any of the warren of closes to have name plates) - it would have been almost opposite the butchers shop and Mr Kirk may have lived there - or more likely has some connection with the yard behind the close (or his ancestors did) by either owning/renting the yard or using it for vans/carts etc.  Based on that the locals may over time have come to referring to the close as Kirk's close as he used it often.

The old Kirk and Craigmillan Church are more than half a mile away from where the close was (so is Corbiehall) - Carriden Church is about 3 miles from there.  So I don't think that the naming of a close which was not in the proximity of a church would have been too probable

I feel fairly sure that the unofficial term 'Kirk's Close' was a local term which had nothing to do with a church.

Regards

Osprey

[IMBER]

This must surely be the place around 1900:

http://collections.falkirk.gov.uk/search.do;jsessionid=C4C70CCE4EA1160CAB726D20004C5630?id=107471&db=object&view=label&mode=1

Imber