Magic Torch are an Inverclyde based Arts and Heritage group which aims to be a leading contributor to the arts, offering the community a wide range of high quality media in order to educate, enlighten and entertain. In doing so we also aim to stimulate and encourage creativity within the community. It is our hope that this will increase involvement in the arts at a local level and beyond. Our primary focus for arts projects, is cultural heritage and folklore.

The group is entirely voluntary, we have no formal funding, applying for grants on a "per project" basis. Wherever possible, projects will be undertaken with or without funding. Magic Torch have no interest in making personal profit and so provided we do not end up out of pocket we'll try just about anything. For this to work, we rely on a network of people who understand our philosophy and so are happy to help us with no profit to themselves. Therefore, the community supports and sustains a community initiative.

Our first major project was "Tales of the Oak". Released in October 2000 it became an instant local bestseller which sold out within weeks, dramatically outselling Anthea Turner's autobiography by 2 to 1.

The book was funded by National Lottery Awards For All and it collected folktales of Inverclyde from the bronze age to the second world war. The book gave particular focus to the witches of Inverkip and the misunderstood Captain Kidd, scourge of Madagascar. Many of the stories and ballads printed within the book had not been in the popular domain for centuries.

The book was researched, written, designed and published by a group of four volunteers over a six month period.

There have been regular requests to reprint Tales of The Oak and this autumn, following the downriver project, we intend to do just that. Keep an eye out.

Having discovered so much about Captain Kidd during the research process for Tales of the Oak, we decided to concentrate our efforts on our local anti-hero throughout 2001. We launched a "Free Captain Kidd" campaign to have him posthumously pardoned for his supposed crimes. Members of the group went to Kew Gardens records office to dig up the original trial documents, we got a question asked in parliament, made the national press and finally restaged the trial ourselves in the town hall.

Sadly, Kidd remains guilty in the eyes of the law. But plenty more folk know his story.

At the close of 2001 we republished an 1850 book "Views & Reminiscences of Old Greenock" with all proceeds going to the Ardgowan Hospice. The book offered a fascinating glance into a no longer recogniseable landscsape of ruined castles and winding alleyways, a Greenock long since "redeveloped".

We've worked over the last few years to keep local heritage on the agenda, as a campaigning issue and also as a means to assist in the regeneration of Inverclyde.

Many of our other projects and publications are available in the downloads section. Please enjoy and share.