RSA Edinburgh Meeting: The Prestonpans Battle Dream - 24 January 2007

The Trustees of the Battle of Prestonpans 1745 Heritage Trust are delighted that the RSA [Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts Manufactures and Commerce] founded just 9 years after the Battle, has selected our Battle Dream as the focus for their January 2007 Meeting at Weymss House, Charlotte Square, Edinburgh. [This follows our 2006 collaboration with the RSA for their CoffeeHouse Challenge on the same theme.]

Further details are set out below and all interested in attending should print out the Event Booking Form below and mail to the RSA as shown thereon.

N.B. For Prestonpans indwellers [who are already or who become GothMembers] it is planned to take the Wiles coach to Edinburgh departing at 5.00 pm prompt on January 24th from The Prestoungrange Gothenburg. If you wish to travel with the Wiles' party [but be certain also to make your own booking direct to RSA for a ticket] please contact Stephen Cross on 01875 819922 to reserve one of the 16 available seats.Prestonpans Heritage Trust has been established with the aims of publicising the uniqueness of the battle, and of conserving, and enabling informed access to, the fragile battle site.

The RSA Announcement Flyer

Regenerating a community through arts and heritage: the Prestonpans Battle Dream

Prestonpans is a community that has lost some 1,500 jobs since the 1960s with the demise of coal mining, soap making and other industries and will face further economic problems with the planned closure of the Cockenzie Power Station by 2015. Following the success of the Prestoungrange Arts Festival Society’s mural painting projects, and the regeneration of community spirit that they have engendered, attention has turned to a community led project that will increase local employment, prosperity and self-esteem by creating a more fitting commemoration of the Battle of Prestonpans.

The session, which will be introduced by Dr Gordon Prestoungrange FRSA, Baron of Prestoungrange, will be addressed by eminent battlefield archaeologist and presenter of Two Men in a Trench TV series, Dr Tony Pollard, of the University of Glasgow, and by Battle of Prestonpans Heritage Trustees Peter McKenzie and Gareth Bryn-Jones. There will be ample opportunity for discussion.

The event will be of interest to anyone with an interest in how arts and heritage projects can help community regeneration as well as potential supporters of the ‘Prestonpans Battle Dream’.

The event will take place 6.00pm – 8.00pm on Wednesday 24 January at Wemyss House, 28 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh EH2 4ET, with coffee from 5.30pm, and a drinks reception at the end of the session.

Places are limited, and requests for tickets (which are free) should be made by returning the enclosed booking form to Betta Adams FRSA, 2 Drummond Place, Edinburgh EH3 6PH, by Monday 15 January 2007.

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[Click on the Booking Form below and then on the larger image you access hit the right button on your mouse to enable printing of the 'picture']