Pringles of Scotland - Day of Record

Last week, on Thursday 12th August, knitwear company Pringle of Scotland (www.pringlescotland.com) held a 'Day of Record' at its former factory premises in Hawick. The purpose of the day was to invite locals to come and share their anecdotes and to bring memorabilia along as part of the company's efforts to create its own company archive, as noted recently on the Business Archives Scotland blog. Pringle was established in 1815 and rapidly rose to prominence with its famous knitwear patterns across Europe, the United States and Japan.

In attendance on the day were Alistair O'Neill (Central Saint Martins Course Lecturer for Fashion, History & Theory), Clare Waight Keller (current Creative Director at Pringle of Scotland), Zandra Elliot (Provost of Hawick), Shona Sinclair (Curator of the Hawick Museum), Maureen Gibson (great great grand daughter of Robert Pringle), Lesley Rankin (the first ever appointed female designer for Pringle of Scotland) and Allan Godfrey, George Godfrey and Walter Barker (3rd generation Pringle workers).

Amongst the items brought by members of the public for cataloguing in the archive were a collection of 121 garments from the 1960's donated by Mrs Carole Douglas from Hawick, underwear from 1912, a 1960's knitted purple jumpsuit with white zipper, and more. Each item was photographed for the archive which is currently in development.

Amongst the more notabler stories of the day were the company's first ever female designer Lesley Rankin spotting herself in an old black and white photo from the 1960s, and Maureen Gibson discussing her great great grandfather Robert Pringle, who established the firm, with her family tree and various Pringle family heirlooms.

The Day of Record event was held in the old yarn store and it was noted by retirees that there was a romantic and reminiscent scent of wool present in the air that immediately brought back feelings of nostalgia!

If you worked at Pringle of Scotland or have any information or artefacts that can help with the creation of the archive, please contact the team at dayofrecord@pringlescotland.com.

Many thanks to Oliver Cooke from Modus Publicity for providing the following images from the day on behalf of Pringle of Scotland:



Chris

www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
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