Trails and Tales Consultation 2013
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1 East Dunbartonshire Leisure and Culture Trust Cultural Services Trails and Tales – Heritage Lottery Project – Consultation Contents 1.1 Introduction 1.2 An Authority Overview 1.2.2 Challenges 2.1 East Dunbartonshire’s Heritage 3.1 The Project Team 3.1.1 Archives 3.1.2 Museums 3.1.3 Tourism and Planning 3.1.4 Corporate Communications 3.1.5 Partners 4.1 Consultation 4.2 Informing and Consulting 4.3 Who was Consulted 4.3.1 East Dunbartonshire Heritage and History Forum 4.3.2 Baldernock History Group 4.3.3 Bishopbriggs Local History Group 4.3.4 Campsie Local History Group 4.3.5 Lennoxtown and Campsie Heritage and Preservation Group 2 4.3.6 Forth and Clyde Canal Society 4.3.7 Friends of Lenzie Moss 4.3.8 Kirkintilloch and District Society of Antiquaries 4.3.9 Lenzie History Society 4.3.10 Milngavie and Bearsden Historical Society Bearsden Local History Group 4.3.11 Milngavie Heritage Centre 4.3.12 Thomas Muir Society 4.3.13 Torrance Heritage and History Group 4.3.14 Twechar Heritage Group 4.3.15 Whitefield Pond Regeneration Association 4.4 Youth and Volunteer Consultation 4.4.1 Dialogue with Youth Groups 4.4.2 Taster Workshops and visit to RCHAMS 5.1 Community Consultation with Focus Groups 5.2 Findings from the Consultations 6.1 Benefits 6.1.2 Volunteers 6.1.3 Community 6.1.4 History Groups 6.1.5 Young People 6.1.6 Schools 6.1.7 Our Organisation 6.1.8 Partners 3 7.1 Challenges 8.1 Successes 9.1 Outcomes from the Consultation 9.2 Comments from People Involved 10.1 Next Steps 4 1.1 Introduction East Dunbartonshire’s Trails and Tales programme is an authority wide participatory project using the arts and creative processes as a vehicle to engage people in their Heritage. The project will span a wide breadth of local history from the Roman era to the industrial age exploring industries, heritage items and buildings, folk lore, and ways of life in small villages and towns. A key element to the project will be the development of Heritage and Arts Networks and the delivery of a substantial volunteer programme. These participants will have the opportunity to gain skills in a number of traditional production techniques with a view to supporting successful transitions in employment, education, or engagement in the wider world of volunteering opportunities. Film making and oral reminiscence will play a large part in recording memories and engaging younger people in heritage learning through digital technologies. What will be produced will be physical and web accessed learning. The entire programme is made up of intergenerational and multigenerational learning experiences with the opportunity for groups to share their experiences with one another through workshops and events facilitated by artists. The project spans the entire community of East Dunbartonshire and concentrates provision where it is needed most. The activity plan and volunteer action plan is exciting and ambitious. Both have been informed through community consultation and are a direct response to what the community wants and the intervention the community needs. Through consultation we established there is enormous enthusiasm, passion and support for exploring Heritage in East Dunbartonshire. Through the engagement with 13 Heritage groups and 11 communities we have established the founding members of East Dunbartonshire’s first 11 local Heritage and Arts Networks. Numbers may be small but we the members are driven, willing and very supportive of the Trails and Tales Programmes aspirations. What we will create as a final legacy is unique to East Dunbartonshire and potentially wider Scotland. A series of 11 community led physical sculpture trails in response to rich heritage learning and also a series of virtual trails created by participants in response to the activity programmes. All virtual information will be shared through the Trails and Tales website. This programme will enable us to significantly increase the level of involvement of people in heritage learning through the arts. It will produce sustainable results through the creation of a community led legacy from which future generations will learn and will create the infrastructure to enable life long celebration of Heritage and the Arts in East Dunbartonshire. 5 1.2 East Dunbartonshire, An Overview Demographic East Dunbartonshire lies to the north of Glasgow bounded by the Campsie Fells and the Kilpatrick Hills. It is a strategically significant location for economic, social and environmental development between the city and the gateway to the Highlands through the West Highland Way and eastwards through the Kelvin Valley. With a population of 104,570 East Dunbartonshire is in the mid-range of Scottish local authorities in terms of population and covers an area of 77 square miles. It comprises an attractive mixture of urban and rural areas that includes the following suburban and rural settlements of Auchinairn, Baldernock, Bearsden, Bishopbriggs, Kirkintilloch, Milngavie, Lenzie, Milton of Campsie, Lennoxtown, Torrance, Twechar and Westerton. During the decade, 1991-2001, the population of East Dunbartonshire remained stable, with only a slight decrease of 1,150, representing just over 1%. However, during 2001 and 2011, there was a further decline by 3,680 to a figure of 104,570. Recent population projections by the Registrar General for Scotland suggest that the population of East Dunbartonshire will decline by around 10,000 over the next twenty five years. Significantly, the number of school age children is expected to fall by a quarter during this period, whilst the population of pensionable age is expected to rise by a quarter. Based on these projections, by 2035, almost a third of our population will be over the age of sixty five, and we will work to develop a strategic response to meeting the challenges and demands of our increasingly ageing population. 