The GRANGE HOTEL.

[Richard]

Hi to all:
I am trying to get a decent picture or two of the Grange Hotel (6 Harbour Street) Saltcoats.
I have trawled the 3t' forums from start to finish and only managed to come across one taken by JimmyM back in
2005/06. Unfortunately, as good as it is, I'm hoping to find a picture of the hotel before it lost it's roof etc.
This place meant a lot to me, (still does), and I would love to get my hands on a picture of it.
Thank you everyone for reading this & any possible help you's can offer.
Richard.
PS: Can I just add that this 3t' site has some Top Class photos throughout. From FlyinAl' aerial shots to some right
old black & whites that are still in excellent condition, not to mention fascinating. It's a journey I enjoyed taking
and will most definitely be doing again & again & again &...I think you's get the picture.

BTW, does anyone know if JimmyM is the same Jimmy Morell who used to live near Saltcoats train station in the
1980' and who had a big brother named Thomas (Tam) Morell and Tam worked in the slaughterhouse on
Blakely Road?

[Penny Tray]

The Saracen's Head become The Grange?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/re_teacher/20942294/

[Richard]

THANK YOU SO MUCH PT.
EXACTLY what I was after. PERFECTION.
As I posted this request, my better half came across a picture very similar but it had most of the roof missing due
to bad photography...not fire so thank you once again.
Yes, I'm aware of the hotels history (as far as name changes go) but it will always be "The Grange" to me.
Not the best (or worse) place in the world BUT it holds a very special place in my story.
Can't thank you enough PT.
All the very best to you and yours.
Richard.

[sweet caroline]

Means a lot to me also.My husband and i went there a lot while courting.Can you imagine ,he broke a tooth on one of their sandwiches

sweet caroline

[morag]

Sounds about right for the 'Sarry Heid'! lol!

[Richard]

AYE, SWEET CAROLINE:
Something similar for me but as for the broken tooth part; NAW...Took me all my time to drink their beer, never
mind eat their food. As long as it came out of a "packet" it was ok, ie: crisps or nuts
Seriously though, I really liked this place and have one or two funny memories associated with it that make me
smile and chuckle to myself. Can't explain why I liked the place...I just did. The same as I liked West Sound Radio,
Lou Grant in the mornings & Tommy Trusdale in the afternoons and many, many other things that all add up to a
great & happy period of my life. It's my wee place that I go to, in my head, when life & the world around me seems
c@#p. As I said, makes me smile and gives my batteries a boost
Richard.

[unicornheart]

i also remember it as the Osborne hotel me as me big sister worked as waitresses in the 60s, we got our first pair of white stiletto heels with our first pay packet. funny how things trig your memories in a nice way.

[little plum]

I was only in the Sarry Heid/Grange Hotel on 2 occasions, the first being my future B.I.L. stag do, I seem to remember sitting in a side room. Sandwiches were provided later in the evening, I don't remember them being that bad other than the fact that they all had tomatoes in them, normally I don't eat tomatoes but I had some of the sandwiches that night, a double first.
On the second occasion, I can only think I had been in Saltcoats harbour digging raggies and developed a thirst.
While in there, a local worthy who had obviously fell on hard times entered, the patrons seemed to know him. He had a pair of football boots round his neck and they were asking him what they were for, he replied " I'm playing on Saturday". I think he was referred to as Josie.

[down south]

The Saracen's Head had a long history in Saltcoats, and here's a remarkable old picture of it , seen I would imagine from somewhere at the back. It's very likely it may be not the later one we've been talking about, but the earlier building it replaced in 1894:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44850481@N05/6347414554/

It's not labelled as such, and it's purely by chance I became aware of it just now; but blow it up and you can read the name above the entry...which by the by is a magnificent example of a PEND, a phenomenon we've discussed earlier on this site ( see viewtopic.php?p=87545#p87545 ) , and naturally enough often associated with the yards of old inns.

There's a whole history of the old Saracen's Head, and description of it and its surroundings, here in Chapter 4 of Saltcoats Old and New :

http://www.threetowners.com/Old%20&%20New/chapter04.htm

And the picture is a wonderful reminder of the densely-packed old harbourside world of Saltcoats that's talked about there, and still surrounded the Saracen's Head, even after it was rebuilt , up till about the fifties. Something that the younger generation like me, who only knew the place later when it was standing isolated by the corner, never had the chance to know.

Susan

[John Donnelly]

I remember walking along there many times. It took you from the railway-prom past the Coast Home and down to the harbour. The photographer taking the photo is standing with his back to the harbour.

I don't think this can be described as a pend. The road just went underneath the building. It was a through-way or thoroughfare. It's still there to walk along.

I always thought that the Osborne Hotel was the height of chique as we walked past it, there at the back, as on the photo on a family walk down to the harbour, often on a Sunday afternoon / evening. They had a terrace behind the hotel and I think that the gateway on the left in the photo was the entrance to it. It was full with people drinking their pints, etc and there was a coloured, canvas awning over it as shade from the sun.

It's a bit of an iconic memory for me as a 4/5/6-yearold. It has always stuck in my mind.

A nostalgic JD.

[Hughie]

I don't think this can be described as a pend. The road just went underneath the building. It was a through-way or thoroughfare. It's still there to walk along.

I wrote some time ago here about our Rock 'n' Roll club in Saltcoats in the mid to late fifties in that Hall over the top of the walk-way to Saltcoats harbour. What a great photo that is, Susan - first time I've seen it.

[Richard]

Thank you Susan:
That was some amount of information you've put forward.
A good deal of interesting history & a top class picture.
JD' spot on about photographer standing with back to harbour.
Straight ahead, under the Saries arch and veer off to the right and your on
the way towards Stevenston, running parallel with Canal Street, along
behind where the Abattoir currently stands.
Could look at that picture for hours but better do it later/tomorrow or she
who must be obeyed will have my guts for garters. I'm getting too addicted to this site
Thank's again Susan for sharing that with us.
Goodnight/Morning, whatever time it is.
Richard.