Throughout his life, Dr Thompson had many pursuits beyond his work, and was keenly interested in science in general, archaeology, geology, and photography. He had an enormous love of the outdoors and the rural environment, and walked widely in Ireland, Scotland and the rest of the UK. We aim to reflect many of these interests in our work, especially that in Scotland. For example, please see here for news about a collection of his photographs donated to the John Muir Trust, and here for some of his photographs of Edinburgh on the Capital Collections image website.

Dr Thompson never visited China, but, intriguingly, he co-authored (alongside five others) a 1961 academic article on ancient Chinese astronomy with Joseph Needham, the famous scholar of Chinese science and technology. This is entitled 'An 8th-century median line : I-Hsing's chain of gnomons and the pre-history of the metric system', and appears in Vistas in Astronomy, Volume 4 (Pergamon Press, 1961).

The article tells the story of "one of the most remarkable pieces of organised field research in the early middle ages", which fixed the li, an official unit of distance similar to the metric system of a thousand years later. The Chinese research is described as occupying "a unique position among the scientific achievements" of the period, albeit "one of the least known". Dr Thompson's exact role in the article's preparation is unknown, although, as probably then the most junior author, he may have assisted with some of the calculations. Nevertheless, it is perhaps fitting, given subsequent developments, that he did make a contribution to the history of Chinese astronomy.

We are called The Blackford Trust because Blackford Hill is the site of the Royal Observatory, where Dr Thompson worked for around 30 years. It also overlooks the area of the city where his son Graham Thompson grew up, as did another of our Trustees, while two others lived close by in their younger days.

The hill, Blackford Pond and the surrounding woodlands are an area of natural beauty, managed by the City of Edinburgh Ranger Service and the Friends of Hermitage and Braid (see photo below, courtesy of www.henniker.org.uk). Evidence of human habitation on the hill has been found dating back to around 2000BC. We are pleased to have made one award to a partner organisation, Autism Initiatives Scotland, for a new project right next to Blackford Hill.

The name Blackford first appeared in local records around 1600, and is believed to originate as the name of a dark or muddy crossing of the Pow Burn (sometimes known as Jordan Burn), which runs through the area. The only remaining relic of the old Blackford Estate is a farmhouse.

Sir Walter Scott, who knew the area in his youth, mentions Blackford in his famous epic poem 'Marmion', about the Battle of Flodden Field in 1513 between Scotland and England, in which the cream of Scots nobility were killed in a disastrous defeat. Scott imagined the Scots Army camped near Blackford in the run-up to the battle, writing :

From this, it seems Scott enjoyed the same peace and tranquility as modern visitors to Blackford Hill.

The Chinese "flavour" to our activities, meanwhile, comes from Graham Thompson's time in the country from 2002 to 2008. The Chinese character 渡, "du", used in our logo means "ford", where you cross a river. It can also mean, apparently, "to tide over a difficulty", which seems appropriate to our purpose !

There is, in fact, a remarkable connection between Blackford Hill and China. Chiang Yee, the famous Chinese writer of the 1930s and 1940s, describes a 1943 visit to the area in his delightful book Silent Traveller in Edinburgh, on pages 11-16 of the Methuen 1948 edition (see below).

The seagulls...or rather their descendants...are still there, as seen in this March 2008 shot taken by our Chairman (who was often taken there, as a small child, to feed the birds).

Silent Traveller in Edinburgh has recently been reprinted by Mercat Press in Edinburgh, and is available from Amazon, here. It is a charming and well-observed view of the Scottish capital, and highly recommended.

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This page was last updated on 6 March 2012.