The John Gray Centre is home to East Lothian's Archive and Local History Service. Last year we began actively recording and collecting oral histories. We recorded memories as part of a village history project on Westbarns; and also for "Best Days of your Life?" - an exhibition about schooldays. Snippets from the recordings we collected formed part of these exhibitions. Our volunteers have been doing the hard work of transcribing these interviews which now form part of our newly created sound archive.

This year we have been fortunate to get funding from our council to start the work of digitising some 300 recordings on tape and reel to reel, which we have inherited from our Local History Service. Many of these recordings were made in the 1980s and 1990s and we are looking forward to listening to the stories. Interview summary and transcription work is just about to start.

2017 is the centenary of the Scottish Women's Rural Institute which began locally for us in Longniddry. We are planning an exhibition to mark the centenary and hope to interview members later this year. We would be delighted to hear from anyone involved in the SWRI in East Lothian who would like to be interviewed.

For further information on any of these projects please contact Ruth Fyfe or Frances Woodrow at the John Gray Centre: email history@eastlothian.gov.uk website http://www.johngraycentre.org or find us on facebook www.facebook.com/JohnGrayCentre

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