Ready, Set, Galoshans...

It's Galoshans time again, so once again, we're making our free and printable version of the Galoshans play available for download. Try celebrating Hallowe'en a wee bit differently this year. You've got plenty of time to practice.

The Galoshans Play


And if you really want to try something different, this year we're also sharing our wee Everyman style play from our Tales of the Oak book - a play based on the Christian Shaw witch trial case.

The Orchard


It's also time to terrify friends and loved ones with All Hallows Read, where you share your favourite scary book. This year, I will be convincing folks to read Locke and Key by Joe Hill.

In other seasonal news, we also hope to have a wee open day for collecting any scary stories you may have on Saturday October 27th, more news soon.


UPDATED-
In October 2013, the Greenock Players popped along to The Dutch Gable House to perform a version of this play. Check it out on Inverclyde TV.

School Story Competition

Today we are launching a new competition for all Inverclyde Primary Schools. 

We believe passionately in the use of local heritage to create a sense of civic pride, and we know schools in our area work hard to promote citizenship and an understanding of local history. We hope this competition will provide an opportunity to build on that good work.

What we would like is for local school pupils in P6 or P7 to tell us a story set in our home town, using some of the spooky history of the area. It’s something you could do as a Halloween activity, or as part of Tell A Story Day on October 24^th. 

The story can be told in any form, poetry, comic strip, fairytale, whatever suits the story best. It should take up no more than 2 sides of A4 paper including illustrations. 

The winning entry from each school will be included in a special digital “scary story book” which will be online later in the year. The school which sends us the best selection of scary stories will win £50 to spend on new books for the school. The writer of the best scary story will win a £20 book token and their story will also be adapted into a comic strip. Every school that enters will receive a copy of our original book of local folktales “Tales of the Oak”.

We have already written out to all local schools to invite them to get involved, suggesting a few areas they may like to use for inspiration, we've included them below. But you don't have to choose those, there are many more stories on this blog or that you may have heard elsewhere to use for inspiration...

The closing date for the competition is Friday 16 November, if you have any questions at all, you can contact us on aulddunrod@gmail.com. We look forward to being terrified by your stories.


Malkie and the Bogle - A Port Glasgow tale....

The Ballad of Auld Dunrod - Concerning the Warlock of Inverkip who terrorised the area




The Legend of the Gourock Monster

Dismembered Cats and Other Stories...

We're swotting away reading lots of interesting books and picking out things to visit at this months Storytelling Festival in Glasgow and Edinburgh, so meantime, here's a few wee folk snippets...


Cowboys!
Readers may know that Buffalo Bill's Wild West rodeo show visited Greenock on it's tour of Scotland. The show featured genuine "cowboys 'n indians" of the time, including Annie Oakley. The book "Your Fathers The Ghosts" tells the story of the Wild West troupes genuine misadventures in Scotland, and now award winning filmmaker Alan Knight is looking for support to make it into a film. From 5pm today, you can assist this impressive effort via their crowdfunding site.

Photos!
The first-ever HLF Scotland photography competition has been launched. For your chance to win a place on a weekend wildlife photography course or an annual subscription to a photography magazine, send your best photos of an HLF project.

HLF want photos that show the huge diversity of everything they fund - from bumblebees to steam trains, and people engaging with their local heritage. Whatever the project is, HLF want to see it.

Find out how to apply in the terms and conditions attached – make sure your photos reach HLF by 5pm on 2 November 2012.


There's been a murder!
And finally...Greenock, a town on the verge of being unshockable, was upset and dismayed today by the symbolic murder of the Greenock Morton mascot "Cappie the Cat" in what looks suspiciously like a gangland hit. Parts of the mascot have still to be recovered. Local gossip already suggests a disgruntled former mascot Mortonosaurus may be involved. Meanwhile security has been stepped up around Greenock Waterfront mascot Polo Bear. Sadly, there are many folk precedents for violence involving sports mascots, as this insensitive slideshow proves. And also this video. We genuinely hope that those involved are caught and brought to justice.

Cappie in happier times

Artists Assemble!

Bloom : Copyright Mhairi M Robertson

We're really pleased to announce that Gourock based artist Mhairi M Robertson will be working with us on the illustrations for our new childrens book. The book is being produced as part of our new Tales of the Oak project and will be released next year.

Mhairi has studied at Glasgow School of Art and her work has been described as illustrative and imaginative, her most popular topics being people, fantasy and folklore. Because of this, Mhairi has been commissioned to do work of various kinds, from private portraits and fine art(ish) canvases to album sleeve covers, designs for animation and comic books.

Having been raised in Inverclyde, the history of the area has always been of significant interest to her; through school projects about the Greenock Blitz or old folk tales recanted by family members - sometimes as bed time stories, sometimes simply in passing – Mhairi has found that there was always something new and remarkable to learn about her surroundings. It is an interest which has been carried through to adulthood.

She also really likes Batman and would like to illustrate a Batman/Joker comic book, please, before her drawing hand gets too old and stiff and falls off.

