Our project is a volunteering opportunity for anyone to take part in, providing a rare chance to help record a long lost part of Kilwinning’s history. The project currently has around 10 volunteers and we are always welcome to have more!
Description
Our project aims to save an at-risk collection of documents donated to Kilwinning Heritage from the former Hugh King & Sons solicitor's office on Howgate. The building was also formerly a bank, and the collection contains around 20,000 documents from the bank and solicitors offices. The documents have been very poorly kept and require intensive cleaning to save them and record any information we can gather. We will clean and record these archive documents which will be available for future research into the people of Kilwinning.
The project will be led by a team of volunteers and will be trained by staff from Ayrshire Archives on how to safely and accurately clean and record these documents. The volunteers will benefit from the project on a personal level as there is a good cohesion in our volunteer team and any new volunteers will be welcomed. Some of our volunteers benefit from the project as it gets them out the house and taking part in an activity which is very beneficial for them due to the relaxing nature of the project and repetitiveness of the tasks. This reduces their risk of social isolation and increases their skills by getting training and brings people together.
Building community spirit is also a key part of the project as the information gathered from the archive could provide a new insight to the history of Kilwinning and some of the unique individuals who once lived in the town. We intend to make the archive available for any future members of Kilwinning Heritage and the public where appropriate to inform research and future projects involving the history of the town. We hope that all the volunteers involved in the project will work collaboratively and we will provide social opportunities for them to network and make new friends/ develop relationships in the community.
Breakdown of costs;
£250 - scan tent
£300 - archive boxes
£400 - mobile phone for scanning
£50 - external hard drive
Location: Kilwinning Heritage is a local history and archaeological society run by volunteers. We aim to encourage and stimulate public interest in the history and heritage of the local area. Our volunteers manage and staff the museum within the Abbey Tower on behalf of NAC, welcoming around 1000 visitors every year. Since 2010 we have held a very successful 2-year Community Archaeology Project with funding from Heritage Lottery and Irvine Bay Regeneration which attracted some 200 volunteers, and a further 6 small-scale local archaeology projects. Every year we have a programme of free winter talks on a variety of historical topics and in the summer months we deliver a series of outings to places of historic interest. During Covid we published 4 books on Kilwinning’s history which we sell from our website, and we delivered a series of online talks which have attracted new audiences from all over the world. In 2022 with PB funding, we held our first “Let’s Talk History” Day in Kilwinning with 3 Scottish authors. We have an extensive list of successful participative projects with local school and youth groups, and more recently with Ayrshire College.
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