Category Archives: History

Whiteadder Excavation Announcement!

There is an upcoming excavation on the promontory in the Whiteadder Reservoir, targeting an anomaly visible on the LiDAR. See the area map, below, showing the location of the site.

Excavations will take place from Monday 16th March until Saturday 21st March, inclusive.

There is no cost to participate in the excavation and it is open to all. You do not have to be available the whole week to participate.
No tools, equipment or experience is necessary as full instruction and training will be given in several aspects of excavating and recording.

Please use the contact form, below, if you are interested in volunteering. Further details of meeting location and time will be available, closer to the excavation, to those who have indicated their interest.

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    East Lothian Archaeology and Local History Fortnight

    East Lothian’s annual Archaeology and Local History Fortnight is from 31 August – 15 September 2019, organised by East Lothian Council Archaeology Service.

    There will be lots of different events, from walks and talks to archaeological digs, providing an opportunity for everyone to get involved in the heritage of East Lothian.

    This year has the biggest programme ever with lots of exciting events. Download the programme or pick up a copy at a local library or museum.

    Oral History Project

    Caroline, Phillip and Elaine would like to extend their thanks to Father Mark, Father Raymond and Brother Philip for participating in Garvald’s oral history project. Their interview will be added to the archives at Edinburgh University soon.

    Also, please note that the tearoom up at Nunraw Abbey is now open for business so if you’re out for a walk, do take the opportunity to call in for a cuppa.

    Remembrance Day 11th November 2018

    For those people who have been knitting poppies as part of the nationwide project to mark 100 years since the end of World War I, we will have our final session for collecting the poppies into a display on Monday 29th October from 6.30 pm until 8.30 pm in the Stables.

    We already have several hundred poppies.

    The poppies will be on display in Garvald and Morham Churches before and after Remembrance Day.

    Arrangements for this especially significant Remembrance Day are on the attached poster.

    Oral History Project

    Some of you may have heard about the oral history project which is currently being undertaken by the Friends of Garvald Church, in conjunction with researchers from Edinburgh University (https://www.regionalethnologyscotland.llc.ed.ac.uk).

    A training session has been arranged for anybody from Garvald who is interested in volunteering as an interviewer and collector of oral history.

    The session will take place on Saturday 20th October at 10.30 am in The Stables and should last approximately 2 hours. The training is completely free.

    If you are interested in participating please contact Caroline McGregor:

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      Church Tour

      Thank you to everybody who came to the church last Sunday afternoon for the archaeology talk. The talk was very well attended and really interesting.

      Garvald Heritage Evening – Great turnout!

      June 29th 2018

      Thanks to everyone who came along earlier this month to hear and talk about the heritage that we have right here in Garvald. It was a great turnout – special thanks to those who helped out – especially on the tech front and for the delicious baking.

      For those who couldn’t make it, we’d like to take the opportunity to give a brief summary about the evening. It came about because the church is in need of some repair work and a small group (Dave Neillans, Caroline McGregor, Stephanie Leith, Phillip White, Jo Robertson) has been looking at the scope of repair work and funding options. Funders generally like to see community benefit so we are interested to hear about any ideas for increasing use of the church, alongside the regular worship.

      At the meeting we presented the idea of the church accommodating a small exhibition about the history of the village. We had become aware of a project involving recording people’s memories of East Lothian, which is being run by Edinburgh University. Recordings gathered in this way could form part of the exhibition, so we went ahead with a pilot interview. We are grateful to Hamish Gibson for agreeing to be our first interviewee – we were able to hear clips from this interview at the meeting. It was great that a number of you expressed interest in this aspect of the project – a great way to capture the many stories about Garvald in living memory.

      We also asked everyone who came along to share ideas about use of the church – these included concerts (of various musical genres), information on the graveyard, walks starting and ending at the church, a community exhibition space, weddings, amateur dramatics.

      We do not yet know how much the repair work will cost, and have applied for funds for a condition survey to be undertaken. This will give us a target figure for fundraising. We are setting up a Friends Group for the church which will have its own facebook page and contact email. In the meantime, if you would like to find out more about the project – the repair work or memories (oral history) aspect – please get in touch via the contact form below:

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        Invitation to meeting 6th June – Garvald’s heritage – church and memories

        PRESERVING GARVALD’S HERITAGE 

        Garvald Village Hall, WEDNESDAY 6th JUNE, 7.30 pm until 9 pm

        • Information about an exciting oral history project and the chance to get involved
        • Return visit from John Gray Centre archivist with new photograph collection
        • Update on plans for restoration of Garvald Church (including 1960s film footage of the Church)
        • Launch of a new Community Group and an opportunity to share your ideas

        REFRESHMENTS – ALL WELCOME!

        history project poster wednesday 6th june, 7.30-9pm

        flyer

        WW1 Centenary Poppy Project

        2018 marks the centenary of the end of WW1 and there will be a very special Remembrance Day in November. Many communities throughout the country are responding with a project to decorate their War Memorials, graveyards and Churches with knitted poppies. We would like to do the same in Garvald and we are calling on all knitters, crochet-meisters, and crafts-people to help produce a large number of poppies. Janet Winter at 5 Burnside Court has a ball of red wool and a small amount of black for the excellent price of £1.50 and she will oversee the collection of the poppies. A knitting pattern is attached here. Crochet patterns can be found by searching on-line.

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        Time to dust off those knitting needles and crochet hooks and rediscover a forgotten skill.

        Watch this space for news of a knitting bee in The Stables later in the year!