Monthly Archives: February 2013

Kilmarnock Family Heritage Day

by bmcuser

Last weekend we held our first Family Heritage Day, with two workshops lead by author and storyteller Judy Paterson. These workshops were relaxed and informal, and designed to get our families talking about their own stories and sharing stories of Kilmarnock’s past. Our staff were also on hand to guide the young people and adults through some of the wonderful local history and archive materials that we had out for browsing.

Family Heritage workshop 1

The young people and their parents, grandparents (and godparents) were able to get hands-on access to a wide range of material, including old Kilmarnock newspapers and periodicals, maps, photographs, and archive material. Our Archivist delved into the Kilmarnock Town Council Minutes of 1830 to share the extraordinary story of Mr Green the Aeronaut, who set sail in his hot-air balloon from the Cross that summer.

Family Heritage workshop 2

Judy Paterson set off the workshops by sharing some stories of her own town, Inverkeithing in Fife, and also brought along some fascinating objects that had their own stories, for example the canonball she found in her garden! Participants were asked to bring in objects of their own, and to share the stories behind them. There were some brilliant photographs and artefacts, all with very personal stories attached, and all with some connection to Kilmarnock’s past and present.

Family Heritage workshop 3

The participants even managed to squeeze in some very worthwhile research! One family found out why their garden was a particular shape, while another found their old family business listed in the Kilmarnock Directory.

The favourite story was that of the Sour Milk Rebellion at the Kilmarnock Cross in 1829 – which Judy Paterson brought to life wonderfully. We were able to look at detailed maps of the town centre from that period to get an idea of the town’s marketplace and the streets and buildings nearby. As well as telling stories, Judy got stuck into some hands-on research with the participants (pic below).

Family Heritage workshop 4

The Family Heritage Day was a great success, and we hope to do far more that encourages families to learn about their local heritage, and to share and pass on their town’s stories.

These workshops were kindly supported by Historic Scotland, Heritage Lottery Fund,  and the Live Literature Fund, which is supported by The National Lottery through Creative Scotland and managed by Scottish Book Trust.

 

Copy of HLFHI_BLK    Print     SBT logo

 

A visit for our Kilmarnock Periodicals

by bmcuser

A team of academics from Glasgow University’s School of Critical Studies visited us to see the Kilmarnock Periodicals collections last week. Professor Gerard Carruthers, Dr Rhona Brown and Dr Pauline MacKay had a close look at this very special little collection of periodicals printed in the town from 1816 to 1900.

Copy of 4a

There is particular interest in The Kilmarnock Mirror and Literary Gleaner, containing an early print of a letter by Robert Burns (more detail on this in our previous post Discoveries in our Kilmarnock Periodicals). Professor Carruthers, Co-Director of the Centre for Robert Burns Studies, is particularly interested in this letter as part of his work on the Editing Robert Burns for the 21st Century project.

Copy of 3a

We hope the visit will lead to more academic interest in our collections. We have exciting plans ahead for further engagement with the University of Glasgow and Burns Scotland.

Professor Carruthers will be back at the Burns Monument Centre on 27 March for the workshop ‘Burns and Kilmarnock’ alongside John Burnett. See our Events page for times or to book a place phone .

Upcoming Workshops

by bmcuser

We have a mass of activity in the coming weeks, including this series of Heritage Workshops. These are designed to bring our collections to a wider audience, using storytellers, crime writers, comic artists and academics. They are supported by Scottish Book Trust, Historic Scotland and Heritage Lottery Fund, and they are free!

standard-BMC-workshops

We also have a workshop for schools, featuring graphic novelists Metaphrog on 6th March. This workshop promises to be very exciting – much more to follow!

Our Town is Kilmarnock, 1949

by bmcuser

The latest title in our digitisation programme is this fascinating book from 1949, an official publication of Kilmarnock Town Council. Guides such as this were common in this period, and served as advertisements for the successes of the town, it’s industry, amenities and people. Other guides were more explicit in their intentions, sometimes being sub-titled ‘An invitation to industry’.

The immediate post-war years saw massive changes to Kilmarnock, particularly in the booming housing sector. The Town Council Minutes of 1945-46 show that the first of the major housing schemes, e.g. Shortlees, Bellfield and Onthank, were being built or planned at this time. Our Town is Kilmarnock gives some excellent stats on employment and industry, and some fascinating insights into public spending at the time. It’s particularly pleasing to see the Librarian at the heart of the Council graphic on page 8!