The Auchencairn History Society was founded in 2000, and during its lifetime has had meetings, excursions to places of local interest, and exhibitions. Their main aim, however, has been to amass material about the village and its surrounding area, and to make this accessible to all. They have accumulated a large archive of unique material, much of it obtained from local people who remembered life in earlier times, and who generously donated items of interest. Until recently, this was all held in storage, unseen, until with the reorganisation of the village hall they were allocated a spacious cupboard in the anteroom. Then began a happy period of sorting and cataloguing our 20 years plus collection. They open it fortnightly for people to come and browse the material. Their website is http://auchencairn-history-society.org.uk/
Contents of the archive:
— 37 editions of the biannual Newsletter, which published original articles of research (see Index of articles)
–hundreds of photographs ranging from Victorian to the present day
–10 published monographs: James K Scott; Louisa Robertson; Joseph Heughan; Churches of Rerrick; Orchardton House; Heston Island; Bengairn; Auchencairn & District (Trotter); Tales from Auchencairn (Trotter)
–recorded interviews with local people
–book collection
–minute & account books of various village societies
–printed material relevant to the area
And other miscellaneous items of interest
How the Archive is used:
The archive is kept in the anteroom of the Murray Hall. We open it fortnightly for people to come and browse the material. Often we learn new things as visitors’ memories are jogged by looking at old photos or reading our local memories and interviews. We are always happy to open it at other times if anyone wishes to visit outside regular hours. An exhibition of photos etc is shown on the notice board.
Current Projects of the Society
Our main projects at present are:
1/ continuation of oral and transcribed interviews with local people
2/inclusion of our archive material on the new Scottish Archive, making it accessible to anyone to use for research
