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| The
Wednesday Club's Exhibition - 'Past Times and Memories' |
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An Exhibition of old photos and
bygone items from Reston, Auchencrow and the surrounding area.
Held in the Grantshouse Village Hall on
Friday 15th and Saturday 16th June 2007.
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| The Stage was set with a fascinating
collection of costumes and household
cleaning items from the last century.
Among them was a tea towel
commemorating Queen Victoria's Jubilee!
Two of the first vacuum cleaners
were also on display. One of which, seemed remarkably
efficient.
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Although I couldn't help but
notice, that the continuous pumping action required to operate
it, looked like very hard work to me!
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Several pressing Irons were also displayed,
including some old Victorian flat irons. One of the would have
been filled with hot charcoals! Another
was heated up with paraffin while quite amazingly, another was
even gas fired! Compared
to the efficient electric irons we use today they were all
probably rather dangerous implements. However, they were the
latest gadget at the time and no doubt highly prized by those
who owned them. They
gave us all a very good reason to be grateful for polyester!
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Today we have the benefit of
modern washing machines and tumble dryers, so we can do the
washing at any time that suits us.
It was interesting to be
reminded that wash days were usually on a Monday; when clothes
were scrubbed on a 'wash board' and agitated with a 'dolly' or
boiled in a 'copper'.
Nevertheless, even then some
more modern equipment was on its way and here we had one of the
first washing machines.
A wooden tub with a built-in
agitator and a mangle attached! The
clothes were then hung out to dry on a washing line with
hand-made wooden pegs.
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| A superb collection of old
photographs was on display featuring the villages of Reston, Ayton
and Auchencrow and the surrounding area. The villages and houses
as they used to be and other homes and larger houses that are
sadly no longer with us. |
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Pictures of the children
attending Reston School years ago were great fun and caused a
lot of interest among some visitors, as they tried to
recognize former schoolmates and some of them did!
Incidents such as the damage
caused by the floods recorded over fifty years ago also
received a lot of attention.
Areas of Ayton had became a
lake and the village was in grave danger of becoming
completely flooded.
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| A photo of a school of Pilot
whales, which had beached at Thornton Loch in the 1950's, reminded me of
this tragedy reported in the National Press at the time. Despite
desperate efforts by local fishermen to turn them back to sea,
none of them survived.
On a happier note, there were
also some wonderful photos of the workers on local farms. Although
obviously their labours was extremely hard, at least they had the
companionship of each other and the wonderful shire horses who
worked with them; all too soon to be replaced by tractors! |
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Over
one hundred visitors attended the exhibition and were
fascinated by this glimpse of the past. |
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Tea or coffee and some
delicious home-made tray-bakes were served to visitors and the
raffle was also very well supported.
The whole exhibition raising
over £200.00 towards the Grantshouse Wednesday Club
Funds.
Many thanks to all the
visitors and to the members of the Wednesday Club who gathered
all the exhibits and organised and arranged such an
interesting display. (J.B.Ed.)
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