Model Making
Barrmill Jolly Beggars Burns Club held their most recent meeting in Beith Masonic Club when there was a good turnout of members. President James Waite introduced the speaker for the evening, Mr Jim Miller of Kilwinning, who took as his subject: Model Churches. In an interesting talk he explained that over the years his hobby of building matchstick churches had become a real passion. Intriguingly, he said that over the years he had built over 80 model churches, mainly focussing on Ayrshire, including all four churches in Beith: High, Trinity, Our Lady’s and UR as well as others in the Garnock Valley.
Each lovingly produced model was based on exact measurements and design, Mr Miller having photographed each church from different angles ensuring that the models aligned to strict specifications and built with a high degree of detail, highlighting Mr Miller’s extraordinary skill and tenacity.
Jim had also been actively involved with Kilwinning Tower Museum for many years and also sang and entertained, accompanied by his wife. A fascinating character, he brought along examples of several of the churches he had constructed and showed photo albums of others. He was very proud of his work and took great pleasure from producing the models which were presented to the churches concerned. It was his hope that they would be preserved even after the churches had closed, a fate that had already befallen several of the churches in North Ayrshire he had modelled with such care and precision.
A comprehensive vote of thanks was proposed by JVP David Pettigrew who presented the speaker with club gifts. The meeting of the Jolly Beggars is on Monday 7 March when the speaker is a famous son of Glengarnock, the irrepressible and young-at-heart George Dickie, now resident in Kilbirnie, who takes as his subject: Poems for All. Members and visitors welcome.
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