Diary
January 2017 Meeting
Our first meeting of the new year will take place on Thursday 19th January at 7:30 pm in the Abbey Church Halls, as usual.
Hugh Walker will present “The History of Sanitation”. This talk comes to Dunfermline Historical Society highly recommended and should prove an interesting and entertaining evening.
Hugh was brought up in Coventry, and after graduating, spent his working life in the electronics industry at Hewlett-Packard South Queensferry, working in design and marketing of products for the telecom industry. His local history interests include Dunfermline’s Linen Industry, and he wrote two books on the subject in the early 1990s which were published by the Carnegie Trust. His current project is recording the history of the HP South Queensferry factory which closed in 2010 and has since been demolished. Hugh’s interest in sanitation stemmed from some DIY projects a few years ago and the search for a toilet with a realistic flush!
All welcome.
December 2016 Meeting
Our Christmas social event this year will be held on Thursday 8th December, in the Abbey Church Hall. This year, we have arranged something we haven’t done before – we are having a film show. Talisman Films Scotland will be presenting “Nostalgic Dunfermline”.
There will be two films, Brian Ovenden, the Chairman of Talisman Films will introduce them and Gordon Ellis will answer questions afterwards. Gordon, along with his wife Maryanne and Bill Gourlay founded Talisman 34 years ago.
This promises to be a very enjoyable evening and we hope to see you all there, but please remember this is an event for Society members only.
April Meeting 2016
Sharron McColl – ‘Louise Carnegie – the Woman behind Andrew Carnegie’
21 April 2016
Many of us in Dunfermline know quite a lot about Andrew Carnegie, but how much do we know about his wife, Louise? She was an American, who first met Carnegie when she was 23, and seven years later they married. Carnegie was then 51, and they remained together until his death thirty two years later. She must have played a very important role in the second half of his life, where he put his philanthropic ideas into practice.
Sharron McColl is a reference librarian in Dunfermline. She has lectured to the Society previously and is an expert on Louise Carnegie. In this talk she will tell us the story of her life.
March Meeting 2016
Matt Storey – ‘Bede and his Works’
17 March
Matt has worked in Historical Education since he graduated with an MA in Medieval Studies from Leeds University. He is currently the Pier Project Co-ordinator with Sunderland City Council.
He was Operations Co-ordinator at Bede’s World when the Society visited last year during the Northumberland Spring Trip, and has previously worked there as an Education Assistant, Volunteer Co-ordinator and Education Team Leader.
Those of you who were on the trip will remember Matt’s tremendously enthusiastic and informative tour and will be looking forward to hearing much more about Bede and his works at our March Meeting.
February Meeting 2016
Thursday 18 February
Ian Archibald – ‘Shipwrecks of the Forth’
Ian is Convenor, and a founder member, of Burntisland Heritage Trust. He is involved in designing their summer heritage exhibitions and has helped develop the local Heritage Trail walks.
He is a former Cartographic and Geographic Information Systems Manager for the Crown Estate Office in Edinburgh and before that worked for the Ordnance Survey as a land surveyor and survey manager.
For many years Ian was much involved with the search for the ferry the ‘Blessing of Burntisland,’ which sunk in July 1633, carrying the treasure of King Charles 1st….. We are looking forward to hearing all that he has to tell us.