Posted in Trips, War Memorials at 12:00 on 29 September 2019
Maxwelltown is an area in the west of the town of Dumfries. Formerly a burgh in its own right, it was merged with Dumfries in 1929.
The Memorial, a figure of a soldier with outstretched arms on a tapering square pedestal, is located at the junction of Rotchell Road and New Abbey Road and is inscribed, “Pro Patria in memory of the men of Maxwelltown and the Parish of Troqueer who fell in the Great War 1914-1919.”
I assume that because of the merger with Dumfries any World War 2 names are on the main Dumfries Memorial.

West side of memorial. The lower names are for Troqueer landward. The remainder of the names on the Memorial are for the Burgh of Maxwelltown:-

North Side. Names for Burgh of Maxwelltown:-

East Side. Names for Burgh of Maxwelltown:-

I remember this plaque – a memorial to VC Private James McKenzie, Scots Guards, 19/12/1914 – as being at Maxwelltown, but there is another at New Abbey where he was born.

Is Maxwelltown the Maxwelton mentioned in the first line of the song Annie Laurie? Apparently she actually lived in Moniaive – but that’s no bar to her having been to Maxwelltown.
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Posted in Architecture, Art Deco at 12:00 on 25 September 2019
I drove past this – on New Abbey Road – and of course had to stop to photograph it.
I took these two from the left of the building to try to stitch them together but there wasn’t a match:-


The centre tower has typical Deco verticals plus rule of three in the vertical elements:-

From right side:-

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Posted in Architecture, Art Deco at 12:00 on 26 November 2017
An Art Deco corner, Dumfries, Marchbank Bakers:-


Former County House:-


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Posted in Art Deco at 20:00 on 23 November 2017
Art Deco styling on roof-line, Dumfries:-

Detail:-

The former British Linen Bank has deco style cladding on the ground floor:-


Detail round door:-

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Posted in Art Deco at 20:00 on 22 November 2017
Dumfries’s Burton’s is typically Art Deco in style. Unusually for a Burton’s, though, it is built in red sandstone rather than having the usual white stone covering.
Front aspect:-

Upper detailing. Logo and motto, “Montague BURTON the Tailor of Taste”:-

Side view:-

Again the upper portion has a Burton’s logo and motto:-

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Posted in Trips at 20:00 on 21 November 2017
Dumfries is the old county town of Dumfriesshire long since absorbed into the larger Dumfries and Galloway region.
It is famous, among other things, for its connection to Robert Burns who at one time worked a farm a few miles north of the town.
A statue of the poet occupies a prominent position in the town centre.

By the river Nith there is an artwork commemorating Lady Devorgilla, after whom the older of Dumfries’s two bridges over the Nith is named. This plaque is set into the paving by the river:-

You have to go down some steps towards the river itself to see the figures in relief:-

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Posted in Bridges, Trips at 20:00 on 20 November 2017
The River Nith runs through Dumfries (in Dumfries and Galloway, south west Scotland.) In the town two bridges span it.
Newer bridge:-

Older bridge:-

Some lovely willow trees droop over the river just above the bridge:-

Famously a weir interrupts the river’s flow just opposite the town’s main riverside area (and car park which the river has visited often in the past.) The old bridge can be seen off to the centre right here with the weir in the centre ground:-

Close up of weir and old bridge:-

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