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Above Heritage Volunteers from Borders DFAS and Edinburgh DFASat Thirlestane CastleOpposite page l-rLawn shoes for horses, now catalogued;archived copy of TV Times highlightingSir Laurence Olivier at Chichester Festival TheatreKEEPING COLLECTIONS UP TO DATEThanks to the help of Heritage Volunteers, many collections are being computerised – lengthy work that museums may not have the resources to completeThirlestane Castle is an imposing turreted castle in the Scottish Borders with a history stretching back 800 years. Long a focus of the community, in the 1970s and 80s local people collected over 3,000 artefacts pertaining to the vanishing practices of country life, both domestic and agricultural – and used a suite of rooms in a previously derelict part of the castle to display them. These eclectic artefacts in the Borders Country Life museum included an amazing collection of smoothing irons, the entire contents of a 1930s tailor’s shop, as well as farming implements from a bygone era, such as horn clippers, bull masks and special ditch-digging spades. However, the rooms were in need of repair, and the castle wished to use the area as a fl exible exhibition space. A new home was needed for the items, but without a proper inventory this would be “Although some of the volunteers are from farming families, we are discovering items that none of us have ever seen before. Some have not been used for over 100 years.” RAY CARTWRIGHT BORDERS DFAS HERITAGE VOLUNTEERYOUNG ARTS04 — THE ART OF GIVING