1.2.1 Attributes East Dunbartonshire provides an outstanding natural environment, which is attractive to a wide catchment area. It is flourishing with relatively high levels of home and car ownership. Educational achievement is high, whilst unemployment is substantially lower than most other areas of Scotland. East Dunbartonshire is one of the safest areas in mainland Scotland in which to live and offers a healthy environment with life expectancy rates for men and women well above the national average and the highest of any other Scottish area. 1.2.2 Challenges East Dunbartonshire has areas of social deprivation. From 2004 - 2009, the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD), which presents data relating to employment, income, health, education, training and housing, identified four areas, Hillhead, Twechar, Lennoxtown and Auchinairn, as being the areas with the most deprived Scottish data zones in East Dunbartonshire. Funding from Fairer Scotland Fund allocation between 2008 and 2011 supported targeted activity to these areas. The latest update to the SIMD in 2009 indicates that a substantial gap still persists between our prosperous communities and those that face multiple problems including above average levels of unemployment, ill health, fear of crime, poor educational 6 achievement, low income, inadequate housing, poor environment and low levels of confidence. 2.1 East Dunbartonshire’s Heritage When the new Strathkelvin District Libraries and Museums department was established in 1975, following local Government Reorganisation, it was felt that a good way to foster District unity would be to establish a District local Studies Collection with which all citizens of Strathkelvin could identify. This would embrace both Library and Museum materials and would include books, pamphlets, leaflets, ephemera, maps, prints, paintings, photographs as well as the archives of local authorities, firms, local organisations, families and individuals. Library materials were first located at the old William Patrick Library with Museum objects held at the Auld Kirk Museum (the former parish church) at Kirkintilloch Cross, the nearby Barony Chambers also became part of the museum provision. In partnership with Museums and Gallery Scotland East Dunbartonshire carried out research into the Heritage of the area, including Archaeology and Built Heritage, Mesolithic and Neolithic Bronze Age, Early Medieval Iron Age, Roman Era, Medieval, Industry and Commerce, population and Infrastructure, Community Life, Agriculture and Land Use. Little of the main industry in the past of weaving, mining, and foundry work remains however many of the villages and small towns hold much of that heritage. The canal and railway enable the industry of the past and the creation of the commuter and garden suburb of the present to flourish and answers the question “Why are we here?”. The canal, although no longer supporting the old industries plays an important part in the leisure industry of today. The railway enabled the commuter towns of Lenzie, Bearsden and Westerton to be established. There are several active historical and heritage groups across the local authority providing a focus for people to enjoy lectures or to engage in active research some of which has lead to publications. The area is rich in history of industry, people and places. Across the country there are many reminders of the works created at the Lion Foundry of Kirkintilloch such as the intricate work of band stands, railings, gates and, probably most famously, red telephone boxes. The Roman remains creates interest from historians not only locally but across the world. Thomas Muir and Tom Johnston are major political figures well recorded and recognized however many other significant people identified by local communities require researching and recording. The area provides many opportunities for Leisure pursuits for example the West Highland Way, Mugdock Country Park, Campsie Fells, the canal and the water works. 3.1 Establishing a Project Team The first task was to identify a group of people representing key departments within the local authority (Trust and Council) and also the voluntary Heritage and History sector , who could support the consultation period through knowledge, skills and advocacy with 7 the hope that these key members would continue to support the programme as it developed.