We need to go back to early 1988 to find the catalyst for what was eventually to become The Grassic Gibbon Centre of today. Looking back, I have difficulty remembering exactly what happened to set the whole thing in motion and maybe the memories of others involved at the time will vary a little – however for me it was not just one single event but a series of factors.

Firstly, Mrs Karpinski the local postmistress was due to retire. Everyone who visited Arbuthnott before her retirement will remember her in the shoppie from where, as well as dispensing everything from groceries and sweets to stamps and shoelaces, she acted as an unofficial Lewis Grassic Gibbon tourist guide. For over 20 years she give information on and directed interested visitors to Grassic Gibbon related sites of interest in the community. Everyone knew her retirement was going to leave an enormous gap.

Secondly, the Parish Hall was badly in need of upgrading. Little had been done to the building over the years and the toilets and kitchen were in an appalling state. With rumblings about licensing public buildings and the growing attention to health & hygiene issues we knew it was only a matter of time before someone would close the building when they noticed our corrugated lean-to kitchen with connecting toilets!

Thirdly, the District Council had attempted but failed to buy Bloomfield, Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s former home in Arbuthnott. Shortly after that the local press ran a story that suggested that the District Council, having failed to purchase Bloomfield, were planning to include an exhibition on Lewis Grassic Gibbon in a disused mill they intended renovating at Benholm, a village down the coast. The only connection Benholm mill had with Lewis Grassic Gibbon was that the BBC filmed the mill scenes there for their television dramatisation of Sunset Song in the early 70’s.

Now the folk of Arbuthnott today are exactly as Lewis Grassic Gibbon portrayed them in Sunset Song and tongues began to wag - they did not take kindly to the idea of a Grassic Gibbon exhibition at Benholm. The main question being asked was why Benholm Mill? If the Council were interested in a Grassic Gibbon exhibition then is should be situated in Arbuthnott and no-where else (well perhaps Auchterless could be seen to have a little bit of a claim as well). Many local folk were actually fiercely protective of what they saw as Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s legacy to Arbuthnott. One person talked to another and eventually a meeting of the local Community Association was arranged. The outcome of the meeting was the agreement that Arbuthnott should make an attempt to raise money to have its own Lewis Grassic Gibbon exhibition. Plans were drawn up and the three folk doing the most talking: Keith Arbuthnott, John Briggs and myself, formed a small steering group and began the job of looking for funding.

Arbuthnott Community Association is a registered charity and the voluntary management body of Arbuthnott Hall. I was then and still am its secretary and treasurer. Arbuthnott School was closed in the early 70’s and the Hall is the only public building in Arbuthnott where group activities can take place.

The hall itself was built in 1908, just around the time Lewis Grassic Gibbon moved to Arbuthnott with his family and it belongs to the community through an ancient Deed of Trust. Therefore, it was agreed to be in the community’s best interest to build an extension onto the Hall to accommodate our exhibition. We would then be able to upgrade the hall facilities and at the same time and we would only have one building to manage in the future.

Providing modern facilities for the community was, we felt, a much more acceptable and fitting memorial to Lewis Grassic Gibbon than a separate stand-alone building. Also if it were seen that local people were benefiting then it would help persuade the negative voice in the community that it was a worthwhile cause. There was of course a small degree of negativity, as one would expect; folk have very long memories and a number of people around still knew someone or had relatives who were ‘recognised’ in Sunset Song.

In the beginning my motivation was entirely to promote the interests of the community and, in many ways that is the same today. However, the road I’ve journeyed down to reach where we are today has certainly changed my views on Lewis Grassic Gibbon. Or perhaps not changed them but formed them because in the beginning, just like the vast majority of people I meet, I had little knowledge about the man himself or his work except that he wrote Sunset Song.

Although early on we had drawn up plans for the building, in the beginning we had no real strategy for what we were doing. You could say that initially we were motivated by pure thrawn-ness at the thought of someone else having something that we felt was ours - just like a spoilt child. However, as we launched our appeal and folk started to contact us we or certainly I realised that we had embarked upon something that captured people’s imagination and would be impossible to stop.

