Scranalogue

Culture Heritage Learning

Armistice Memories

September 1, 2015 by User deactivated | 0 comments

‘London was fair heaving, perfectly heaving’

We’ve got a new interview from the Ian Landles Archive (© Scottish Borders Council Archive Service) uploaded and live on Scran with a full summary. And it’s an exciting one! Former railwayman, George Cairns, born in the Scottish Borders in 1899 and interviewed by Ian Landles in 1981, shares his memories of working as a porter and then a signalman on the Borders Railways. He also relates his vivid memories of the eleventh of November 1918.

soldier World War One

Before joining the railways, Mr Cairns signed up for the army. This was in the last year of the First World War and Mr Cairns was sent to train in Surrey. He never saw active service because he was struck down with ‘flu during the epidemic of 1918. As he recuperated in hospital in Lewisham in London, the Armistice was signed. To celebrate, Mr Cairns was allowed to leave hospital with his pal and travel up into London. He witnessed the crowds, got plenty of attention in his military uniform and made his way through the ‘heaving’ throng of The Strand and right up to the gates of Buckingham Palace where he read the historic proclamation declaring the Armistice which had been pinned there. He also saw King George V and Princess Mary as they paraded through the streets in their carriage.

It’s a fascinating story and well worth a listen. You can access the full interview with George Cairns here and find out more about the Ian Landles  Archive on Scran here.

And railway fans, watch out for our upcoming @scranlife Twitter campaign for The Ian Landles Archive launched to coincide with the reopening of the Borders Railway on 6th September. It’s coming soon #IanLandlesArchive #clickhear.

Image © National Library of Scotland, Cheering Soldiers, Western Front, 11 November 1918. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk

Scuilwab – Great for Scots language

September 1, 2015 by User deactivated | 1 Comment

If you want to incorporate some Scots language into your classroom, our friends at Scuilwab can help. Run by the lovely people at Education Scotland’s Scots Language department, it’s aimed at “Teachers an young people fae nursery tae university.” It features links to Scots dictionaries, activities, downloadable resources and even a “Wird o’ the month”.  Did we mention that it’s free? Take a look!

Scuilwab home page

Scuilwab, a great Scots resource.

Blogging Bootcamp #2

September 1, 2015 by Scran | 1 Comment

Scran is limbering up for Blogging Bootcamp #2 on Glow this afternoon.  jackies2_09309212

We’ve even got our favourite sturdy pair of Doctor Martens from 1994 ready for the occasion. The Scran staff hope to learn a bit more about blogging – as well as sharing information about Scran, copyright, digital assets and our schools outreach work.

If you are taken by our lovely green Docs and fancy more fashionable footwear, why not browse through historical and contemporary shoe designs here.

Image © Victoria & Albert Museum, Pair of Dr Martens boots. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk

Out & About with Scran

August 31, 2015 by Scran | 2 Comments

Are you planning to visit a local historic property? If so, you may be interested to know that we have a whole host of new Pathfinders on Scran, investigating Historic Scotland properties.  They are bursting with fabulous maps, photographs, film footage, reconstruction drawings, aerial views as well as information for teachers, attached in PDF format.imgzoom-image-0757-07570012

From Arbroath to Urquhart, many of these informative guides are also available in Gaelic, for use in the classroom or on site during a school visit.

So, if you are studying a particular castle, abbey or historic site in Scotland, these resources are a must.

Image © National Library of Scotland, Plan of St Andrews, c. 1580. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk

The Ian Landles Archive

August 26, 2015 by User deactivated | 1 Comment

A fascinating insight into the lives of Scottish Borders folk in the last century comes to Scran.

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This series of interviews and sound recordings collected by local historian, retired teacher and author, Ian Landles, between the 1960s and 2010 was originally started in order to preserve the memories of local men who had fought in World War One and is a great complement to existing material on Scran about the conflict. However, the archive also offers a rich seam of oral testimonies from local women as well as men and covers themes including the Hawick Common Riding, poetry and music, farming life and mill life and the original Border railways. Many of the interviewees speak in the local dialect of Border Scots known as ‘Teri Talk’ which gives the recordings great linguistic significance.

The collection of 150 tapes was donated to the Scottish Borders Council Archives at the Heritage Hub in Hawick by Ian Landles in 2014. Digitisation of the interviews was carried out by Tobar an Dualchais with financial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The Ian Landles Collection is also being made available through Scran in the form of segmented interviews with full summaries. Some transcripts are also available. Interviewees who talk about their life in the Scottish Borders include:

There will be regular new uploads to the site from the collection so do keep your eye out. We’ll keep you posted from our end.

Image © Scottish Motor Museum Trust, Alvis 1920s. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk

Kite Aerial Photography

August 25, 2015 by Scran | 3 Comments

Recently we’ve been getting to grips with the kite aerial photography kits provided by Dr. John Wells of the Scottish National Aerial Photography Scheme (SNAPS). As you can see we visited Tantallon Castle for a practice flight. We were quite pleased with our results & the potential for learning.

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We are planning on piloting this activity with schools over 2015/16, so if you are interested please contact us & lets’s go fly a kite! 

We believe exploring the aerial photography collections on Scran, in combination with the active learning involved in kite aerial photography, could lead to all sorts of creative learning.

For example, studying aerial photography can support the following Curriculum for Excellence experiences & outcomes within Social Studies.

