National Records of Scotland

Preserving the past, Recording the present, Informing the future

Events, Talks and Visits

Events, Talks and Visits

Public Talks

21 March 2024, 5.00-6.00pm - Online Only
"It was a good life": Memories and Landscape in the Mining Communities of East Ayrshire
Dr Yvonne McFadden, University of Strathclyde
Book online

In this talk, Dr Yvonne McFadden will explore the role of place in remembering the miner’s rows in East Ayrshire. Little now remains of the row villages throughout Ayrshire but they live on in the memories of the villagers and their families. We will look at coalfield maps and through the stories of the villagers and their descendants, we will reconstruct the lives of the women, men and children who called these rows their home.

Under central housing policy in the interwar period, mining families were decanted into new social housing with modern amenities, with most villages emptied by the mid-1950s. However, there remained a strong attachment to the row villages. The impact of opencast mining around the area in some cases blasted these villages off the map. These lost villages are memorialised within the landscape today through the work of individuals and the local communities, to ensure this heritage is not lost for future generations.

Dr Yvonne McFadden is a lecturer and Co-Director of the Scottish Oral History Centre at the University of Strathclyde.

Book Online

 

Evening Class

Scottish Handwriting 1500-1700

Each year, NRS runs evening classes in palaeography on behalf of the University of Edinburgh's Office of Lifelong Learning. This practical course in Scottish Handwriting covering the period 1500-1700 is taught by archivists from NRS at General Register House in Edinburgh. The course runs for 10 weeks on Tuesday evenings from September with a second 10 week term starting in the following January. More information can be found on the University of Edinburgh's Short Courses pages, where you can also enrol onto the course.

Classes start at 5.30pm to 7.00pm on Tuesday 16 January 2024 at General Register House, Princes Street, Edinburgh. For more information on the course, please contact: [email protected]

Learning

National Records of Scotland’s (NRS) Outreach and Learning department supports learning for all age groups. Our Services for Schools are designed to support the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence and National Qualifications. NRS staff can also provide specialist talks to interested groups.

If you have any enquiries about our services, please contact: [email protected].

Past NRS talks

If you have missed one of our recent public talks, many can be viewed on the NRS YouTube channel