I'm Rab your host. Just a few pages for anyone who has an interest in the village of Catrine in Ayrshire Scotland. Once an old mill town,  now just a nice little corner of the world where you can still enjoy a little bit of peace and quiet provided your neighbours are humanoid. Catrine was a thriving mill town for nearly 2 centuries and had gas street lighting before the city of London. Today it is more of a quiet residential area and not the bustling mill town it once was. I was born here and I love this area for it's natural beauty. The water systems that were created here to drive the mills were always a thing of local interest and in recent years many local people have strived to maintain what is left of them as a nature reserve. Local efforts are being made to restore the weir and voes all the time and it is hoped that Catrine will succeed in securing the funds to see it becoming a small part of our National Heritage of which we can be proud. 

Click on any of the pictures below for a full sized view in a separate window.

Many thanks to Bob Meikle centre front row for this Catrine School photo from around 1928. All rows are named from left to right.

 Back Row:   Jock Paterson, Dykes Cook, John Brown, Tommy Maxwell, Jim Blain, Serio Sissi, Frank Patrick, Malcolm Kidd, John Hilditch, Davie Ferguson, George Meikle [teacher].     

2nd from back::  Jim McPhee, ---, Cissy Armstrong, Mary Brown, May Cook, ---, Nettie Hare, Ellen Murray, Jemima Elliot, Netta Mitchell [?], Matt Taylor.

3rd from back:   ---Paterson, May Nimmo, Lizzie McDougall, Mima Inglis, Joanne Cross, Lizzie Fram, ---McPhee, Annie Archibald, Kitty Ramsay, could be my mother Margaret Gordon [?], ---.

4th from back:   Marion Park, Madge Edmondson, Annie Gemmel, ---.

Front Row:   Bill Trusdale, John Weir, Dick Roxburgh, Bob Meikle, ------, Willie Fowler, Davie Hamilton.

Many thanks to Elizabeth Duncan for this photo and another 2 school photos from 1954 and 1955. I have put them into my school photos page

Catrine Primary 1950, Miss Begg
top row: pamela brown, netta standring, muriel stevenson, christa bergmann, kathleen boyle
middle row: len anderson, harry rodgers, ian hall, iain mcrae, victor clark
bottom row: alan gardiner, betty gardiner, angela gemmell, irene davies, beryl duncan, margaret finnie, sheila pullar, mary duncan, betty sayers, alex kyle

One of two photos of Catrine Ayrbank Rangers kindly donated by Jim McDowall. I think they won the junior cup around this time. I only recognise wee Davy Johnston that used to be in Wullie Paterson's paper shop and gave me my first paper round. And Pat McGary was a relative of mine but I never worked out the connection. And I think that's Jim Blain too.

Ayrbank again. Names I do know are there but in no particular order:  Alex Niven, Davy Johnston, Tam Elliot, Jimmy Thomson, Andrew Cook, Jim Blain, Jock Paterson, Pat McGary, George McDowall.  Can you name the rest?

Catrine School 1922-1923 (possible names in no particular order)  Lairdy Davidson, Mary Brown, Jean Paterson, Dick Roxburgh, Miss Mackay [teacher], Miss Milne [teacher], Margaret Gordon [?], Willie Duncan, Frank Patrick, Tom Aitken, Cissy Armstrong, ---Cross, Duncan Brian, Annie Gemmell, Kitty Ramsay, Marion Park, Mima Inglis, Bob Meikle(in Sailor suit)