eastriggs Archives - The Devil's Porridge Museum

Poster for the Burns Supper at The Devil's Porridge Museum, which will be happening on Friday 24th January 2025 from 6pm to 8pm. Tickets are £17.50 (plus a £1.05 booking fee).

CANCLED: Burns Supper 2025

By Events

Important weather update – Due to Storm Eowyn hitting tomorrow (24th January 2025), we will be keeping the museum closed to protect staff, volunteers and visitors. Stay safe everyone and we’ll see you on Saturday.

We are currently processing refunds for this event.

Friday 24th January 2025

6pm to 8pm

Join us for a night of traditional Scottish food and entertainment at The Devil’s Porridge Museum for our Burns Supper 2025. There will be haggis, Highland dancers, and more!

There will be a freshly prepared, three course meal made from local produce to enjoy. Take a look at the menu below.

Burns Night is a traditional Scottish celebration of the life and works of Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns. It’s held on or around January 25th every year—Burns’ birthday.

It’s a great opportunity to learn about Scottish culture through food, music and dance!

Places are limited!

Please make us aware of any dietary requirements or if you would prefer a vegetarian option when you book.

Tickets are £17.50 per person and are available at The Devil’s Porridge Museum, or you can purchase them online, with a small booking fee applied for online purchases. Don’t miss out – secure your place today!

To book your place please click on the “book now” tab at the side of the screen or click on “book online” in our top navigation bar. You should find the ‘Burns Supper 2025′ event listed there.

We can’t wait to welcome you!

The Twitchers Museum Adventure

By Archive

12th – 25th February 2024

Join birdwatching detectives the Twitchers and explore the beautiful birds and amazing animals in The Devil’s Porridge this February half-term. The Twitchers Museum Adventure from Kids in Museums and Walker Books celebrates the release of Feather, the fourth book in The Twitchers series from bestselling author M. G. Leonard. Find the birds and make your own pledge to protect wildlife. Complete the activity sheet to receive your Twitchers sticker!

Design your own bird or animal sidekick and share your drawing on Twitter/X or Instagram with the hashtag #TwitchersMuseumAdventure and tag @kidsinmuseums for a chance to win one of five bundles of all four books in The Twitchers series. Find out more on the Kids in Museums website: https://bit.ly/TwitchersMuseumAdventure

Admission into The Devil’s Porridge Museum is required to take part in this activity.

Poster for a Free Kids Valentines Craft Workshop at The Devil's Porridge Museum on Monday 12th February 2024.

Valentine’s Crafts workshop for kids

By Archive

Calling all little Cupids! Join us for our free Valentine’s craft workshop and make your own handmade decorations and cards.

Join us on Monday 12th of February from 3:30-4:30 pm.
Places are limited, book now to avoid disappointment.
This workshop is ideal for children aged 7 – 11 years old.
Book now on the ‘Book Now’ button on the right side of this page.

Burns Night Supper

By Archive

Fancy treating yourself to an evening of Scottish entertainment with a traditional three course meal? Why not join us for our Burns Supper on Friday 26th January 2024 from 6pm? Tickets are £12.50 per person and are available from The Devil’s Porridge Museum. Places are limited!

Burns Night is a traditional Scottish celebration of the life and works of Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns. It’s held on or around January 25th every year—Burns’ birthday—and it consists of a celebratory meal with haggis (a traditional Scottish food made with oats, sheep’s heart, liver and lungs), whisky, highland dancers, bagpipers and other performers.

It’s a great opportunity to learn about Scottish culture through food, music and dance! We hope you’ll join us at 6 pm on Friday 26th in The Devil’s Porridge Museum for this fun event!

Limited spaces.
Tickets are on sale from the 8th of January at the museum.

Eastriggs Commonwealth Week 2022.

By Archive

Eastriggs the Commonwealth Village is coming together to celebrate Commonwealth Week from March 12th to March 19th 2022. A number of local organisations are coming together to put on an impressive array of activities over that period. Read more about all the events that will be happening below.

Saturday 12th March

Tractor Pull Challenge

10am – 12 noon and 2.00pm – 3.30pm

A Tractor Pull Challenge sponsered by SJ Barbers and Touch of Beauty will be happening at The Devil’s Porridge Museum. Why not come and see how far you can pull it? There’s a £25 cash prize for both Ladies and Gents challenges.

Commonwealth Entertainment

7:30pm – 12:30am

At Eastriggs Social Club, featuring ‘Back2Back’ and Status Quo tribute Peter Kelly. Tickets £8 from the Club or The Devil’s Porridge Museum. There will be prizes for the best Commonwealth fancy dress!

Sunday 13th March

The Time Bandits

10am – 4pm

Learn all about life in World War One with living history performers The Time Bandits at The Devil’s Porridge Museum.

Booking online to visit the Museum is essential to avoid disappointment when we are busy. You can book your visit to the museum here: https://www.devilsporridge.org.uk/product/tickets

Monday 14th March

Meet the Curator

6pm – 8pm

There will be a FREE open evening at The Devil’s Porridge Museum where you can meet Emma Gilliland, the new Curator, and enjoy tastes of the Commonwealth.

