Coming full circle - Richmond’s Centenary Year

It is not often that we get the chance to complete a full circle of special events but this is what has happened as a result of two coinciding Centenaries.  

Both the Flying Scotsman engine and the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society celebrated 100 years in 2023.  In February 2023 the locomotive began a Centenary Tour at Waverley station in Edinburgh with teams of dancers on the platform performing the ever popular dance beside this celebrity steam engine.  In December 2023, the locomotive’s tour came to an end with the engine spending Christmas and New Year at Locomotion, the National Railway Museum in Shildon in the North East of England.  What an unexpected opportunity for members of Richmond Branch RSCDS to celebrate the visit by also dancing The Flying Scotsman beside the steam engine which inspired it!

Without a lot of time to plan ahead, but with the co-operation of Branch members and the helpful museum staff, a team of eight dancers came together – winter coats, shoes and woolly hats much in evidence – to dance The Flying Scotsman with pride and enthusiasm beside the engine itself at Locomotion Museum. 

The many visitors who had come from far and wide to see Flying Scotsman were surprised to see our spontaneous performance but soon took up the invitation to join in the dancing, not forgetting to add to the chorus of train sound effects as we all slipped up and down the ‘platform’!

Thanks to Joy Bradshaw from Richmond Branch RSCDS for sending this in.  Do you have any news from branches or affiliated groups you'd like to share - get in touch at lyndsay.walker@rscds.org.