Monday 5 December 2011

Minding Merkinch

Jamie our Audio Engineer gets things set up on Saturday morning  
The Minding Merkinch Project got underway this weekend with our first workshop ‘Memories of Merkinch’. This was an oral history drop in session were local residents came and told us about their memories of Merkinch. After a slow start on Friday night we got a few hours of good recording from a range of people. The younger folks on Friday were provided some tales of Merkinch Primary and the older residents on Saturday confirmed that not too much has changed in the school in the last 60 years.
Residents in full swing

The best story of the day defiantly goes to two gentlemen who wile taking us on a tour of Merkinch in the 40’s stoped to tell of a lady they both remembered from their childhoods:
‘No one more like a witch were you ever likely to see going round the place on a big black bicycle with a basket on the front…and she had a big red nose so she never needed a light…’
Needless to say some of the story was lost in the ensuing mirth but the rest of the tour will make a valuable addition to the local archive and I may not look at old back bikes in quite the same way again.


Richard recovers after the recording
As well as providing some grate stories for the archive the workshop has also provided some direction and new information on what features people in Merkinch find interesting. These include the welfare hall on Grant Street and St. Michal and all Angles church on Abban Street which in 1902 was taken down and moved from a street across the river. The next workshop will hopefully be on photo recording and we can get out and about to record some of these buildings as they are now.                  
If you would like to follow the Mirkinch project I have just set up a Facebook group at:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Minding-Merkinch/301237556573411

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