NAPIER HALL, 312 Dumbarton Road, Old Kilpatrick G60 5JH : OKFP
ACCESS : By car or bus. This is in the heart of Old Kilpatrick. There are ramps that avoid the steps and remote button controlled doors.
Napier Hall has been the Community Hall for Old Kilapatrick for many years and has been managed by West Dunbartonshire Council. In recent years though it had been under utilised and had become in need of a thorough makeover.
In mid-2023 the future of the hall was called into question and several groups submitted notes of interest. One of these was OKFP - Old Kipatrick Food Parcels - and it is this that has made a tremenous mark on the community by setting up their base here. What had been begun in response to the dire conditions during and because of the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown, has evolved into a very successful community project.
As their website proclaims : Welcome to OKFP Foodbank and Community Hub and Pantry, a social space created to provide residents of WDC with access to Food Toiletries, activities, a place to meet and make friends and to find information on multiple local Support Groups and organisations.
Our project was born out of the needs of the most vulnerable and isolated members of the Old Kilpatrick Community. The Founders Maureen and Gordon Cummings sought to help in practical ways to ease the difficulties faced by the community during the first Covid lockdown. Initially providing food items with the support of owners of a local bar who offered us the use of their function suite to distribute foodparcels and we started our project on May 5th 2020. Since that time we have secured a permanent home in a warehouse unit and between May 2020 and October 2021 OKFP has provided emergency food and toiletries to over 12,000 people in our community and we have been assisted by almost 100 volunteers during that time. In March 2021 we were delighted to announce that Old Kilpatrick Food Parcels became a Registered Charity – SC080754.
A plaque in the entrance proclaims :
NAPIER HALL
LIEUT JAMES NAPIER
OF THE DRUMS
TO THE VILLAGE OF OLD KILPATRICK
IN APPRECIATION OF THE SERVICES
OF HER SONS AND DAUGHTERS
IN H.M. FORCES 1939-1945
AND AS A THANKSGIVING THAT
THE VILLAGE SURVIVED THE ENEMY
BOMBING OF MARCH 1941
------
THIS HALL WAS OPENED
BY MISS E. M. NAPIER
ON THE 5TH SEPTEMBER 1958
The very fact that it was gifted by Lt Napier in recognition of the contribution of the community during WWII means that it is a monument to the impact of the war on the local people, lives lost, property destroyed and contributions in numerous other ways. Today, under the OKFP, it again epitomises how the community can come together to support each other in difficult times.
The centre acts not just as a source of food and other basic supplies. It is also a community hub, a social space created to provide residents with a place to meet and make friends and to find information on multiple local Support Groups and organisations. Lt Napier would have been well satisfied in this outcome.
We have already noted that Lieutenant James Napier gifted the hall to the community. But who was he? There had been someone of almost the same name and rank in the previous war. Whether he was related is uncertain. The Napier family played a very significant role in the developement of Old Kilpatrick, most specifically through the shipbuidling industry. That yard was closed in 1930.
A very pleasant offshoot project is the Wee Chatty Cafe near the Saltings. That is described in more detail here : index.asp?pageid=737533
Use the side entrance where there is easy access.
Inside you will find a cosy atmosphere for a cuppa and a blether. To one end there is a range of food products for you and your pets and sanitary items.
The plaque in the entrance commemorating the services of the community to the war effort - and to Lieut James Napier who donated these premises.
While the main focus of agression by Nazi Germany was on Clydebank, The Blitz also impacted on other areas, in particular, those with shipbuilding or industries that could potentially contribute the defence. So Old Kilpatrick was drawn into the war. The Napier shipyard was then still productive and an obvious target.
I.M.M. Macphail in his book, The Clydebank Blitz focuses mainly on that intensive period of bombing in Clydebank just a few miles away, but the implications were felt here too. Another interesting and more pertinent description is given in a BBC website, the link to which is given below. It gives an account by Jean Ferguson (nee Cooper) who at the time was a child growing up in these conditions. These were experiences felt by a great many people of all ages.
Also see : NAPIER AND MILLER SHIPYARD : index.asp?pageid=737539
BBC : MEMORIES OF GROWING UP IN OLD KILPATRICK & BLITZ STORIES : The contributions on this site are mainly taken from an archive of recordings taken in 1983. As part of the Peoples Network Project the McLean Museum, in combination with Inverclyde Libraries, through the Mclean Museum in Greenock. That referred to here is an interview with Jean Ferguson (nee Cooper). : https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/user/44/u537644.shtml
Clydebank Post : https://www.clydebankpost.co.uk/news/23625910.old-kilpatrick-groups-say-future-napier-hall/
MACPHAIL, I.M.M : The Clydebank Blitz. 1991. ISBN : 0852790619. Cordall Ltd. Glasgow.
OKFP website : https://okfp.org.uk/
WIKIPEDIA : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napier_and_Miller
