COMING to a village near you, the team from the John Gray Centre archives department are heading out on tour.

We are always eager to help people who drop into the centre with their enquiries. We also pride ourselves on our sources that are held in the store upstairs in the archive. Unfortunately, if you live in, for example, Garvald, you are very restricted in your choice of photographs to look through. There is only one box of postcards and pictures for Garvald.

There are ample boxes for Haddington (36), Dunbar (26) and Musselburgh (24), but only one box each for Saltoun, Morham, Humbie and a few other smaller villages in East Lothian.

So while we have a great selection of information for the big towns we are desperately seeking details of the outlying villages. Hence the reason for The Archive and Local History Roadshow. We will be visiting a number of villages throughout East Lothian. We intend to let the people know where we are located, what we do and what we can offer to the public. We will also try to inform the people just what could be described as of historical interest.

One of the main points of the roadshow is to let everyone know that we are very willing to take care of what some people regard as old and unwanted, for example, diaries, photographs, postcards, posters, letterheads, invoices and bills of sale, etc. What we look after belongs to the public and should anyone drop in to see any part of the collection we will be delighted to make it available to them.

Our first stop on our tour is the village of Garvald, which is nestled in a fold on the edge of the Lammermuirs. A number of people have suggested that the village got its name from two Gaelic words: the first part of the name, Gar, which means rough, and Vald, which means water. This was a thriving little community that consisted of blacksmiths, wrights, tailors, weavers, shoemakers, grocers and bakers.

When all these people had some free time, they may have gathered in one of the four public houses that were located in Garvald at some time.

Furthermore, there were also two breweries in the village and it would be nice to think that they were supplying the four pubs all at the same time.

While nothing of earth-shattering event happened in Garvald, this was and is a place where people were born, went to school, married and had children. People organised events that local people took part in which became an annual event. Generation after generation would eagerly contribute to galas, school concerts or competitions that would be recorded some way or another. We are very interested in all these memories and are hoping that on our tour around the county we will be able to collect them and store them for future generations.

The team will be in Garvald Village Hall on Thursday, April 14, between 7pm and 8.30pm, so look out those old pictures, brush up on tales from your family past and head along to share your memories and find out about the village’s past.

More details of the roadshow’s stops will be available at the John Gray Centre website.

By Bill Wilson, Local history officer