With Alan Bell from the Barony St John Regeneration Project

At Easter, I told you all about the Easter Egg Hunt I ran for my children in the Barony St John Church building in Ardrossan. We found some names written on a cupboard door and I asked readers if they recognised anyone.

The signatures, written in black marker pen, were John S. Hughes, J.W.G. Neil, Allana MacDougall and Joyce C. Inglis with Alec Bingham printed in pencil below this and H. McLean printed to the left of it.

There was also some beautiful scrolling handwriting which said: “David & Shona, Saltcoats, 1873.”

Well, you’ll be glad to hear that Alec Bingham got in touch and said he can’t remember writing his name but he was going to Youth Fellowship Group and it must have been early 1970s.

I then got a visit from Allana Stewart (nee MacDougall) who no longer lives in the area but had been told about the article. She cannot remember writing her name on the door either but reckoned it must have been in the late 1960s when she signed her name along with the rest written in black marker.

All of them went to the Youth Fellowship Group and she remembers Alec being younger than the rest of them and so he may well have written his name a few years later.

Apparently, the musical instruments were kept in this cupboard under the stairs and I’m assuming that the older children would collect the instruments, giving them an opportunity to sign their name on the door.

So, do any readers have memories or photos of the Youth Fellowship Group in what was the Barony Church back then?

Or do you know where John Hughes, J.W.G. Neil, Joyce Inglis or H. McLean are now?

I’d love to hear from any of you – and I know it’s a really long shot, but if anyone thinks they are descended from a David and Shona who lived in Saltcoats around 1873, please get in touch.

My contact details are alan@ScotCPS.org.uk or you can link in via our charity website, www.ScotCPS.org.uk or look us up (ScotCPS) on Facebook or Twitter.

And if you would like to find out more about the discoveries I have made in the Barony St John Church building, please check out my blog at www.ardrossman.wordpress.com

Goodbye for now.