A CENTURY-OLD fiddle which belonged to a Haddington family who suffered horrific losses in the First World War will help the town mark 100 years since the conflict’s end.

The Cranston Fiddle, a multi-media event performed by Riddell Fiddles, from Selkirk, was written and narrated by Haddington resident Bob Mitchell.

The show premiered in Morham Village Hall in 2014 to a sell-out audience and was also a highlight of the Haddington Festival in 2015 as part of a 20-plus venue tour.

Now it is returning to Haddington for a performance next Sunday (November 11) – 100 years to the day since the end of the First World War – in the Town House at 2.30pm.

The show is described as the “heartbreaking but ultimately uplifting story of an ordinary Scottish family at war, told through the eyes of their fiddle that accompanied them to the trenches”.

Featuring Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame inductee Sheila Sapkota on the 124-year-old fiddle, the event showcases popular songs of the period and original music by Donald Knox.

Four of the Cranston family’s sons died in the war and two more were horrifically wounded, with only one, the youngest, returning home physically unscathed.

Their suffering serves as an example of that experienced by families throughout Haddington, Scotland and the world and is told through the original family fiddle, which survives to this day.

The show at the Town House will also feature four life-size silhouettes of soldiers to symbolise the four members of the Cranston family killed in the war, as well as all others who died in the conflict.

Mr Mitchell told the Courier he was “thrilled” to be taking the event back to Haddington, adding: “We feel that the silhouettes of soldiers, which we have been awarded from the Armed Forces Covenant Fund, will absolutely be the icing on the cake.”

Tickets cost £7 (£5 concessions) and are available from Joe Forte Sports and Haddington Day Centre.