Headlines

HELENSBURGH Parish Church, which has stained glass windows dedicated to the inventor of television and a former British prime minister, is undergoing a near £300,000 makeover.

The project at the B-listed former West Kirk in Colquhoun Square follows awards of £190,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Historic Environment Scotland.

THE Clyde Sea Lochs Trail from Dumbarton to Arrochar has been brought back to life, with new panels telling the story of the coastal communities.

The trail was first launched 15 years ago, but the information panels became faded or damaged, so local tourism group Love Loch Lomond decided to take action.

MEMBERS of Helensburgh Heritage Trust and anyone else interested were invited to attend a talk on recent railway history on May 15 2013.

As part of the West Dunbartonshire Council’s ‘Booked’ Festival, railway author and photographer Julian Holland gave a talk on aspects of his new book ‘Dr Beeching’s Axe: 50 Years On’ in Balloch Library.

AN AUDIO collage which brings new life to the ruins of St Peter's Seminary and Kilmahew Woods in Cardross had its first public airing at an event on Saturday March 23 2013.

IN RECENT years the veil of secrecy over the work of RAF Helensburgh during World War Two has gradually been lifted.

Now much more is known about the hard work, scientific brilliance and, at times, sacrifices and heroism of the men and women who worked for the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment at Rhu, Helensburgh and Glen Fruin.

AN art collector who has just bought a second painting by ‘Glasgow Girl’ Bessie MacNicol would like to find out more about its Helensburgh history.

Last year Jim Smith bought Bessie’s 1904 work, ‘Lady with a Fan’, a portrait of a model known only as Deborah. Early in June he learnt that another painting by her, entitled ‘Margaret’, was going under the hammer at Great Western Auctions in Glasgow — and he made a successful bid.

THE last book by a very talented Helensburgh librarian and author has just been published and is now on sale.

'The People's Army: Home Guard in Scotland 1940-1944', by Brian D.Osborne, is available now online and in bookshops.

TWO blocks of apartments built recently in Upper Sea Road, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, have been named Helensburgh Court and Baird Court.

Helensburgh Court (pictured) contains two-bedroom apartments going for some £150,000 each, and the adjacent Baird Court contains three-bedroom apartments at £175,000. Both were built by developer Laing Homes.

A PIECE of Helensburgh's history has turned up in a rather unexpected manner.

Heritage Trust chairman Stewart Noble says that it emerged from an application submitted for planning permission to demolish the closed Clyde View Eventide Home and to replace it with a new form of sheltered accommodation.