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| May | Ongoing education of local school pupils culminating in entries for the Jean Falconer Literary Competition. This is an annual award by Maybole Community Council but on this occasion will be specifically themed on Burns’ life. |
| Jun 9 |
Market Fair featuring the meeting of William Burnes and Agnes Broun. Local businesses were encouraged to adopt an 18th century theme. |
| Jun 11 |
Quiz with a specific Burns and Scottish theme. |
| Jun 16 |
Town Parade. The parade featured no motorised transport but horses. Other period transport was encouraged. |
| Jun 9-16 |
Throughout the week there was a “Best Dressed Shop/Window” competition with a specific theme of the 18th century, and staff dressed in period costumes. |
| Sep | Garden competition featuring best vegetables to reflect William Burnes’ trade |
| Dec 14/15 | Concerts featuring our wealth of local talent involving local schools, Maybole Pipe Band, SCDS, Maybole Concert Party and Ayrshire Fiddle Orchestra |
| Dec 15 | Re-enactment of the wedding of William and Agnes. Postcards celebrating the 250th Wedding Anniversary |
| Dec 16 |
Final ecumenical service celebrating Burns’ life. |
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Meeting held with local businesses participating in Market Fair of June 9th 2007
Ellen Hawkes, Project Co-ordinator, and David Kiltie MBE, representing the Burns Festival Committee addressed local businesses at a cheese and wine evening on Monday 16th April in the Town Hall. The evening was to inform and consult with local businesses about the proposed heritage event re-enacting the market fair at Maybole where Robert Burns’ parents first met in 1756. Business owners were given an overview of “Robert Burns – Where it began” by Mr. Kiltie and Mrs Hawkes spoke about the information pack available to businesses. Feedback on ideas for the event was excellent with 100% backing from the businesses present, all of whom will wear period dress and dress their shop windows to reflect the event.
Information requested on dress, food and customs of the second half of the 18th century will be made available to business owners to enable them to get into the period and pass on their knowledge and leaflets to customers. Maybole Historical Society and local experts will be supporting the research into the period, as will historical librarians from Carnegie Library in Ayr. A note of the evening’s discussions with posters for display in shop windows will be distributed to all the town’s businesses. Posters are being sent to Post offices in Carrick and local caravan sites.
Stalls will be available for farmers/traders e.g. honey, home made sweets, fish, ice cream and some for local arts and craft people to display, demonstrate and sell their wares.
Heritage events will include a maypole dancing, Scottish country dancing displays, and a performance by Carrick 800 of local smuggling at the time.
The children will be able to enjoy face painting, watch a magician perform, experiment with 18th century games and see how schools were conducted then.
There will be street jugglers, a town baillie, people dressed as local historical characters giving out verbal and written information to the community and tourists.
Burns Festival banners at either end of the High Street, and Burns posters on the lampposts will help the general festive atmosphere.
The event will begin with William Burnes being piped down the High Street by a local young piper, to meet Agnes Broun who will be standing at a cross we hope to erect temporarily in the High Street. We hope to attract some talented Carrick Academy pupils to be Agnes and William and engage in a short scenario before being marched back up the street to the Town Hall area.
The Fair will cover the Town Hall, car park and grounds, the School Vennel and the Greenside. The grounds of Maybole Castle will also be available for the event and inside the Historical Society will mount a heritage display.
Programmes outlining local heritage, and more detailed leaflets will be available to the general public and visitors.
