Views of North Berwick & Vicinity (2)

October 1, 2015 by Scran | 1 Comment

So far this week Law Primary School have thrown themselves into their research & investigation using Scran.

Yesterday, P5 used their digital detective skills to look at local heroes. The class then applied impressive, creative writing skills to produce some brilliant biopoems – all about local father & son, John & Freddy Marr. Here’s a sample of their hard work…

John or Daddy

Friendly, Brave, Jolly, Caring

Father of Alfred, Grandad of Chris

Who loved gannets, coastal nature and communicating with local people

Who felt happy, free and calm

Who feared damage of nature, hate and sharks

Who wanted to see dolphins jumping and red sunsets

Who lived in North Berwick

Marr

Written by Rosie P5

Image © Portrait of John Marr, East Lothian Museums Service. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk

Views of North Berwick & Vicinity (1)

September 22, 2015 by Scran | 3 Comments

Scran will be working closely with the P5 class at Law Primary School in North Berwick throughout next week. Together we will be examining lots of local content and weaving what we find into our learning journeys.

As well as being digital, weather permitting, we’ll be taking to the skies with our camera & K.A.P. kit. So please, fingers crossed for fair weather over East Lothian.

Many of the resources we will use in class come from East Lothian Museums Service who are contributors to the collections on Scran. For example, this rather quaint souvenir is leather bound and originally contained 15 black & white photographs with tinted skies. It was published by Valentine of Dundee around 1895, so it gives us a clue as to how long people have been visiting the beautiful seaside at North Berwick.

What more will our Primary 5 digital detectives be able to discover about where they live? We’ll be looking at lots of aerial imagery, considering how the town has changed and expanded over time. We’ll think about traits & trades which may have remained the same and finally, when we reach the end of our collaborative investigations, we will share our findings – so tenterhooks until then.

Image © East Lothian Museums Service. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk

Cypriot Lace

September 17, 2015 by Scran | 0 comments

You may have read our blog post last week Empowering Communities in Cyprus? Well look what we found at the back of the Scran linen cupboard! It’s a piece of Cypriot lace in the form of a table mat, from around 1935. This beautiful sample forms part of the National Museums of Scotland (NMS) collections shared via Scran.

The Needlework Development Scheme was set up in 1934 to encourage greater interest in embroidery and to raise the standard of design. Financed anonymously by J & P Coats, the intention was also to form a collection of British and foreign embroideries to which colleges of art and other institutions could have access. The aim was never to have a representative collection but rather to collect items purely on the quality of their design. A series of four embroidery experts were employed to oversee the collection and their international outlook is clearly represented in the collection.

In 1961 the Scheme was disbanded and its collection of over 3500 pieces of historic and contemporary needlework was dispersed to various museums and art colleges in Britain. The Royal Scottish Museum acquired 213 pieces and an exhibition was held in 1965 to show this magnificent gift.

Image © National Museums Scotland. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk.

On Show at the Colony of Artists

September 14, 2015 by User deactivated | 0 comments

Archive images from Scran were exhibited this weekend as part of the 10th annual Colony of Artists event at Abbeyhill in Edinburgh

Colony of Artists takes place every September when residents of Abbeyhill Colonies, a series of streets in the east of the city, open their doors to the public to show a varied collection of artworks that they have produced. More than 30 artists in 20 venues open their homes, to show painting, drawing, photography, mixed media and much more. In recent years this mix has grown to include music, storytelling, baking and street performance.

Scran’s images were first used in last year’s event when Neil Gregory of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), joined forces with Abbeyhill resident Hilary Burwell to produce a pop-up exhibition about the history of buildings in the area. This showcased some of the area’s now defunct industries, churches and former school buildings. Many of the photographs in this exhibition came from the archives of RCAHMS and were taken as part of the organisation’s remit to survey and record Scotland’s built environment, particularly sites under threat from demolition or radical alteration. Scran was able to offer a social historical perspective to the show, as Neil Gregory pointed out: ‘The images on Scran, especially pictures from the Scotsman archive, were perfect for adding social context to the pictures of local buildings that we were showing, and it triggered so many memories for residents.’

