2005 was a very successful year for the Museum of Communication. From newcomers in November of 2003, the Museum has -- in 2005 -- established a permanent presence on the High Street; it has opened to the public and the public have said that they liked what we provided.
2004 was a year of improvements to the building. It was pretty basic stuff: fixing the roof and gutters, getting rid of all the sources of dry and wet rot, replacing rotten floorboards, removing all the fittings we had no use for, doing wall-papering and painting. Hard graft for all the volunteers involved!
In the winter of 2004 we decided we had to open to the public in 2005. It was to be the year of the 60 th anniversary of the end of WW2 and that provided a natural opportunity for a communications-related exhibition.
During WW2 there had been what Churchill called "a Secret War" going on, a war that took place in British laboratories and factories, totally unknown to the public. It was undertaken by scientists, engineers and manufacturers who together designed and built totally new systems that made a major contribution to the winning of the war. Some estimate that they took two years off the length of the war. We knew that we could tell that story.
We concentrated on redeveloping part of our building and mounted the exhibition in this new space. We spent a lot of time writing the descriptive texts that told the story of the secret war and linked in the artefacts that we took from our extensive collection. We borrowed beautiful, large-scale ship models from an enthusiast in Dunfermline. We borrowed a despatch rider's motorcycle from a local collector. We built a WW2 aircraft plotting table and we got sounds of the period from recorded broadcasts to add to the ambience. We also put on display the architect's drawings that show how we plan to fully develop the building.
We opened on only a few weekends but hundreds came to see what we had to offer. The VE day weekend in May, the end of Civic Week in June, VJ Day weekend in August and the Doors Open day in September were when the public came to see us. In those six and a half days we had over 650 visitors, a number that exceeded our expectations. Judging by the feedback we got from the questionnaires that our visitors completed -- and an astonishing 70% of visitors gave us written feedback -- nearly everyone enjoyed their visit and learned from it. Many said that they would come back to another exhibition on a future occasion.
As well as the exhibition itself, we ran a NAAFI-style café decorated with bunting and WW2 posters and offering home-made baking with tea and coffee. The café too was very popular and the only complaint we got was that the tea tasted too good, not at all like real NAAFI tea!
2006 sees the 60 th anniversary of the death of John Logie Baird, the father of British television. So the 2006 exhibition will focus on television. It will explain how television works and show something of the huge impact that it has had on life today. There will be lots of television artefacts to see and touch, interactive displays, old programme material to see, and we hope to have a small studio set up so you can try your hand at being a TV star for the day. We'll be open longer in 2006, in fact most weekends in June, July and August. Look out for the ads nearer the time.
In the meantime we are working hard on completing funding applications to allow us to carry out the major improvements we have planned. These improvements will make 131 High Street a long-term visitor attraction for Burntisland and a comfortable venue for the other informative and educational activities we have in the pipeline.
Since arriving in Burntisland we have attracted twenty new members and several new volunteers. However, we need more and if you are interested at all, we would be pleased to hear from you.
Call Roger Shivas on 872478
or come along any Saturday after 10am.
This has been a very busy year for the Trust. Following on from the complete sell-out of 'Burntisland: Port of Grace' the Trust launched its oral history project in January. It was a huge effort at the beginning as we had set ourselves the target of producing a book based on the first phase of recordings by mid 2005. This was carried out by ten volunteers in the period February to May 2005.
'Burntisland Voices' edited by Iain Somerville was published in the summer and this has been well received. It gives a unique picture of how Burntisland used to be, as told by those we interviewed in their very own words. We intend the Oral History Project to be ongoing and to continue our programme of recording at the beginning of next year. If you know anyone who would like to contribute please contact us. We also hope to make our original recordings and full transcripts available at Burntisland Heritage Centre and other public archives.
Our 11 th summer exhibition featured a contemporary display of photography by local man Allan Hutchison. Allan's dramatic images stimulated a lot of local interest with over 1600 visitors to the centre. Once again we are grateful to everyone for their support and in particular our volunteers from the Friends of the Trust who kept the doors open from Wednesday to Saturday throughout the summer. A special thanks to Joyce Higginson for conducting the Heritage Walks throughout July and August. Planning is already in progress for our exhibition in 2006.
The King Charles shipwreck project is still ongoing. The team have now been waiting over a year for the return of specialist equipment to carry out a sub-bottom survey at the site. Unfortunately, through no fault of our own, the surveys planned on two occasions this year were cancelled.
Finally, the Trust is delighted to welcome John Burnett as a new Trustee. John has just produced the booklet "Burntisland Fallen 1939-1945". This important research provides some information behind the names on the Burntisland War Memorial. The booklet has just been published by the Trust and can be purchased for £2.50 from the following shops: - Dicksons; Parish Church shop; Fair Shares or from John Burnett (873419). The Trust is giving a copy of the booklet to direct relations of those war dead listed on the memorial.
Anyone wishing to get involved with the Oral history project or the work of the Trust please contact Ian Archibald (873557), Helen Mabon (873624), John Burnett (873419) or Iain Sommerville (874933).
Ian Archibald
