Adamson Interviews

Duncan Adamson Interviews 1986-1987

When the Ann Hill project was set up it was obvious that one of the first tasks should be to collect oral history from the people who had lived in Kirkpatrick Fleming. A series of interviews was undertaken in the late 1980s and this collection brings them together.

The interviewer was my father, Duncan Adamson. Duncan had recently retired from his job as Principal Teacher for history at Dumfries Academy, so that he could pursue his lifelong passion for local history and genealogy. He had been a member of the Dumfries and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society (DGNHAS) for many years and was a former president. When the DGNHAS found themselves responsible for Ann Hill’s bequest, they naturally turned to him as a person with both the time and the skills to undertake the research required.

Having been given the task of investigating the history of Kirkpatrick Fleming, Duncan immersed himself in the project. Through his research into a broad range of primary sources (including the archives of the Annandale Estate), the ordinary people of Kirkpatrick Fleming down the centuries came back to life. It was this research that was used as the basis for the book I wrote after he died: Kirkpatrick Fleming on the Borders of History.

The interviews focus on the experience of life in Kirkpatrick Fleming in the first half of the twentieth century. They evoke a time period that Duncan himself could just about remember, having been born in 1936, and it is clear that he enjoyed talking to all these people and hearing their stories. For him it was the best kind of history – real stories about real people’s lives. I hope you enjoy them as much as he did.

Sheila Adamson                                                                                              May 2016