The defining moment for me was the day I received a letter from a certain Mr Robertson. Mr Robertson was and may well still be a pensioner who lives in Elgin. He wrote to say how wonderful he felt our endeavours were and that he would like to make a donation towards our appeal. However, he only had his pension to live on and therefore he could not afford to send anything that week but if he could afford it he would send something the following week. I was very touched by his letter but never expected to hear from him again – lots of people said they admired what we were trying to do but few parted with their money – but just as he had promised the following week a ten-pound note arrived in the post from Mr Robertson.

Receiving Mr Robertson’s ten pounds meant much more to me than two or three hundred pounds from a bank or one thousand pounds from an oil company. And it was at that moment I realised that what we were doing, raising money to build the Grassic Gibbon Centre, was about much, much more than just the community of Arbuthnott and that even if we were unsuccessful with our current plans and were unable to secure Scottish Tourist Board funding, as we were attempting to do, we would still eventually create a memorial to Lewis Grassic Gibbon of some description. We owed it to all the people who were supporting us and in no small part to Mr Robertson. So if you happen to be reading this Mr Robertson, you have my very grateful thanks, without the inspiration of your unselfish generosity things may not have turned out the way they did.

It was also around this time that I decided I’d better start to find out a bit more about this chap Gibbon, and decide for myself if I actually liked him or not. After all I was spending an extraordinarily amount of time talking about him and writing letters about him and everyone I met hung a different label on him - I found it quite difficult to decide which were accurate and which not. I had to make up my own mind so I began reading everything written by him and about him that I could find.

It took nearly four years before the Centre was eventually built and only after a great deal of hard work. We managed to secure Scottish Tourist Board and local authority funding but not without fighting for it every inch of the way. Luckily as well as those apposed to the project, there were enough people in the right places that wished to support us. The community alone raised somewhere in the region of £50,000 – not through the usual community fund raising initiatives like coffee mornings etc but through grants, donations and corporate sponsorship. This was in the good old days before lottery funding and sadly also before computers were everyday household items. I often think how much easier life would have been if I’d had a computer instead of my battered old portable typewriter to produce the endless begging letters and also, thank goodness, the thank you letters as well.

During the fund raising period we came across an organisation called Community Business Grampian. They gave us money to produce a feasibility study. Our study was not the usual type costing thousands of pounds but it did the job equally as well as the more expensive variety. The difference being that we were in control of the content and quality and we were not wasting money, which could be better used for bricks and mortar. Undertaking the study helped focus our minds on what we saw happening with the Centre in the future and set in place one of our main values of being in control and undertaking things ourselves.

We met with a variety of people and embarked upon various activities along the way including enrolling Gray’s School of Art students to undertake design work for us – some of which we still use today. Everyone we met and the advice given helped shape what was to come.

We had still not decided on a management structure but once the building was in place (the name was agreed early on) we remembered our conversations with Community Business Grampian and agreed that that was what we had become – a community business. With CBG’s support we went ahead and registered as a company limited by guarantee. Directors were appointed and I had to decide where I fitted into the structure. I had the choice of applying for the manager’s job or stepping back and leaving the Centre’s future to others. However, I found that after spending four years actively helping to develop the project I wanted to continue in the drivers seat so I posted my application form and the rest is history.

We had a building but no money. Our fund raising had all been about bricks and mortar; no one was interested in giving money to buy stock or for wages and we did not want to borrow from the bank. We were also just emerging from a disastrous experience of employing a ‘professional’ to arrange the exhibition; the local authority had provided funding for us to employ someone to design the exhibition and had insisted we employ someone with relevant qualifications. Our candidate may have had the right qualifications but she certainly did us no favours and we were left with the job of replacing all the storyboard panels because of their poor quality and inaccuracies.

Luckily, help was at hand and through the voluntary support of ‘friends’ we were able to produce a new set of boards, which were accurate and well designed – again we were in control.

Also, luckily enough visitors came in the first month to cover staff wages and allow us to buy some stock and we continued from there. Little by little, building on our achievements and growing stronger day by day.

Today the Centre is a multifaceted thing.

Its two main objectives are very simple:

v To promote the life and work of Lewis Grassic Gibbon

v To create local employment.