The event will start at 12 noon and close at 4pm. |
If William Burnes had not attended a fair held in Maybole High Street in 1756, it is very possible that Robert Burns, our National Poet, may never have existed. Agnes Broun was living in Maybole, Carrick’s Capital, and they met, courted and were married in a church at the foot of the Kirkwynd on 15th December 1757. Just over a year later, on 25th January 1759, Robert was born in nearby Alloway. It is the Maybole and Carrick connections that we would like to celebrate this year which marks the 250th anniversary of the marriage of William and Agnes. Agnes Broun was born a few miles from Maybole in 1732. She was the eldest of her family, and only 10 years old when her mother died. Two years later, when her father remarried, she was sent to live in Maybole with her grandmother. Agnes is widely known to have entertained Robert, her eldest son, with legends from local oral traditions, and folk songs. According to one of her daughters, Agnes “was naturally cheerful; her manner, easy and collected; her address simple and unpresuming; and her judgement uncommonly sound and good. She possessed a fine musical ear, and sang well.” Mark Twain wrote of her in Innocents Abroad, “It reminds me of what Robert Burns’ mother said when they erected a stately monument to his memory: ‘Ah, Robbie, ye asked them for bread and they hae gi'en ye a stane.’” There is a monument to her, called Burns' Mother's Well, near Bolton on the roadside from Haddington, East Lothian. William Burnes (1721-84) was born in the north east of Scotland in Kincardineshire and trained as a gardener. He moved south obtaining work as he travelled. In many ways, the couple appeared to be exact opposites. He was tall, dour, serious and shy, she was lively, fun loving and gregarious. He had a sharp intelligence, she was all but illiterate. He was the thinker, she had the songs. Maybole and Carrick have many other connections with Burns in his later life including a few friends and acquaintances close to his heart as depicted in his poems. It is felt that the Burns’ trail rightfully begins in Maybole. Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded £46,800 to May-Tag Ltd in partnership with Maybole Community Council, Maybole Community Association and Maybole Historical Society. The project will to replicate the original Maybole Fair where William and Agnes met, with stalls, a farmers’ market, dance displays and other activities of the period. Concurrently there will be displays of Burns-related exhibits and archives in Maybole Castle and Town Hall. Local schools will be involved in the re-enactment of both Burns’ parents’ life and his relevant poems. Activities will continue throughout the year, culminating in December. Throughout a large part of the year Maybole Historical Society, in conjunction with other historical and heritage groups, the local archives and museums services, Culzean & Cassillis Estates and the National Trust for Scotland will have a large variety of displays of the life and works of Burns, and the life and times in Maybole in the 1750s. Many local groups will be involved in events over the course of the year. All events during the year will be professionally recorded and made available to everyone involved, future visitors and future generations. This celebration of the 250th anniversary of the marriage of William and Agnes will be the focal point of events which will promote and preserve the local connections and history associated with Robert Burns and Carrick. |
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The year’s events are titled Robert Burns - where it began.
This funding will allow celebrations to promote and preserve the local connections and history associated with Robert Burns and encourages everyone to learn more about our National Bard. It will provide a lasting memorial to Burns’ parents and the bard himself in Maybole and will point to the start of the Burns’ trail in the centre of Maybole.
The year long events include a Robert Burns competition for schools; in June a replication of the market fair with Robert Burns parents meeting each other; Maybole gala day will re-enact other events of the period; in December there will be concerts featuring the music and poetry of Burns, and a re-enactment of the wedding of William and Agnes.
A major launch is planned for March when all the events will be fully publicised.
Colin McLean, Heritage Lottery Fund Manager for Scotland, said: “Burns has left us a rich literary heritage that is recognised throughout the world. Helping a whole new generation to explore the famous bard's work and life story is a great way to ensure he remains part of our national memory."
Peter Walker, general manager of May-Tag, said, “We are pleased to assist local voluntary groups with this innovative and far-reaching project to promote the Bard’s parents and put Maybole at the start of the Burns’ trail.”
Angus Middleton, President of the Robert Burns World Federation, had been told of the application to Heritage Lottery Fund when he visited Maybole recently and pledged his, and his colleagues’, full support for everything that Maybole planned to do.
David Kiltie, chair of Maybole Community Council, said, “This is a great opportunity to pass on our heritage to local people, especially our children and grandchildren. With modern technology we will also be able to let the world know that the chance meeting of William Burnes, of Alloway, and Agnes Broun, of Maybole, in the High Street was the real beginning of the immortal story of Robert Burns.”
