Projects

Langholm Made: Conversations with former textile workers

A set of booklets capturing personal reflections and memories to celebrate the unique heritage of Langholm's textile industry

View all projects 

Langholm Made booklet front cover
The creative team and contributors
Book cover
The booklets contain a glossary of Langholm dialects
Artist Emma Dove and Judith Johnson from the Langholm Initiative
The printed booklets

About the project

Langholm Made sought to explore and celebrate ‘making’ past and present in Langholm - a town with a rich textile history that remains vibrant in craft and making today. For Langholm Made, artist and filmmaker Emma Dove collected stories and memories of the weaving industry, whilst maker Deirdre Nelson explored ‘making’ in Langholm in its widest sense.

Making Connections

Langholm Made formed part of a wider project entitled Making Connections, initiated by Upland with local partner organisations, The Langholm Initiative and OutPost Arts, to enable artists and makers to explore and highlight Langholm’s rich history and heritage in textile manufacture. Making Connections consisted of two artist residencies, undertaken by Dumfries & Galloway based artist Emma Dove and Glasgow based maker Deirdre Nelson, and a schools project led by Kirkcudbright-based textile artist Morag Macpherson. 

About these booklets

For Langholm Made, Emma Dove recorded conversations with a number of local people who contributed stories and memories relating to the textile heritage of Langholm. The result was a set of seven booklets, each containing a printed conversation transcript, existing as a way to capture and share the personal reflections and memories which celebrate a unique heritage, deeply embedded in people and place.

About the text

The conversations in these booklets have been transcribed using the ‘clean transcript’ standard, whereby ‘fillers’ (such as ‘um’) and repetitions are mostly edited out so as not to distract from the main content. However an effort has been made to try and keep as much of the natural flow of conversation as possible within the text. Any spelling or formatting relating to dialect has been transcribed as true to the spoken word as possible. Use of dialect words vary throughout each conversation (so for example the word ‘you’ might be spelled ‘you’, ‘ee’ or ‘yow’ at different points within one transcript). Spelling and formatting choices have made at the discretion of the transcriber in each instance.

The start and end of some transcripts - as well as some short sections within the conversations - have been edited out when considered to be informal pre-amble, post-amble, or an unrelated tangent to the main conversation. In a very small number of instances, a word, phrase or sentence has also been retracted from a transcript if considered that it could cause unnecessary offence.

The project was funded Creative Scotland and the Heritage Lottery.

Langholm Made conversation transcripts

Katrine A. Eagleson, 13th November 2020, Transcript 1/7 [Download Transcript 1]

Ann Hislop and Margaret (Mag) Wilson, 20th May 2021, Transcript 2/7 [Download Transcript 2]

Margaret (Mags) E. Latimer and Sheila Barnfather, 24 May 2021, Transcript 3/7 [Download Transcript 3]

Duncan Ritchie, Mac Hotson and Mick Ryan, 24 May 2021, Transcript 4/7 [Download Transcript 4]

Ian Maxwell, 25 May 2021, Transcript 5/7 [Download Transcript 5]

Alan Miller, 25 May 2021, Transcript 6/7 [Download Transcript 6]

Ramsay Johnstone and Patrick (Pat) A. Keeney, 25 May 2021, Transcript 7/7 [Download Transcript 7]

With thanks to Ron Addison for research assistance

 

Project supported by

Lucy MacLeod, Outpost Arts

Judith Johnson, Langholm Initiative

Amy Marletta, Upland

Margaret Pool, Welcome to Langholm

 

Transcription support
Katherine Latimer

Transcript design
Samuel Sparrow