Residents log on to share fond memories of Berwickshire past
Bill Dickson and Lib Windram ready to scan more old photos of Burnmouth and Eyemouth.
In an age when the role of social networking is growing all the time a group of residents are using Facebook as a way of looking back in time.
Thanks to the efforts of Bill Dickson, Lib Windram and Neil McMurdo the communities of Burnmouth, Eyemouth and Coldingham now have pages where they can post old photos and reminisce with hundreds of others eager to take a trip down memory lane.
The idea of setting up the Burnmouth page, called ‘Burnmouth Past’ was prompted by John Aitchison, former landlord of The Gull’s Nest in Burnmouth after he handed Bill hundreds of photos from years gone by. Eager to share them with a wider audience Bill decided the best way forward would be to set up a group on Facebook but even he said he was absolutely staggered by the interest its generated.
“When John gave me all the photos I thought ‘what am I going to do with all of these?’ Setting up the group was the easy bit as Facebook take you through step-by-step, the time consuming part was scanning all the pictures in.
“I never thought for one minute that two weeks after setting the group up there’d be 260 members; it’s incredible for a small place like Burnmouth. I don’t know everyone in the pictures so people have been tagging themselves or friends or family they recognise in them and of course every picture tells a story.”
As well as opening up the Burnmouth archives, John’s selection of pictures also featured plenty of Eyemouth folk and after putting a few on her own Facebook page, Lib Windram was persuaded to follow Bill’s lead and start up a group dedicated to the town’s past, which has now close to 1,500 members.
She said: “I’m so surprised by how big the group has become so quickly. We’ve got input from people aged 14 to 94. The page has got the whole town talking to each other.
“Eyemouth people are very proud of their heritage and I think the page has got the potential to grow and grow. One person will post their memories and you quickly realise that hundreds of others share the same memories.”
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Weather for Duns
Wednesday 22 May 2013
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