It’s strange how history repeats itself. You may remember I mentioned in a previous article that the only two names on the title deeds of the Barony St. John buildings was mine, Alan Bell, on behalf of my charity and Robert Bell on behalf of The Church of Scotland. And that the entry dates were exactly 170 years apart – December 2014 and December 1884.

I bought the Barony St. John buildings for my charity so we could provide a base for ourselves and offer courses and training from the premises. It took all of 2015 and part of 2016 to get this dream to become a reality but now we run one-to-one training sessions for victims of violence, group sessions for vulnerable people including courses for the blind and visually impaired, LGBTI groups, BME groups, etc. and on top of all this, the hall is rented out to various other community groups to hold their events and activities in - so we have Muay Thai, Tai Chi, Yoga, Circuit training, dance classes and kids Krav Maga classes to name but a few.

But to be this busy someone has to take the bookings, clean the hall and the toilets, take the rental money, bank the money, stock the fridge, stock the tea/coffee, etc - and that person is me (as well as instructing in a lot of the classes). Contrary to what many people think, I don’t get paid for this. I’m a volunteer.

It was therefore a great surprise to hear that a few of the people I have helped had put my name forward for The Ayrshire Community Trust (TACT)’s Volunteer Awards - and I was lucky enough to be nominated for three awards - and to win one.

Usually, award ceremonies are won on votes so if I ran a club with fifty kids coming along and they all voted for me, I’d win. That’s why I don’t give much credence to them – basically they are popularity awards!

But these Volunteer Awards are assessed by a panel of judges who then decide on the winners - a far fairer and therefore far more prestigious award to be nominated for.

The panel consisted of Mark Gallagher (Lead Officer with North Ayrshire Alcohol & Drug Partnership), David MacRitchie (Senior Manager with Criminal Justice Services and Chief Social Work Officer), Geoff Coleman (Public Support Manager with NHS Ayrshire & Arran’s Mental Health Services), Marlene McMillan (Lead Pubic Health Practitioner with NHS Ayrshire & Arran), Rhona Arthur (Senior Manager with North Ayrshire Council’s Economy & Communities), Janet Strang (Chairperson of Cunninghame Housing Association) Superintendent Tim Ross (Police Scotland) and Provost Ian Clarkson (North Ayrshire Council).

As you can see, this is a quality panel of judges so being nominated for the Health & Social Care Volunteer Award and the Long Standing Volunteer Award was a great honour for me, but winning the Tremendous Trustee Volunteer Award was not only a great honour but a great surprise too.

I was reminded of my work over the last twenty years and the thousands of female and child victims my charity has helped over that time. Sometimes quite literally helping them escape the clutches of danger - and so, as I was looking at archived articles from The Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald and came across this article from the June, 2, 1899, I did wonder if history was once again repeating itself in some way;

RUNAWAY HORSE IN ARDROSSAN

There was a runaway horse in Eglinton Street, Ardrossan on Wednesday night (31 May 1899) that was very smartly caught by a stranger named Bell.

Mr Bell was walking along with three children at his foot. When he saw the excited animal, he put the children out of harm’s way and cleverly caught the horse. There were a good many children at play in the street at the time and there is little doubt that Mr Bell, by his prompt act, averted a serious accident.

Wow!!

And stopping a runaway horse was not as easy as it seems - I came across a photo of a memorial plaque to a lady called Elizabeth Boxall who died trying to save a child from a runaway horse and so I’m intrigued as to how Mr Bell “cleverly caught” this runaway horse and saved the children playing on Eglinton Street. His method has been lost in the sands of time.

And so from one stranger named Bell from 1899 to another stranger named Bell in 2017, I will once again bid you adieu.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article and if you did, you may be interested in reading more ‘behind the scenes’ news about our discoveries and the renovation work in the Barony St. John buildings. Check out my blog at www.ardrossman.wordpress.com or if you would like to volunteer to help us, help us fundraise to save the church buildings or simply know more about our charity, please contact us via our website www.ScotCPS.org.uk or look us up (ScotCPS) on Facebook or Twitter.

Goodbye for now.