Heritage lovers in the Borders are being invited to join a special workshop to investigate and record the hidden history of Hawick, Galashiels and Selkirk. On Saturday 26th November at the Heart of Hawick Heritage Hub, participants can find out how to become an ‘Urban Detective’, helping uncover and record Hawick’s secret history for future generations.
The session will be run in partnership by Live Borders and Scotland’s Urban Past (SUP), a five-year community-engagement project from Historic Environment Scotland that puts local communities in charge of recording the history on their doorsteps.
Members of the public are asked to come along to the Heart of Hawick Heritage Hub with a story to share, old family photographs, or information about the urban places they live in. The session will show them how to contribute the history on their doorstep to the National Record of the Historic Environment through the SUP website.
Chiara Ronchini, Project Manager with SUP, explained: “The National Record is a bit like a digital time machine, holding images and information about more than 320,000 sites in Scotland. There are photographs, maps, architectural drawings and more – but this is the first time members of the public have been able to upload their own records and research.
We are really looking forward to enriching the National Record with photos, sketches and stories of the places that matter to people in Hawick and the Borders.”
Examples already contributed to the National Record by members of the public through SUP include the background to a family-run soap works, a 1921 newspaper extract about a ‘Startling Discovery’ in an Edinburgh tenement, and black and white photographs of 1960s interiors from the now demolished Woolco workers accommodations in Cumbernauld.
Morag Cockburn, Education and Outreach Officer with Live Borders, added, “The Heritage Hub, home of the Scottish Borders Archive and Local History Service, is excited to be hosting this unique workshop.
It is a great opportunity for the community to ensure the rich history of the Scottish Borders is captured and represented on the National Record.”
The workshop will be held at Heart of Hawick Heritage Hub on Saturday 26 November, 11am-12.30pm.
For more information and to book your place, visit www.scotlandsurbanpast.org.uk.
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Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design 2016
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