COLONSAY AND ORANSAY HERITAGE TRUST
URRAS DUALCHAIS ORASAIDH IS COLBHASAIDH
Welcome to our June 2013 newsletter!
Much has been happening in recent months and we’d like to bring you all up to date. To this end we’ve each written a short piece:
BOARD MEMBERS
Katie says:
COHT has recently elected a new board: Chairman (Dave Binnie), Vice Chair (Carol MacNeill), Secretary (Rhona Robinson) and Treasurer (Keith Rutherford) will remain in office. Four new directors have joined them: Christa Byrne, Katie Joll, Chris Nisbet, Sheena Nisbet.
This is an exciting moment in the life of the Trust and the Directors feel that great things are in the pipeline, which all are eager to move along as fast as may be possible, so as to have something tangible to show for the efforts that have been put in behind the scenes.
ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP
Rhona says:
The Trust is offering associate membership to all of Colonsay's friends and family locally and internationally. Associate members will have no voting rights but will receive a number of benefits including
• bi-annual newsletter
• 10% discount from any COHT retail
• reduced admission to COHT events
Membership will be £10 per individual or £30 per family and can be paid by cheque/cash or Direct Debit.
Although this will be advertised widely if you know someone who would like to become an associate member please ask them to get in touch with Rhona or Carol.
The Trust is also in the process of registering for Gift Aid which will enable us to receive an extra 25p for every £1 donated.
FULL MEMBERSHIP forms for island residents (£1 per annum) are with this newsletter. Please complete your form (if you have not already done so at the April AGM) and hand it in to Keith at the Post office.
FEASIBILITY STUDY
Keith says:
It has long been an aspiration of the Trust to have a ‘home’ of its own. To help enable this the Trust has to produce a feasibility study, to show to any organisation who might finance grants, that the Trust has an achievable and sustainable plan of action.
To this end the Trust was awarded a grant of £10,000 from ‘Awards for All’ to finance the feasibility study. The job was advertised and in December 2012 candidates were interviewed. Rob Robinson, Heritage Consulting, was successful and since then Rob has been working on the project. He has been over to Colonsay a number of times, some of you may well have met him when he took a survey of the local population’s opinion on the project, while others completed a paper questionnaire or online.
Rob has been very thorough and has produced an interim report, draft final report and very recently the eagerly awaited final report. It is very apparent from the report that the cost of the project will have to be carefully managed to make it viable.
NEXT STEPS
Chris says:
These are exciting times for COHT. While the proposed new Heritage building will naturally take up the majority of the time and effort from the COHT Directors there are many other aspects of Colonsay’s heritage that need work; not least archiving the knowledge and resources that are available from people on or related to the island. It is hoped that COHT can now bridge any issues that have prevented access and work with like-minded people and groups to make sure the people of Colonsay and visitors have the best chance to see the heritage of this amazing island.
The recent archaeological digs show that there is interest in our heritage from outside the island. We will have to ensure that this relationship is nurtured for the future. It is exciting to think what this could lead to.
There are now in place a more diverse group of Directors of the Trust and while this may create more heated debate at meetings it will lead to a more democratic decision making process. It should also be appreciated the work the original set of Directors have done to get us to this stage and hopefully we can move forward with their vision and create a future which is supported by the majority of the community. With this in mind the COHT Directors are committed to keeping the people we work for fully informed of developments and will endeavour to create regular newsletters and open meetings to discuss all future developments.
Going back to the proposed new Heritage centre, Rob Robinson has suggested a comprehensive checklist of our next steps, beginning with:
1. Agree and adopt this feasibility study
2. Form the three project development groups with appropriately experienced or skilled volunteers and consider / appoint an internal project manager
3. Submit outline proposals to the Planning Authority for pre-application consideration and advice
4. Complete and submit a project enquiry to the Heritage Lottery Fund
5. Complete and submit an expression of interest to CCF
6. Make contact with the BIG fund and hold pre-application discussions
7. Have an independent land valuation undertaken for the site
8. Begin the Collecting Colonsay project (to be launched in research form only – i.e. identifying and locating rather than collecting, in order to identify key items for the exhibition)
9. Apply for development funding.
As intimated before, no development will take place without informing the community of the proposals. This is key to getting a building that is both fit for purpose and what the majority of people would like to see.
COLLECTING COLONSAY
Sheena says:
COHT are looking for ways to identify anything of interest that is related in any way to the heritage of Colonsay. This could be anything from maps, photographs, old machinery used on the island or any artefact on or off the island. Another important aspect is the knowledge held by people living on or off the island. COHT are attempting to create a log of Colonsay property old and new; who lived there and what happened to them. Included in this would be an attempt to research the people and families who lived and are living here. This is a huge but potentially rewarding task which would be an interesting part of the new heritage centre experience.
Please let us know if you think you could help us to fill in parts of the history and heritage of Colonsay to give us a fuller understanding of our island. We look forward to hearing from you.
COLONSAY’S RECENT PAST
Dave says:
This is an illustrated talk including old photographs from the past 50 years, reflecting some of the changes on the island. It was presented during the spring festival in aid of the Heritage Trust. The themes are agriculture, boats and the pier, and people and places. There was an excellent turnout for the 2 showings and over £300 was raised towards the Trust. We are planning a repeat show during July.
INTEGRATING ARCHAEOLOGY AND SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES
Carol says:
As part of their Connected Communities project, we have recently been working very closely with Ulster University who have been awarded funding to begin a more in depth study of Colonsay’s history since mediaeval times. Led by archaeologists from Ulster University the community, including the schoolchildren, have been encouraged to help identify possible sites for exploration, assist in the excavations and help prepare a presentation of the findings to be displayed in November 2013. The Trust are delighted to be involved in such an exciting project, giving us the opportunity to raise our profile on the island and learn new skills for our future use.
The excavations began at Dun Cholla, on the site of a building to the east side of the fort where a number of items were found indicating that the building dated from the 15/16th century. The dig was popular with both islanders and visitors and gave lots of people the opportunity not just to watch archaeologists at work, but also to join in and learn more about how to interpret findings.
In order to gain more information on buildings through the centuries and their relationship to the land the three subsequent sites selected were Ardskenish, Scalasaig and Port Mor, where excavations took place over two weeks at the end of May. Each site revealed buildings from different periods in history and raised as many questions as answers! Once again much interest was shown in the sites, especially the one by the roadside at Port Mor, just in front of the old generator shed, currently housing the Trust’s exhibition. It was decided to leave this excavation open since it shows some interesting features. We have a photograph in the exhibition showing what the house/s looked like while they were inhabited: an interesting addition to our ‘then and now’ collection.
Further excavations are planned for September, followed by a presentation of all their findings, by the Ulster University team, in November. This will then provide an exciting addition to our collection.
FUNDRAISING FOR THE TRUST
We are delighted to suggest a means of supporting us without it costing you anything! Every time you search the web through this link:
http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/coft
and register to support the Trust we get a small donation, and every time you make a purchase from a long list of main retailers (like Amazon, John Lewis, eBay, Argos etc, etc) we get a percentage of the price, at no extra cost to you. It doesn’t take more than two minutes to register, then save it to your favourites.
Thanking you all in anticipation – happy shopping!