He added, “We are very grateful to the Heritage Lottery Fund for their support and look forward to a very exciting project.”
Community Councillor Peter Mason, who chairs the joint committee organising the events, said, "I am delighted that we will be able to go ahead with this tribute to Robert Burns and his parents. We anticipate a wonderful year ahead for Maybole and would like to thank all who helped get funding, and the Heritage Lottery Fund."
Susan Whiteman, chair of Maybole Community Association, commented, "Absolutely fantastic! It's a great day for Maybole!"
Helen McAdam, chair of Maybole Historical Society, added, "This is absolutely great news! Every one in the Historical Society is excited and pleased because it will be so good for Maybole."
For further information contact Peter Walker May-Tag Ltd on 01655 883765 E mail peter.walker@may-tag.com
Editors notes
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Burns Service. Angus Middleton, President of the Robert Burns World Federation, was a special visitor at Maybole Parish Church’s service on Sunday morning. Mr Middleton is also President of the Ayrshire Association of Burns Clubs and he was accompanied by several colleagues at what was undoubtedly unique worship – all the hymns were sung to Burns tunes!
Rev Dave Whiteman welcomed Mr Middleton and his colleagues as well as representatives from several local organisations. He also showed to the congregation a Bible which had been presented to Maybole Parish Church in 1796, the year Robert Burns died. His parents had been married in that church at the bottom of Kirkwynd on December 15, 1757.
The service got off to a beautiful start with the choir singing “We cannot measure” to the tune “Ye banks and braes”. This was followed by “The Lord’s my Shepherd” to the tune “My love is like a red, red rose”. Four young members of the King’s Club sang “Bonnie wee thing” followed by the congregation singing “O Jesus I have promised” to the tune of “Flow Gently sweet Afton”.
In his talk to the children Mr Whiteman explained that William Burnes had met Maybole’s Agnes Broun at a fair in the High Street and started courting before being married in 1757. “Isn’t it exciting to know that the story of Robert Burns really started her in our wee town,” he said. The choir then sang “I heard the voice of Jesus say” to “Rowan tree” and Mr Middleton read the Beatitudes from Mark chapter 5. “Scots wha hae” was the tune for “Gracious Spirit” and “Auld Lang Syne” for “The Lord will come”. The service ended with the Doxology “May the God of peace go with us” to the tune “Ae fond kiss.”
Afterwards the visitors were taken to the Welltrees Inn for a light buffet. Mr Whiteman presented a bouquet of flowers to Margaret Skilling, of the Ayrshire Association of Burns Clubs, for her work in putting together arrangements for the visit. David Kiltie, chairman of Maybole Community Council, presented Mr Middleton with a medallion embossed with the Maybole coat-of-arms and a copy of the town’s history written by James T Gray.
Each year the Ayrshire Association of Burns Club members attend a church Service on the Sunday nearest the birth of the Bard. When they learned that Maybole wanted to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the marriage of William and Agnes, members of the association felt they would like to support the town and its aims to involve the whole community in Maybole.
Mr Kiltie outlined the details of a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund by May-Tag in partnership with the community council, Maybole Community Association and Maybole Historical Society. If successful, funds will be available to organise a series of events which the four groups feel would provide the opportunity to pass on this important part of the town’s heritage. Mr Kiltie concluded his presentation, “We feel that the chance meeting of William Burnes and Agnes Broun at the foot of Maybole High Street in 1756 was the real beginning of the immortal story of Robert Burns.”
Mr Middleton thanked everyone involved in the arrangements for his visit and pledged his and his colleagues’ full support for everything that Maybole planned to do. |
| Other links to Robert Burns on the Maybole Website: Robert Burns - Maybole Notable | Auld Lang Syne | Address to a Haggis | Robert Burns' Association with Maybole: Chapter 24 from Maybole, Carrick's Capital by James Gray |