Get hands on with history in new community project
Local residents are being asked to get hands on with history by taking part in a nationwide initiative to record the littlest local landmarks in Scotland’s towns and cities.
The initiative comes from Scotland’s Urban Past (SUP), a five-year community engagement project from Historic Environment Scotland that puts communities in charge of recording the history on their doorsteps. The SUP project is part of the celebrations for the Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design 2016.
Volunteers can become ‘Urban Detectives’ by submitting photographs and location coordinates of Edinburgh’s tiny buildings to the SUP website. Users are also invited to take measurements and sketches, all of which will become part of Canmore, Scotland’s online record of architecture, archaeology and industry.
This national record is a digital time machine, holding images and information about more than 320,000 sites in Scotland. But with many places still to be recorded for future generations, SUP is turning to local Urban Detectives to help fill in the gaps – starting with the smallest sites in Auld Reekie.
Queen Mary’s Bath House (above), built in the 16th century in the gardens of Holyrood Palace, is just one of the many tiny sites to be investigated by Urban Detectives. Despite its name, this curious, asymmetrical building was most likely to have been a garden pavilion rather than a bath house. The peculiarly-shaped summer house lies on the east side of Abbeyhill and is believed to be the earliest surviving garden building in Scotland.
Other small structures for Edinburgh-based Urban Detectives to investigate include watch towers built to protect burial grounds against grave robbers in the days of Burke and Hare, and the sedan chair house in Tweeddale Court – possibly the smallest listed building in Edinburgh. This stone built shed is a rare survivor of the Georgian period and once stored sedan chairs – enclosed cabins carried on poles by two bearers. For those who could afford them, sedan chairs provided a quick and efficient way of travelling around the city.
Chiara Ronchini, SUP Project Manager, said: “People throughout Scotland will be bringing our national collection to life by telling the big stories of our tiniest buildings.”
“Our dedicated digital team have made it easy to contribute information to Canmore on mobiles and tablets, as well as PCs and Macs, so you can even add a snapshot of local landmarks such as police boxes on your way to work.”
“Every contribution will be accessible to the wider public, helping to build a detailed and accessible history of our urban heritage by the people who live within it. It’s a great opportunity to help document the Borders, past and present, for generations to come.”
SUP provides free training, support and resources to people of all ages to help them discover and share the fascinating stories of Scotland’s towns and cities.
Free workshops for Urban Detectives will be taking place throughout Scotland. For more information, visit www.scotlandsurbanpast.org.uk
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