This year saw Hilary scale-up the exhibition, moving venue from her own home in the Colonies to the nearby Artisan Bar. Moving images, oral histories and portraits of local residents also formed part of the show and residents were encouraged to contribute their own archive material to the event.

A favourite Scran image on show featured a lorry crashing into the Artisan pub building on London Road. ‘This really got the stories going,’ commented Neil Gregory, ‘A lot of people remembered this event from 1969 and the near catastrophe that could have happened if the driver hadn’t had his wits about him as his vehicle careered down Montrose Terrace!’

Images © N Gregory, The Scotsman Publications Ltd. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk

Empowering Communities in Cyprus

September 9, 2015 by Scran | 0 comments

Thanks to Archnetwork, Scran will be participating in one of their wonderful learning programmes. We will be finding out about European diversity in cultural & natural heritage in Cyprus!

Scran, Tunnock’s & Tartan – a selection of Scottish favours for our Cypriot hosts

Kato Drys, is a traditional Greek Cypriot Village at 650 metres in the foothills of the Troodos mountains. The village is a centre for teaching about sustainable rural development. It was a partner in the ‘Leonardo da Vinci – Development of Innovation’ project 2010-13 and is entitled a ‘Green Village’. During that project the Community Council, led by the Muhktari (Mayor) Nikos Vasiliou and European Officer Panayiota Demetriou, worked on the themes Empowering Communities, Rural Food and Wood Products.

Now in 2015, Kato Drys Community Council in partnership with Archnetwork (within the framework ‘Erasmus Plus’) offer placements for education staff. Each placement revolves around a structured training course. The themes of the course follow two basic strands, culture or nature.

Culture – that’s where Scran fits in. So we’ll be bringing you updates from our overseas expedition in the coming weeks. We’ll share what we learn here on #Scranalogue and via Twitter @Scranlife, keeping you posted on the finer things in life, such as pottery firings and lace making. Along with our colleagues from The National Trust for Scotland, Strathnaver Museum & Caithness Horizons we’ll be visiting the Turkish Cypriot State, in Northern Cyprus and revealing some poignant Scran records related to the 1974 conflict.

So, follow us & find out what we get up. We are hoping our Tartan & Tunnock’s favours survive the journey and our hosts enjoy a wee taste of Scotland.

Morningside Memories at The Open Door

September 4, 2015 by User deactivated | 0 comments

Scran shares its images with the Good Neighbour Club at The Open Door in Edinburgh

The Open Door, is a vibrant social centre in the capital’s Morningside. It runs a successful cafe and offers day services and art and creative writing groups for older people, people with mental health issues and other vulnerable people. The Good Neighbours Club meets here every Tuesday.

Scran was invited to join the group to present a slideshow showcasing local content from the Scran website. Eighteenth-century maps and early photographs from our RCAHMS collections took us back to a time when Morningside was simply described as ‘a row of thatched cottages, a line of trees and a blacksmith’s forge’. Photographs from our Scotsman collections led us through 20th-century Morningside where we encountered steam trains and trams and the sad demise of Morningside Road Station. Shops on Morningside Road, schools, cinemas and public houses all featured. The session stirred some interesting chat about school days, wartime evacuation and local dance halls.

It was exciting to discover that The Open Door’s premises are situated adjacent to the former site of the railway station and exiting the building via a side door brought us bang up to date as we were privy to views of the deserted old station platform and the former ticket office, now the home of a chartered accountants and a newsagents.

Scran is a rich source of material for reminiscence practice. Our 20th century social history collections include The Scotsman Publications Ltd, Hulton Getty and the Scottish Life Archive. There’s also audio and video material available. Reminiscence Kits on Scran offer curated collections of images on themes such as Tenement Life, Stars of the Movies and Man on the Moon.

For more images of Morningside through history have a look at our Pathfinder: Looking Back at Morningside, Edinburgh.

Image © The Scotsman Publications Ltd, Station Master and Head Driver tend flower beds at Morningside Road Station, Edinburgh. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk

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Archive images from Scran were exhibited this weekend as part of the 10th annual Colony of Artists event at Abbeyhill in Edinburgh

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Scran shares its images with the Good Neighbour Club at The Open Door in Edinburgh

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