| Tuesday 8th May
2007 |
Could Peeblesshire become
a 'green county'? Produce more green energy than it
consumes
and
become carbon negative.? How could it be done, what would the effect be
on the environment? How would it affect our standard of living. A presentation by the U3A Science and the
Community Group. |
| September
2008 |
THE
MINES AND QUARRIES OF WEST LINTON- Susan Oakes
West Linton¹s present idyllic rural setting hides a surprisingly
active industrial past. Susan Oakes has been researching the mines and
quarries of the area for over twenty years and her talk will be about
the fascinating history of some of the 50 sites she has discovered.
These include many coal mines, stone quarries, brick works, lead
mines and an ironstone mine.One site, dating back to the 12
century, has recently revealed some stunning
archaeology.Material recovered by Susan from this site has added
significantly to the medieval artefacts collections in the National
Museum of Scotland. Sue will also touch on the desperate working
conditions in the mines, where whole families were employed,
including children as young as 6 yrs., in horrendous
circumstances.This intriguing talk, illustrated with slides, highlights
a neglected part of our heritage, industrial archaeology. |
November 2008
|
Scots
Emigration since 1840.- Alan Cameron
Whenever Scots talk about emigration the picture which tends to be seen
is of the Highland Clearances. While very dramatic this is very far
from the whole story. In terms of numbers of emigrants they represent a
minority, and from only one part of Scotland. The story is much more
complex, and there are few Scottish families that do not have, and
continue to have, relatives in North America, Australia or New Zealand.
That leaves aside the many who went south to London or the other
industrial areas of England to improve their prospects.This talk will
look primarily at North America, and emigration,
sponsored or otherwise by men who believed that `bare-breeked' boys
would have an opportunity to improve their lot in a new country.
|
|
| January
2009 |
Heather
Anderson will
speak on why organic local food is essential to
achieving sustainable carbon neutral agriculture in Scotland - and the
small part her farm is playing in that endeavour. |
| February
2009 |
| Dr Miles K Oglethorpe -
The Forth Bridge: A
Major Internationally Important Engineering Monument
Synopsis:
The Forth Bridge is currently on the UK tentative list of World
Heritage Site nominations,
but has yet to be nominated. A review
of
World Heritage Sites and the UK Tentative List has been commissioned by
DCMS, Historic Scotland and Cadw, and, assuming that the decision is
made to continue nominating British sites for world heritage site
status, it is likely that a new list will be compiled. There is
therefore a genuine danger that the Forth Bridge might be omitted from
the new list of UK candidates, so the aim of this presentation is to
discuss its significance both in a UK and international context.
The
presentation will therefore attempt to put the bridge into a historic
context, and will describe the construction process that brought it
into being. It will then consider the international significance
of
the bridge, identify the stakeholders who would be affected by a world
heritage site nomination, and assess the extent of the surviving
associated records and documentation. It will then conclude by
discussing the extent to which the bridge is recognised in Scotland,
the UK and beyond.
Miles
Oglethorpe is Head of Policy Liaison and Modernisation within the
Inspectorate at Historic Scotland, the Agency responsible for
safeguarding and promoting the historic environment within the Scottish
Government.
|
|
March 2009
|
David Galloway,will talk on earthquakes in general ... along the lines of what is an earthquake,
why and where they occur, deadly earthquakes, the damage they do and the casualties they cause
.... both in the UK and worldwide
|
April 2009
|
Gerald Bakker will
celebrate the 40th birthday of Stirling
University by describing the early days of
establishing the structure of the university, the project for the first
phase building the Pathfoot Building that had to be realised to a
very
short timescale to receive the first students. He will take
the story
up to the end of phase 2 where the university reached 3000 students and
make a brief comment on developments that have taken place since his
practice had completed its task.
In the late 1950s it was recognised
that a considerable expansion of the nation's universities would be
needed to cope with the increasing numbers of school leavers and
the students' aspiration to receive a higher level of
education. The
'Robins Report' studied the needs and it established that there were to
be two new universities in Scotland as well as expansion of those
exiting institutions.
Stirling was chosen as the first of
the new universities in Scotland and Gerald was lucky to move to the
Edinburgh practice of Robert Matthew Johnson - Marshall and Partners
and to join the new team of architects and planners setting about the
task of creating the new University of Stirling.
|
May 2009
|
A member of Médecins
Sans Frontières, Dr Christa Hook, gave a talk on her work
in war affected countries
|
| June 2009 |
Juline Baird will an
overview of historical archive
collections held at the Scottish Borders Archive and Local History
Service and work being done to highlight treasures and create greater
access to the collections. The talk will include an insight into
work
with schools and community groups and will pick out some of the
treasures the staff have uncovered and worked on.’ |
September 2009
|
Campbell McLellan - The Life of the Osprey,
Covering the history of the osprey & local
birds with
up- to- date information. He has volunteered at
Glentress & Kailzie for the past 6 years. |
| October 2009 |
Exploring the
John Murray Archive: An illustrated talk
by curator David McClay which will uncover incredible stories from the
archives of the John Murray publishing house, who were responsible for
the works of Lord Byron, Jane Austen, Charles Darwin, David Livingstone
and many more |
November 2009
|
Mount
Sinai: Christian history, Bedouin culture and good walking, Talk
by Gordon Wilkinson
Gordon
runs a company called Yalla
Jabaleya! which
works with the local tribe, the Jabaleya, to introduce visitors to
the very special history, culture and environment of the Jabaleya
homeland.
Mount
Sinai and the Monastery of St Catherine have a rich history of
biblical drama, desert asceticism, cults of the saints and regional
politics, a place of pilgrimage and artistic marvels with the finest
collection of early icons in Christendom and the most important
library of ancient Christian manuscripts outside the Vatican.Gordon
has been living in the Bedouin village at the foot of Mount Sinai for
the last two years and will talk of the Christian history, Bedouin
culture and local ecology of the region.
|
Jan 2010
|
RCAHMS
at the junction of the Eddleston and Tweed'' David
Easton
Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland
(RCAHMS)
The
talk will be about the Peebles area, but more generally material
from RCAHMS that may be of use to researchers in your area.
The illustrations will include maps, historical photographs, air
photographs, both vertical and oblique and
some recent work our
air photography section has completed. The subject matter
will be both archaeology and architecture.
|
| Feb
2010 |
| Robyn
Marsack, Director of the Scottish
Poetry Library
since 2000, will talk about the Library, which
celebrated its 25th
anniversary in 2009, and Scottish poetry of the last 25 years. From
Edwin Morgan to Kathleen Jamie, this has been a rich and varied
quarter-century in Scottish poetry, and the SPL continues to be a great
place for exploring it all – and for poetry beyond these borders. |
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