A HISTORIAN has led her final graveyard tour after years of sharing stories from North Berwick's past.
Joy Dodd, 87, led her last Graveyard Stories tour at St Andrew’s Kirk Ports on Saturday, marking her retirement from working with the East Lothian Archaeology and Heritage Fortnight.
Nearly 20 years ago, Joy founded the North Berwick Graveyard Research Group, a team of volunteers dedicated to surveying and recording the gravestones at St Andrew’s Kirk Ports.
Their findings were published in 2007 by the Scottish Genealogy Society, of which Joy is a past-chair, and she has continued their research at the site, uncovering stories of the families and individuals buried at the historic site.
Olwyn Owen, chair of NB Heritage which organises the yearly tours, said: "We cannot thank Joy enough for everything she has done for the St Andrew’s Kirk Ports project.
"As Joy always says, the story of North Berwick over the last 350 years or so lies in the graveyard of St Andrew’s Kirk Ports, with the ancestors of most local people and families buried here.
"Joy’s Graveyard Stories tours have always been very popular, as she combines her immense knowledge with a real gift for storytelling."
She worked as a nurse at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary before having her children, Joel and Miranda, going on to become stay-at-home mum and later a classroom assistant at their local primary school.
Although she was born in Portsmouth, many of her relatives are buried in Kirk Ports as her maternal ancestry can be traced back to the Lauders, a prominent family who owned and governed Bass Rock from the 12th to the 17th century.
Her grandfather also helped build the Kirk Ports Church, having made the nails for slate on the roof.
Joy serves as the project historian for the St Andrew’s Kirk Ports conservation project and, alongside her late husband, architect Bill Dodd, documented the development and history of both the kirk and the graveyard when they moved to Dunbar following his retirement.
Joy has also published extensively about the kirk and graveyard since 2007, including a recent article in the Transactions of the East Lothian Antiquarian and Field Naturalists’ Society and is currently president of the society.
Although she has no "paper qualifications" in research she has said she has always been interested in history, often reading family 'bibles' of their heritage as a child and sees research as "one big detective story."
A film featuring Joy discussing her work and the site is currently in production and will be shown in North Berwick once completed.
Olwyn said: "Joy’s contribution to our understanding of the site is immense and her tours of the graveyard have always been both illuminating and highly enjoyable."
The final tour took place during East Lothian Archaeology and Heritage Fortnight, which runs until Sunday.
NB Heritage has been exploring options to secure the long-term future of St Andrew’s Kirk Ports.
A public survey, conducted by East Lothian Council on the volunteer group's behalf, revealed strong community support for conserving the historic kirk and making it accessible once more.
The survey, which ran for six weeks during March and April, gathered 193 responses, of which 92 per cent of respondents said that they wanted to see action to conserve the kirk.
More than 86 per cent of respondents valued the kirk for its historical and architectural significance, with the majority wanting to see the kirk enhanced for community use and the tower roof reinstated.
As plans move forward, Olwyn said that Joy’s two decades of research and storytelling would remain central to the project’s vision.
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