The Victorian Streets of Gladstone Court
GLADSTONE COURT MUSEUM began as a private venture in 1964 and opened its doors to the public in 1968.
The ceremony was carried out by the poet, Hugh MacDiarmid. Just twenty five years later, Biggar's sixth museum was opened - the little cottage at Brownsbank, where MacDiarmid had lived from 1951 until his death in 1978. During that time, the Biggar Museum Trust came into being and, as well as establishing new museums, it has been responsible locally for much archaeological fieldwork.
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Gladstone Court itself has been extended from small beginnings in the old coachworks, which
served in turn as a mission hall, a smithy,
a fencer's store and finally as Mr. Lambie the
Ironmonger's Fireplace Showroom. Gradually
the fireplaces moved out and the wee shops moved in.
The extended museum was opened in 1973 by the actor, Tom Fleming. The steps to the left of the entrance lead into a little street, where the shops are typical of those remembered by the older generation. Many things had not changed for generations, including advertising, which remained almost in a static never-never land until the 1950s.
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The Bank stands solidly - an amalgam of all the banks that at one time had branches in Biggar: the Royal, National, Western, Commercial and City of Glasgow. The outside sign came from a Royal Bank sub office at Fairlie, the glass door from an old City of Glasgow Bank turned up on a caravan site office at Stoneyburn.
Opposite the bank is a tiny booth proclaiming itself to be the Metropolitan Photographic Art Studio. Here is the setting for the caries de visite photographs beloved of the Victorians and a collection of old cameras.
The principal collection of local photographs is now cared for at Moat Park and contains well over 20,000 photographs, most of which now have copy negatives stored elsewhere.
The archway below the village library, a distinctive feature of this section of the museum, was originally part of the old mansion of Ingraston, built as the keystone proclaims in 1650. The house was demolished early in the nineteenth century, but the arch remained to mark the site until the coming of the Dolphinton Railway. It was then moved about a quarter of a mile to the lodge at Garvald House, where it stood for many years in a state of near collapse.
The stonework of the small window beside it was once the kitchen window at Mid Toftcombs, home of William Ewart Gladstone's grandfather in the 1750s. It displays a changing display of local medals and trophies, some agricultural and some from sporting and social clubs.
| Special openings, parties welcome. Contact:phone 01899 221050 Email:margaret@bmtrust.freeserve.co.uk Museum open daily, May – October, Monday – Saturday 11a.m – 4.30 p.m. Sunday 2 – 4.30 p.m.
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