Moray Cake off and Big Picnic 21st May – 1pm to 4pm
Join us for cakes, bakes, music and fun. Bring a picnic but no deserts. Bake for our competitions and win great prizes. See Facebook for details.
SPECIALITY baking is open to all age and bake categories, simply identify what food/dietary needs it represents. SHOWSTOPPER needs to be a full size cake, and highly decorated.
ON THE DAY, drop your delicious bake to the judges tent and then relax. Good luck everyone
Celebrating Two Centuries of the Moray Feu
The programme for the first 6 months of the Moray Feu bicentenary is now live. You can download it here and buy tickets for our first events below. Tickets for the Moray Ball are now available – link advertised in the garden. http://www.reelsclub.com/moray200/
http://www.reelsclub.com/moray200/Sign up to our newsletter by e mailing events@morayfeu.com to get first sight of ticket details. https://mailchi.mp/1a9f7f0815ca/moray-bicentenary-newsletter-may-2022?e=cbdf39e831
The Ball tickets are £80 including seat, welcome drink, canapés, main course dessert, music and dancing. You can book up to 4 tickets per household. Over 100 tickets sold already ! The Duncan Young Band will play for dancing.
Afternoon Tea dance – Friday 24th June – Moray Gardens – Free – pay as you please event
Come back to the 1920s 1930s and join us for a wonderful afternoon tea, a bit of dancing and maybe a glass of the Moray Breu. Tickets will be free – we just need to know you are coming for numbers. Sandwiches, cakes, flowery tea cups and be transported to the last century with our Gatsby Swing Band. Great for families, kids, and some of our older residents to hear the sounds of the last century.
Donations
We are still seeking resident donations to the bicentenary to support events such as the oral history project, our family sculpture day and the production of our photography book. You can donate now by:
- Credit card at one of our events
- Cheque to Lord Moray’s Feuars CA for Whitelaw Wells
- Bank transfer to Messrs Whitelaw Wells CA for Lord Morays Feuars
Sort code 83 06 08 – Account No. 10448320 – Reference Moray 200
Mailing list
If you want to join our e mail list for the bicentenary and other events, please e mail me at events@morayfeu.org
Andrew Dixon
Bicentenary Chair
Tickets
Tickets are now on sale for the first 4 Talks in the Moray Fee Bicentenary with priority booking now open to all residents. Links can be found on the Facebook site.
5th May Simon Laird – Edinburgh New Town and the Moray Feu in Context – just 13 tickets left but we hope to plan an extra date https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/269604112157
Tickets £10 – includes post talk drink and refreshments – see booking details
Edinburgh’s New Town, built between 1767 and the late nineteenth century, is one of Europe’s finest neoclassical neighbourhoods. But the importance of the New Town goes far beyond the quality of its architecture. Today, more than 250 years after it was first laid out, it is not only a carefully conserved Georgian neighbourhood but a vibrant community in which people from all walks of life live and work in harmonious surroundings.
The area developed by the Earl of Moray is one of the jewels in the crown. This talk will cover the origins and development of the New Town, and the way in which the Moray Feu fits into the story. It will also look at the way in which the original design has accommodated change before, during and since its construction.
Our speaker Simon Laird is an architect, who lives and works in Moray Place. He combines practice with teaching, as a tutor in Interior and Spatial Design at Edinburgh Napier University, Simon Laird was co-author of the book ‘Edinburgh New Town: A Model City’ (Amberley, 2015), which celebrates the history and achievements of the New Town. Through photos, drawings, historic maps and aerial photography, the authors explore the New Town’s origins in the philosophy of the Enlightenment and the role of politics, land ownership, finance, design and materials in its development, concluding that it is an inspiring model for new communities around the world.
11th May Jennifer Melville- Facing the Past– https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/272653854017
Tickets £10 – includes post talk drink and refreshments (fee donation to National Trust Scotland)
In this talk Jennifer Melville shows how recent research has given new insights into the many connections the first residents of Edinburgh’s New Town – including the Moray Feu – had to chattel slavery. She explains how many benefitted financially from the trading and enslavement of people in the Caribbean and the Americas and subsequently from the huge government Slave Compensation Act which compensated not the enslaved, but their owners when slavery was abolished. Jennifer explains how it is now possible to identify those who benefitted and how this funding helped to transform the cityscape and interiors of Edinburgh. In addition, Jennifer shows how those living and working in and around the Moray feu were more ethnically diverse than originally thought and how, through researching these related narratives. we can all arrive at a fuller and more honest understanding of the social and economic histories of these iconic streets.
Biography
Jennifer Melville joined the National Trust for Scotland in 2013, first as Head of Collections, Archives and Library Services and then as Head of Curatorial and Conservation Services. She has been leading the Facing our Past project since September 2020. Previously she led the Fine & Applied Art teams at Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums, where she curated exhibitions, published monographs and exhibitions catalogues on several Scottish artists and movements, managed historic properties and acquired art and artefacts in a wide variety of fields. Jennifer has held external posts including Scottish chair of The Visual Arts and Galleries Association and a member of the selection committee for the Edinburgh International Arts Festival.
26th June Sir Geoff Palmer – Don’t Tear our Statues Down https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/276566416597
14th September- Very Revd John Witcombe Dean of Coventry Cathedral – Sir Basil Spence – The Great Modernist Architect https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sir-basil-spence-the-great-modernist-architect-tickets-276587419417