Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 4

KILMARNOCK
KILMARNOCK
with a fluted pillar surmounted by an urn, and having a
pediment with an inscription to commemorate a Lord
Soulis who is said to have been killed here by one of the
Boyds in 1444. The present monument was erected in
1825, and replaced a pillar surmounted by a small cross
and known as Soulis' Cross. This pillar was mentioned
by Pont, and was probably much older than 1444, at
which time no Soulis seems to have been connected with
the district. It had to be removed in consequence of
its decayed condition. St Marnock's Church, in St Mar-
nock Street, is a Gothic building of 183ti. It was built
as a chapel of ease at a cost of £5000 including the
tower, and has 1730 sittings. It was constituted a quoad
sacra church in 1862. The organ, which cost £350, was
the gift of John Gilmour, Esq. of Elmbank. St Andrew's
Church, in Richardland Road, was built as a chapel of
ease in 1841 at a cost of £1700, and became a quoad
sacra church in 1868. It contains 1093 sittings. The
burying-ground about it was opened in 1856 ; and that
adjoining, opened in 1S37, was till 1S75 the only
common burying-ground, the Low Churchyard having
been practically closed after 1850. In 1876 a new ceme-
tery of 7| acres was opened to the E of the town. It
has an entrance gateway in the Scottish Baronial style.
The Free High Church, in Portland Street, was built in
1844 at a cost of £3000, and has since been altered and
improved at different times at a cost of over £1000, the
last improvements being finished in 1881. It is a plain
building with a tower, and has 122S sittings. The
Free St Andrew's Church, in Fowld's Street, was also
built in 1844 at a cost of £1200, and contains 930 sit-
tings. The Free Henderson Church, in Wellington
Street, was originally erected in 1818 by a congregation
of Original Burghers, but the congregation has since
passed over to the Free Church. The first cost was
£1000, but as much has since been expended on altera-
tions and improvements. The number of sittings is 650.
The Grange Free church, in Woodstock Street, is a hand-
some Early English cruciform structure of 1877-79, with
a spire 140 feet high. There are 860 sittings, and a
hall and class-room to the E has accommodation for 500
persons. The total cost was £S000. Martyrs' Free
church, in Mill Lane, originally a Reformed Presby-
terian church, was built in 1825, but has since been al-
tered and improved. It contains 590 sittings. The
King Street U.P. church, built inlS32, is a mixed style
of architecture, with a spire 120 feet high. It was the
second dissenting church in Scotland with a steeple, and
the first with a bell. It cost £3840, and contains 1493
sittings. Princes Street U. P. church is a neat building,
erected in 1842, and containing 750 sittings. Portland
Road U. P. church, a handsome Byzantine building, was
erected in 1859 at a cost of £1900. It contains 850 sit-
tings. It superseded a church in Wellington Street built
in 1772, and removed in 1S61, which was the first dissent-
ing church in the town. The Holm U. P. Church was
built in 1880-81 at a cost of £1600, and contains nearly
500 sittings. The Original Secession church, in Fowld's
Street, is a very plain building erected in 1857 at a cost
of £500. It contains about 200 sittings. Clerk's Lane
Evangelical Union church was originally erected in
1775 as an Antiburgher meeting-house, and was in 1807
rebuilt on a larger scale. The building, which is very
plain, contains 875 sittings. It changed its ecclesias-
tical connection in 1841, when its minister — now the
Rev. Dr Morison of Glasgow, and the founder of the
Evangelical Union Church — was deposed on a charge of
heresy. The Winton Place Evangelical Union church is a
good building in the Early English style, erected in 1860
at a cost of £2700, and containing nearly 900 sittings.
The Baptist Church, off Fowld's Street, is a small build-
ing erected in 1869-70 with accommodation for about 50
persons. There was, prior to 1S67, an Independent
church in Mill Lane, but since that year the building has
ceased to be a church, and is now used for the meetings
of the Kilmarnock Abstainers' Union, to which body it
now belongs. The Episcopal church (Trinity), at the
corner of Dundonald Road and Portland Road, is a good
building in the Early English style, with accommoda-
tion for 720 persons. It was erected in 1857 at a cost
of £1400 exclusive of the organ, which was presented by
W. H. Houldsworth, Esq., at a cost of £1000, and is
the finest in town. There is a stone pulpit, and the
chancel is finely decorated and lighted by a stained-
glass window in memory of the late Patrick Boyle, Esq.
of Shewalton. The Roman Catholic church (St Joseph's),
to the N of Portland Street, is a Gothic building erected
in 1847 at a cost of £3000, and contains 600 sittings.
