Rosneath History
This project has been set up as a small, informal repository to gather local historical information about Rosneath and the surrounding areas, and make it accessible to all. If you wish to find out more, or would like to support this group by providing advice, observations, gifts of information, photographs etc., contact us through. tom@rosneathhistory.info
Why Rosneath Community History?
Academics may tell us that, history reveals our sense of identity, indicating that all communities like our own are shaped by the cultural and social experiences of those that have lived here in the past. That history helps us relate to our community, and through having an understanding of the past we can make our community feel like home. Many of us recognise that we are not originally from Rosneath, although there is a remote possibility that this place is where our ancestors lived, but it’s more likely that this is where we grew up, or this is where we chose to live now. Often there is little rhyme or reason to those homely feelings, there is simply an inexplicable pull to belong to this dear place. Having an understanding of our community’s past, is a way to immerse ourselves in this place that we love and help us feel rooted here. Also, by trying to understand the fascinating history of our community and culture, regardless of whether we are children or grandparents, can help us learn why things are the way they are today. In doing so we can more easily connect to our past community, to learn about the often complex and difficult lives of those who have gone before us, to hopefully make sense of the world we live in today.
To enable that connection to the past, there is a need to listen, read and capture the memories of those in the community to recall that past. We may also chose to refer to those with the wisdom to have already gathered the historic detail, and fulfil the ‘weel-kenned‘ maxim to inform, educate and entertain. It is true today, that such folk are a dwindling minority in our community, although several notable individuals listed in the ‘Historical References’ section of this site, have dedicated their lives to capturing the past, to enable the understanding of the future. In a world with its dependency on ‘Social media’, combined with our community’s significant past, one would expect to have volumes of such information to hand, either in our local Rosneath Library, or online. Unfortunately, none of that is openly available to our community today, in spite of previous efforts to maintain the information online or insist on library services remaining open.
Therefore, this site, with your kind assistance, will attempt to collect as much historical information as possible for the benefit of our community today and into the future.
Our aims will be to: –
- Gather together all the information on Rosneath that individuals or organisations have, before it is lost
- To encourage questions and participation by the community
- To make efforts of preserving the information gathered making it available for future generations.
As indicated, we welcome any suggestions for improvements to the information we provide, which has to date been compiled from research done through the internet, conversations with local historians, community residents and the information they have been prepared to share with us. The authors are aware that they may well have missed significant sources of information and would be keen to talk to anyone who may be interested in helping rectify this. If any of the photographs that appear on this site cause offence then please let us know so that we can remove them. Care is taken to ensure that donors of photographs appreciate that we will make use of them in a way to further the aims of the project.