It’s officially summer, even if it may not always feel like it. That means that not only are schools now on holiday, but many of our supporters, staff and partners are as well.
That doesn’t mean the there’s nothing happening around the Heart though. Read on for some of the various events that you can come along and take part in and enjoy.
Don’t forget to check the website and social media platforms for up to date news.
The Knitted Christmas Tree update
The Knitted Christmas Tree is five months from opening day and is well on schedule. We are receiving green squares daily from West Sussex, London, Luton as well as every area of Edinburgh and the Lothians. Thank you for every single square and not forgetting the many beautiful tree decorations. We have 5000+ squares and 1000+ decorations.
We are having a series of sewing parties on Friday afternoons from 2-4pm. The dates are 5th July, 19th July and 2nd August. Everyone is welcome to come along. We are sewing the squares into triangles ready to go onto the branches and of course there is coffee, tea and cake!
The fantastic experts of Men’s Shed are busy constructing the trunk but it’s under wraps and no one but the men have seen it.
We had a great day at Leith Market describing what the project is about and thanks to Sara for generously giving us a stall. We met people from all over the world who were fascinated by what is happening and they took away our posting bags.
We are confidently expecting knitting from Texas, New York, New Zealand, Finland and Denmark to name but a few countries. Our Tree is going international and if anyone has a contact on the space station let us know.
More news next month
Save the Date – Tattie Fest 21 September 2024
Join us for our very first Tattie Fest at the Heart of Newhaven. We’ll be celebrating the garden and all thing potato-related at this free, community event.
Expect potato printing, potato fancy dress, a home grown tattie beauty contest and of course lots of potato eating!
If you’d like to get involved in organising, just get in touch with Hayley at bloomyogaedinburgh@gmail.com, and start growing your own now if you’d like to enter the beauty contest…
What’s on your bucket list?
Whilst developing the Crowdfunder with members of our Heart Dementia Meeting Centre we were able to identify some interesting activities; from indoor rock climbing to canoeing down the canal.
If you would like to help us with our blue-sky ambitions or simply support a member by ‘paying their membership forward’, please go to our crowdfunder and check out the rich array of ‘rewarding ideas’.
Don’t forget we have lovely rooms here at the Heart – perfect for meetings but also family gatherings over the summer.
We have a number of spaces available for booking, including meeting rooms, classrooms and workshop spaces.
We can cater to different types of events and meetings, whether for children’s parties, creative workshops, performance classes and rehearsals, board meetings or networking events.
Spaces can be booked for a single occasion as well as for regular sessions on a mid/long term basis.
More more information or to arrange a viewing of our spaces, please get in touch and we will be happy to help.
Teas and coffees can be provided for an additional charge and external catering arranged on request.
The tallest knitted Christmas tree in Scotland project has reached the halfway mark. The knitters are aiming for an ambitious height of between five and six metres for the tree, about the height of a giraffe, but are more than happy with progress so far.
The veritable army of knitters in Edinburgh and beyond has been busy knitting multi-toned green squares and colourful Christmas baubles and decorations for several months now, and are celebrating having reached the halfway stage. They now have 5,000 squares and need another 2,500 while the pile of decorations has reached the 1,000 mark, about half of what is needed.
The community project, based at the Heart of Newhaven Community (the old Victoria Primary School), has given people across Edinburgh a purpose for their knitting and is creating a real sense of community.
The squares are also coming from across the UK, sent by people who are happy to contribute to the imaginative project.
The tree is being supported by knitters in Edinburgh and the surrounding area as well as from as far afield as Liverpool, Southport, Luton, Norwich, Fife and Inverness.
Children at local primary schools have been learning to knit with the help of the Tree@ The Heart supporters and in return have been handing in their green squares. Local care homes have also been getting involved.
It is hoped the ambitious project will encourage donations which will go towards improved disabled access at the Heart while Homestart is the chosen local charity that will also benefit.
The Heart is now beginning to get ready for the official reveal on 30th November when the Tree will be the star of the show, but centred around the growing tree, there will also be a Christmas craft market and live music.