Wednesday 16th March

Look out for MyPod Youth Bus!

Friday 18th March

Quizaoke

Starts 7pm at The Wayside Inn.

Your host for the evening is Harry H. Could you be the Eastriggs Commonwealth Champion? Followed by traditional karaoke – who will be voted the best male and female singers? £60 in prizes.

Saturday 19th March

Eastriggs Historic Commonwealth Games.

12 noon – 4pm

Free admission and fun for all the family at Melbourn park!

Eastriggs man involved in the capture of Heinrich Himmler?

By Collections blog

We have received a really interesting inquiry and are looking for your help.

For several years, Chris Mannion has researched his grandfather’s connection to the capture of Heinrich Himmler (one of the ‘architects’ of the Holocaust, right hand man to Hitler and head of the SS) at the end of World War Two. Chris has managed to discover a great deal of information and is going to use that information to write a book.

Himmler (front left) with Hitler.

Himmler was captured by a patrol made up of men from the 196 Battery, 73rd Anti tank regiment, Royal Artillery.

You can watch a video about Chris’s research here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-37744100

Within the ranks of 196 battery was L/Bdr Thomas Steel, service number 14596001.

The only other information on L/Bdr Steel is the address he gave the regiment. That address is, 2 Butterdales, Eastriggs.

Chris has photos L/Bdr Thomas Steel should be on (below), but sadly no method of recognizing him.

To the best of Chris’s current knowledge and understanding, he wasn’t connected to Himmler’s capture, but still he may have left stories, photos etc. so we are looking for people who may have known Thomas Steel to come forward.

This photo was taken late May 1945 in Germany.
It shows 196 battery, 73rd Anti-tank regiment, and it is highly likely L/Bdr Thomas Steel is on this photo.

Currently, all the information on L/Bdr Steel is as follows:

Rank Lance bombardier, service number 14596001, the address he gave the regiment was 2 Butterdales, Eastriggs. Of course, this maybe his parent’s address or another relative, a sister maybe?

He enlisted on the 6th May 1943. He joined the 73rd A/T regiment in March 1944.

When the War ended, he was transferred to another regiment and was posted to India.

He was demobbed in 1947.

196 battery landed on Gold beach, Normandy on the morning of the 7th June 1944.

They fought in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.

No record of him ever being wounded.

Anyone with any information, date of birth, death, family, possible photos etc.

Anything at all would be welcome. Please do email manager@devilsporridge.org.uk or phone 01461 700021 if you have any information. We would love to be able to help!

What happened at HM Factory Gretna in November 1918? Part One.

By Archive

Armistice Day is approaching and The Devil’s Porridge Museum is very pleased to have teamed up with Gretna Gateway and Poppy Scotland to commemorate the events of 1918 in our local area. We have a display in one of the empty units at Gretna Gateway. It has two of our former exhibitions on display – one looks at Animals in War and the other dating from 2018 has the title ‘The War is Over!’ It looks at what happened in our local area on November 11th 1918 and what happened after the end of the War. This is Part One of a look at the contents of that exhibition…

Some of the war is over exhibition on display in Gretna Gateway.

As we all know, the Armistice was signed at 11am on November 11^th 1918. Word of the war’s end had reached HM Factory Gretna by 12noon and it was closed by one that day. 30,000 people (12,000 of them women) worked at the Factory mixing the ‘devil’s porridge’ (cordite which was later put in shells and bullets).

People must have experienced mixed emotions that day: joy that the War had ended, sorrow at all that had been lost but also uncertainty over their jobs, their status as working women and the future of the greatest factory in the world.

One of the Museum displays features a tuba used by a member of the Factory band,

After the Factory closed, the workers took to the streets and the Factory band led a procession from Eastriggs to Gretna. By the time they reached Gretna, the procession was over a thousand strong and they gathered at Central Hall to sing the National Anthem.

Factory Superintendent J C Burnham gave a rousing speech on Armistice Day in 1918.

The flags of the Allied Nations were then raised and cheers went up. A piano was found and people began to play and dance, bunting was hung up all around. The Superintendent of the Factory, J C Burnham, delivered a speech which included the lines, “The day of peace has come. The glorious day for which we have been striving and hoping for…It is the day for which our noble brothers have died…”

Inside the Border Hall in Gretna where the Armistice Dance took place.

Exterior of the Border Hall.

That evening, the ‘Gretna Girls’ demanded a dance and one was held in the Border Hall (despite some people insisting that a dance was too dangerous due to the ‘Spanish’ Flu).

The full ‘War is Over’ exhibition can be seen at Gretna Outlet Village for free from 1-4pm daily until November 11th. Part Two of ‘The War is Over!’ exhibition coming soon…

Poppy Scotland will also be at Gretna Gateway along with volunteers from The Devil’s Porridge Museum.

