With the 80th anniversary of VE day fast approaching I though this would be a good time to highlight an excellent article by Angela Gillespie which describes the celebrations that took place in Johnstone 80 years ago. You can access the original article from the research tab but I have taken the liberty of reprinting the text below.

VE Day
The war in... Continues...

The February talk of the 2024/25 session of Johnstone History Society takes place on Tuesday 11th February.
William Kinnaird will present “Jean Cochrane”. She married Sir John ''Bonnie Dundee'' "Bluidy Clavers" Graham 1st Viscount Dundee 7th Laird of Claverhouse Major-General on 9 June 1684, in Scotland.
Venue is the Masonic Hall in Collier Street... Continues...

After what seems like years, the lifts are operational. So you can park in the Collier Street car park and come down in the lift to see us. They just need to get the automatic doors working and that will improve the temperature in the Museum no end. Come on Morrisons, do your stuff.

Last week we had the pleasure of welcoming Mary & Dick Kelly to the museum. Mary’s great-great grandparents Robert and Margaret Cumnock had lived and worked in Johnstone at one of the cotton mills before emigrating to America. The 1841 Census shows Robert as a cotton spinner with an address listed as Hagg in Johnstone.

The family arrived in Boston in... Continues...

Great news for the Museum is that a work team has arrived to repair the two lifts at the bridge end of the store. According to the new Manager they should be in operation by early September.

After about eighteen months it will be great to get them back in operstion.

Johnstone was one of Scotland’s quickest growing towns in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. The town, of course, was planned by George Houston, Esq, the local laird, and the first houses were built in 1782. Johnstone prospered and, eleven years later in 1793, it was described as “a neat and regularly built village.”

The town... Continues...