From it an excellent view is obtained of the town and
the surrounding country.
Schools, etc. — The old Kilmarnock Academy, at the
site of the Agricultural Hall, was erected in 1807, and
superseded an older parish school erected in 1752 which
stood at the corner of Green Street. It had a vigorous
and prosperous career till 1876, when it was closed
in consequence of the opening of the New Academy,
which was built by the School Board in 1875-76, and is
at once a secondary and an elementary school. The site
and playground cover about an acre. The building,
which cost £4500, is Elizabethan in style, and has a
frontage of 150 feet with a two-story centre and one-
story wings. There are classical, English, and mathe-
matical departments, and the staff consists of a rector,
5 masters, and 3 lady teachers. In 1881 the following
w-ere the schools under the charge of the Burgh School
Board, with accommodation, average attendance, and
grant : — Academy (600, 611, £661, lis.), Grammar
(380, 393, £344, 2s. 6d.), Glencairn (400, 343, £218, 8s.),
High Street (400, 277, £203, 6s.), West Netherton (258,
220, £108, 9s. lid.), Kay's endowed in Bentinck Street
(248, 255, £174, 17s.), Kay's endowed in Wellington
Street (258, 256, £229, 2s.), Industrial (201, 206, £152,
9s.), and Roman Catholic (378, 295, £227, 16s.). The
last was greatly enlarged in 1882. The two schools in
Bentinck Street and Wellington Street were erected in
1869 under the will of the late Mr Kay, the donor of the
Kay Park, by which his trustees were directed ' to set
aside the sum of six thousand pounds sterling' for the pur-
pose of erecting and endowing ' schools in Kilmarnock, in
which may be given a plain, practical, and useful educa-
tion, such as is usually given in the best parochial schools
in Scotland, but not to include what is usually called a
classical education. ' It is also stipulated in the will that
moderate fees of from one shilling to one shilling and six-
pence per quarter are to be charged. The school of
Science and Art, in Woodstock Street, is a Tudor build-
ing, erected in 1877 at a cost of £1550. It contains 2
large lecture-rooms, and the classes in which instruction is
given to about 170 students every year are in connection
with the Science and Art Department at South Kensing-
ton. The principal benefactors of Kilmarnock, besides Mr
Kay, have been Robert Crawford, who, in 1844, be-
queathed all his property for the purpose of providing
funds for the yearly purchase of books for the Kilmar-
nock Library ; and the Misses Buchanan (the last of
whom died in 1875), who bequeathed the lands and
estate of Bellfield to trustees who were to apply the annual
proceeds to small annual payments to the Ragged School,
to the Kilmarnock Infirmary, and to the deserving poor
of Riccarton ; £130 yearly for a salary for a missionary
in Riccarton parish, and the rest for the purpose of fit-
ting up part of the mansion as a public library, and
should the revenue be sufficient to fit up the rest of the
mansion as an asylum for aged and infirm people who
have resided in Kilmarnock or Riccarton for 10 years,
are over 60 years of age, and are not on the poor-roll.
Kilmarnock has also four bowling clubs, each with
a separate green, several curling clubs, several football
clubs, a Mission to the Deaf and Dumb, Male and
Female Benevolent Societies, an Agricultural Society, a
Horticultural Society, a Philharmonic Society, four
Masonic Lodges (Kilmarnock Kilwinning, St John's,
No. 22 ; St Andrew's, No. 126 ; St Marnock's ; and
St Clement's, Riccarton, No. 202), lodges of Odd-
fellows, Free Foresters, and Free Gardeners. During
the period of the Peninsular War two regiments of
volunteers were formed, and when the volunteer move-
ment of 1859 began Kilmarnock was the first place in
375