FOURTH (IT’S A PREQUEL !) INNELLAN ARCHIVE EXHIBITION

When the Trustees of Innellan Village Hall decided some five years ago that a wee booklet celebrating the belated Hundredth birthday of the Hall would be a fitting tribute and a wee keepsake they really had no idea where this would lead.

Inviting local Historian and Archivist Margaret Hubbard to help produce the booklet was indeed a master stroke because here we are five years later on the eve of the fourth exhibition.                                                                                                            Margaret is always quick to add that this is all down to the many, many folk not just residents of Innellan but many folk from overseas who have contributed everything from photographs , letters, personal stories and accounts to artefacts all she and her team have done is collate and record it.

In preparing the first booklet so much physical material was amassed it was decided to display it by holding an exhibition in the Innellan Village Hall.

The exhibition was a great success with all who attended,  asking many questions and looking for a souvenir of this unique event. The original proposed wee booklet fitted the bill but with so much material available the booklet quickly became something quite different, in fact a Book. In the November of 2010 the book ‘From Scenes Like These Innellan 1898-1921’, was released to great acclaim.

It was clear that the story of Innellan was of great interest, not only to those who live here, but to people scattered all over the globe who have a strong connection with the village so much so that  a second exhibition and a second volume was published taking the archive from 1921 to 1960.

In November 2012 a third volume was published covering the years 1960 to 1992, this covered  the ‘American years’ and US servicemen responded to the request to write about their time in the village.

At the time of the publication of the third volume Margaret told us it would be some years before a continuation of the trilogy would be considered, what she didn’t mention was a prequel!

To celebrate the exhibition, the children of Innellan Primary School have written a play to commemorate the year the Hall was built by presenting a typical school day June 1898 and  performed it twice this afternoon at the Innellan  Village Hall

The exhibition will be open to the general public  tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday with the fourth volume from “From Scenes Like These” to be published later in the year celebrating “From the beginning of Time –1897”