The team knows that there are many squares still out there but the Heart is open and ready to receive them all.
Apart from the current knit and natter sessions at the Heart (see the website Heart of Newhaven) there will now be new Friday afternoon sewing sessions to get the final branches ready.
They’ll be held on the following dates from 2 – 4pm: 5th July, 19th July and 2nd August.
The sewing sessions will concentrate on sewing the squares into leafy triangles ready to go on the Tree, while the trunk is being created by the craftsmen at the Men of Leith’s Men Shed, who are based at the Heart.
Everyone is invited to go along and join in at one of the knit and natter or sewing sessions. There’s always a warm welcome!
We’re excited to share further details of plans for our community picnic event this Saturday.
We’re looking forward to learning about nature and conservation with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), providing some fun activities for kids, offering a chance to refresh your wardrobe at the clothes swap, and hearing your views about the park and how we can make improvements.
All activities are free of charge, so just bring your family, friends, food and something to sit on.
Oh, and let’s not forget to keep hoping for a wee bit of sunshine!
General public and former whalers and their families sought to help co-design new online Whalers’ Memory Bank
In June 2023 the South Georgia Heritage Trust and the South Georgia Museum launched a project called The Whalers’ Memory Bank.
Supported by funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the project is about creating a living, growing digital time capsule where veterans of the whaling industry, their families and communities can come together to contribute and share their stories with a wider audience.
Since then, the South Georgia Museum has been busy collecting hundreds of stories, photographs and memorabilia from the former whaling communities – the response has been amazing.
But we want to make sure we tell these stories in a way that captures everyone’s imagination. Presenting stories in a way the former whaling communities want to see, but also in a way that appeals to a wider audience so they can understand this important slice of Scottish social history.
That is why we are putting out a call for anyone who wants to join us either for a short workshop or just drop in and find out more and give us your thoughts.
Over the weekend of 22 and 23 June there are a number of opportunities to join in and help us through a range of workshops and drop-in sessions that are taking place.
Saturday 22 June – we will be at The Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine. We will be running a workshop from 10.30am until 12.00 which we are encouraging people to book onto. We will also be running a drop-in session for general visitors to the museum from 2-4pm.
Sunday 23 June – we will be at The Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther. We will be running a workshop from 11.00am until 12.30 which we are encouraging people to book onto. We will also be running a drop-in session for general visitors to the museum from 1.30-3.30pm.
Each workshop will last about an hour and a half and we would welcome any former whalers and their families to come along, bring any memories or stories you want to share but, most importantly, be happy to help us shape our early thoughts and ideas on the Memory Bank.
But you don’t need to have had any association with whaling to join in. We are really looking forward to getting input and feedback from the general public so you can also either book onto one of the workshops or come and join us anytime during the drop-in sessions over the weekend should you be at either of the museums.
To book onto a workshop on either Saturday 22 or Sunday 23 May email memorybank@sght.org or just drop in if you want to join us for a more casual chat at the drop-in sessions.
Please note there is an entrance fee for both museums. Workshop attendance is free, but if you wish to visit the rest of the museum once it is ended there will be a reduced entrance fee of £4 for the Scottish Maritime Museum and £5 for the Scottish Fisheries Museum.
Helen Balfour, Community Engagement Officer for the Memory Bank said:“The story of modern whaling in the Southern Hemisphere is a controversial one with British companies playing a key role in the industry.
“These companies had a largely Scottish workforce, with many from Shetland. Now, only a dwindling number of men survive that have first-hand memories of this industry, an integral part of Scottish and Shetland’s social history.
“As someone from a family with many connections to whaling, I am conscious that this is story well known to some but not one that is more widely understood or discussed. We don’t only want to delve into the stories of whalers, we want to explore questions such as: why was whaling so important? how did it help power the world between the wars, and what was it like to live, and work from the remote island of South Georgia in the Southern Ocean?
“We have already done some workshops in Shetland in May where we really learnt a lot from whalers, their families and the community. We want to continue that work and hope to see as many people as possible over the weekend of 22 and 23 June to help us shape and tell this hidden piece of Scotland’s social history.”
