Fifteen minute talk for Probus
Thank you for inviting me to today's meeting.
I'm reminded of the story of the little boy who came home from school and said "Mummy, mummy I've got a part in the school play". "That's very good Johnny, what part is it?" "I'm to play a Scottish husband" said the boy. "You go straight back to that teacher and tell her you want a speaking part!" So, thanks for giving me a speaking part today.
Juniper Green 300: how did it start? It was some time in 2006. My wife is a historian and she had worked on the early history of the village of Juniper Green some years ago. As part of her research she discovered that the first written reference to the words Juniper Green was to be found in the Kirk Session records of Colinton Parish Church on November 18th 1707. Now, I'm a mathematician so in 2006 I realised, by subtraction, that Juniper Green was therefore 299 years old. I then added one!
From then on it was like an avalanche. We contacted the two local history societies of Currie and Colinton and the guise of your own John Scott for Currie and Alistair Davidson in Colinton. We received, and have continued to receive, wonderful support from those societies throughout the whole project. We held a couple of public meetings in June 2006 from which it was clear that there was sufficient local interest to mount some kind of celebration.
Events ... what should go in a programme for such a celebration?
My own thought was that it should contain the history, who do you think you are Juniper Green? There are two parts to that history: the living memory of villagers and the more distant history that needs to be researched or put together by an expert. So, the first job was to be trained in reminiscence work, listen to the stories of our older residents and document them. We did then start to put these tales onto a website.
It is thought that this is close to the site where Bronze Age remains were found in 1851 near the Lanark Road in Juniper Green
In the more distant history and early on in the year, we had quite a boost as we discovered that although the name Juniper Green would be but 300 years old the area has fostered human activity back to the Bronze Age and we should in fact be celebrating 4300 years of human habitation in this area. In 1851 at the back of today's butcher shop in the village, it is believed, was found the skeleton of a man, aged about forty years old. He was found in a grave with Bronze Age beakers. Some here in this room went down to the Scottish National Museum earlier this year and met Mr Juniper Green ... and the image of Gordon and a 4300 year old skull is there for all to see on the Juniper Green 300 website ... and it is clear who is who!
Baberton House, one of the big houses from which the present Juniper Green has evolved
Well, there were further meetings on the grand houses of Baberton and Woodhall around which the village was to grow mainly through the nineteenth century and fuelled by the growth of manufacture in the mills on the Water of Leith. So, we then heard everything you want to know about junipers, the mills and the characters of Juniper Green's past ... many of those characters are gathered here today!
The school got involved and through their own grants they put on a concert, wrote a book on the village's history, produced a cd and organised a concert with songs they had written and performed themselves. The book and cd still remain for sale down at the school.
By now the bandwagon was rolling and a history book to update the Tweedie book was underway. We ordered 750 books and I have to tell you if you haven't got one you will have to consult the one in the local libraries as they are all sold. A commemorative calendar was produced under the guidance of another of your members, Bill Blair, and I do have some calendars left ... and with me if anyone would like to buy one or more ... they make a wonderful present for Aunt Maud.
The children in the school took part in an art competition and from their designs a mug was created and a free one given to every child in the school ... and to those at the Catholic junior school with pupils living in JG.
Then, another group got going on an exhibition. Bill MacIntosh from the village who runs his own exhibition company provided a professional look to the exhibition and with the help of the research a wonderful display was launched at the start of gala week in June. It was housed for the week in St Margaret's Hall. We only ran it for a week but the whole set of panels, 18 in all, have been on display at Heriot-Watt University for a week last month. Now, 8 of these boards can be found in the Water of Leith Trust building at the foot of the Lanark Road at Slateford and a further 4 panels are now in Currie Library. They have been finished to a very high standard and if you haven't seen them they are certainly worth a visit.
Douglas Buchanan and Cliff Beevers selling JG300 commemorative calendars at the end of the community service
At the start of the year we had a coffee morning to thank those who had told their stories for the website, a Burn's Supper, concerts from 3 choirs, a ceilidh, 3 history walks, 2 natural history walks, a community service and a St Andrew's Night just last Saturday.
Ongoing projects
Leaflet: it is planned to produce a leaflet with a map of the village containing information about the historical sites of the village, have information about the natural history and other useful stuff about JG and its environs.
Signage: there is discussion on what would make a fitting monument to commemorate this year, possibly at either end of the village and at the entrance to Baberton or in the middle or in all these locations.
Flowertubs: your own Secretary has been active in improving the environment through the provision of flowertubs and he has organised 2 plantings already. But, Leslie has also been instrumental in pushing for the dropped curbs at the junction of pavement and street, new railings and new street signs. He also strived to have the phone box re-painted.
Website: this provides a repository of all that we have discovered this year: reminiscences, history, family stories, hundreds of images and a What's On screen that tells you what is going on and when it has gone tells you about the event you missed.
Houses: one of the JG diggers has become very involved in researching the history of her house on Belmont Road. This may start a trend to find out where do you think you live?
So, we tried to research the past, improve the environment and create an atmosphere for a community to prosper.
Many of those who attended the community service on November 18th 2007 stayed on for a cup of tea or coffee to chat and mingle
A thank you to Leslie Hannaford for all his work on improving the environment of Juniper Green during the year
People: those of you who managed along to the community service just a couple of weeks ago will recall that the minister told that one of the greatest lessons learned had been how important people are. People who have got involved, have come along to the meetings, concerts etc and just generally have met one another in a new way. I would like to end by honouring one of those people. It has been the custom at all our talks to present a bottle of Juniper Green gin to the speaker at one of our talks thanks to a generous donation of these bottles from the London and Scottish company who makes them. I noticed that I still had one bottle left, realise that there was one person who had yet to be thanked for his contribution during the year so Mr Chairman can I ask Leslie Hannaford to come forward and receive a bottle of JG gin for all his hard work on the JG Steering group this year including the high profile flowertubs but also much behind the scenes work.