This is achieved in the main through visitors to the Centre who purchase goods in the gift and coffee shop or visit the exhibition.

The Centre is completely self-financing. We attract between 6 and 7000 visitors a year, which just about allows us to survive but only just, and only through carefully managed finances and our ability to attract the help and support from our many ‘friends’.

We were determined from the beginning that the Centre should not become just a static musty exhibition but that it should be a living changing place. Initially to achieve this we attempted to have a different theme each year and began with the short story Clay and the following year Smeddum. As well as story boards we printed our own version of the short stories with illustrations and photographs. At that time the short stories were not in print in any other format and we intended continuing over the next few years with Sim, Greenden and Forsaken. But, we soon discovered that this was not a sustainable objective – it was far too time consuming and expensive. Also the short stories came back into print in other publications so the pressure was off from that direction as well.

When we first set up the exhibition the then ‘North of Scotland Museums Service’ provided hand tools and artefacts for us to display. Therefore when we were developing the Clay exhibition we approached them to ask if they could provide us with a replica burial kist. They agreed and we waited in anticipation. True to their word a short time later in walked their representative carrying the replica - approximately 2-foot square and made of polystyrene. Not quite what we had envisaged!

We were then left with no option but to make a burial kist ourselves. One of our directors at that time was a carpenter and he made a frame for the kist. Another provided the soil – red Kinraddie clay – and stone slabs. Yet another modelled clay pots as a hobby and he provided those. Some broom and bits of flint found around the area and we were just about there. The only thing now required was a skeleton. Where would we find that?

I wrote to the local paper and they ran a story appealing to anyone with a spare skeleton to contact us and a short time later we had our skeleton – we actually ended up with two and had to return one. The one we accepted remains there to this day carefully and accurately laid in our replica kist by yet another friend. We were so proud of what we had been able to achieve from again, knowing what we wanted and not accepting anything less, that we’ve not had the heart to dismantle the burial kist since.

The skeleton apparently was surplus to requirements at Aberdeen University and at the time we were reliably told that it had originated from Egypt having been washed up on the banks of the Nile and the bones bleached in the hot baking sun. Perhaps not quite the bones of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s antique man of Kinraddie but considering Gibbons diffusionist views possibly more fitting than we realised at the time….

So what else happens at the Centre today?

Visitors come seeking may things, yes, including on occasions - monkeys…

Some relate to Gibbons writings, some to the land, some seeking information on relatives who once lived in the community and some simply wanting a cup of tea. Of course we also have visits from students and academics from all over the world.

We have a growing archive of Gibbon material – a number of which are of a personal nature rather than a literary one. And it is with great delight that we are now acknowledged as ‘the’ place for depositing Gibbon related material. We have a unique collection of signed first editions, replica first edition dust jackets and photographs of the man himself.

We have also an enormous collection of photographs, through our reminiscence group, of the folk and places of Arbuthnott spanning from the turn of the Century - including those of people Gibbon knew and wrote about. And we are currently in the process of having these published along with stories, factual information and anecdotes of the period.

We also have unique Arbuthnott Church and Parish records, which are invaluable, along with the original School register, when helping folk trace their relatives. And, last year the church session entrusted its ancient communion pewter to us - not of any real monetary value but it does ensure that it stays in the community for the folk of Arbuthnott to enjoy today and in the future. Receiving the communion pewter also says a great deal about the Centre’s relationship with the Church today.

We endeavour to support local people and businesses by selling local crafts and products in the gift shop and whenever possible and we always use local tradesmen.

We support local groups and activities through free photocopying and secretarial services – producing all our own posters, tickets and such like in the community and we are also able to sell articles in the shop for fund raising activities.

We produce a monthly newsletter The Arbuthnott Times, which is circulated around the whole community and contains information about activities happening in the area.

And, we are just about to install an Internet accessible computer in the Centre for local people and visitors to use. Yes, amongst all our other functions we are also just about to become a Cyber Café!

Over the last months we have been the venue for three sell out performance of Prime Productions adaptation of Sunset Song.

In March we hosted the ‘Friends’ supper – again a sell out - and were delighted that Buff Hardie and Tich Frier gave their time to support us.

