500 years of Musselburgh history uncovered
April 24, 2009 9:00 AM
Stuart Currie inspects the archives
Council workmen carrying out renovation work at Musselburgh Town House have uncovered a wealth of town records relating to life in Musselburgh with the earliest dating back almost 500 years. The records include 16th century equivalents of ASBOs - detailing the punishments for various misdemeanours carried out by citizens of the Burgh. Shipping records listing the cargoes, both imported and exported from Musselburgh, give an invaluable insight into the commerce of the time.
The new find will add significantly to the Musselburgh Burgh records, which are currently held in the National Archives of Scotland, to be returned to East Lothian when the planned new archive, library museum and heritage centre - the John Gray Centre - opens in Haddington.
The announcement of the new archive find co-incides with the grant announcement from the Heritage Lottery Fund of £1.39 million to East Lothian Council for the John Gray Centre. East Lothian's Cabinet member for Community Services, Cllr. Stuart Currie, said:
"Today's double announcement of heritage lottery funding and the exciting historical records uncovered in Musselburgh signals a strong future for local archives in East Lothian. We are delighted to have secured this funding which will enable us to progress with the development of the John Gray Centre which will provide fully accessible archives and local history material to the people of East Lothian."
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