Livingston’s 60th birthday gets the big screen treatment this week with the Premier of a documentary charting the beginnings of the new town.
"Livingston At 60", a film by Tomás Sheridan, and featuring the memories and stories of local people, is being screened on Tuesday, May 31, in The Howden Park Centre.
The documentary has been commissioned by West Lothian Council Museums Service with funding from Museum Galleries Scotland to mark 60 years of the new town as it developed from a largely rural valley peppered with small scale industry.
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The event will also feature a number of short videos produced by local Livingston primary and high schools which have used Livingston's 60th birthday as a stimulus.
Lord Craigton, Minister of State for Scotland, announced the designation of Livingston New Town at a press conference at Howden House on 17 April 1962.
He also announced the establishment of the Livingston Development Corporation and to introduce LDC’s first Chairman, Mr David Lowe.
Mr Lowe said that their task was “to super-impose on the this lovely part of Scotland, houses and factories and to still keep it beautiful.” He went on to say that they had an opportunity to leave behind a memorial better than a stone in a churchyard.
The new town, was dubbed in a sunny, optimistic film made in the early 1960s as a Town for the Lothians, is by far the largest settlement in West Lothian and second only in size to Edinburgh in the Lothians.
The council’s other activities this summer will include a concert for invited guests and a week of business celebration promoting enterprise and achievements throughout the last 60 years.
A multi-sports festival will bring together schools and community clubs to celebrate Livingston’s birthday through sport. Guided Community Walks will also take place that showcase Livingston.
A major part of the celebration is the Livingston at 60 Heritage Project – this will involve the local community in a celebration of the new town’s heritage.
Earlier this month a 60th tea party was held at Almond Valley Heritage Centre which included an exhibition, tours, and reminiscences.
An exhibition at the Wee Museum of Memory in The Centre provides opportunities to share and record memories and reminiscences. If you want to share your memories of the town in the last 60 years you can add them at the Wee Museum.
Tickets for the film screening are free and bookings will be taken where spaces are left until 11am tomorrow . A spokesperson for the museums service said: “We will also be showing the documentary on our vintage tv at the Wee Museum of Memory. Extracts from the main documentary will be shown on social media. We are also planning to hold a screening at SPARK [the Craigshill based community support charity, formerly Craigshill's Good Neighbour Network] in the summer.”
For further information on the Wee Museum go to: https://www.livingmemory.org.uk/westLothian.php
