The Chisnall Collection
A collection of research material for Edward Chisnall's radio series The Bell in the Tree: The Glasgow Story, first broadcast in 1982. Includes other local history notes about Glasgow.
About Edward Chisnall
Edward Chisnall, born in Glasgow in 1941 is a painter, author and broadcaster and an acknowledged expert on Glasgow. Graduate of the Glasgow School of Art, he claims the way Glaswegians cope with life has defined the comic spirit in his illustrations. He has won awards for scripting radio dramas, having found thousands of stories – particularly in historic council papers – about the goings-on in Glasgow.
His written works include Bell in the Tree: The Glasgow Story, which was also broadcast as a series three times a day, every day of the week throughout 1990 by Radio Clyde. He also produced commissions for the Glasgow Garden Festival in 1988 and the 1990 European City of Culture.
About the collection
The collection consists of transcripts, news cuttings, notes, cassette tapes and artwork for Edward Chisnall’s BBC radio series The Bell in the Tree: The Clyde Story, first broadcast in 1982.
The Bell in the Tree was broadcast on Radio Clyde in 1982 and in 1990 and covered the history of the city from its beginning. Each year-long series had 260 episodes and was broadcast three times a day. All the material, including the three books based on the series, was written and researched by Edward H. Chisnall.
The radio series, produced by Wilson and Findlay Welsh, won multiple international awards and maintained a remarkable standard of writing and production throughout. It also won an award from the Radio and Television Club of Scotland as the programme which made the most lasting contribution to local life. The Scottish Daily Mail dubbed Chisnall 'the people's historian'.
Finding aid
Chisnall Collection listing (PDF, 89KB)
Further reading
Article about Edward Chisnall from The Daily Record, 28 May 2014
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