District News

Wishaw Ex-servicemen’s Club Entertainment for members and friends begins in the club with cash bingo in the Tartan lounge on Friday and Sunday nights. Saturday sees a private function being held in the lounge. However, everyone can enjoy a game of cash bingo in the Tartan lounge. The main hall and upstairs lounge are available to hire for a variety of functions, including 18th and 21st birthday parties. A hall dressing service is also available to book, including cake and balloon packages. For more information on any of the above, telephone 01698 373371 or join the club’s Facebook page. Houldsworth Bowling Club The function room will be closed this Saturday, September 2, but the lounge will open as normal. There will also be some finals being played at the club on Saturday, from 2pm. South Wishaw Parish Church Wednesdays mid-week service continues today at 12 noon. The worship service on Sunday at 11am will be conducted by Rev Terry Moran, with communion services held in the church on Sunday at 11am and 3.30pm. Please note the change of time for the afternoon service. Coffee morning is being held for Macmillan Nurses this Saturday, September 2, between 10am and 12 noon. All are welcome to come along and support this great cause. Now Church service will be held this Sunday, September 3, at 2pm with lunch for attendees at 1pm. Auditions for the joint St Mark’s and South Wishaw churches pantomime will take place in South Wishaw Church on Sunday at 5pm. A Session meeting is being held on Monday, September 2, at 8.15pm. Wednesday Welcome resumes next Wednesday, September 6, at 1.30pm. The God question: science or God or both is being debated in the church, starting next Wednesday, September 6, and will continue for the following six weeks at 7.15pm. Tea and coffee will be served at 7.30pm. All are welcome to come along. Lanarkshire Family History Society will hold their show in Motherwell Concert Hall this Saturday, September 2, from 9.30am to 4.30pm. The show is being organised by volunteers from the Society and has become a regular event in the genealogy calendar, and appeals to everyone with an interest in family history and local heritage. T here will be four keynote speakers, including genealogist Chris Paton, Dr Irene O’Brien of Glasgow’s City Archives, Ruth Washbrook of the National Library of Scotland’s Moving Image Archive, and Sharon Paton, whose talk will be on the life of the Duke of Hamilton’s estate during the 18th century. Family history societies throughout Scotland will also be attending, as well as local museums including Coatbridge’s Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life, New Lanark Mill, and Friends of Low Parks Museum. Organisations taking part will include North Lanarkshire Archives, Motherwell Heritage Centre, Lanarkshire Yeomanry Group, Friends of Cambusnethan Priory, and Shotts History Group. Professional genealogists from the Scottish Genealogy Network will join members of Lanarkshire FHS and FamilySearch in the ‘Ask the Experts’ area to offer free oneto-one advice. Specialist help will also be available on Irish and military research. Entry costs £2 per person, with talks costing £4 each. Children under 12 will be admitted with a paying adult. Information about tickets and lists of exhibitors can be found on the show’s website at http://lfhsshow.weebly.com/. Lanarkshire FHS will hold their first meeting of the new season in the GLO Centre, Motherwell on Thursday, September 14, at 7pm. The speaker will be Harry Doyle, who will talk about Admiral Thomas Cochrane, the 10th Earl of Dundonald and his connections to Hamilton. The Society will be holding its second monthly drop-in sessions in the Community Room at Tesco’s Airdrie Retail Park on Monday, September 11, from 7pm to 9pm. Members and non-members are invited to call in for assistance and advice on researching their family history. Breath Easy Clyde Valley group offers support for people who suffer from any form of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and their carers. This group is affiliated with the British Lung Foundation and provides advice and information relating to living with a lung disease. Their next meeting will be held in the Wishawhill Community Centre on Low Main Street (next to Wishaw Golf Club) on September 7, at 12pm. It is a friendly and informal group and meets over tea, coffee and biscuits. Meetings are free and all are welcome. Rotary Club Past president Bill McCallum was the final speaker for the Rotary Club of Motherwell and Wishaw’s summer session and chose the Clyde paddle steamers used during World War Two as his subject. Twelve Clyde-based paddle steamers were requisitioned in 1939 and originally formed into six mine sweeping flotillas, the seventh to the 12th. The seventh containing seven vessels was based on Rosyth and the 11th with five vessels was based in Greenock. By 1943, this had been reduced to one flotilla of three vessels based on Granton, near Edinburgh, and a further two employed on training duties. The remaining paddler steamer had been converted to auxiliary AA vessels, known as ‘Eagle’ ships or were used as accommodation ships. Paddle mine sweepers were originally armed with a 12 AA gun forward and several light AA pieces elsewhere, used for their own defence. HMS Mercury with her fellow four vessels was based at Ardrossan, on the Clyde in the 11th flotilla. In the mid 1940s it consisted of HMS Goatfell, HMS Helvellyn, HMS Jeanie Deans, HMS Mercury, and HMS Scawfell. Ardrossan was also the home port for other units and the base support ship was HMS Fortitude. The flotilla moved around the country and supported other flotillas to clear mine fields as necessary. In 1940, the flotilla moved south to sweep the Channel and support the Dunkirk evacuations, after which they transited west, operating for a period at Portland. Katrina Gibbons thanked Bill for his interesting presentation and talk. The pigeon derby winners were Jim Robertson, Andrew Murray and Peter Cleland with Gordon Megahy picking up the weekly bonus ball. Dalziel St Andrew’s Parish Church There will be two services of worship held in the church this Sunday, at 11am and 6.30pm. All sections of the Sunday school, Fusion group, and crèche welcome children at the morning service, which is also available live via the website (dalzielstandrews.org. uk) and for catch-up on later on You Tube. The service includes British Sign Language (BSL) signing and electronic note taking to assist those who are deaf or hard of hearing. In addition, all are welcome to come along and welcome baby Amelia into the church family when she is baptised during the morning service. The evening service will be a special songs of praise event with hymns being signed by the church’s regular signers, as well as some of its own members who have been learning BSL. Refreshments will be available in the hall after this service. The first messy church event of the autumn will be held in the church next Sunday, September 10. The event will start at 3.30pm, with refreshments served and activities for the kids including games, crafts concluding with a meal at 5pm. There will be no charge made for attendance. Those intending on coming along are asked to register on the church’s website. Youth organisations are now active again following their summer break. The Monday and Wednesday prayer groups resume at 7.30pm and 1pm respectively and existing and new members are welcome. This year’s harvest thanksgiving will be an all age service on Sunday, September 17. Donations will go to help the work of the Tear Fund charity, who has, for many years, assisted the world’s poorest people. All are welcome.

Cambusnethan

Cambusnethan Club Entertainment begins with social dancing in the concert hall plus cash bingo on Thursdays and cabaret and dancing plus bingo on Fridays. Saturday sees cabaret and dancing in