AGM 24 April 2025
Membership Numbers: (fully paid) 89
Attendance average: 48 up from 42 last year
Talks
September 2024
Our contribution to East Lothian Archaeology and Heritage Fortnight (ELAHF) was a rescheduled talk by Coralie Mills, Consultant at Dendrochronicle. Entitled Tell-Tale Timbers in St Marys and the South-East Scotland Dendrochronology Project.
October: Numismatist Cameron Maclean from the Hunterian Museum Glasgow travelled from the west to deliver his highly detailed and informative talk on Six Centuries of Scottish Coins: Highlights from the Lord Stewartby Collection.
November
After Halloween, an eager audience turned up to hear a topical subject: witchcraft. Another visitor from the west, Steven Veerapen, author and Research Fellow at Strathclyde University spoke very informatively about James VI and Daemonologie, the Scottish Witch Hunt of 1597 and its Legacy.
December
Our annual Members’ Night was very well attended to hear two members give illustrated presentations on watery topics. Jean McKinnon on Drainage: Culverts and Streams of 16th Haddington and John Hamilton on The Haddington Flood of 1948 and How it would have looked in 2017.
Members and guests enjoyed wine, soft drinks and mince pies. The interval gave us the chance to socialise and to meet new members.
January 2025
The new year began with a fascinating presentation by Rebekah Higgit, Principal Curator at the National Museum of Scotland on The Ilay-Glynne Dial and the Scientific Interests and Patronage of Archibald Campbell, Earl of Ilay. This newly-acquired instrument can be viewed at NMS, Edinburgh.
February
Due to a last-minute cancellation by scheduled speaker Eric Melvin, the convenor Marie Macpherson stepped in to give a talk on 16th Century Haddington during the Reformation.
March
Peter Raine, Consultant Paediatrician spoke very knowledgeably on Sir William Fergusson, Victorian Surgeon. This talented local lad born in Prestonpans rose to become surgeon’s assistant to Robert Knox the infamous anatomist and was later appointed as surgeon to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
April
Our final talk of the season will be 2,000 Years of Fortification in East Lothian the title of the talk by David Weinczok, historian and author of The History of the Game of Thrones.
May
An additional event is planned for 8 May. Meet the Author: Historian Linda Porter, author of Margaret Tudor: the extraordinary life of Margaret Tudor, wife/widow of James IV and sister of Henry VIII.
Summaries
All of our talks are concisely and accurately summarised for inclusion on the website by Peter Ramage.
Members’ Outing This year the Members’ outing has been scheduled for 15 May 2025 Abbotsford House, home of Sir Walter Scott.
East Lothian Archaeology and Heritage Fortnight
HHS contributed the following events and talks:
In collaboration with St Mary’s Kirk:
Ten Things you didn’t know about John Knox, Marie Macpherson
Of Tykes and Loons – Mid 16th Century Soldiering in East Lothian, Jon Cooper
Witchcraft in Haddingtonshire, Marie Macpherson
In collaboration with John Gray Centre Archives: 2 sessions on:
Witch hunts, torture and trials – the downright dangerous 1600s! by Lorna Colvin-Maclean
Projects
Gateside Industries
Recording of former workers at the high-tech industries once based at Gateside has ended. The recordings are now available online at the European Ethnological Research Centre, University of Edinburgh. Copies are also with the John Gray Centre.
David Elder Photographs exhibition, John Gray Centre (JGC)
An exhibition to mark David’s contribution to capturing images of local people and places over many years was launched in late November last year. Due to a catastrophic failure of the hard disc containing David’s collection, the exhibition was only possible thanks to copies held by David Haire, John Hamilton and the JGC Archives. It can be viewed in the Museum Foyer at JGC until the end of April.
Haddington Four Closes Project
This new initiative in collaboration with Haddington and District Community Council (HDCC) and Haddington Town Centre Group (HCTRA) aims to revitalise and celebrate four of Haddington’s historic closes.
Website:
Basic Statistics
| Year | Views | Visitors | Pages per visitor |
| 2021 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | 1,630 | 509 | 3.33 |
| 2023 | 10,901 | 4,025 | 2.7 |
| 2024 | 15303 | 6764 | 2.27 |
| 2025 so far | 5627 | 2621 | 2.15 |
An increase in the number of visits and visitors but a gradual decrease in number of pages viewed. With more visitors it is imperative that the info (dates of events etc.) are kept accurate. The number of pages per visitor has dropped a little, reasons being 1) high number of visits by organisers in the early days to develop and alter things 2) Over time, search engines will pick up topics from the site, directing visitors directly to pages they want rather than having to browse the site.
Did You Know continues to be popular with a total of 853 hits so far: over 400 in January, 145 in February, and 253 in March (Railways and Xmas quiz were popular).
Memory Usage: our present agreement with ‘Our Locality’ offers a limited amount of space for images and have used about half. Some housekeeping should reduce the amount used, so not an immediate problem but one to keep an eye on.
The future: Going forward the number of hits to the web site should only go up as it becomes the information hub for the society. To be sustainable, need to attract more members by interacting with other groups, not only historical, to promote our varied programme. Aim to convert occasional visitors into new members. New Facebook initiative and sites such as the https://haddington.org.uk/event/ should help drive visitors to the website. Resources pages on the site are very under used so again FB should be able to remind members and visitors that this significant resource exists.
Self-Guided Tour and Map: A walk through history in the Royal Burgh of Haddington
A booklet of the guided tour, written and developed by the Society and illustrated by designer Thomas Small, has now been completed and copies will be on sale for £4. Our thanks to Haddington & Lammermuir Area Partnership and Haddington and District Community Council for their support in funding this project.
Promotion
The Society’s promotion campaign includes announcements in the local press and on the website, printing and distributing new brochures, putting up, posters, engaging with social media.
Committee
Unfortunately, Garry Finlayson had to step down but we are delighted to welcome new member Alexandra Maffei onto the committee.
Thanks to Jim Westcott who, though no longer a committee member, continues to work on the website.
Sadly founding member Eric Glendinning has given notice of stepping down in October.
With only 7 members the committee would welcome any nominations to join our hardworking team.
I’d like to record my thanks to the committee for all their hard work and support in what has been a very busy year for HHS.
Venues
Monthly members’ meetings take place in Holy Trinity Church, Church Street, Haddington.
Monthly committee meetings take place in the Trinity Centre, Church Street.
We would like to record our thanks for their assistance to Rev Liz O’Ryan and Phil O’Ryan at Holy Trinity and to Gail Craven at the Trinity Centre.