LUGAR

A wonderful new initiative that will showcase the diverse history of Lugar, Logan and the surrounding area is now well on its way to completing the final stages of funding and research.

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The Reverend John Paterson said: ”The Lugar and Logan Heritage Trail will consolidate all of the local historical information and convey, in an open and easily digested way, just how fascinating the history of the local area has been for such a relatively small community.

 

“Lugar Church, an essential element to the wider Coalfield Communities Landscape Partnership, will host a Community Hub which will not only display artefacts and information on local history in a newly-designed exhibition space, it will also host a Tea Room where locals and visitors can relax in this lovely old building.

 

At the heart of the project is the desire to ensure that local people are involved, not only through Lugar Church but also through a series of workshops with schoolchildren and interviewing initiative aimed at capturing and keeping for posterity the stories of the people who have lived, worked and grown up in Lugar and Logan area through generations.”

 

Some of the fascinating local history includes the story of William Murdoch,the inventor of gas lighting which went on to transform towns and cities across the world. Murdoch actually carried out his early experiments in a cave in Lugar. The project will also tell the story of the Lugar Iron Works,an important national industry during the Industrial Revolution,as well as the Miners Cottages and Logan’s Pillar. Don’t know where Logan’s Pillar is? That’s the whole point of this project, to relate the rich and diverse history of the area from its earliest days through to Covenanting Times and on into the industrial revolution and beyond, right up to the present day.

 

Phase 1 of the project, replacing the roof and the belfry was completed in 2017 . This was an important aspect of the project as the church itself was originally a locomotive maintenance building for the local Ironworks until it was donated by William Baird to the community for use as a place of worship for the local workers.

 

The Lugar Church Group, which was established to carry forward the project, is working in conjunction with a number of other partners including The Church of Scotland, East Ayrshire Council, The Coalfield Communities Landscape Partnership (funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund) and a number of local and national funding bodies and is well on its way to delivering on its dream to establish the Heritage Trail and Community Hub in Lugar.