On the 17th of May, the Museum opened its doors out
of season to take part in the national Festival of Museums weekend. We
organised a day of storytelling, crafts and music that related to the lives of
the fisher-folk of St Andrews - a fitting tribute to the families that once lived in the house that is now the Museum. The aim was to highlight the distinct history of
the local fisher-folk to both local people of and visitors to St Andrews,
particularly as, to visitors, St Andrews is much more well-known as a golf and
University Town.
In the Museum, visitors were treated to stories and sea-shanties
by Sheila Kinninmonth and Ken Johnston. The audience were able to drop-in at any
time to listen, and both Sheila and Ken definitely looked the part too!
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| Sheila Kinninmonth and Ken Johnston |
Across the road at All Saints’ Church hall, Museum
volunteers were on hand to assist with the various craft activities, including
painting dolly-pegs and making origami paper boats. In the hall, a photographic
display was set-up showing the fisher-folk of St Andrews from c1850s – 1920s.
The photographic display was a huge success, and some visitors were able to
identify some of the fisher-folk in the photographs.
Although our Festival of Museums experience was over after 5
hours, the legacy of the day lives on! For the day, we published 1000 guided
tours of the ‘Ladyhead’ – the traditional area of the fisher-folk. These have
proved very popular with visitors, and we hope to be able to print more in the
future.
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| Who Lived Here? Self-guided tour leaflet |
