A.B. Duncan

Articles by this author

A.B. Duncan

Some Local Bird Problems

Ornithology

TDGNHAS Series III, 21 (1936-38), 27(WARNING very large file size: 68.9 MB)

Abstract

27th November, 1936.
Mr Duncan spoke interestingly and informatively on the problems of bird watching, ringing, etc., and on many features of migration and bird-song, also on secondary sexual charcteristics and protective colouring. Mr Duncan submitted f

A.B. Duncan

Changes in the Abundance of British Birds [Summary only]

Ornithology

TDGNHAS Series III, 23 (1940-44), 135(WARNING very large file size: 40.26 MB)

Abstract

The lecturer spoke of the Grey-backed Crow, the Chough, the House-sparrow, Corncrake, Starling, Rook, etc. Various causes had been suggested but in most cases there was little definite knowledge. There was still an almost complete absence of vital statist

A.B. Duncan

A Changing Parish: Kirkpatrick Fleming from the 1930s to 2013

Recent (Social), Parish History, Agriculture

TDGNHAS Series III, 89 (2015), 169(4.65 MB)

Abstract

In 2012–2013 Alastair and Catriona Duncan recorded nineteen audio interviews with over-sixty residents or former residents of the parish of Kirkpatrick Fleming, Dumfries and Galloway, and with four groups: older people, 30-year-olds, new residents, pupils of Primary 6. Kirkpatrick (as the village of Kirkpatrick Fleming is commonly known) lies twelve miles south-east of Lockerbie and three miles north-west of Gretna and the English border. Individual interviews between an hour and three hours long, took the form of life histories. Questions were also asked about the respondents’ sense of local and national identity and about their speech. In the 1930s the village of Kirkpatrick had many shops and there was a vibrant community life based round the Victoria Hall and the church. Some housing conditions were very poor. School discipline was harsh. During the Second World War, the population was expanded by the presence of evacuees, Honduran woodcutters, Canadian air force personnel and prisoners of war. A strong community spirit persisted into the 1950s and 1960s, but communal activities — outings, dances, sports clubs, churchgoing and Sunday School attendance — began to decline. Larger farms have increased in size and modernized mainly into large-scale milk production. An influx of new residents has stabilized the population. Older residents and thirty-year-olds have a strong sense of belonging to Kirkpatrick and of being Scottish, but are unanimously against independence. Speech is the main marker of belonging but differences in speech are fading. All generations share three sites of memory: the school, the river Kirtle and the one remaining shop.