Hopefully this is another new photo for everybody! Pictured here in the 1920’s is Main Street at Kirkton. Looking eastwards the old Church Halls are on the left, Macs Bar in the Speirs Laun building in the middle left, Thomas Dykes whitewashed properties on the middle right and Sneddon’s Building on the far right.

It’s amazing what you can tell from an old photo. The canopy on the trees suggest a photo taken between the months of May and September. Knowing Main Street runs directly west to east here. The slant on the shadows on the ground pointing northwest are indicative that the photo was taken mid morning. The long shadows suggesting it wasn’t mid summer but more likely the start or end of summer. Sometimes other clues within a picture like the building configuration, clothes on figures or the condition of the road can, at times give away the exact year, allowing a time of day, month and year to be identified from undated pictures!

The pub at the corner of the 2-storey tenement building on the right, during this 1920’s era was known as ‘The Red Lion Bar‘ but by 1930, the pub was vacant and later became “Shanks’ Pub“. The tenements on the right were built in 1865, just 2 years after the current Old Parish Church was constructed. Needless to say Main Street changed a lot in those couple of years.