In August we reclaimed the High Street of Dumfries town centre with football (albeit in a cage – next time we can try without!). Celebrating the long standing friendship of local football club Greystone Rovers with Norway started in a 1940 match between Dumfries locals and Norwegian exiles resulting in a draw. A rematch was called and eventually played in Bergen in 1951 beginning a series of exchange visits over the years since. With Greystone Rovers 80th anniversary upcoming in 2018 they are keen to resume their friendship and exchange opportunities for their club members. Graham Muir, club manager, has supported The Stove’s Our Norwegian Story project as an important recognition of how beneficial these friendships can be.
This event tied in with the Our Land festival of events across Scotland looking at land use and the importance of community ownership of these spaces. The Stove wrote an article to highlight how our events can reach out to tackle wider national issues which can be found here on The Common Space website:
www.commonspace.scot/articles/9000/our-land-its-time-buy-back-our-high-street
Our Norwegian Story continues to develop, with the depth of stories bubbling up from under the surface, with personnel memories knitting together these more historical events.
Stay tuned for more next week – Films, food, drawing big maps and stitching our story into existence!
