Love Libraries – Village Voices group praises ‘lifeline’ library

The Village Voices of Newtongrange ring loud with tales of days gone by – of walks in the woods, wartime, village shops, school days, local sports teams and community groups, plus the rich history of mining in the area, including the impact of the miners’ strikes and closure of the colliery in 1981.

All of this social history and shared experience is being kept alive and shared at the local library, by the Village Voices group that meets there every week.

The venture, launched in 2016, is a joint project between the council’s Lifelong Learning and Employability service, Newtongrange Community 1st and the Village Voices Reminiscence Group.

Advantages

“There are currently 16 members, a waiting list to join and a very lively and active Facebook page,” said Annabel Cavaroli, Customer Engagement Manager at Midlothian Council.

The main advantages of the group are all the benefits you get from spending time with people and building friendships – it’s good to be laughing and chatting.

The group is good for health and wellbeing and reduces social isolation.

There’s also the educational benefit of being able to learn something about your local area and teach others about your local area.

One member of the group, June, said:

The library is the hub of our community and is about more than just books. It gets you out of the house and is a safe place to meet others and have great conversations.

Village Voices projects have included working with the National Portrait Gallery and artist Nicky Bird in 2019 for a mining photography exhibition. Bird revisited some of the Newtongrange residents and sites captured in the late Milton Rogovin’s Scottish Miners photographic series, shot by the social documentary photographer in 1982.

Village Voices photo exhibition with artist Nicky Bird

“Mining is a huge part of the social history and fabric of the village,” Annabel said.

And it’s the home of the National Mining Museum. There was a lot of discussion about what Newtongrange was like in the past and what it’s like now.

The community was involved in helping with the photos and an exhibition was held in the library to share what was discovered and what was learned. A book was published through that and there are plans to publish a second book in 2025.

Partnership

Another benefit of the group and its activities such as exhibitions, Annabel added, is that “people also get to see what else is going on in the library and we have a lot we offer to the community”.

This includes a pop-up Post Office, which means elderly residents and young parents, for example, do not have to make the journey to Dalkeith.

That partnership is going really well. It also helps bring people into the library space to benefit from that.

For many people the library is a lifeline. We have people who come in every day to read the paper and the librarian and other users might be the only friendly face they see or can talk to. You can’t put a value on that. There’s nothing like a library.

Learn more and follow Newtongrange Village Voices on Facebook at facebook.com/newtongrangevillagevoices.