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The Changing Face of Gatehouse

After 2 years of Covid limitations, the Galloway Preservation Society held their AGM at The Mill on the Fleet on Saturday 23rd April 2022. To mark this return to "normal" operations, Margaret agreed to give a talk which briefly charts the evolution of Gatehouse from its early beginnings and on into the 2020s.
Unfortunately Covid has still not gone away so a decision was taken to convene a "hybrid" meeting with only a few attendees in person but with more viewing from afar via Zoom.
For the benefit of those who could not see the Zoom presentation very well but also for all those who couldn't get to Gatehouse on that day, we have created a couple of .pdf files which contain all the slides plus some of Margaret's words. Click on one of the opening slides :...


Slides only


Slides + Speaker's Notes

 

Gatehouse & District Timeline

Here is a timeline which shows "Significant dates in the Development of Gatehouse and District".

 


Booklets about Gatehouse

For a small place there have been a lot of publications and part-publications telling the story of Gatehouse. Many of the dates and other facts have been "handed down" without any formal record, so do be aware that some records may differ slightly from one source to another.
This document lists various documents that tell the story of Gatehouse.  "Gatehouse Bibliography". 

In 2009, as part of a regionwide "Homecoming" project, the pupils of Gatehouse Primary School wrote and illustrated a booklet about the history of their home town.    Click on the cover to see the result.   Click the other button to see the reward for their efforts.
      


Various Gatehouse Stories

We reproduce below transcripts of some newspaper articles, guide books and pamphlets about Gatehouse, hoping that we are not in breach of any copyright laws.

1921

"Galloway One Hundred Years Ago :
Burgh of Gatehouse
".

Galloway News article by James Affleck (16th Sept.)

1945

Gatehouse Welcome Home Sale

1947

W & A Campbell Coach Tours

1966

Industrial Archaeology of Gatehouse-of-Fleet
b
y John Butt

1985

The Gatehouse Experiment.
by Philip Mann

1990s

The Story of Gatehouse of Fleet
Mill on the Fleet publication

1992

Wheels of Wood, Wheels of Iron
by Charlie Girdwood. About Gatehouse Mills.

1994

As We Were, The Story
by Lyn Hampshire. Rutherford Hall.

1995

Gatehouse Memories
Edited by George McCulloch. Millenium publication.

2001

John Faed, The Gatehouse Years
by David Steel


Personal Memories

Gatehouse was estabished as a Burgh of Barony in 1795. We have a transcript of the charter under "Old Documents".

As part of the Bicentenary celebrations in 1995, the Community Council arranged for George McCulloch to edit a booklet which expressed peoples' feelings and memories about Gatehouse. This booklet was called "Gatehouse Memories" and this is listed above. We have now transcribed a copy of this document, as it reflects many of the reasons why we started this website, in order to record such feelings together with photographs. We have approval from the Community Council to be able to include a copy here.
The booklet contains a sizeable amount of poetry, more of which we intent to include under "Poetry & Lyrics".
Click here to see the pdf file of "Gatehouse Memories"

We have also collected anecdotes from some of the more senior members of the Gatehouse community, both past and present. We intend to collate these and present them here.

The Caisley's of Carney Corner    Life in Gatehouse during the early 20th century.


Various Old Guides and Accounts about Gatehouse

1793

"Observations made in a Journey through the Western Counties of Scotland"
by Robert Heron   (pp.211 to 235 re Gatehouse)

1873

Stewartry Tourist Guide
by J H Maxwell, Editor of The Kirkcudbrightshire Advertiser newspaper.

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