FIFE LOCAL HISTORY FORUM 13 NOV 2024
Five of us attended a Local History Forum event at Kirkcaldy Old Kirk, on Wednesday 13th November 2024. This was chaired by Sara Ann Kelly and hosted by OnFife, with financial support from ‘Welcome to Fife’. The aim was to learn from each other as well as hear from experts on what’s happening locally and nationally, and what’s available to help us. About 100 people attended, many of us bringing stalls showing what we do.
Kirkcaldy Old Kirk was new to all of us – we were charmed to find that the building was finished in 1500. This makes it pre-Reformation – one of very few church buildings of this age left in Fife or indeed anywhere in Scotland. It has been refurbished as a very comfortable conference venue, with raked seating and lots of space for exhibitions. See http://www.kirkcaldyoldkirk.org.uk/
The programme started at 10.15am with a welcome from Linn Williamson of the North Fife Tourist Association. Tourism is a major part of the Fife economy, and Linn pointed out that their services are open to organisations as well as businesses. They will advertise events, exhibitions, tours etc on their website, ‘Welcome to Fife’.
Next we were given an introduction to the Old Kirk Project by Catherine Anne Cassidy of St Andrews University’s multidisciplinary Open Virtual Worlds project – https://www.openvirtualworlds.org/
After this, Steve Connolly told us about the Scottish Local History Forum, a national umbrella organisation established I 1983 to support the work of local museums like ours. There are currently about 300 members, with membership costing £28 for individuals and £35 for organisations. See https://www.slhf.org/
Before lunch, Grania Diver gave a talk on ‘Community Stories and Archives’, based in Register House, Edinburgh. See https://www.scottisharchives.org.uk/explore/your-scottish-archives/ – This organisation runs workshops and events and offers training on such topics as oral history. They currently have two years’ funding to help communities across Scotland to explore the wealth of their archival materials, addressing ‘the reality that archives held by community groups are at risk without professional intervention and support.’
We had a 90-minute break for networking and eating our packed lunches, and for the more adventurous delegates to climb the steeple! Sandra and Dave took up this challenge and came back safely – Sandra’s photos are attached.
We then had three further addresses. John MacIver presented the community magazine ‘Back in the Day’, set up by the local history afficionados of Kilmany, Creich and Flisk. Then Frank Connelly told us about Dunfermline local history association’s experiences of working with the Dunfermline Press, a relationship which has led to considerable benefits on both sides. And finally, Aileen McFarlan gave us an account of the Eco Museum of Scottish Mining Landscapes – a virtual museum in that it has no physical presence but provides a forum for ex-mining areas to explore their history via walks and talks, exploring the heritage and memories of places. Kate from our group had an interesting conversation afterwards with the speaker, who suggested that our history of extraction – ie the quarries – might make us eligible for inclusion in their project. This would be a useful area to explore further as the magic word ‘funding’ was involved.
Sharron McColl of OnFife rounded up the day with a summary of the presentations, and chaired a Q&A session; we finished at 3.30.
This was a full-on day, with a mountain of information to absorb. It’s clear that there is no shortage of help, advice and inspiration for Fife people with a local history interest. More volunteers needed!
