20 July 2010
Project Book published
"Built upon Herring" uses many of the interviews collected by the Oral History Project to tell the story of Mallaig and its fishing industry. It has 212 pages and includes 112 photographs and other illustrations from the Mallaig Heritage Centre collection.
The book is priced at £9.95 + carriage and can be purchased online or from Mallaig Heritage Centre.
28 June 2010
Project Catalogue online
Most of the video and audio interviews collected by the Oral History Project have now been catalogued by Mallaig Heritage Centre and can be viewed online.
The book "Built upon Herring" is almost ready for printing and we expect to have copies on sale shortly.
10 April 2010
Project update
The term of employment of the Oral History Project's two fieldworkers, Bridget Willoughby and Jill de Fresnes ended on 28 February but work continues both on adding to the oral history archive and on transcribing the interviews already collected. Work on producing a book about the history of Mallaig and its fishing industry, drawing on the interviews collected by the Project and on other resources held by Mallaig Heritage Centre is now at an advanced stage and we expect to have the book published by the end of June.
2 December 2009
Project DVD released
"When the fishing was on", a 60 minute DVD about the Mallaig fishing industry, is now available. The film, edited and directed by Andy Attenburrow of Ariège Arts features interviews with George Lawrie, Lindy Henderson and Moe Mathieson, among others, and archive film and photographs from Mallaig Heritage Centre's archives.
The DVD is priced at £9.95 + carriage and can be purchased online or from Mallaig Heritage Centre.
5 October 2009
PROJECT UPDATE
The collection of interviews continues to accumulate, although this means that it is becoming difficult to keep up with the transcriptions. Our most recent interview was with David MacDonald and Donnie MacLellan, who both drove lorries at the height of the herring boom. They described Mallaig at the time, with up to seventy vehicles lined up round the bay, waiting to be loaded.
DVD almost complete
Work on the DVD is almost finished, with some archive film still waiting for copyright clearance. If this can be arranged it will be released in early December.
Wedding Memories
Project Manager Bridget Willoughby is organising an exhibition of wedding dresses and other wedding ephemera to raise funds for Mallaig & Morar Community Centre. Response to this so far has been extremely encouraging and Bridget hopes that it will lead to opportunities for further interviews and additions to the archive.
28 July 2009
WORK CONTINUES ON DVD
Andy Attenburrow has paid another visit to Mallaig to gather more material and to show the first draft of the DVD film. The film will feature interviews with Lindy Henderson, George Lawrie and Stanley Duncan, among others, and makes use of archive film and photographs from Mallaig Heritage Centre. The Scottish Screen Archive also has some archive film of Mallaig lobster fishermen that we hope to be able to include.
20 May 2009
PROJECT UPDATE
Work continues on recording and transcribing interviews. Extracts from interviews have been published regularly in issues of "West Word".
The "Reaper" visits Mallaig
On the 18th May the Scottish Fisheries Museum's sailing drifter "Reaper" paid a visit to Mallaig and held an open day. Oral History Project staff had worked with SFM staff in the preparations for the visit and had hoped that it would be possible to conduct interviews aboard the "Reaper" with older visitors. Sadly no suitable opportunity arose, but the open day did provide an opportunity to publicise the work of the Project.
Work starts on the DVD
One of the objectives of the Oral History Project is to produce a DVD film about the history of Mallaig's fishing industry, using interviews recorded by the Project. Film maker Andy Attenburrow of Ariège Arts has agreed to work on the film with us and has been in Mallaig for the past week, filming interviews and shots of Mallaig for use in the film. Andy has been involved in a number of films relating to the fishing industry and his grandfather was a drifter skipper working out of Yarmouth.
Staffing changes
Jill de Fresnes has been offered a full-time job at the University of the Highlands and Islands Millenium Institute and will leave her current position as Project Manager at the end of this month. Project Fieldworker Bridget Willoughby has agreed to take over as Project Manager and will be filling both posts from 1st June.
10 December 2008
CHRISTMAS MEMORIES
The December issue of "West Word" included an oral history project interview with George Lawrie in which he recalled childhood Christmases in Mallaig.
12 September 2008
LIFEBOAT MEMORIES
Mallaig Lifeboat Celebrations gave the Oral History Project the chance to show some of the material which has already been collected, and we had some really positive feedback from lots of members of the community and others from outside. Thanks to the Lifeboat boys who agreed to be filmed for the project, and also to the first ever Lifeboat Woman Pat Mucklow, who was interviewed in Kyle as part of the project. She had some really fascinating memories of her time in Mallaig in the 1960s and 70s and of her experiences with the Lifeboat, and is still very much involved in the Lifeboat Institute in Kyle.
