Audio Archive
The Stranraer and District Local History Trust is creating an archive of audio tapes and discs from recorded conversations with local people who have a story to tell or historical detail to relate. These are fascinating reminiscences of times gone by.
The Stranraer and District Local History Trust audio archive is currently located at Stranraer Library where it can be accessed by members of the public. This is a growing archive and will continue to be added to over time. Our recordings are listed below.
Some time ago we shared this archive with Edinburgh University Regional Ethnology of Scotland Project and they have created a website where almost all of our recordings can be listened to online, along with further recordings contributed by their volunteers. This is a fantastic resource and we are delighted that the recordings shared with them can now be accessed from anywhere in the world.
Tape 1 – Childhood in rural Rhins; schools; conditions for farm employees, etc.
Mrs Helen Davies – Recorded January, 1999.
Tape 2 – Childhood memories of Drummore, local people and shops,etc.
Mrs Isabelle C.S. Shaw – Recorded March and April, 1999.
Tape 3 – History of the Hannay family of millers: World War 1 in Wigtownshire; Banking in the 1930s.
Andrew Hannay – Recorded April, 1999.
Tape 4 – Changes in agriculture made with the advent of mechanism on the farm.
Bill McCaig – Recorded May, 1999.
Tape 5 – Schoolgirl at Lochans; the brownies; boarding school; adulthood.
Mrs Barbara Hannay – Recorded November, 2000.
Tape 6 – Retired teacher. Memories of childhood and early schooling in wartime.
Mrs Cath Monteith – Recorded August, 2000.
Tape 7 – Retired blacksmith (Part of a talk given at a meeting of the Burns Club).
Jacky Duffy – Recorded March, 2001.
Tape 8 – Early life on Lochnaw Estate where father was Head Gardener.
Bobby Gemmell – Recorded June, 2003.
Tape 9 -Bricklaying experiences during and after World War 2.
Bobby Gemmell – Recorded June, 2003.
Tape 10 – Boyhood memories of tramps and tinkers who came round the farm.
Andrew Love – Recorded April, 2004.
Tape 11 – Memories of her husband’s drapery business at The Glasgow House and other businesses in Stranraer.
Mrs Anne Brownhill – Recorded June, 2004.
Tape 12 – Childhood on the farm where father was the dairyman, and her husband’s work with horses preparing for shows, etc.
Mrs Margaret McColm – Recorded August, 2004.
Tape 13 – Landlubber in the Navy – Wartime memories.
James Blair – Recorded June, 2004.
Tape 14 – Around Stranraer.
Mrs Agnes Lamb, aged 83 – Recorded January, 2005.
Tape 15 – Resident of Portpatrick – memories – putting green, etc.
Mrs Margaret Mitchell – Recorded January, 2005.
Tape 16 (side 1)- Post war concert parties, and memories of early working days.
Miss Margaret Clark – Recorded February, 2005.
Tape 16 (side 2) – Working at Stranraer Telephone Exchange.
Miss Margaret Clark, Misses Heather and Margaret Short – Recorded May, 2005.
Tape 17 – Born, bred in Portpatrick.
Mr George McClymont – Recorded July, 2005.
Tape 18 – Life as a Dairy Farmer at Garthland Mains.
Mr John McColm – Recorded January, 2006.
Tape 19 – Thorneycroft Residents. Two ladies remember their childhood.
Mrs Muir and Mrs McKie – Recorded January, 2006.
Tape 20 (side 1) – Ghostly happenings in Stranraer.
Mr Hugh Reid.
Tape 20 (side 2) – Days as a poacher in the Rhinns.
Mr Hugh Reid.
Tape 21 – Stranraer in days gone by.
Mr John Barr – Recorded September, 2006.
Tape 22 – Wartime in Stranraer.
Miss Margaret and Miss Jean Templeton – Recorded June, 2007.
Tape 23 – Working on the Railways.
Mr Willie Darroch – Recorded June, 2007.
Tape 24 – Memories of the Bishopburn vans.
Mrs Nancy McLucas – Recorded June, 2007.
Tape 25 – Girlhood in wartime Stranraer.
Re-recording by Mrs Catherine Monteith of the interview she gave in 2000 – Recorded July, 2007.
Tape 26 – History of a family firm of solicitors in Stranraer.
Mr Alan Smith – Recorded August, 2007.
Tape 27 – An old established family butchers’ business in Stranraer.
Mr Ian Jack – Recorded August, 2007.
Tape 28 – A very varied life as told by a 94 year old lady.
Mrs J. B. Lammie – Recorded February, 2008.
Tape 29 – A Stranraer businessman tells of his many experiences.
Mr Archie Bell – Recorded March, 2008.
Tape 30 – The history of Findlay’s drapery business in Stranraer.
Mrs Betty Findlay – Recorded April, 2008.
Tape 31 – Working in the Gas Board local office.
Mrs Agnes McClymont – Recorded July, 2008.
Tape 32 – Life in the Land Army during World War 2.
Miss Betty Murray – Recorded February, 2009.
Tape 33 – Farming potatoes and the Irish “tattie howkers”.
Bob Grierson and John McColm – Recorded May, 2009.
Tape 34 – Selected poems by John G Archibald, Glaik Farm.
Read by David Jackson – Recorded circa 1973.
Tape 35 – One of the most successful sheep breeders in UK.
Mr Jim Wallace – Recorded February, 2013.
Tape 36 – Retired grocer, aged 91, reminiscences about pre-war Stranraer.
Mr John Carruth – Recorded March, 2013.
Tape 37 – Childhood on the farm.
Miss Vivian Delf – Recorded June, 2013.
Tape 38 – The family business, scouting and boyhood in Stranraer.
Mr Hugh Aitken, retired jeweller aged 84 – Recorded February, 2014.
Tape 39 – Mother and daughter Olive and Debbie Murray tell of the 100 year old family business, Moodies Printers and Stationers
Recorded October, 20
Tape 40 – Christine Wilson, Hon. Secretary of Stranraer and District Local History Trust talks about how the Trust came into being and details the various aspects of the Trust’s work
Recorded January, 2015.
Tape 41 – Geoffrey Wardley, National Service after the war with the flying boats at Wig Bay and later at Cairnryan Military Port.
Tape 42 – Mary Downie talks about working in the post office in wartime, later as a school secretary and her early childhood on the farm.
Tape 43 – Robert Clark has made a most interesting account of his involvement in the salvage of the wreck of the Craigantlet, off Killantringan bay in 1982.
Tape 44 – >Willie Drennan. Reminiscences of a 99 year old man of Garlieston during the time of Mulberry Harbour trials prior to D-Day and it’s impact on the village.
Tape 45 – Ena Scott. Working in her father’s garage in Portpatrick prepared her for service as an ambulance and staff car driver during the war where she met Field Marshall Montgomery.
