Linlithgow Civic Trust
Visits and Events
Dr Moses Jenkins of HES
History of Local Canals
Ellie Graham of SCAPE
Stacey Rowntree of the Scottish Lime Centre Trust
Walking tour of Edinburgh
Bannockburn House
Future Events
Cross House Winter talks 2019/2020
The third of the talks will be at 7.30pm on Tuesday 21 January 2020 in the Adam Room of Cross House. The speaker will be Dr Moses Jenkins who is Senior Technical Officer with the Historic Environment Scotland Technical Research team. His talk will be on "Scotland's Healing and Holy Wells". The talk will look at the history of magic and sacred wells in Scotland. The types of ritual performed at such sites and folk belief surrounding wells will be discussed and some local examples will be presented.
Dr Moses Jenkins has worked for HES for 14 years with a focus on researching methods and materials to improve the thermal performance of traditionally constructed buildings. He has published a wide range of articles and guides on this and other subjects related to the traditional built environment. He has degrees from Stirling and Glasgow University and in 2016 was awarded his PhD from Dundee University having completed a thesis on the subject of Scottish Traditional Brickwork.
LCT 2020 Annual Lecture
The 2020 LCT Annual Lecture will be given by Geoff Bailey, Heritage Engagement Officer at Falkirk Community Trust. Geoff 's talk will be on “How many canals were there in Falkirk?”, a look at canal mania in our local area from the 18th to the 21st centuries.
The talk will take place at 7.15pm on Wednesday 12 February in the Queen Margaret Hall. The talk will be free to both LBT members and non-members with donations welcome at the door.
Recent Events
3 December 2019 - Ellie Graham: "Coastal Archaeology of the Forth"
The second of the Cross House talks was given by archaeologist Ellie Graham of St Andrews University (recently seen on Alice Robert's BBC2 Most Historic BritishTowns programme on Stirling, Channel 4's Britain at Low Tide and BBC Scotland's Scotland from the Sky).
To a packed room, Ellie gave a fascinating talk on the "archaeological digs" she has been involved with on the Higgins Neuk site near the Clackmannanshire Bridge and the Pictish Wemyss Caves. The local Trust that has been working to preserve the Wemyss Caves run tours in the Summer so we will aim to organise a visit to them as one of the Summer tours.
19 November 2019 - Stacey Rowntree: "The Work of the Scottish Lime Centre Trust"
The first of the 2019/2020 Cross House talks took place in the Adam Room of Cross House and was given by Stacey Rowntree, the Building Surveyor for the Scottish Lime Centre Trust. Her talk covered all aspects of the work of the Trust which was set up in 1994 to:
- Promote for the public benefit the appropriate repair of Scotland's traditional and historic buildings;
- Advance education through the provision of advice, training and practical experience in the use of lime for the repair and conservation of such buildings; and
- Promote and further the preservation and development of Scottish building traditional, crafts and skills.
At the end of her very informative talk we certainly all knew the difference between concrete and lime mortar and the "do's and don'ts" of using them.
18 September 2019 – Walking Tour in Edinburgh:
“Children's Gardens in the Dark Places of the Old Town”
This walking tour was provided by Jean Bareham of Greenyonder Tours (a small, well-respected Edinburgh company specialising in walks in Edinburgh). The tour celebrated children's gardens created in the Old Town slums by two social movements, the Free Kindergarten Movement and supporters of Patrick Geddes. We had a splendid afternoon as Jean showed us places that are rarely visited. We all thoroughly enjoyed Jean's well researched history of the gardens and her stream of lovely anecdotes and came away much wiser about this unique bit of Edinburgh.
23 June 2019 – visit to Bannockburn House
On a lovely day, we had a wonderful tour of Bannockburn House and Gardens. Although both are in a state of considerable disrepair after decades of neglect, the Bannockburn House Trust, which acquired the House in November 2017, is already making inroads into the huge amount of work required to restore the House and Gardens. The House is certainly a hidden gem of a 17th Century A-listed mansion, which has survived largely unchanged, apart from an added (and detracting) Victorian extension. The original part of the house was completed around 1675 by Sir Hugh Paterson and there are many Jacobite affiliations with the House over that period. We were impressed by all the hard work and support of a dedicated band of volunteers who have put their hearts and souls into the project (and who made lovely home made cakes for our visit!).
Programme Co-ordinator
Linlithgow Civic Trust organises events throught the year. Talks and lectures are arranged during the autumn and winter and there are visits to places of interest in spring and summer.
John Mason is the Programme Co-ordinator. If you have any suggestions of places to visit or speakers, please contact John at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..