Blog

Lorne Stewart Weir’s father, Robert Weir, was a master builder who in 1881, employed 87 men. The company was called...

Neil McArthur

A local man, Neil McArthur was the mason builder of the Picture House. The total payment for his work was...

John Norman Mactaggart

Archive, Helen Mowatt, Norman Mowatt, People of the Picture House

John Norman Mactaggart and his brother Daniel Campbell Mactaggart, were the third generation of solicitors in Campbeltow…

James Smith

James Smith was born in Glasgow in 1867, son of a Master Baker. He worked for several years as a...

James McInnes

Allanna Brough, Archive, People of the Picture House

Biography File: People of Campbeltown Picture House Full Name James McInnes Maiden name / other names Birth date 1849 Bi…

Henry Dundas Beatson Mctaggart

Henry Dundas Beatson Mactaggart bought 50 shares in the Picture House in 1912. Henry was the grandson of Captain Henry..…

George Roger

Archive, Norman Mowatt, People of the Picture House

George Finlay Roger was born in Dundee. His father was a Master Photographer with a studio in Dundee. He followed...

Duncan Sinclair

Archive, Norman Mowatt, People of the Picture House

Duncan Sinclair was born in Inverchaolain, Cowal in 1877 and was educated at Dunoon Grammar School. He was apprenticed t…

James Durward Lyall

Archive, Norman Mowatt, People of the Picture House

As we continue to explore the adverts from the Campbeltown Courier from the years before the Picture House opened we...

James Macalister Hall

Allanna Brough, Archive, People of the Picture House

James Macalister Hall was an original shareholder, buying 100 shares in 1912. James was one of six children, two sisters…

Fredrick Rendell Burnette

Samuel “Frederick” Rendell Burnette was an early shareholder and first Managing Director of Campbeltown Picture Hous…

Dr. James P Brown.

Allanna Brough, Archive, People of the Picture House

James Pearson Brown bought 20 shares in the Picture House 1912. Dr James Pearson Brown was the son of a...

Charles William Trevatt

Archive, Jan Silver, People of the Picture House

Initially, all we had was the above 1913 baptism record for the daughter of one Charles William Lovatt and his...

Catherine McTaggert.

Allanna Brough, Archive, People of the Picture House

Catherine McTaggart (née Beatson) was one of the original shareholders in the Picture House. She bought 50 shares in 19…

Arthur Hubner

Archive, Norman Mowatt, People of the Picture House

Born in Liverpool in 1849 Arthur Hubner worked as a travelling Advertising Contractor before moving to Glasgow and becom…

Archibald Dunlop Armour

Allanna Brough, Archive, People of the Picture House

Archibald Dunlop Armour was an original shareholder and Director of the Picture House. He was born into a family of...

Archibald Armour Revie

Archive, Helen Mowatt, People of the Picture House

Archibald was A. Revie was one of the original shareholders of the Picture House, buying 20 shares. Archibald A. Revie:�…

Agnes Galbraith Greenlees

Allanna Brough, Archive, People of the Picture House

An original shareholder, Agnes Galbraith Greenlees bought 50 shares in 1912. Agnes Galbraith Wallace Greenlees was the S…

Adam Ritchie Greig

Archive, David O McEwan, People of the Picture House

Adam (Ritchie) Greig was born at 138 George Street, Paisley on the 7th March 1893. His father John Greig was...

Albert Victor Gardner

Archive, Norman Mowatt, People of the Picture House

Image (zoom): architectural plans drawn by AV Gardner for Campbeltown Picture House Ltd. (1912), courtesy of Argy…

Mactaggart Women and WW1

Last week I told the story of Marion McKersie and her three daughters who all played their part in WW1...

Independent Women?

I am still looking at the list of original shareholders of the Picture House and the thing that strikes me...

Drumfin House and the Dedicated Doctor Brown.

I had another look at the list of my original shareholders to see if anyone caught my attention. While I...

Smoking Is Bad For Your Health But Good For Your Fortune?

This may cause offense to some people or cause others to have an attack of the vapours but, when I...

An Air Crash and the Picture House.

Last week I was working on research for two different Blog articles but I was waiting to hear back from...

A First Class Picture House and Mr. Fullarton.

All the biographies for the original shareholders of the Picture House are complete. We know who these people were and..…

Have you seen Bostock in Kilts?

Mr N.C. BOSTOCK in LONDON, The success of modern Times. The cry is “Have you seen Bostock in Kilts?” The...

Investigating New Archive Documents

The volunteer archive team was recently informed that some documents had been donated to the Picture House archive. We w…

Whisky Macs and The Steamboat Hotel.

I’d been wondering what to write for my next Blog piece and thought I’d look again at the list of...

Audrey Comes to Campbeltown

On Sunday 11th September just before 5pm we went round to the Picture House in Campbeltown to see The Vintage Mobile C…

Memories of the Picture House

The Railway and the Picture House “I remember as a young boy in the Early 1940s going to the Picture House on...

