A PHOTOGRAPHIC record of the living history of Peebles High Street over the past 140 years has been captured in a new book.

Peebles High Street: A Photographic History, which has been produced by Peebles Civic Society, contains photographs, many previously unpublished, since the earliest days of photography right up to the present day.

It is based on material which was gathered as part of the Society’s project “Peebles High Street: One Thousand Years of History”.

At an informal ceremony in the Chambers Institution on Friday, October 3, Mr Ronald Ireland, Peebles Civic Society Chairman, welcomed guests and introduced the new publication.

He mentioned that the project which the Society embarked on in the autumn of 2013, in partnership with the Tweeddale Museum, had gained financial help from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Sharing Heritage Programme.

He spoke of the co-operation the Society had received from Peebles Bletherers when three open events had been arranged where people were invited to share their memories of Peebles High Street and to bring along photographs which could be added to an archive.

Several hundred people attended the sessions and as a result there are many hundreds of photographs covering every aspect of life in the town gathering in the archive.

The intention is that in time the whole archive will be accessible on-line and in the Tweeddale Museum and will provide an educational resource for schools and work with young people.

Thanks were expressed to the many people whose work and commitment to the project had resulted in its success and included were the staff of the Tweeddale Museum, those who had taken part in the DVD of High Street memories, those who had contributed photographs and sound recordings and, as mentioned earlier, the Peebles Bletherers.

The production of the booklet, printed by Caledonian Printers, had been the end result of a long process involving the staff of the Tweeddale Museum, Ronald Ireland, Graeme Murray and Stephen Scott, who received a special mention for his expertise and the many hours of work he had spent improving the quality of the images and putting together all the pre printing material.

The new publication, which is a quality product, is now on sale at Whitie’s Bookshop in Peebles priced £5.