Linda Fitzpatrick, Head Curator at the Scottish Fisheries Museumwho is also helping with the wider collections management of the project said: “This unique project has many features that resonate with the work we do at the Scottish Fisheries Museum to engage audiences with topics relating to the heritage and development of fishing technologies, including whaling.
“There is no doubt that reflecting on whaling is problematic: it was brutal and exploitative, and few would welcome its return. Nevertheless, the industry was an important feature of Scotland’s industrial development and generated a distinct and vibrant culture.
“This is an important moment, therefore, to reach out to ex-whalers and their communities to capture the living memories of those who took part in the industry and to preserve them for the future.
“We warmly invite anyone with an interest in the subject to come along over the weekend to either museum over the weekend of the 22 and 23 June.”
After all the recent rain, we were thankfully blessed with calm seas and brilliant sunshine for Gala Day last weekend.
The Queen was crowned, the bands played, hundreds of visitors enjoyed the festivities and activities outside and a good time appeared to be had by all.
Many took advantage of the occasion to venture inside the Heart where they were greeted by tours, teas and interesting table displays.
Thank you to you all for coming and enjoying yourselves and a huge thank you to the volunteers who helped make it all happen.
See you next year.
Art in healthcare – The Landscape has changed.
Come in and visit our new exhibition which features artworks from the Art in Healthcare collection.
It’s a selection of works that celebrate people and place and in particular draws on themes of communities that grew from fishing villages, living by the sea and coasts.
Some of the works have been selected by local people through a series of workshops, and artworks have been added and expanded. This began with identifying local artists and works that came from the Newhaven, Leith and then expanding to wider Edinburgh areas.
You’ll find it all the way up the red stairs in the Heart if the stairs are difficult there is a qr code at the bottom which allows you to see a virtual version. Come in and enjoy.
Grow
Gentle reader, after all the stimulation and hearts beating in expectation, it’s official and we can now tell you more about the recent filming in the Heart.
Sky has confirmed that GROW will air on the Sky Cinema channel next year. Bridgerton star Golda Rosheuvel leads in the family comedy about pumpkin-growing, neglected youngster Charlie (played by Priya-Rose Brookwell) and well-known British actors Nick Frost, Tim McInnery, Jane Horrocks and Alan Carr will also appear.
Golda Rosheuvel’s character, Dinah, finds Charlie, her lost niece, at an orphanage, aka the Heart, and takes her to her farm where she, and a field of pumpkins blossom.
Director John McPhail says “Grow is a joyous comedy about growth, nurturing and family, set in a world of pumpkin-obsessed, madcap characters but grounded in real relationships.”
We can’t wait!
Little Free Library
Our very own bookbinder, Cass (aka Bookbinding with Cass), has recently led an initiative to install two Little Free Libraries at The Heart of Newhaven, one for youngsters and one for adults. She had plenty of help from our other creatives so this has been a project with real, creative collaboration at its heart!
Leith Men’s Shed built and installed the library box structures, Susan Thomson, member of The Edinburgh Book Arts Group (which meets monthly at The Heart), worked with Cass to decorate the children’s book box and a mix of residents and members of the local community helped paint the black and white mural backdrop.
The community garden volunteers got involved with the design and Lorna Brown (Ik on Mesh) printed the design onto the box. The final step will be establishing a growing roof using donated plant cuttings inspired by the Sir Patrick Geddes quote – ‘By leaves we live’.
Cass would like to thank all those involved and give a special shout out to local resident Shona Littlejohn for her generous donation which covered the materials for this project.
Both Little Free Libraries have been created for you to use so we encourage you to take a book, read a book, exchange a book and/or donate a book – you can find out more about the Little Free Library network here, which currently includes over 175,000 Little Free Libraries in 121 countries!
If you’d like to get involved at the garden you’re very welcome to drop in on Mondays from 4-6pm or Thursdays 10.30am – 12.30pm. You can either dig in with the rest of the volunteers or you might just fancy finding out a bit more about what we have growing.
