THIS week, the team from the Live Borders Museum and Gallery, Tweeddale Museum in Peebles, brings us details on their latest exhibition...

If you have called into your local museum recently your senses will have been filled with sounds and sights of the 1950s.

From the tunes of ‘Watch with Mother’ to Elvis Presley, and a selection of films from the Beltane parades, there is much to take in.

Working with the local history group of the Tweeddale U3A, museum staff have created a variety of scenes in the Fabulous Fifties? exhibition.

Through objects such as the kitchen cabinet which features a colourful array of 50s household implements, to photographs of a 1950s Peebles, it is a chance to jog memories or learn of life at that time.

Members of the U3A group have been very generous with their time, researching for panels and gathering and helping to display many objects to complement those in the museum collection.

Some have very special local memories of the time, and Margaret Jack has shared her experiences as Beltane Queen in 1949, and involvement in subsequent years.

In researching, the question of ‘how good did we have it in the fifties?’ has been discussed, contrasting the Americanised version of this period with what was happening in Peebles at the time.

Ruth Ruthven, front of house at the Tweeddale Museum said: “Visitors of all ages have been thoroughly engrossed in this exhibition. Children and adults alike have taken a walk down memory lane.

“They have enjoyed footage of 1950s television with Andy Pandy and the The Lone Ranger as firm favourites, and those who experienced the 50s themselves have journeyed back to the halcyon days of jive, beetle crushers, carpet sweepers and Elvis - not forgetting The Queen’s Coronation.”

The exhibition continues until Saturday February 10, and will be open from 2 to 4pm on the afternoon of Saturday, February 3, when demonstrations of jive dance will be performed in the gallery by Rosalind Stuart-Menteth and Chalky and Karen Whyte.

Peeblesshire residents are encouraged to come along to the free event at the Chambers Institution, by Peebles High Street, to swing your hips and get your toes tapping at this special event.

For more information on the dancing event, call 01721 724820.