Follow In The Steps Of The Fishwives

There are many words, unique to Scots, which convey in a single word a concept that would take a phrase to do in Standard English — ‘smirl’ meaning soft but persistent rain; ‘scunner’, which is both verb and noun, meaning disgusted irritation; and, to complete a trio of alliteration, stravaig, which means to wander aimlessly, i.e, not pointlessly but without a planned itinerary. The history and heritage of Newhaven is wide and deep. For centuries, this community was fiercely independent, as much out of necessity as need. It is unique in many aspects from other fishing communities up and down the coast of Scotland. Newhaven Heritage, founded originally in 2007 as a consequence of the closure of the once-popular community museum, exists to preserve, protect and promote the heritage of the village. Newhaven Heritage considers that a museum is not a viable option, given its proposed location within the old Victoria School, and took the decision to use the village itself as a living museum in order to tell the story of Newhaven and its place in Scotland’s story. The solution was to develop a virtual heritage trail using the opportunities offered by the internet with 24 stops along a pre-determined route. Being true to the concept of the serendipitous nature of a stravaig, the Route Stops can be visited sequentially, or done in parts, or the Route Stops can be visited randomly — whatever takes your fancy. At each Route Stop, the Stravaiger will find a QR plate, usually mounted onto a lamp post or conveniently located railing. By using a smartphone, the QR code will lead you directly to a web page that shows that location as it was in bygone days along with a description. Of course, these pages can be accessed at your home computer at www. newhavenstravaigs.scot but by “walking the walk”, you will have more fun and a better understanding of Old Newhaven. At each Route Stop, supplementary pages can be accessed carrying further information pertinent to that location. For example, at Route Stop #1 (the Fishmarket), you can find out how the fish was auctioned and shared out, images of how the market used to look like internally, all about working fishwives, the Pier Parliament, where the retired or infirm worthies would gather to sort out the cares of the world, and even a history of the Edinburgh Police Box. Next year, a multi-lingual audio dimension will be added to the Stravaig. The map can be collected from the police box at Newhaven Harbour on a Saturday morning when it is staffed by Newhaven Heritage personnel or by downloading it from the website noted above. For more information, please contact us at newhavenheritage @gmail.com.