Romans are coming as town unveils £6m cultural centre

Published on Tuesday 21 March 2006 12:06

A CULTURAL centre featuring a museum showcasing Roman remains and a family history archive would be built in East Lothian under £6 million plans unveiled today.

A historic former grain store in the middle of Haddington would be converted to house the centre which would help boost visitor numbers in the area.

The Haddington Cultural Centre would also include space for touring exhibitions from major UK museums and a new library.

The proposed family history centre would house the bulk of East Lothian's historical archives allowing visitors to research their family tree.

Officials are in talks to bring the archives back from the National Museums of Scotland, where they have been kept for decades because of a lack of suitable exhibition space in the area.

Business leaders today said the heritage centre - which would be part funded by bidding for National Lottery cash - would be a big boon for the area's tourism industry.

The three-storey Sinclair McGill Building on the town's Lodge Street was originally a grain merchants but was more recently used as council offices.

The building had been considered too small for the cultural centre until it emerged the procurator fiscal department was to move out of its office next door.

It is hoped the mill's original hoists and machinery will be incorporated into the new design.

Councillor Willie Innes, East Lothian's community services leader, said: "The Haddington Cultural Centre is an ambitious project to provide a focus for East Lothian's historical and cultural roots.

"In addition to creating a larger public library for the town, the centre will also store all the county's historical archives which are currently stored in Edinburgh and other centres due to a lack of space.

"There will be space available to host travelling exhibitions from elsewhere in the UK as well as a local history centre where the public can research family trees or the history of their house or village." The centre would also showcase the rich Roman heritage of the Lothians.

As well as featuring precious and significant finds from Roman times, other treasures dating as far back as the Bronze and Stone Ages will be shown.

More Roman material has been found at Traprain Law, near Haddington, than any other site in Scotland and historians believe the material was used by the Romans to trade for hunting dogs or precious metals, or given as bribes to keep local leaders quiet.

Nico De Freitas, chairman of East Lothian Tourism Forum, said: "This will without a doubt be a big boost for tourism in East Lothian.

"We already have a lot of people who come to the area as a tourism destination and this will just reinforce what we have to offer with attractions like Concorde."

Council chiefs are commissioning a design team to draw up plans for the cultural centre and hope to have these in place by the end of this year.

A bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund will also be submitted by December and it is hoped work will begin the following year, subject to planning permission being granted.

Councillor Ann McCarthy, who represents Haddington Central, said: "It has been a difficult project because we first looked at the grain store a long time ago but it was felt we simply couldn't fit everything in that we wanted to.

"Then we looked at a greenfield site but that was eventually ruled out because of a change in the rules about flood plains so we have certainly been around the houses before we got to this point.

"The building will be quite a challenge because of its age but it is an exciting project and all of the facilities it will provide are very much needed."