If you’d like to find out more please contact Hayley at :
The potatoes were sown in the community garden last month so mark your diary and come along on the 21st September for Tattie Fest. Expect creative activities, family friendly fun and lots of tatties!
Volunteers needed for a new project at The Heart
Our schooldays – memories and legacies Heritage tales from Newhaven, Trinity and Leith Harbour
The project will use the theme of ‘school days’ to connect via a series of workshops and events, people of different ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds to learn more about each other, and the changing local area by sharing their learning experiences.
A programme of activities will explore and creatively share these experiences. Participants will include pupils from our local schools and other community groups based around or within The Heart.
We will be working with highly experienced resident artists within The Heart, to deliver and develop these workshops, community events and a touring exhibition.
We are looking for volunteers for this project over the coming 18 months who would be interested in supporting this project specifically through:
Helping to evaluate the project through information gathering from project participants and through your observation of workshops and events. This could include using recording equipment and interviewing participants. Full training and support would be given throughout the project.
If you are interested in this voluntary role and would like more information, please leave your contact details if you visit The Heart or email the school days Project Co-ordinator, Simone via email: simone.kenyon@heartofnewhaven.co.uk
Heart Dementia Meeting Centre Update
The Heart Dementia Meeting Centre enjoyed a delicious bread making session recently, led by a member who is a keen and experienced baker. We are also excited to play host to the exhibition, now up in the lounge, from a collaboration betweenEdinburgh University and QMU celebrating five years of being bold: Bringing Out Leaders in Dementia. The nine panels on display show a range of poetry and images created in response to each creative session.
If you are awaiting a diagnosis, have recently been diagnosed with dementia or are living with mild to moderate dementia then the Heart Meeting Centre is for you!
June is Dementia Awareness Month and Meeting Centre manager Jan Brown will be hosting a Curiosity Café every Tuesday Morning from 11-12 noon in the Lounge for carers and families of people living with dementia and for folk who are curious about brain health in general and how to top up their cognitive reserves.
Finally, we’re celebrating the one-year anniversary of the Edinburgh Local Heritage Network (ELHN). The network was launched on the May 10, 2023 and was attended by HONC along with 16 representatives from a variety of other local community groups and now has 30 members.
The Lord Provost Robert Aldridge is Honorary President and the purpose is to develop and maintain partnerships between local heritage groups and with Council services, chiefly Archives, Libraries, and Museums and Galleries. Currently, the key focus of the ELHN is collaboration on the Edinburgh 900 programme with a focus on supporting local communities to celebrate this anniversary.
In connection with ELHN, the Heart was represented at the recent royal visit of the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Edward, and his wife, Sophie. They were treated to a grand reception in the City Chambers and we were able to chat about our plans for celebrating Edinburgh 900.
We’re finalising these ambitious plans, centred on the history of Newhaven now, and will update everyone after the summer, when the real work will begin in earnest. Watch this space.
In the meantime, here’s a photo of the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh in the City Chambers, listening to Shionka Kamikaji-Inkster, who played the clarsach at the end of the event and another of some of the ELHN members at the event.
Detectives in Edinburgh are appealing for information following an attempted robberyin Trinity.
Around 6.40pm yesterday (Saturday, 4 May, 2024) a man presented at the door of a home on Lomond Road with a knife and demanded money from the occupiers.
No one was injured.
Police are keen to trace a man described as being around 5ft 6ins tall, 40-50 years old, and of slight build. He was wearing a blue anorak, dark trousers, white trainers, white baseball cap and checked scarf covering face.
The man is also described as having a Scottish accent and walks with a distinctive gait.
Detective Sergeant Alan Sharp, of Edinburgh CID, said: “Our enquiries so far have established that this man attended at multiple properties along Lomond Road last night.
“We would like to speak to anyone who was in the area who saw or heard anything suspicious. Similarly, anyone with private CCTV, doorbell footage or dashcam of the area is urged to review the footage and bring anything significant to our attention.”
Anyone with any information can call 101, quoting incident 3144 of 4 May.
