Mosaic of Wartime Alyth
A Mosaic of Wartime Alyth consists of a collection of extracts
from the Alyth Town Council records - minutes and correspondence -
to be read out aloud (the script is available to download as a pdf
from the right hand side of this page). It was compiled by
the Friends of the Perth & Kinross Council Archive and
presented to the people of Alyth at the Ogilvy Rooms on the
evening of Thursday 5 June 2008.
The format was inspired by an evening at Innerpeffray Library,
when the Laird of Dollerie, assisted by a group of readers, brought
correspondence from his family records, and experiences of
Perthshire people during the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion, to
life. This clearly demonstrated that written archives
are not necessarily dull and inaccessible. Friends of the
Perth & Kinross Council Archive know that "their" archive is
anything but dull and thought it might be a good idea to present a
true story from it.
Browsing through the records of Alyth Town Council for 1939-1945
we were impressed by the number of human interest stories, as well
as fascinating historical detail, they revealed. Interesting
material was so plentiful that the first draft of the Mosaic
was more than twice the length of the final, edited
version.
First-hand memories of the Second World War are now limited to
people in their 60s and older. It therefore seemed
appropriate to bring certain aspects of wartime life in Alyth to
public attention, both to show that written archives can offer an
interesting and amusing insight into the past and in the hope of
learning from those with direct knowledge of Alyth during the
Second World War.
If there were enough interest, the Friends would be delighted to
undertake an oral history project to preserve individuals'
wartime memories for future generations.
Anyone interested in contributing personal memories, or reported
memories, is warmly invited to contact the Friends of the Perth
& Kinross Council Archive, care of Alyth Library or care of Perth & Kinross Council Archive.
Margaret Borland-Stroyan
Chairman, Friends of Perth & Kinross Council Archive
Alyth Burgh records
If you would like to look through the records that were used for
the Mosaic of Wartime Alyth, visit the Archive and ask for collection
AL1/1/10-12, which are the Town Council's minute books covering
1936-1948.
