In 2021, at Falkirk’s Canal Encounters festival, Falkirk Community Trust interviewed local residents about their memories of the canals. You can hear their oral histories here.
First, we spoke to Iain Murray, Sandra Byrne, and Saleem Raza:
Then we interviewed Paul Elliott and David Sneddon from Grangemouth about local tourist attractions the Kelpies and Falkirk Wheel, and watching ships being launched in the past. Alister Nisbett talks about the walking group he is part of and how the area used to be a swamp and councillor Allyson Black talks about heritage and civic pride.
Next up, we spoke to Grangemouth resident Ken Hutton about Falkirk's rich ship building history. Karina Gallagher recalls her father being a lock keeper, her own experience of watching the canals decline and her thoughts on the local regeneration project.
In our fourth video we spoke to history reenactors Alan Neilson, as famous local Baron Thomas Dundas, and Daryl Wright as a Navvy - in full costume no less!
Finally we got a taste of the 18th century in conversation with reenactor Laura Mortimer as a bargewoman!
Text by Saskia McCracken, videos by Anne Milne.
