Historic Environment Scotland – The Archives

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A Treasure Trove of Scottish Resources

Kirkhouse Inn and Farm and the Blane Valley Railway crossing the A81. July 1952. National Collection of Aerial Photography

If you didn’t know your SCRAN from your NCAP, or your Canmore from your HES…….then you sure will now if you came along to our latest talk on November 18 from Neil Fraser of Historic Environment Scotland.

Neil lifted the lid on the astonishing collection of historical, archaeological, industrial and social material that this least-known of Scotland’s government bodies maintains for our national good. From its Edinburgh HQ, HES promotes wider knowledge of what has come and gone across Scotland’s historical archives.

For example, its SCRAN database hosts over 400,000 amazing, fully-captioned images, sounds and film from more than 300 museums, galleries, and archives including the V&A, National Galleries of Scotland, Glasgow Museums and newspapers. See more at www.scran.ac.uk 

HES’s Canmore service – www.canmore.org.uk – is the online catalogue to Scotland’s archaeology, buildings, industrial and maritime heritage.

And its National Collection of Aerial Photography contains a superb gallery of photograph and films, not just of Scotland but the UK and many other parts of the world, taken from the air over the last 100 years. See more at www.NCAP.org.uk 

Neil showed us remarkable aerial photos of our village from the 1950s – before the Kirkhouse or Kirkburn developments were built – showing the railway still in operation, and the massive Blanefield House standing proudly where now the Netherblane flats are located.

Much of the HES archive is available online and is free. It’s well worth exploring for those who want to learn more about our history and heritage, whether of our village or of all of Scotland.

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Save the Date -School Christmas Fair, Fri 6th December 6-8pm

Perfect Christmas Gifts For Sale We will have our heritage map tea towels and our greetings cards for sale at the Strathblane Primary School Christmas Fair on Friday 6th December from 6 - 8pm. Tea towels are only £8 each. A pack of 6 different cards is £6, or grab a...

Remembrance Sunday

On Remembrance Sunday, Strathblane Heritage co-chair Anne Balfour gave a talk at the service held at the parish church about seven local men who lost their lives in World War Two and whose stories are currently being researched by a group of our members. One...

The Call of the Campsies

We’ve uploaded a link to a lovely little 10 minute film called The Call of the Campsies, shot in 1946 and featuring a jolly group of lads and lassies walking out from Milngavie to climb to the Earl’s Seat. With thanks to the Moving Image Archive of the National...

Carbeth, additions to the Illustrated Essay

In October, author and broadcaster Lesley Riddoch gave a talk to members about the hutting movement in Scotland and Norway. Following this very well-received talk, extra material has been added to the website piece about...

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