Helensburgh Heritage
Helensburgh Heritage Trust
LUSS: AN OLD SCOTTISH SLATE QUARRY
The Scottish slate industry was much overshadowed by its Welsh counterpart, though the primary centres of the industry about Ballachulish and the Slate Islands, of which the most important was Easdale, enjoyed a certain amount of prominence.
HELENSBURGH and District watched with interest and pride in 1960 as Britain’s first mountain ski chair lift was built and came into operation in Glencoe.
Behind the project was burgh man Philip Naismith Rankin, of The Byeway, 14 West Abercromby Street, and it was extensively reported in the Helensburgh and Gareloch Times.
THREE brothers were the first people to engage in the large-scale manufacturing of aerated waters in Helensburgh.
The brothers Comrie from Glasgow had a strong family connection with the burgh as their father, Alexander, had been a Helensburgh-based builder from at least as far back as the 1860’s.
A HELENSBURGH man who died in 1983 at the age of 96 is considered to have made the great single Scottish contribution to the establishment of the gas industry.
David Fulton is best remembered locally as a much admired and long serving president of Helensburgh Golf Club — holding the office from 1963 until his death on May 7 1983, and still making speeches at the club in his nineties.
A HELENSBURGH Provost was one of the pioneers of commercial photography for half of the 19th century.
And to this day his stylish pictures of people of the past sell well to collectors on Ebay.
THE TOWN of Helensburgh made a major contribution to the history of Scottish lemonade, thanks to businessmen such as James A.Reid.
This was recalled by a visitor to the town in September 2015. Ian Patrick and his wife Anne, who live in Bristol, travelled north to see where his great uncle, James Arthur Reid, lived and had his own pioneering lemonade factory.
WHEN townsfolk and visitors walk out the main entrance from Helensburgh Central Station, opposite them is a piece of local history.
Painted on the wall above the shops is ‘Macneur & Bryden Ltd.’, the name of a multi-faceted business which was probably the most used and best known shop in Helensburgh for almost a century.