A Tale of Two Homes: A wee journey through the life of two Cromarty houses

Sheila Currie & Jane Verberg

This month’s talk is best summarised by the words of both speakers, who have spent a year researching the history of their homes and present for the very first time their findings. “Janie and Sheila have been exploring the lives & times connected to their homes in Cromarty; both built in the early 19th century in what was then the very new town among the farmlands of the ‘Ness’. We’ll each tell what we've uncovered about the lives of the people in each of our houses over the last 200 years. We want others to feel confident in carrying-out their own research and so we will also talk about the process of research where the two of us — both shambling amateurs! — have found our paths through Archives and Historic Records.”

Sheila Currie

“My first love was — and probably still is — Archaeology and I worked on digs across the UK in my teens and twenties. I trained as a Geologist which gave me a vivid sense of deep time and how the world beneath our feet was created; and insights into the geological processes making the future all around us all the time. A “career” that began by doing practical outdoor conservation work culminated in helping Scottish Natural Heritage become a low-Carbon organisation; and developing management & reporting tools for Public Bodies across Scotland to do the same. Now “retired”, I am active in Politics, obsessed by mesolithic and pictish history; and I am a committee member of the Cromarty History Society.”

Janie Verburg

“I grew up in a tiny village on the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, England. I was fascinated by the Iron Age Hillfort that was tucked in at the back of the Common and early on I wrote about the women I thought must have lived on the site. I went on to study Theology and Philosophy at St David’s University College in Wales and later became a teacher for children with ‘Learning and Behavioural Difficulties’. I moved to Cromarty in 2004 and immediately felt at home among the stories of Hugh Miller. I adore walking through our town, feeling as if we too are weaving histories. The Past is here with us everyday but so is the Now. Recently I have had a strong sense that our Now will become the Past in someone else’s Future. That places a responsibility on us to document. Preparing this talk about the Old Bank is a small attempt to contribute to that process.“

Cromarty History Society meets in the West Church Hall, Cromarty at 7.30pm on the the third Thursday of each month, September - April