Forres Heritage Trust to host Historic (local) Photograph Exhibition at the Tolbooth from Wednesday, May 17 to Saturday, May 20
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Local historians are offering another chance to go back in time!
Forres Heritage Trust (FHT) is staging the 24th Historic Photograph Exhibition at the Tolbooth - including upstairs, accessible via stairlift if necessary - from 10am-4pm, Wednesday, May 17 to Saturday, May 20.
Trustee and co-organiser Ray Mills is the son of former Gazette photographers, Digby and Sybil Mills, who captured many of the images on show.
He said: “We encourage everyone to see the photos downstairs but also go up to the courtroom for tea or coffee, and to browse through the 20 plus folders full of pictures organised by themes like football, golf, school days, places, shops, youth organisations, gala weeks, sports, parades, etc. It’s important to have the displays to encourage local people to value their heritage, meet others and share memories. Reactions range from tears to laughter, with one old lady clutching an envelope containing a copy of one of the photos, as if she was holding on to the Crown Jewels!”
FHT started hosting the displays in 2011 - they are now held every May and September. All of the pictures are scanned and retained on computer. Hard copies are kept in plastic sleeves, filed by subject in ring binders. Display copies are laminated.
“We try to change about 30 per cent each year to keep them fresh,” said Ray. “This year we have new boards for Glenburgie Benromach and Dallas Dhu Distilleries, Forres Laundry, Coronation celebrations in Forres for George V (1911), George VI (1937) and Queen Elizabeth II (1953), Forres Pipe Band, Forres shops, Taste of Moray at Brodie Castle, and a tribute to TT Motorcycle champion, George Linder. We will also display a historic timeline for the Royal Station Hotel, made by Suraj Suresh, a student from the Glasgow School of Art in Altyre.”
Everyone is encouraged to take along old photographs of interest. Pictures have previously come from sources including the collections of Rev Alan Smith of Castlehill Church, Ian Urquhart, David Forrester, Sandy Brander, Ross Dalziel, Franny Duncan, Neil Ellison, John Mackenzie, John Mackenzie (BB), Scott Falconer, A Scrimgeour, Ian Douglas, Dr Harry Morgan, Joyce Cant, Mike Noble, Kat Finlayson, Marilyn Ross, Harley Miller, and the Gazette archives including Orra Beel cartoons by Ken Porter.
And Ray confirmed FHT are regular recipients of collections most people would be unlikely to see otherwise.
He said: “For example, an album of local pictures from around 1880 taken by the famous Victorian photographer George Washington Wilson was handed in. We were given a complete album with the names of all Forres schoolchildren in 1928. And the Rev AG Smith’s albums cover local subjects from the 1930s to the 1950s. All are unique, interesting and full of nostalgia.”
The four day exhibitions have so far raised around £17,000 for FHT - not including sizable individual donations made during them. The funds support the objectives of the trust which manages the Tolbooth and Nelson’s tower.
Ray said: “We hope that DVD film footage of Scottish Weeks and burgess ceremonies from 1988 to 1994 will also be shown on the large projector in the Courtroom.”
Entry is £2 on the door. Visit https://forresheritage.co.uk/ for more information.