100 Years Ago … A Picture House Shareholder Becomes a Hero !

Our attention was recently drawn to the “From Our Files” Feature in the Campbeltown Courier of 28thJuly 2017. After …

There’s no “I” in team.

I remember seeing Robin Patel’s post on social media for “Raiders of The Lost Archive” asking for volunteers to be…

When the Big Tin Box was Opened We Found People and Stories

The Raiders of the Lost Archive project started to come to life for me when Robin came to speak for...

Venturing into the mystical art of Archiving

Archie Berry, Archive

To anyone about to read this, can I suggest that you would have a much better time pursuing Jack Higgins...

Did You Hear The One About The Minister And The Priest?

I haven’t posted a Blog for a while because I have been busy trying to complete the biographies for the...

Whisky, War and Provost Greenlees.

Knowing that I still had lots of biographies on the original shareholders still to complete, I took the easy option...

Picture House Memories, American Serials, Charlie Chaplin and The Vampire

One of the sources of information we have been using in conjunction with documents and other materials found in the...

From Picture House Managers to King Solomon’s Mines and The Halls of Montezuma!

This week I have been finding out about the second manager of the Picture House, Mr Duncan Sinclair. Born near...

Waylaid plans and Picture House plans.

So yesterday it rained all day, perfect weather for research. My plan for the day was to complete the Bio...

Whisky Galore!

They say that honesty is the best policy and I do believe this. The truth is, I have swithered and...

Greenlees, Golf and Serendipity.

Serendipity means a fortunate happenstance or pleasant surprise. Finding this photograph was both! This is from The Cam…

Charles William Trevatt: first-generation cinematographer.

Archive, Jan Silver

Initially, all we had was the above 1913 baptism record for the daughter of one Charles William Lovatt and his...

What do film reports tell us about the past?

Archive, Jan Silver

The film reports held by the Picture House archive offer an incredible glimpse back in time to a period when...

Finding Ritchie Greig – Pianist of the Picture House (a preview)

Archive, David O McEwan

The recent refurbishment of the Picture House rekindled my interest in Adam Ritchie Greig, sometime pianist there in the…

The Operatic Superstar and Rob Roy MacGregor

As we continue to explore the adverts from the Campbeltown Courier from the years before the Picture House opened we...

Fascinating Characters and Biographies.

From the first moments we started looking through the Picture House arc…

D’Arc Treasure!

I remember the first time I saw the original Shareholders’ Ledger. It was the very first session of Raiders of...

Discovery and Sharing

In a recent blog article I wrote about Dr Ormonde and his talented family and their visit to Campbeltown to...

Bombing Raids, Dive-Ins & Bunnets: Getting the Conversation Started

n order to reveal the meaning of heritage, you have to engage with the community that surrounds it. Last week...

Gentleman Greenlees

In my last post I talked about two of the early shareholders of The Picture House, Whisky Distillers William Greenlees …

Whisky and Heroines

So, last week was wonderful. Digging deeper to find out more about Frederick Rendell Burnette was exciting and thrilling…

Mysteries, Detectives and Westerns !

Still in June 1913 and the Picture House is settling into regular commercial operation with success. The composition of …

Melodrama !

n June 1913 the Picture House changed to a continuous performance each evening from 7.30pm to 10.30pm, and in the...

Digging Deep

still remember the Eureka moment when I discovered that Frederick Rendell Burnette, Managing Director of the Picture Hou…

In the new Picture House – What did they see ?

What were the first films shown when the Picture House opened on 26th May 1913? What sort of things did...

Elusive Names and Brick Walls.

I had a lovely morning yesterday, working in the garden enjoying the weather…and then the rain came. So I decided to...

The Picture House – Plans, and Dr Ormonde

I was intrigued by one of the old local newspaper adverts we looked through yesterday. I thought that since it...

Original Picture House Plans Arrive!

Yesterday we were treated by visit from Pat McCann, Culture and Libraries Manager, Argyll and Bute Council. Pat brought …

Front Elevation and Biographies

We had another meeting of the Campbeltown Picture House “Raiders of the Lost Archive” group today in the Community B…

Fascinating People

With the inventory of the contents of the Picture House in progress the group has also been doing some research...

Hidden Histories: ‘Arrival at Whitehart’

On the 25th of July, 1914, ‘Arrival at Whitehart’ was screened at the Picture House, showing the Argyll and Sutherla…

We Minecrafted the Picture House! Would you like to try?

This evening we had our last session of the Minecrafting the Picture House project! Over the past two months, young...

Picture House Collective: exploring early cinema advertisements

Today we had our first meeting of the ‘Picture House Collective’ at Aqualibrium. After a brief presentation we star…

Youth forum re-imagines Picture House