For 6 weeks, the Coatbridge women visited the school every Tuesday morning. St Andrews students gave the ladies a tour of the school and told them about the work the XL group had been doing, including creating an animated film and raising funds for charity. Over the next few weeks the students and teachers introduced the women to iPads, smartboards, e-mail, Facebook and mobile phone texting. The XL group also arranged a trip for everyone to the pantomime at Christmas, which was great fun.

XL group and the Lanarkshire Inquisitors at Kirkshaws community centre

In the New Year, the women invited St Andrews staff and students down to Kirkshaws Community Centre and gave a presentation about some great women from North Lanarkshire’s past, including Coatbridge poetess Joanna Ballie, labour MP Jean Mann and the artist Jessie McGeehan.

Everyone involved in the project learned a lot from one another. The group said about their experience:

“I enjoyed very much being back at school..the students and teachers were very helpful and showed us that modern technology has a lot to offer – I’ve now bought an iPad and am enjoying experimenting with it!”

“The project with the XL group was an eye opener into what they can do and what we as older ladies can learn from them.”

Portrait of Helen Denny

Mavis researched local woman Helen Denny.

To read about Helen Denny, download the file below

Download: Helen Denny

Sketch of Katherine Drain

Mary researched local poet Katherine Drain

To read about Katherne Drain, download the file below

Download: Renton Poet Katherine Drain

Photograph of Lady Overtoun

Margaret researched Lady Overtoun

To read about Lady Overtoun, download the file below

Download: Lady Overtoun

Perhaps you know of another woman the group could research or would like to find out about another aspect of women’s history in Dumbarton? The course runs on Friday mornings, 10am-12noon at Dumbarton Library (9th March – 11May 2012), is free of charge and is open to women resident in West Dunbartonshire. If you would like to come along, get in touch for more information.

The conference is on Saturday 10th March 2012 at Elgin Museum. For more information go to www.elginmuseum.org.uk

Hi, my name is Lindsay and I am one of the volunteers at GWL. After taking part in a course run by the Prince’s Trust, which involved doing some work in a college library, I wanted to continue to volunteer in a library. My occupational therapist helped me to contact various libraries and because I have a degree and some research skills some people suggested that we contact GWL. When I came to visit and to find out some more about the library I was a little nervous but Sue made me feel welcome and I had my first of many offers of tea or coffee (which I don’t drink but no one seems to remember that!)

I have been doing various tasks and it has been interesting to see the different types of work that each member of staff does. I hope to build up skills that will eventually help me to get a job, preferably in the area of psychology. I think that to do this it is important that I improve my confidence and self esteem and working with GWL is already helping me in these areas.

We are now proud to feature the latest exciting development – a podcast of the walk, available to download for free. The group were keen to make the walk as accessible to as many people as possible, so decided a podcast would be the next step. The podcast was written and recorded by the walk group and other local community members with the help of funding awarded from the Galloway Association.

Kriss Nichol from Wigtown women’s walk group has written a blog post about the experience.

Wigtown walk group members and local residents at the walk's launch in March 2010

Download: Wigtown Women’s Heritage Walk Podcast

Download: Wigtown Women’s Walk Leaflet (PDF)

Inverness GWL/Women at Work conference oral history workshop

My great grandmother the runaway bride

Dundee Bring and Tell oral history session

Sheila Campbell talks about her mother working in the Jute Mills and other memories

Transcription of Sheila and other participants at Dundee Herstory workshop

Sheila with a picture of her mother in the Dundee jute mills

M: How long did you mum work in the jute mills for?

P2: Not long. She had to leave because of the noise. She hated the noise and because she hated the dust. And then she wouldn’t do any work when we were there. Well, so she tells me. She was a full-time mum and when the war came. She went into munitions. A lot of women went to work in munitions. And she hated that as well because of the noise. And as you were saying, she was a devoted mum, we are all devoted mums. But I remember my granny, my adopted granny said to my mum. My mums name is Christina, which is a nice name. But she was actually called Tin, which is not very nice. And my adopted granny said to my mum, my mum always looked nice, did as much as she could do. But my granny said, ‘I thought you were buying yourself a new coat Tin’, and she said, ‘I’d rather put it on the bairns’. You know because the money was short. It was war time. And then we used to have the Anderson Shelter, do you remember them? You won’t remember them, nobody here will remember them. Under the ground. And I was only a wee girl then, I remember I had a wee pink suit, I must have been only 3 or 4. And I had my wee suit at night and my mum and dad would go down to the shelter. And my dad would carry me on the, you know, the lights, I can’t remember what you call them. Search lights. If they put them on, my dad would always carry me on his shoulders. Another thing I just remembered about the jute mills. At lunch time there was a bummer, you know a bummer, Clarkson sort of style. *Bssssshhhhd*. And then it was time to go for your lunch.

M: So they did half a day at school and half a day at the jute mills?

P2: Half a day at school and half a day at the jute mills.

M: So how many hours would they work there? 4 to 5 hours?

P2: Yeah, 4 to 5 hours, I suppose so.

P3: And did they get the worst jobs or?

P2: Well my mum would, she was a spinner. I don’t know if you saw that, did you see that picture? That’s the spinning. That’s my mum there. And there were spinners and weavers. The weavers were more like a trade. And the spinners, this is what they did. And they worked, sort of, we would call it bonus.

N: Well it must have been quite dangerous.

P2: Yeah, dangerous. The machines were all going, you know, and you had to pull things down – what I’ve seen on the films.

M: The noise must have been unbelievable with all the machines going.

P2: And then on a Saturday when you went into town it must have been such a laugh. Because going down the Wellgate which is nothing like the Wellgate is now. All the streets were there. And the women with their hair and all the colours, they always said the jute was hanging, you could smell the jute out of their hair. And they used roller thinners or curlers or whatever. For Saturday night.

P3: Did they get paid? Did the children get paid, is that why they did it?

P2: Very little. That was in the 1930s, when was the depression. 1929 I think.

Heather Middleton is a Glasgow based illustrator and zine-maker with an interest in the history of girls’ comics. Her zines include Honeypears and Period (an “irregular monthly”) and she contributes to regular Glasgow anthology Team Girl Comic. Her work recently featured in the show Telling Stories at Glasgow’s Market Gallery alongside work by David Shrigley, Frank Quitely and other artists influenced by comics.

This event will take place at 2pm on Friday 30th September at Wigtown Library.

Tamara Drewe image

This event will take place from 2.30pm-3.30pm, Monday 26th September, setting off from Reading Lasses Bookshop.

Wigtown Women's History Walk

This event will take place from 2-2.30pm on Monday 26th September at the Reading Lasses Bookshop.

Wigtown Walk Launch, March 2010