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Model court to sit in Abbotsford
A model of Selkirk’s Town Hall, where Sir Walter Scott served as Shirra of Selkirkshire, is being donated to Abbotsford House.
At their meeting on Monday, the Royal Burgh’s community council also committed to pay for a glass case to exhibit the model – but only if Abbotsford put it on permanent display in their new visitor centre.
Last month The Wee Paper reported Souters’ frustration about Scott’s connection with Selkirk being swept from history at Abbotsford’s multi-million pound visitor centre.
In a letter to the curator at Abbotsford House, Matthew Withey, Community Councillor Dr Lindsay Neil wrote: “The Community Council is pretty well disposed, as in the past with notice boards, directions for visitors, etc, to the principle of mutual help in advertising Abbotsford and Sir Walter Scott’s Selkirk Courthouse.
“We would obviously like to help towards that end, and not miss an opportunity to exploit fully Sir Walter Scott’s unique historical bequest.”
The replica was crafted by the late painter and decorator Derek Nichol (1931-2007). Born in Viewfield Nursing Home, Derek was the 4th generation of painters and decorators in Selkirk’s Tower Street.
He attended Edinburgh Art College where he learned calligraphy for sign-writing and heraldry. Later he qualified as a Master Painter and Decorator, and taught students at the Borders College. He was also an exquisite painter of birds and animals as a hobby.
After retirement in 1995, Derek took up modelling, making accomplished models of ships and farm wagons, and it was suggested to him that he should model the Town Hall, which had served as a sheriff court until 1870 when the present building in Ettrick Terrace was built.
He spent many hours sitting in the Market Place sketching and measuring the Town Hall, which by that time had been converted to a museum and exhibition centre commemorating Sir Walter Scott’s life in Selkirk.
The model, in mattchsticks and cardboard, which was completed in around 2001, is an exact replica, in every painstaking detail, of the Town Hall and Courtroom.
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Weather for Selkirk
Monday 20 May 2013
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 9 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North west
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