Buff’s after dinner speech showing connections between Grassic Gibbon and Shakespeare was brilliant.

In May we held a two-week art exhibition called "Under the Influence". This proved to be a great success with over 80 pieces of art on show ranging from ceramics to weaving, music, poetry and photographs as well as the expected paintings in every conceivable medium - a truly fantastic tribute to Lewis Grassic Gibbon.

We were the venue for our first book launch last week – an experience we would like to repeat. The local Council held their area meeting with us on Tuesday and we were a polling station on Thursday. All small things in themselves but all add to our overall income.

We will adapt to whatever anyone wants - within reason of course. We can be a training venue, a conference centre or an arts venue. All within our traditional hall which we also use for group teas but still manages to house the WRI, Women’s Guild, Youth Club, Bowling Club private parties, weddings and funeral teas.

As you can see the Centre is a busy place. But it doesn’t happen on its own.

Over the years we have met and made friends with numerous people who were willing and able to help us in a variety of ways by voluntarily donating their time and skills. This continues to happen today and has become another fundamental principle of the Centre. We could not function without

the voluntary help we receive from our directors and others and I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank them for their support, friendship and companionship shown over the years and without which I could not do what I do and the Centre would be a much poorer place.

A few years ago we set up the ‘Friends of the Grassic Gibbon Centre’ association. This is a support group for the Centre and an avenue for Grassic Gibbon enthusiasts sharing and exchanging views. In return for a minimum annual fee of ten pounds ‘friends’ receive a biannual copy of the newsletter Speak of the Place, edited by Dr Malcolm, as well as free entry to the exhibition, reduced price books, advance warning of activities and a unique car sticker. Joining the ‘friends’ is the only way you can financially support the work of the Centre without actually visiting yourself - and we do need your help.

As previously mentioned, we are a totally not-for-profit organisation and do not receive grant aid or core funding from anywhere. In many ways we don’t mind this because we are fiercely independent and when I see other activities closing because of council budget cuts I realise how lucky we are. I do however spend a lot of time juggling with accounts and applying for project grants and luckily we have been successful on a number of occasions - but it is still a struggle.

My vision of the future is that the Centre will continue to go from strength to strength. I feel this because throughout the past 13 or so years, since the idea for the Centre was first mooted, I have never ceased to be amazed at the extent Grassic Gibbon’s work inspires people. I know I probably shouldn’t be - I accept without reservation that he was a brilliant writer even when his work is dissected and criticised.

But he does inspire. He inspires people to take action just as he has with me. I’m often asked how I manage to sustain my energy and enthusiasm for the Centre and I’m never quite sure what to say but, I feel I’m in a unique and very fortunate position and I do it because I can. I live and work in Gibbon’s Kinraddie, I see the same views, albeit with fewer trees and with telegraph poles and pylons, as he did and I meet and work on a daily basis with the same kind of folk as he knew. He is the catalyst for me as he is for many people. I have never regretted for one minute being part of the gang of three who worked to build the Centre and I hope I’m around it for a good number of years to come.

Mainly I’m interested in the man himself what he was like and what he believed. Most of all I admire his humanitarianism his championing and caring for his fellow man - I like to think that that is the epitome of the Centre. I also like to think that the determination and struggle to survive that the Centre has experienced equates in some small way with Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s own struggle and determination to fulfil his ambition as a professional writer. However, despite my personal feelings about Lewis Grassic Gibbon, he is not placed on a pedestal in the Centre; visitors are given information about him and then they make up their own minds.

I could speak at length about my long-term view or dream of expanding the Centre but that, I think, will keep for another day. And I’ve not mentioned the quiet unassuming staff who work there - it is their traditional cooking and baking skills and their knowledge of the local area that make the Centre the warm inviting place it is. They are our greatest asset.

I’ll finish with Gibbon himself – he wrote in Sunset Song and it’s inscribed on his gravestone

The kindness of friends

The warmth of toil

And the peace of rest

This is exactly what I have found during my time with the Centre - although, there may not be too many occasions for rest at the moment the unrelenting work is made all the more pleasurable through sharing it with good friends.

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