You can see more of Mhairi's work on her website.

We'll be sharing our progress and sketches from the book as it all comes together over the next few months. Cannae wait.

And in honour of today being National Comic Book Day (actually for real), we can also announce that Port Glasgow based artist Andy Lee will be starting work on our Tales of the Oak comic. Andy provided some of the artwork for the Identity graphic novel, recently described by Judge Dredd creator John Wagner as "a marvellous piece of work". Here's some of Andy's work on the graphic below, it is available to read online or download for kindle or from ibooks. Again, we'll be sharing some of the character designs and sketches from the new comic project soon...

Image courtesy of Identity project

Tales of the Oak : Stories...Twice Told

Magic Torch are delighted to reveal that we have received funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund "Your Heritage" programme to deliver a new project - "Tales of the Oak", which over the next 18 months will create a new storytelling club and publish two new books.

The new project will include

- opportunities to be trained by the Scottish Storytelling Centre on how to use oral tradition to celebrate local heritage

- new research in local and national archives to collect supernatural tales and local folk stories

- publication of a fully illustrated "scary storybook" retelling local legends and stories for children 4-8 years old

- publication of a 1950s style "terror comic" featuring scary stories and retellings inspired by local legends and ghost stories

- a new storytelling club, with sessions running Winter 2012, Spring / Summer 2013 and again in Winter 2013

- a chance for local schools to be involved in a Scary History competition; pupils will be asked to submit their own scary story with the winning entry included in the childrens book or illustrated for the comic.

The storytelling club will be run from The Dutch Gable House, and you can find out more on how to be involved on Doors Open Day there on Saturday 8 September.

We are not looking for people to do a formal presentations, or give a performance; it’s not a book reading or a drama group. We want to draw inspiration from the tales that folk used to be tell around firesides. Those folk were not professional storytellers, neither are we. We want to help restore an old oral tradition by creating a new living tradition. 

We'll be sharing regular podcasts of stories from the club on our Soundcloud page and hopefully via itunes as well.

The blog will be the main way to follow what's going on in the project, so be sure to bookmark us, or subscribe via email / feedburner.

The entire project is volunteer run, with all the funding being used to pay for project outputs like storytelling training or the publications.

If you've been following the blog for awhile, you'll know that over winter we like sharing ghost stories. In fact, our first book, published in 2000 even included a few. We've had stories about cursed trees, sad tales of forgotten loves and over on my own blog Stramashed there's been the tale of The Duchal Well and some sugar sheds flash fiction based on the urban legend of The Catman

But there's always more to hear
- what's the story with the Arts Guild ghost, surely now lonelier than ever?
- any Cappielow Ghouls?
- any truth to the rumour of Roman legionnaires marching over the moorland behind Kilmacolm?
- is Ravenscraig haunted?

Project funders, Heritage Lottery Fund, are keen to hear from Inverclyde groups with other heritage project ideas. Interested groups can find out more from the website www.hlf.org.uk or by contacting Development Officer Louise Hastie directly on LouiseH@hlf.org.uk.

We love collecting and sharing stories, and this new project will let us do that in all new ways, we're looking forward to you getting involved. You can contact us at aulddunrod@gmail.com

For now, here's one we made earlier....

About the Heritage Lottery Fund

Using money raised through the National Lottery, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) sustains and transforms a wide range of heritage for present and future generations to take part in, learn from and enjoy. From museums, parks and historic places to archaeology, natural environment and cultural traditions, we invest in every part of our diverse heritage. HLF has supported more than 26,000 projects, allocating over £4 billion across the UK and more than £1/2 billion across Scotland. www.hlf.org.uk

Identity - Graphic Novel

The Archivist...bet he knows a few stories....

As part of the Heritage Lottery Funded Identity project, the project team have worked with local schools to produce a graphic novel charting the heritage of the area. The project is focussed on migration, but there are a few wee folk tales that have been handed down which have been included in the graphic. The 64 page book will be released later in the year, and so far, it looks fantastic. Follow the Identity facebook page or blog for regular project updates.

Magic Torch got to provide a few pages based on the story of Minnie Dean, but this preview page below is a retelling of a Mermaid story we've always enjoyed...

We really like The Archivist from the graphic novel, but he is of course a fictional character. This week however, Inverclyde Council's real life Archivist played a bit of a blinder and uncovered a secret cupboard full of centuries old books. Hats off to you sir.

The Greenock Jungle

Written in 1907, John Maclean's take on Upton Sinclairs "The Jungle" explores council corruption, profiteering and exploitation of working class Greenock. With its vivid descriptions of diseased carcasses and rotten meat, it is not an easy read, or a pleasant one; but it is a window into a Greenock which has only recently passed out of living memory. Macleans pamphlet resulted in an enquiry being launched by the Local Government Board and a meat inspector being appointed to the slaughterhouse.

We republished this pamphlet in 2000, it was sold in very limited numbers with profits being donated to non-political organisations committed to improving social conditions for ordinary people around the world.

The Greenock Jungle - John Maclean