CALL FOR ANY RINGNET BOAT PHOTOGRAPHS
The 1960s and 70s were of course, extremely busy for Mallaig as a fishing port, and we will be trying to recreate some of that atmosphere in October, when we hope to bring the famous Ringnet Play, which was put together by Eddie Stivan and Lachie Paterson to Mallaig Community Centre. It has been performed twice only - once at Carradale and once in Campbeltown. The main focus of the play is the ringnet fishing, and as a backdrop, Lachie has a huge collection of photos of ringnet boats from the Clyde area mostly, but we would be hugely grateful for any photos of the ringnet boats from Mallaig, so that we can make the play more relevant to the Mallaig fishing community. We hope to be able to have a photographic display in the Centre during the day too. The play has a huge relevance to the fishing community, and was a complete sellout in both Carradale and Campbeltown. The date has yet to be fixed, but is likely to be towards the end of October.
HOME THOUGHTS FROM ABROAD
We have been very pleased to hear from a number of ex-Mallaig residents who are keen to take part in the project, and we would be delighted to hear from more. If you are reading this from foreign parts, or just living away, but would like your own experiences and memories to form a part of the project, please get in touch with us. We would be delighted to hear from you, and even more delighted if you live in an exotic part of the world and we could come interview you....[only joking!! But we could send you one of our questionnaires or a tape to tape your own memories onto.]
Posters publicising the project have been sent out to all the Museums and Heritage Centres in the Highland area, and to all the Fishermens' Missions around the coast, and we have already had some feedback from this.
18 August 2008
PROJECT UPDATE
A number of new interviews have been recorded, with a wealth of interesting memories from Mrs Molly Grigor, Tommy Ralston and 96 year-old Mrs Jean Macaskill, whose mother, Dr Jean Macrae, was the Mallaig GP from 1915 to 1939.
There was also a welcome opportunity to interview Mr Erling Olsen, a Norwegian skipper who made no less than 56 trips to Mallaig in the 1970s to buy herring.
Jill also spent some time in Fort William at the West Highland Museum, looking through previous interviews undertaken for the Oral History project which took place 10 years ago. She succeeded in identifying a number of interviews which are relevant to the Mallaig Oral History Project.
Interviewers needed
The list of potential interviewees continues to grow and anyone who can find the time to help interview one or two of these would be very welcome. If you can help, please let us know!
Youth Project
During the summer holidays a Youth Project was funded by the Project to enable Marina Macinnes and Joe de Fresnes to interview some of the area's young people and record their feelings about living in the district. Although it was hoped that this project would be completed by the end of the summer holidays, it has been less easy than they
thought to get together as both have summer jobs, and Joe managed to break a bone in
his ankle. It is hoped that the interviews will be completed within the next couple of
weeks, and the editing can be done in the coming months.
Heritage Weekend
Saturday 23rd August will see the Mallaig Lifeboat's 60th anniversary celebrations. The Oral History Project will have a stand in the fishmarket to promote the project, and also to show a series of photographs of the Lifeboat in days gone by. Oral History project volunteers will be on hand to interview people about experiences and memories involving the Lifeboat.
28 June 2008
INTERVIEW EXTRACTS MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE
Video extracts from two interviews made by the Oral History Project are now available online.
The amount of material recorded by the Project is expected to amount to well over 100 hours and making it all available over the internet would be an enormous task but the Project intends to make as much as possible available in the form of edited excerpts.
The first two extracts to be made available feature Mallaig fisherman Moe Mathieson and Lindy Henderson, one of the few survivors of the teams of 'herring girls' who once followed the herring fleets around the coast of Britain.
18 June 2008
TRAINING SESSIONS FOR PROJECT STAFF AND VOLUNTEERS
Over the past two days staff and volunteers of the Mallaig Oral History Project have been receiving training in interview procedure and techniques from Professor Paul Thompson of the University of Essex.
Professor Thompson played a leading part in the Wivenhoe Project, a similar local history project in Wivenhoe, Essex.
19 April 2008
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT OFFICIAL LAUNCH
The Mallaig Oral History Project was officially launched today at Mallaig Heritage Centre.
1 March 2008
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT STAFF TAKE UP THEIR POSTS
The two members of staff who will be responsible for achieving the aims of the Oral History Project took up their posts today. Jill de Fresnes, the new Project Manager, has considerable experience of research into the lives of Scotland's fishing communities, as well as personal experience of working in the fishing fleet. She will be assisted by Bridget Willoughby, who also has experience of local history research and archive training.
4 January 2008
HERITAGE LOTTERY FUND SUCCESS FOR MALLAIG ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
Mallaig Oral History Project Group are delighted to announce that they have been awarded two years of funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund - a total amount of £37,900 - 85% of the total project costs of £44,450. The project will be run through Mallaig Heritage Centre.
The application was put together by a steering group including fishermen, ex-fishermen, pier workers and Heritage Centre trustees over the summer, and a final decision was made by the Heritage Lottery Fund on 20th December 2007. Partnership funding has also been promised by the Mallaig Harbour Authority, the Mackintosh Foundation, Highland Council amongst others. George Lawrie who is part of both the Oral History Group and a trustee of the Heritage Centre said "We are absolutely delighted. This will be great for the area - I just wish we had started years ago!"
The group has advertised two posts connected with the Project: for a Project Manager and Fieldworker.