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  • describe the major characteristic features of Scotland’s landscape and explain how these were formed (SOC 2-07a)
  • discuss the environmental impact of human activity (SOC 2-08a)
  • explain how the physical environment influences the ways in which people use land by comparing the local area with a contrasting area (SOC 2-13a)
  • use knowledge of a historical period to interpret the evidence and present an informed view (SOC 3-01a)
  • compare settlement and economic activity in two contrasting landscapes (SOC 3-13a)
  • explain the impact of processes which form and shape landscapes on selected landscapes in Scotland, Europe and beyond (SOC 3-07a)
  • evaluate the changes which have taken place in an industry and debate their impact (SOC 4-05b)
  • discuss the sustainability of key natural resources (SOC 4-08a)

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    Salisbury Crags Holyrood Park

  • assess the impact of developments in transport infrastructure in a selected area (SOC 4-09b)
  • describe and assess the impact of human activity on an area (SOC 4-10a)
  • explain the development of the main features of an urban area and evaluate the implications for the society involved (SOC 4-10b)

Falkirk’s First World War

August 24, 2015 by User deactivated | 0 comments

World War One memories of Falkirk people now available on Scran.

tape recorder

This three-part collection from Falkirk Archives has been digitised from original cassette tape recordings compiled for Falkirk Museum’s First World War exhibition held back in 1984.

Interviewees talk about life on the Home Front in Falkirk and away on the Western Front during the conflict. Women recall their roles working in local munitions factories and the attitudes of male workers in the factories to women at this time. There are recollections of the Suffragette Movement and when women gained the vote after the war. Men recall their experiences in the trenches during the conflict and remember the impact of The Armistice on those fighting at the Front. An interview with a female munitions worker in Falkirk during World War Two offers an interesting comparison.

Each Falkirk’s First World War interview comes with a summary with timecodes and a complete transcript.

Image © H L Foster

Up Close and Personal with The Scotsman Collections

August 23, 2015 by User deactivated | 0 comments

Skills for the Future (SftF) trainees, join Scran to gain experience working with an exciting digital collection – The Scotsman collection.

Scran currently hosts over 66,000 images from The Scotsman newspaper’s extensive archive. These were digitised from glass plate negative back in 1999 in preparation for the newspaper’s move from their iconic old headquarters on North Bridge to new premises at Holyrood Road in Edinburgh. The collection is an incredibly rich social-historical resource, documenting life in Edinburgh and its environs from the 1930s to the 1980s. However, very little contextual information was recorded and stored alongside the original negatives and captions that appear on Scran have been created over time from a range of historical sources.

SftF trainees, who joined Scran this summer for a placement, were tasked with carrying out some of this vital research on themed batches of Scotsman images, enhancing and editing existing caption information and metadata in an effort to make each record more findable on the Scran website.

FullSizeRender (10)Their placement also involved a visit to see the original glass plates housed at the Scottish Life Archive at the National Museums Scotland stores in Granton. Senior Curator, Dorothy Kidd, gave a guided tour and allowed the trainees to get up close and view the Scotsman glass plates for themselves.

The SftF/Scran experience culminates in a digital exhibition, curated by the trainees, to showcase the Scotsman collections on Scran. The exhibition opens next month at the RCAHMS Search Room, Bernard Terrace, Edinburgh.

Find about more about the Skills for the Future trainees and their placement with Scran on their blog.

Welcome

August 21, 2015 by Scran | 0 comments

Hot off the press, the Scranalogue has arrived. We are delighted to share what’s happening at Scran via our brand new blog. Keep up to date with new content arriving in our many collections, for example we’ve some great new oral histories about Falkirk during World War One.

See what we’re up to in the field trialling Kite Aerial Photography thanks to Scottish National Aerial Photography Scheme, SNAPS

Meet us in person, we’ll be busy exhibiting and supporting events throughout autumn 2015, starting with the Scottish Learning Festival quickly followed by Doors Open Day in Edinburgh.

Image © Scottish Maritime Museum. Wireless News from SS Athenia, 1933. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk

Aerial Photography

August 20, 2015 by Scran | 0 comments

On Scran there is a staggering amount of aerial imagery to explore & have fun with. Aerial photographs are simply pictures taken from above. There are two types of aerial photograph – vertical and oblique.jackies2_00996809

Vertical aerial photographs are taken with a camera directed straight down towards the ground, as vertically as possible, at a right angle or 90 degrees. They are usually taken from immediately overhead with a camera fixed to the underside of an aeroplane. Such vertical aerial photographs are often easy to compare with maps and can help develop mapping skills.

Oblique aerial photographs are taken at angles less than 90 degrees to the ground and are usually taken by a photographer through the window of an aeroplane. This oblique perspective allows us to see more familiar view of the landscape, where details of urban and rural land-use become obvious.

Landscapes, buildings & architecture and our whole environment and history can be appreciated in new ways by examining aerial photographs. For example, have a look at these very different aerial pictures of Clachnaharry, near Inverness.

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However, you don’t need an aeroplane to take aerial photos, another option is Kite Aerial Photography, which is a great outdoor learning experience. Aerial photographs can be used to illustrate various aspects of the curriculum, including Learning for Sustainability themes. Perfect for studying geography; aerial imagery can help answer questions about coastal activity, population density, economic activity, glaciers, commercial development, tourism and climate. Not to mention visual arts, archaeology, geology and various interdisciplinary approaches.

We hope you are able take the time to look at Scotland from a bird’s eye view on Scran.

Images © NCAP & RCAHMS. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk

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