My name is Julian Grant, and over the course of the next few months I will be working with the Leith St Andrew’s Trust (LSAT) and the Leith St Andrew’s congregation on an exciting new local history project.* As you may already know, Leith St Andrew’s Church has been earmarked for closure at the end of this year. To mark this moment of transition, the Trust is aiming to document the history not only of the church building and the congregation that gathers within it for worship, but also of the wider constellation of groups, movements and individuals that have passed through its doors over the decades.
Our hope is that this project can serve as a way of involving different parts of our local community in honouring the past and building towards the future of this wonderful church. This is the first of a series of upcoming blog posts documenting this project as it unfolds, so please keep an eye out for more over the next wee while.
Meet the newest member of the Leith St Andrew’s Trust team
Before leaping further into the project, I thought I might introduce myself and share a bit about my background. I grew up in the green hills of Vermont and New Hampshire in the United States before moving to Scotland in 2012 to study. Since then, my academic and professional life has gradually led me towards working with local social history through collaborative research and community heritage. My PhD research, for example, took a community-driven approach to understanding the complicated impact of the North Coast 500 touring route on local communities. I moved to Thurso and worked on a series of community-generated photography exhibitions aiming to project local residents’ perspectives on place and culture into the line of sight of visitors, industry leaders and policymakers.
I came to Leith from Thurso after finishing my PhD fieldwork and have found it a great place to live, with a wonderful mix of people and a multi-layered sense of community. In between various other projects, I work part-time in a local pub and have had a season ticket for Hibs the past three years — a source of both joy and misery! Getting involved in this project appealed to me because it resonates so clearly with my interest in working with people to document and share their important local histories.
Over the first couple weeks since coming aboard, I have worked with members of the church and LSAT volunteers to come up with a plan for how this project will unfold. The first stage involves archival research into a rich set of sources, including old documents and records, artefacts, books and a lovely “history wall” of photos and memorabilia gathered by members of the church. Working with these sources will help shape a more detailed and vivid understanding of the church’s history: the different denominations and congregations that have called the church home, important leaders and events, changes to the physical fabric of the building, and the different kinds of activities that have taken place here over the years.
Gathering stories and memories
In the second stage, the project will open outwards to gather stories and memories of the church in people’s own words. I will be conducting a series of oral interviews with members of the congregation and wider members of the community who have been involved in the church in some form. Alongside these interviews, I will also be looking for people to send in written submissions about their involvement with Leith St Andrew’s Church. This stage of the project offers a way for members of the community to participate directly in weaving the many layers of the church’s past into a shared story.
Sharing with the public
In the third stage, I will be working with LSAT volunteers to gather all project materials into a public exhibition combining in-person formats with stories posted on this blog and on social media. We are also hoping to host a couple of events to share what we have learned with the wider community. Collectively, these public-facing outputs of the project will provide a moment to learn about and reflect upon the church’s history, the important role it has played locally, and how we might build upon this foundation going forward. After all, the functions that this building might fulfil under community ownership in the future are very similar to the role the church has played in the past and present: a place to gather, a place to address important local needs and issues, and a place to find a sense of community, friendship and support.
There are several ways that interested members of the community can get involved in the project: by participating in interviews, by contributing written submissions or material, or simply by asking questions and learning more as it unfolds. Please stay tuned, as there will be posts with more information coming soon here and on LSAT’s social media pages. I am very excited to be getting underway on this project, and look forward to sharing more about it in the weeks and months to come.
* Please note that while the current congregation and Kirk Session at Leith St Andrew’s Parish Church have been very supportive so far, Leith St Andrew’s Trust is a separate, independent organisation. There is no agreement in place yet about the future of the church building after closure.