East Lothian Courier | News | Bus hits the road armed with battle plans

Friday, 16th May, 2008

Published: Thursday, 10th April, 2008 08:10

Bus hits the road armed with battle plans

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• Pictured with the battlebus are Dr Tony Pollard (left) and Battle of Prestonpans Trustee Dr Gordon Prestoungrange

CAMPAIGNERS fighting to raise the profile of one of Scotland’s major conflicts are taking the battle to people across the county.

The Battle of Prestonpans Heritage Trust has bought and converted an ex-mobile library into a dedicated centre for distributing information on the battle and the trust’s campaign. The ‘battlebus’ will tour East Lothian over the summer months.

Trustee Dr Gordon Prestoungrange said: “It is a definite improvement on the static cabin we had at Meadowmill last year.

“The theme of our campaign is Victory, Hope and Ambition and reflects the fact that Prince Charlie was only 26-years-old at the time of the Battle of Prestonpans in 1745.

“We are intending to take it to schools, gala parades and events like North Berwick Highland Games. As well as leafets and booklets, we will have an audio-visual on the battle sequence.”

The ‘battlebus’, with original artwork by Andrew Crummy, was unveiled by Dr Tony Pollard at a ceremony in Prestonpans last Thursday. Dr Pollard is head of Glasgow University’s Centre for Battlefield Archaeology and is co-presenter of the BBC’s Two Men in a Trench. He will lead the archaeological work to be done on the battle site at Prestonpans.

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