An archery medal from the 1850s has been discovered and returned to the Kilwinning Archers in a special presentation.

The inscription reveals the medal was ‘Presented by John Crichton, a Captain General of the Society, on the 3rd August 1858’.

It had been ‘inherited’ along with other artefacts associated with the Ancient Society of Kilwinning Archers from their predecessor organisation the Kilwinning & District Preservation Society.

It is believed that this medal had come from a Mr D.J. Mitchell Bolton who had been the Town Clerk of the former Kilwinning Council and also a solicitor in the firm of King Sons & Paterson.

This firm had been involved when John McGavin attempted to revive the Society in 1880 and Hugh King had been the Society’s last treasurer in 1870 when it fell into abeyance.

The medal, by now black with age and virtually unreadable, had lain undisturbed with these organisations for many years - until the society made a catalogue of all of the medals.

It was only after the medal had been cleaned that they were able to identify that it was won by John Crichton.

A subsequent search of the records confirmed that he did win the Papingo award in 1857 and that a medal had been fitted to the Silver Arrow the following year in 1858.

There was some confusion however since the medal was dated 1858 and not 1857 when he actually won it.

A club spokesman explained: “When a member wins the Silver Arrow, becoming the Society’s Captain in the process, he presents a medal, marking the event, and fixes it to the arrow.

“He would generally do this at the following years meeting, admittedly, but he should date it with the year that he actually won it.

“John Crichton had dated it, following the example of several other winners at that time, with the date of presentation rather than that of winning. The records for 1857 show unequivocally that it was John Crichton who won the Silver Arrow that year.

“The medal count of the following year of 1858 is shown as one hundred and nine an increase of one, confirming that a medal had, in fact, been fitted.

“The medal was then ‘lost’ from the Silver Arrow at some point after this date.

“This probably occurred around 1869 when the medal count in the Society records, that up until then had been correct, remained at, what was by now, 117 when, with the fitting of William James Smith Neill’s medal of 1869, it should have increased to 118. (One medal being fitted and one being lost at the same time and the count remains the same!)”

“John Crichton was a landowner from Dalry and owned a corn mill in Kilwinning. His house, now demolished and the site of a housing estate, was on the Dalry to Kilwinning Road near the present day Lidl’s supermarket.“

Last week’s presentation to the Kilwinning archers was attended by Provost Ian Clarkson and Andy Baird of Kilwinning Heritage, provided backround on the medal and its discovery