Use: Immediate                                                                     Issue Date: Friday 11 March 2005

The first ever Ross & Cromarty Heritage Fair will be taking place at the newly restored Strathpeffer Pavilion next Friday and Saturday March, where the achievements of a number of community and school heritage projects will be showcased.

These projects include the creation of a textile version of the Hilton of Cadboll Stone, a film by young people about local memories of the Pavilion in the 60s and 70s, stunning silk painted banners inspired by the local natural heritage and a series of beautiful crafted books bringing together photographs, memorabilia and memories of people from throughout Ross and Cromarty.

The textile version of the Hilton of Cadboll Stone was the brain child of textile artist Ruth Black. Having seen the work of local sculptor Barry Grove on the reconstruction of the Hilton of Cadboll Stone, Ruth was inspired to create her own version of the stone, but realised it was too great a project for her alone. The Heritage Fair offered the perfect opportunity to work alongside The Highland Council’s Community, Learning and Leisure section and the project Soft Rock was born. Members of the community were invited to come along to a series of workshops, where Ruth introduced the group to hand-felting and embroidery techniques and together they created a life-size version of the Hilton of Cadboll Stone. The stunning and highly detailed wall-hanging decorated with beautiful Celtic and Christian symbols will be seen in its full glory hanging in the main hall of the Pavilion for the duration of the Heritage Fair.

Another quite different project was a cross-generational project where a group of young people worked with artist John McNaught to create a film about the memories associated with the Strathpeffer Pavilion. The Pavilion holds very special memories for people throughout Ross and Cromarty today from when the building was a thriving social venue for cabarets, dances and concerts. Many local people met their partners there while dancing to the music of stars like Kenny Ball, Acker Bilk, Gerry Rafferty and Billy Connolly and Freddie and the Dreamers.

With the Pavilion’s recent renovations the group of young people from Alness were given the opportunity to interview some of those people and make a film about their memories and the Pavilion’s recent history. This film will also be on show at the Heritage Fair for everyone to enjoy.

Younger members of the community were also given the opportunity to take part in a creative heritage project, where they worked with silk painter Heather Butlin on a series of stunning banners inspired by their local natural heritage. Families, individuals and schools were invited on ranger-led nature walks where they were encouraged to examine the world around them; they looked at and collected a variety of material including insects, plants, seeds and pine-cones. Under the watchful eye of silk painter Heather Butlin the participants translated their finds onto silk and Heather collated their paintings into the beautiful brightly coloured banners on display at the Heritage Fair. The banners produced by the schools will be returned to them and the banners produced by the communities will be exhibited locally wherever possible.

And finally, last but certainly not least, a series of wonderful books have been created by mixed-media artist Elizabeth Waters in collaboration with groups and individuals from all over the local area who have kindly shared their photographs and memorabilia, recording their personal memories of days gone by. These books are important historical documents of people’s memories, which are perhaps sometimes contradictory but evocative of past times in danger of being forgotten. Development of these books will be ongoing and people are welcome to contribute their own stories, photographs and memorabilia which can then be incorporated. Elizabeth will be on hand at the Fair to talk to anyone who would like to add their own story to the books. The books will later travel around the libraries of Ross and Cromarty for even more people to enjoy and browse through at their leisure.

These projects have been made possible through the support of Ross and Cromarty Enterprise, the Heritage Lottery Fund and have been part-financed by the European Union under the North Highland LEADER+ 2000-2006 Programme.

For further information about the projects and a full programme for the Heritage Fair please contact Community Learning and Leisure on 01349 868435.

For further information please contact Caroline Storey, Heritage Officer, Community Learning and Leisure on 01349 868542