Community engagement

These are the things that the Hoy community wanted to see represented in the Hoy Heritage Centre.
It’s a long and interesting list! If you have items (photographs/ stories/artefacts) that say something about Hoy please contact us here. If there are areas of heritage not covered in this list that you would like to see represented in the story of Hoy, let us know.

Coastguard history / Rescues Shipwrecks – see here
Ferries / routes Sea Transport – we’ve made a start on this.. see here
Fishing – fish farming / pelagic / trout etc
Creeling
Boat types / Fishing boats
First cars to Hoy
Bus services
Roads – Road to Rackwick / Metalled roads
Shops and travelling shops / Post Office – see Hoy Post Office here
School life- Rackwick School / Hoy School – we have a copy of Lucy Rendall’s ‘History of Rackwick School’ at Hoy Kirk
Childhood in Hoy
Births  – we have the basket used for weighing Hoy babies in the 1950s and 1960s
Folklore – hear the folklore of Hoy here
Hoy Kirk history – see here
Hoy Manse
Weddings – Cathy Clark has been working on this and there is a folder at Hoy Kirk
Kirkyard records – listing / photographing the headstones
Crofts – listing and photographing all the crofts and croft sites in Hoy
Crofting
Peat cutting – hear Mary Mowatt here
Crafts – straw work etc
Housing
Hoy Hall
When mains electricity & water came
Census information Dennis Ritch has collated the Rackwick census records
Occupations in Hoy
Agriculture in Hoy / Farming practices
Family names in Hoy / Family trees – Dennis & Jean Ritch have made a family history of Rackwick crofts, the folder is at Hoy Kirk and we hope to get it online soon
Hoy estate
Hoy lodge
Plantations Orkney Blide Trust have handed over photographs of their ongoing planting work and Jenny Taylor has made a folder all about Hoy Woodlands
Natural history – We have a celebration of Botanist from the Bu, James Sinclair, here. Lots of information about James at Hoy Kirk in Bea Watson’s project. Also on natural history, Mavis Strudwick kindly donated her and her late husband Frank’s wonderful slide collection. And we have the wonderful and expansive library of over 100 Natural history books donated to the centre by the late Effy Everris.
Geology – We have some geology books in the Effy Everris Natural history library.
Food – We have Emma Bremner’s handwritten recipe book
Brewing
Plants – uses / medicinal etc
Birds / RSPB – We now have the RSPB Moorland Discovery Room at Hoy Kirk and check out birdlife on the Old Man of Hoy here. Eagles here
Climate / weather – Jeff Clark keeps us updated on weather stats for Hoy see here
Old Man of Hoy – we’ve given him his own pages..see here And we have a permanent exhibition in the stairwell.
Music – See Peter Maxwell Davies page here
Hoy half-marathon We had an exhibition all about Hoy Half-Marathon and we have a folder about the event’s history including a list of all the winners
Wartime Hoy – WW1 / WW2
Wartime architecture – coast batteries etc
Air crash sites
The Hoy Trust
Archaeology – Dan Lee has been out doing some community archaeology and we have the surveys from Braebuster and Cantick Head at Hoy Kirk and a banner all about the Dwarfie Stone researched by Dr Antonia Thomas.
History of holiday cottages Pearl Sinclair has included Hoy holiday homes in her remarkable project A Photographic Census of Hoy
Outdoor activities in Hoy – Ron Bulmer has put together a folder at Hoy Kirk and we have some scrapbooks he has donated too.