Old Postcards of Gretna and Eastriggs

By Collections blog

When HM Factory Gretna was built in WW1 they needed a place to house all of their workers, they came up with the idea to build two new townships near the Factory site. These two townships were Eastriggs and Gretna, many houses and hostels were built to house all of the workers during WW1 some of which you can see in the photo below of Dunedin Road in Eastriggs.

The photo below shows the temporary wooden huts which were eventually converted into proper houses using brick after the war built in Gretna along with some of the permanent hostel buildings which have now been converted into houses.

Below is a photo of the girls reading room which would be used some of the 12,000 female workers who worked at HM Factory Gretna during their spare time. The interior looks very nice but some reports we have of girls who worked at the Factory say that it was very cold inside during the winter as there was no heating.

Old Postcards of the Local Area

By Collections blog

These old postcards show what life was like in these local towns and villages and how much they’ve changed. We do not have exact dates from when the photos were taken but they show a very different time.

This postcard shows the Scotch Express leaving Carlisle Train Station which as you can see looks very different in this photo than it does today.

The Central Hotel in Annan looks a lot different here. Shame that it has now fallen into disrepair. This postcard also shows how different the roads were back then with no road markings and the roundabout not yet in place.

This postcard shows what Powfoot looked like quite some time ago. The old sandstone house now being part of the Powfoot Golf Hotel.

This postcard shows The Rand in Eastriggs and what it looked like with all of the houses built for the workers of HM Factory Gretna and used as hostels. These hostels were all purpose built to house the workers of HM Factory Gretna during the First World War.

Devils Porridge Museum Podcast

By Archive

Welcome to The Devils Porridge Museum Podcast!

The Devils Porridge Museum Podcast has been created as part of an inter-generational oral history project. The project is now available for you to listen to online.

Through conversations and interviews, our volunteers and others from the local community will be sharing their personal stories and memories with The Devils Porridge Podcast team.

This week on our podcast we chat to Sybelle, who is one of our volunteers about the Annan Riding of the Marches and the history of the event.

More episodes will follow over the coming weeks, so please come back and listen to more installments throughout the summer.

If you would like to get involved in the project to share your own stories and memories or if you would like to find out more about joining our production team please contact: Steven@devilsporridge.org.uk.

eastriggs

Important weather update – Due to Storm Eowyn hitting tomorrow (24th January 2025), we will be keeping the museum closed to protect staff, volunteers and visitors. Stay safe everyone and we’ll see you on Saturday.

We are currently processing refunds for this event.

Saturday 12th March

Tractor Pull Challenge

Commonwealth Entertainment

Sunday 13th March

The Time Bandits

Monday 14th March

Meet the Curator

Wednesday 16th March

Friday 18th March

Quizaoke

Saturday 19th March

Eastriggs Historic Commonwealth Games.

People must have experienced mixed emotions that day: joy that the War had ended, sorrow at all that had been lost but also uncertainty over their jobs, their status as working women and the future of the greatest factory in the world.

After the Factory closed, the workers took to the streets and the Factory band led a procession from Eastriggs to Gretna. By the time they reached Gretna, the procession was over a thousand strong and they gathered at Central Hall to sing the National Anthem.

That evening, the ‘Gretna Girls’ demanded a dance and one was held in the Border Hall (despite some people insisting that a dance was too dangerous due to the ‘Spanish’ Flu).

The full ‘War is Over’ exhibition can be seen at Gretna Outlet Village for free from 1-4pm daily until November 11th. Part Two of ‘The War is Over!’ exhibition coming soon…

The photo below shows the temporary wooden huts which were eventually converted into proper houses using brick after the war built in Gretna along with some of the permanent hostel buildings which have now been converted into houses.

These old postcards show what life was like in these local towns and villages and how much they’ve changed. We do not have exact dates from when the photos were taken but they show a very different time.

This postcard shows the Scotch Express leaving Carlisle Train Station which as you can see looks very different in this photo than it does today.

The Central Hotel in Annan looks a lot different here. Shame that it has now fallen into disrepair. This postcard also shows how different the roads were back then with no road markings and the roundabout not yet in place.

This postcard shows what Powfoot looked like quite some time ago. The old sandstone house now being part of the Powfoot Golf Hotel.

This postcard shows The Rand in Eastriggs and what it looked like with all of the houses built for the workers of HM Factory Gretna and used as hostels. These hostels were all purpose built to house the workers of HM Factory Gretna during the First World War.

Welcome to The Devils Porridge Museum Podcast!

The Devils Porridge Museum Podcast has been created as part of an inter-generational oral history project. The project is now available for you to listen to online.

Through conversations and interviews, our volunteers and others from the local community will be sharing their personal stories and memories with The Devils Porridge Podcast team.

This week on our podcast we chat to Sybelle, who is one of our volunteers about the Annan Riding of the Marches and the history of the event.

More episodes will follow over the coming weeks, so please come back and listen to more installments throughout the summer.

If you would like to get involved in the project to share your own stories and memories or if you would like to find out more about joining our production team please contact: Steven@devilsporridge.org.uk.

You can listen to the podcast below:

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