Alternatively, information can be shared anonymously with the charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
We hope the recent filming did not inconvenience you too much. We were excited to see what went on and can’t wait to see the finished result.
The production crew had to set up beforehand of course, replacing the ground floor window grilles that we had taken down and reintroducing grime and dirt that we had cleaned away, not to mention covering up umpteen things that were not in keeping with their vision of a run-down children’s home.
Then of course everything had to be reinstated when they had finished with the actual filming. We were quite exhausted!
We’ll keep you informed once the film is released and we can all see the results.
Building Works Updates
Final Handover
Findlay Wallace and Tommy Bell from Ashwood’s have finally completed the recent renovation works, and have handed the building back to Judy Crabb (Chair HONC) and Hugo Target (HONC Architect with John Gilberts) as pictured below.
It will be good to be free of scaffolding and hard hats but it was worth it!
Update on the Heart’s record-breaking Christmas Tree
Hello to the Heart’s army of knitters. The Christmas Tree Project is making great progress and we are one third of the way there, with lots of squares and decorations being delivered by hand and by post, but we still need you to keep knitting even when the sun tempts you outside.
We are planning to fireproof the squares and decorations that we already have, towards the end of May. Then in June we need volunteers to come to the Heart and stitch the squares ready to hang on the branches and of course there will be cake and tea for all those involved.
More about this next month.
On May 11th there is a craft fair at the Eric Liddell centre and we shall be advertising our Christmas Tree.
Please come along with your squares and decorations and support the Eric Liddell 100 celebration. We have been very fortunate to receive a donation from Bailie Gifford to help with our project, so many thanks to that organisation.Happy knitting and crocheting.
Open for Coffee
The recent Open For Coffee morning on Saturday 13th April, proved a great hit, with some hundred people coming along to enjoy the free food and entertainment.
The Scran Van rolled up to provide free lunches and the food was accompanied by musical performances from the Men’s Shed.
The free bicycle maintenance provided by EZ Bike Tours was also in great demand.
Role-Play teachers wanted
Our Partner, the History of Education Centre is keen to recruit some new role-play teacher volunteers for their Victorian Schoolroom.
The facility on the first floor of the Heart has been proving so popular for visits that new volunteers are needed to help cope.
Volunteers always work in pairs and the most common time to be needed is on weekday mornings.
Gala Day is fast approaching, when the Gala Queen and Fisher King arrive in the harbour and are met by a parade of fishwives and pirates to be escorted up to the grounds of the Heart for an afternoon of family fun.
This is the biggest local community event of the year, and we need your support to make it the success we all enjoy.
Can you help us serve refreshments on the day? Can you help steward and keep people safe? Can you help us to promote activities that go on at The Heart? i.e give out leaflets, talk to people and get sign-ups to our newsletter?
The Dreadnought Shanty Crew was originally started in January 2020 at The Dreadnought Pub and shortly after ran into heavy weather.
They navigated Covid by singing weekly online and then went into dry dock for repairs when their skipper absconded to The Northern Isles!
Now back by popular demand with the barnacles scrubbed off and seeking new recruits, The Dreadnought Shanty Crew can be found singing on Wednesday lunchtimes from 1-2pm in the Anchor Building.
There are no auditions; apparently all you need is a broad mind and a sense of humour!
The first session is free and then by donation to cover the cost of room hire.
Jan B Brown, leader of the Dementia Meeting Place and the Dreadnought Shanty Crew
Jan B Brown, leader of the Dementia Meeting Place and the Dreadnought Shanty Crew
Staff Update
You can now meet our caretakers – come and say hello when you come into the Heart .
Mike Gourlay – JohnRobert Townsley – Emmanuel Alor
Coming up soon
Saturday 18th May – Join us at the Heart for a day of free events being organised by the National Film and Television School – 10.30 till 4pm – a day of insight into some of the many creative careers available in film and television.
Three sessions will be delivered by film and TV professionals, including award-winning documentary filmmaker Miranda Stern, animator Ana Songel and sound designer Anya Przygoda.
