Kevin O'Brien, owner of the Fine Art Gallery, in the town's Church Street, was featured in The Berwickshire News last month following the launch of a year long project aiming to capture the ins and outs of Eyemouth's fishing industry.

'The Eyemouth Project' has so far seen Kevin photograph many sights and characters along the town's famous harbour and now people are coming up to him in the street keen to be involved.

One of these men was funeral director Jim Martin and a few weeks ago he showed Kevin some pictures he thought he might be interested in. One particular picture caught Kevin's attention, showing four young boys being taught to splice rope by a fisherman.

As the conversation between Kevin and Jim continued it materialised that one of the youngsters was in fact Jim and the other three - Alex Fisher, Hendry Blackie, Miller Louch - had remained friends of his and were all still living in Eyemouth. The man teaching them the tricks of the trade was well known fisherman Wully Aitchison, known locally as Baggy.

The picture was taken in 1946, when the boys were just 10 and 11, but now all in their 70s, Kevin brought them back together recently to take a trip down memory lane and he is delighted with the result.

"I'm amazed with how the project is going so far, it's taken so many different directions. After seeing the story in the paper and 'Border Life', people have come up to me and said they didn't realise just how big a project it was.

"People have shared their stories and photos so when Jim came in to see me with some photos I was naturally interested.

"He didn't say at first that he was actually on the picture but when it transpired that he was and he and the other lads were all still mates I found that fascinating.

"If you look closely you can see that one of the lads has a hole in his boot - times were obviously quite hard back then.

"I think that at one time almost all of them were involved in fishing in one way or another but have since moved onto different things."
Kevin is planning to present each of the men with a remastered copy of the original photo as well as a print of the new shot.

And after this interesting find he is keen for people to come forward with more. Anyone wishing to contribute to The Eyemouth Project should call in to the Fine Art Gallery at 10a Church Street or e-mail Kevin on kevin@fineart-images-gallery.co.uk.