Information AboutStevenston |
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| towns in north ayrshire | |
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The town is named after Stephan Loccard or Lockhart, whose father obtained a grant of land from Richard De Morville , Lord Cunninghame and Constable Of Scotland , around 1170. The town is first mentioned in a charter of c. 1240. The town contains the ruins of Kerelaw Castle , the former home of the Cunninghames of Glencairn and "one of the ruins Cromwell knocked about a bit". His troops took masonry from Kerelaw for repair work in Ayr , but it was the Montgomeries Of Eglinton who were responsible for sacking it and burning it during their long running feud with the Cunninghames over which family should control North Ayrshire. Kerelaw Castle lies in the grounds of the former Kerelaw House, built by the grandfather of the American statesman Alexander Hamilton . Kerelaw House was also the home of Kenneth Campbell VC RAFVR who won a posthumous Victoria Cross for his part in a wartime bombing raid on the German battleship '' Gneisenau '' while it was at anchor in Brest . The town was the birthplace in 1768 of Miss Lesley Baillie. Robert Burns met her in 1792 and described her to a friend as "the most beautiful, most elegant woman in the world". She inspired one or two of his love poems, in which she is described as Bonnie Lesley. The town became a coal mining centre until the pits were exhausted at the end of the 19th century. In the 20th century, the town was a major base for Nobel Industries and later ICI , whose Ardeer site employed many thousands of workers producing explosives and chemicals. ICI added a nylon plant in the 1960's which had a short lived production life, and a nitric acid plant. The closure of these facilities, along with the general decline in ICI's presence in the town, which now employs at most a couple of hundred, has had a devastating long term effect on the towns economy. Stevenston lies in the North Ayrshire & Arran Constituency in the Westminster and in Cunninghame South for the Scottish Parliament ,. Both Westminster and Holyrood seats are held by the Labour Party. AREAS OF STEVENSTON 1- High Road area (High Road, Mayfield Cresent, Diddup Drive, etc.) 2- Recreational Area (near Glencairn Primary School) 3- Maze (near Auchenharvie Academy) 4- Riggs (behind Grange Bingo) 5- Hayocks (Top End) 6- Ardeer (Bottom End) REFERENCE
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