NEWS AND UPDATES
This page is a progress log where you can find information about updates that have been made to the website since your last visit. Most recent updates at the top of the list.
14 July 2010 - An entry has been added to the discussion pages regarding a story about the Vale of Leven FC's strip being the basis for that worn by the Scottish international football team. Read >
12 July 2010 - A new (redesigned) website has been launched. Apart from some background functionality improvements I have tried to make it a bit more vivid and colourful. I would appreciate your comments on this (critical or otherwise). Any suggestions as to how it could be further improved would be very welcome.
With regard to content, some minor freshening up has been done. We are still looking for appropriate contributions of images and stories so if you have anything that you think may be of interest to Vale people we urge you to get in touch.
23 June 2010 - A short article about a Vale man's war during WW1 has been added to the Vale in the Wars page.
28 May 2010 - A link to a silent film of the Vale of Leven Gala day shot in 1972 has been sent to us by Tommy Crocket. Some of you will remember these gala days. This one took place probably just before the time when the Vale stopped being ... well "The Vale" that many of us remember.
The film quality is not great and there is no sound but there is a lot of interesting stuff there. You may even see faces that you recognise. The footage includes coverage of football, ladies hockey, beautiful baby competition, highland dancing, judo and a motor bike stunts team. The beautiful babies will all be approaching 40 years old now!
Please have a look at this and if you see yourself or anyone you know let us know and we'll put your comments on here.
26 May 2010 - An interesting image donated by Graham Lappin has been added to the Balloch Navy page. Graham saw this advertised in the Chicago Tribune and bought it for the website. LINK >
18 May 2010 - Many of you reading this will no doubt have attended Bonhill Public School (as I did). The old school is to be demolished and it is closing at the end of this term. The new school opens on the first day of the new term after the summer holiday.
An event has been organised to take place on June 5th in and around the old school and all former pupils and others are invited to come along from 1pm till late evening and join the party. See the Myspace page for more information.
9 April 2010 - After a lengthy period of hard work and dedication Strathleven Artizans have established a King Robert the Bruce Heritage Centre in the building that was formerly Renton Station.
The opening ceremony was attended by members of the Bruce family who are descended from this former king of Scotland, on Saturday 27 March, 2010. A report from the Lennox Herald can be seen here.
Members of Dumbarton Cine Video and Digital Club filmed events surrounding the opening ceremony and they are presently working on the preparation of a film. A taster for this film can be seen here.
The Centre is open to the public between the hours of 12 and 4 pm on weekdays and 12 and 5 pm at weekends. The volunteer staff will be happy to see you.
8 March 2010 - Some significant additions have been made to the web site over the last few days.
- Added page which will feature information about the Vale during war time
- Added page about the Balloch Navy.
- Added page with aerial photographs of the Vale taken in 1947.
- Added picture of Castle Danger
15 February 2010 - Two new images have been received. These are of the Scotts farming at Overton farm in 1938. View >
27 January 2010 - A new image has been added to the discussion page for the article below.
11 January 2010 - See the 2010 discussion page if you can offer any information about the memorial stone in the middle of the copse of trees in the field at Duck Bay.
27 November 2009 - We have added an excellent and highly detailed contribution from Harry Summers. This is a history of the Bonhill Parish Pipe Band from 1931 until 1979.
24 November 2009 - Apologies - I have not been updating this news page of late but without going into detail there have been some interesting additions to the discussion page. Have a look.
11 July 2009 - I have added some interesting images from Eddie Shovelin. These are of a group called the "Independent Order of Good Templars", the Levendale Cycling Club outing and one taken on the platform of Renton railway station in 1922. If anyone can offer further information about these images please get in touch. (Discussion page)
8 April 2009 - The Motor Bar: Do you remember the time when McKenzies Pub in Main St. Alexandria was known as the "Motor Bar"? (Discussion page)
24 March 2009: We have now added a search feature to the website, which should greatly enhance the website user's experience . This is a free search facility supplied by Google that appears above the menu on every page. We would appreciate your feedback on this.
9 February 2009: The "Appin Murder" was contributed by William Scobie. It is an interesting tale that offers a local link to this notorious murder, which was featured in Robert Louis Stevenson's novel “Kidnapped”.
15 January 2009: As a matter of interest I thought I would post
the top twenty website visitor statistics for the last six months of 2008.
Obviously the UK provides the vast majority of visitors but that still leaves a large number from around the world.
The English speaking countries will always provide the largest number of visitors followed by our near European neighbours due to the number of ex pats living there. Other countries outside of the top twenty that have provided traffic include, Serbia, Taiwan, Pakistan, Mexico, Libya, Kazakhstan, Japan, The Bahamas, Namibia, Bulgaria and the Ukraine. The Internet is providing information about B'nill and the Ranton to people all over the world!
14 January 2009: The Dumbarton Reporter is looking to do a story on any ex-patriate Scots who are returning to the area during this Homecoming Year. If you are one of them or you know of any others who will be making a visit during 2009 please let us know.
12 January 2009: We received some interesting pictures and humourous material from Colin Elliott, whose father was John Elliott of Elliot's garage in Jamestown. This has been added to the Jamestown page.
5 December 2008: Added an article called "Bridging the Leven". This was contributed by Gordon Burns - a history of the River Leven's Bridges.
3 December 2008: Added a sitemap, a navigational aid to assist users to fid the information they are seeking.
3 December 2008: Added a page on the history of the Jamestown Primary School.
11 September 2008: Added entry to ex-pats page along with some new images and information about the Haldane Smiddy on the discussion page.
5 September 2008: Images added to the Jamestown page.
5 September 2008: We have added interesting pictures of the Bonhill Pipe Band and the Jamestown and Vale of Leven Brass Band.
4 September 2008: The Famous Vale of Leven Folk pages has been added today. We hope that this will generate interest and lead to suggestions of other famous folk from the Vale that we have missed. It is difficult to define "famous", but for the purposes of this website, we have tried to identify people whose names and activities are recognised not just in the Vale, but also on a Scottish and UK level, and in some cases internationally.
3 September 2008: The local newspaper, "The Lennox", ran a feature on us this week so we will be getting lots of new visitors and this will be a busy period for us.
3 September 2008: I received an email from Tommy Crocket who has created a nice little photo display of the Vale of Leven. This is available on YouTube.
2 September 2008: The Bonhill pages are almost complete. These contain lots of excellent images.
27 August 2008: We have had a contribution of an Excellent history of the Loch Lomond Steamers. This was written for us by Graham Lappin. Click here to view.
