#cromarty courthouse

Workshops / Cromarty Youth Cafe

Over a number of weeks I have worked with the Youth Cafe in Cromarty - it was important to also engage with younger groups with the project in context - of course WW1 is not within any of us our living memories, but finding ways in which to make memorial, memory and remembrance relevant to all ages is important and sometimes challenging.

Paul from the Courthouse started by kindly bringing in some medals from the archive. We then worked on thinking about a contemporary medal for the people of Cromarty today - what is relevant, important and meaningful that would be present on a badge of honour.

Over the coming weeks the ideas quickly expanded to making a model contemporary memorial for Cromarty, deciding on important symbols and signs and thinking about how we would keep the traditions of remembrance alive.

Throughout, the emphasis was on participating in a creative experience -  having the chance to make and join into something collaborative built up over a number of weeks, which the group enthusiastically participated in.

Many thanks to Wanda and her team of seniors for their enthusiasm and assistance.

Workshop presentation / Fourways Club / Cromarty

Last week I got together with the Fourways Club - they are a group for over 60′s in and around Cromarty. They can be quite an enthusiastic bunch with a wide range of ages and backgrounds - from a woman who used to run a local newsagents to another who will be 100 years old next year.

Paul and I talked about the background of the Coming Home WW1 project - there are a number of the group whose relatives were alive at the end of the First World War so there was an immediate connection. Talking about our research of what life was like in Cromarty during and after the war was then opened up for some of the members to share stories they had heard from relatives, and pieces of history they had picked up through the years.

We shared some of the artefacts Paul had brought along - and talked of their significance. With this group we’ll be looking at the civilian passes that residents had to keep with them at all times, due to Cromarty being under Naval control throughout the war. These details really shed life on what everyday life must have been like, and how everything changed in the months that followed the end of the war. 

In our next session with the group, we’ll be recreating residents’ passes and researching the groups’ relatives who were resident during WW1 and discovering more on everyday life.

Research trips / Cromarty Courthouse

At the end of August, I visited Cromarty Courthouse to begin researching their archive. The Courthouse was built in 1773 and during WW1 was used by the Navy as the whole town had come under Naval control.

Paul Monk gave me a tour of the Courthouse and I met with Caroline who has created many of the temporary exhibitions they have had running throughout the years. Of particular relevance, a previous exhibition -  WW1 commemoration - Two communities changed by War - which focused on nearby Resolis and Cromarty has some fantastic photographic images of life in the town at that time.

I was also pointed in the direction of author Jane Duncan who wrote about life in the Black Isle through her fiction novels, some of which are around the time of WW1 - I’ve managed to locate a copy in the library which will give a different insight to those times.

Returning to the Courthouse in September, Paul had dug out some items from the archive. For example, civilian passes for the residents, signs from the Navy, letters and medals of soldiers from the town and a lively oral history from a resident named Mrs Newell. The oral history covers many years, but in particular Mrs Newell, although still a young child, remembers what everyday life was like during WW1. Some of the things she talks about are both fascinating and poignant. Going to concerts, encountering sentries and Naval folk, seeing the soldiers heading off to war on a weekly basis.

These items and insights have brought us in the direction of thinking and exploring about what life must have been like for the residents of Cromarty both during and after WW1, as it was a town clearly changed by its impact.