Pupils at Duncanrig Secondary School in East Kilbride have helped make history - by adding their creative skills to a project that has been decades in the making.
This local history project that began almost 40 years ago and is finally getting its moment, after first getting a front page story on the EK News of January 7, 1983.
A new booklet - Village Voices - will feature creative and colourful artwork which will complement the text which was created from the stories told by residents of the Village.
It is being donated to every care home and school in the area for people to learn, engage and reminisce.
This project was spearheaded by Rhona Young, Children’s Librarian and Scott Broadfoot, Local History Librarian at East Kilbride Central Library, who worked closely with staff from Duncanrig Secondary School and their librarian.
Hazel Brown from EK Heritage group was also vital to the project.
It began in the 1980s when a group of graduates were tasked with interviewing older residents in the area about life before the new town.
These fascinating stories and tales by many residents, some in their 90s at the time, gave a fascinating insight into the past.
The oral history tapes which were recorded still exist in East Kilbride Central Library and are in the process of being digitised for everyone to hear.
At the time when these stories and tales were collected and painstakingly transcribed by hand, it was decided that an accessible collection of the highlights should be made.
This became a well-used teaching aid used by the local history department and children’s team at the library.
Now thanks to Duncanrig’s Art department and pupils, funding from Voluntary Action South Lanarkshire (VASLan) and help from the EK Heritage Group, the old black and white photocopied pages with hand drawn images in a well-used ring binder, have been given a massive makeover.
Hazel Brown from the East Kilbride Heritage Group said: “When we heard about funding on offer from VASLan we thought this would be a great opportunity to progress this project that we had been talking about completing for a while.
"We gave the text a little polish and then approached the school for help, with the team from the library.
"We are really happy with how this all came together for the 75th anniversary of the new town too, and we plan to now give out copies to all the care homes and schools in the area to use in teaching history and to get people to engage with the history of the area."
Scott Broadfoot from East Kilbride Library added: “It really is great to get this fascinating collection of memories and stories out to a wider audience who will really benefit from it.
"We’ve worked really hard to make sure many projects are launching in this historic year for the town.
"There’s also a collection of spoken stories we are digitising with the help of our volunteer Chrissie Taylor, who wants to work in this discipline."
Ian O’Hara worked on the original project and visited the library early this year to enquire about his old project and has written an introduction to the booklet.
He said: “We were lucky to interview over thirty different people including a 96- year-old former policeman, George Greig, and fireman who worked in EK Village as far back as 1912.
"We decided that it might be useful to produce a local history resource for primary schools from the many varied memories within the tapes.
"Unfortunately we did not have a budget to produce a schools resource pack of any great quality. "
Booklets will also be available for lending from the libraries in the area, or can be purchased for a small donation to the EK Heritage group, with the proceeds being used to print more copies and with hopes to make a run of the book in large print.
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