Local history buffs are hoping others will put their hands in their pockets to keep a painting of how Kelso Abbey may have looked in its heyday in the town.
Artist Margaret Peach, formerly of Berrymoss, Kelso, created the work showing the abbey’s main buildings as she imagined them around 1300. And it was one of the main talking points in an exhibition about the abbey – arguably the largest and richest of the region’s four abbeys at one time – in Kelso Town House last September, said Kelso and District Amenity Society secretary Christine Henderson.
The price tag of the piece, which hangs in the town’s library, is around £2,500 and the society has raised about £200 so far, said Christine.
Margaret, keen for the painting to remain in the town, has already given the group copyright and members have organised postcards and a limited-edition print of the work to raise cash.
Meanwhile, an exhibition of Margaret’s other work takes place from Monday, April 28, to Friday, May 2, at the town’s Ednam House Hotel.
Margaret, also a portrait painter, moved to Oxfordshire in recent years to be nearer family following the death of her husband, Brian, in 2010.
To donate or for more information, contact Christine on 01573 224940.