Category Archives: Scottish History Events

Upcoming Local History Event: Tales from the Tweed

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News reaches us of a local history event that we think AddressingHistory users/blog readers, particularly those in the Borders, may be interested in. This guest post from Heather Rea, Edinburgh Beltane Network, explains the project and event Tales from the River Tweed: 

One intrepid family are about to begin a 97 mile storytelling trek along the River Tweed. Equipped with walking boots, waterproofs and a ukulele, Ross Winter and Sophia Collins, and 6 week old baby Taliesin, will walk from one end of the Tweed to the other this September. It’s all part of a project to celebrate the River Tweed, its landscape and its stories.

People on the Banks of the Tweed by Flickr User Bods / Andrew Bowden

People on the Banks of the Tweed by Flickr User Bods / Andrew Bowden

The family will stop at various places along the way and put on events – in village halls, pubs, museums and schools. Each event will feature traditional storytelling and talks from Tweed experts, followed by a ‘story sharing’ session where members of the audience can tell their own tales about the river. “Scotland is world-famous for its natural landscape, and also for its story-telling tradition, so it seemed to make sense to bring them together.”, says Sophia.

“This is the first project of its type in the world and we’re delighted that the Scottish Government and Creative Scotland have been forward-thinking enough to fund it.”

“I like the idea that the river has seen so much history and has always been a place that people are drawn to, a thing that connects people together” says Ross. One way that they’ll be ‘connecting people’ will be through their website which will include photos, drawings, journals and audio recordings of stories they have collected as they walk along the river, and from the people they meet. Sophia says:

We’re like wandering medieval bards, but with laptops, iPhones and sound recorders.

Find out when and where the events will be and follow their journey on the Tales from the Tweed Blog: http://talesfromthetweed.wordpress.com

You can also view a Preview here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you have tales from the River Tweed to share please do get in touch with Sophia, Ross and Taliesin would love to hear from you and to welcome you along to the events they are planning. Contact details are on the website and Sophia can be contacted via talesfromtheriver@gmail.com.

Guest Blog Post: SPIRES Network Technological Spaces Event

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We have a short guest blog post this week from Mòrag Burgon-Lyon of SPIRES who have an event coming up in October that should be of interest to those using AddressingHistory.

SPIRES is a network for researchers, young, old and somewhere in between, in academia, industry and leisure.  They run seminars and workshops, provide travel funding for these and other events, promote discussion and generally support members in any way they can. Anyone can join SPIRES (it’s free!) and you can find out more about how to do this on their about page.

The SPIRES (Supporting People who Investigate Research Environments and Spaces) network would like to invite some leisure researchers to join our next workshop on Technological Spaces at City University, London on 7th October.  We aim to get people together from academia, industry and leisure research for networking, and to better understand the physical, social and digital environments in which research is conducted.

The day will comprise short talks of around 15 minutes on various topics, discussion sessions and group activities.  Confirmed talks include a digital curator from the British Library about the Growing Knowledge exhibition and some academic projects on digital tools including SerenA (a Serendipity Arena) and Brain (Building Research and Innovation Networks).  More talks are in the pipeline from academic and industry speakers.

If you would like to present a short talk about your research, and the tools (digital and otherwise) you use, we would love to hear from you!  If you would rather not present a talk, but would still like to attend the workshop, or just join the SPIRES network (it is free, and there are lots of benefits) please get in touch.  Assistance with travel costs is available for workshop attendees, (though please check with me before booking travel) and lunch will be provided.  Contact @SPIRES13 on Twitter, or email m.burgon-lyon@hw.ac.uk.  Further information is also available on our website http://www.spires.info

Story of a Nation

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Last spring we blogged about “Story of England” (titled “English Story” at the time), a major Michael Wood series looking at the history of England through the prism of the community of Kibworth in Leicestershire. The AddressingHistory team very much enjoyed the series when it was aired last year particularly as the series placed the local community at the centre of its explorations of the history of the place and its people. We are therefore delighted to hear that a follow up series, Story of a Nation is currently being developed!

Story of a Nation will be looking at the history of the entire UK and the programme makers, Maya Vision International, have been in touch to see if we can help with a rather specific request for help. The team are seeking possible projects in Scotland around the Black Death and around Calvinism. The production team are keen to ensure that these projects involve the local community – as they did for Story of England – and are very interested to hear any possible ideas for projects or to connect to existing activity around Scottish history of this era.

For instance you might be aware of colourful local accounts or archaeological sites that relate to the Black Death or the surrounding era (from around 1300 to around 1500). It may be that your local history or community group may have a special interest in, or your ancestors may have strong connections to Calvinism in Scotland, the Protestant Reformation or indeed to key figures of this movement such as John Knox. Or it could be that you enjoyed Story of England and had a great idea for a project that would work in your local community for these historical periods.

So, if you or your local history or archaeology group are already active in this area, if you know of a particular connection or have a great idea to explore further then please get in touch with us (addressing.history@ed.ac.uk) as soon as possible and we will forward your message or contact details to the team at Maya Vision International.

We think this will be a really interesting series so would definitely encourage you to send in your ideas!

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