Although the Pollok area of Glasgow is just a few miles from the Burrell Collection, research shows that only 2 per cent of Glaswegians who visit the Burrell, or any of the city’s other museums and art galleries, come from Pollock. So, Glasgow Museums Community Service (the Open Museum) has set up some of its treasures in the foyer of Pollok Leisure Pool and Library, right beside the giant shopping centre, and thousands of visitors have stopped at the Greater Pollok Kist to have a look at its first exhibition.

More than a dozen local volunteers, supported by an Open Museum co-ordinator, worked for more than a year to establish the Kist and curate its first show, opened at the end of October.

The inaugural exhibition covers the history of greater Pollok from the earliest geology to the present day but concentrates on the 14th century to the 1950s, taking in everything from visits by Mary, Queen of Scots to a stushie over nude bathing in the River Cart in the 1930s.

The volunteers interviewed residents for first-hand accounts of life in greater Pollok during the Second World War. In those days, Italian and German prisoners of war lived in the area behind barbed wire and homelessness was so acute, people had to squat in abandoned army barracks.

For information on the Pollok Witch Trials of 1677 and other ancient stories, the team had to consult history books.

Their investigations also turned up a recipe for a sauce that Roman soldiers stationed in the area used to pour on their food. Rotten fish was pounded to a pulp and then strained through a cloth.

The exhibition features dozens of artefacts. including stuffed examples of wildlife that can be found in greater Pollok, a summer frock that a local woman packed for a sea cruise in the 1950s and armour worn during the Battle of Langside in 1568.

More than 1,000 years of history have been squeezed into three double wardrobe-sized display cases and a couple of interactive installations with drawers of fossils to handle. The display cases were purchased with some of the pound;87,700 grant from the National Lottery heritage fund for the two-year project.

Local school children have also had a hand in the first Kist exhibition. Primary 7 pupils, including several asylum seekers, from Nitshill Primary produced a guide to the meaning of local place names. Pollok, for instance, means “wee pool” and Nitshill is “hill of nuts”, on account of its ancient hazelnut trees.

P7 teacher Morag Hay, a language enthusiast who encourages her pupils to use Scots words, says: “The Kist will be a good resource for the whole school.”

Children from Bonnyholm Primary, whose headteacher, Heather Bain, ran an after-school local history club last year, were involved in a Kist reminiscence project with pensioners and also took part in the official opening, when they dressed up as witches.

The siting of the Greater Pollok Kist, beside the busy library and even busier swimming pool, means hundreds of people have seen the inaugural exhibition many times already. Although it was planned to run for at least a year, visitors have begun to ask when a new show will be unveiled.

Laura McGugan, for the Open Museum, says: “The Kist team, who had no previous museums experience, have done a fantastic job and are now looking at ways to develop the project and satisfy public demand. There are a number of ideas under consideration, including creating space for monthly displays of local history work by school pupils, treasured items belonging to members of the public and expanded highlights from the main exhibition.”

The Greater Pollok Kist is a pilot for the development of unstaffed mini community museums, managed by local volunteers but supported by the Open Museum, which could be established in other areas of Glasgow.

The Greater Pollok Kist, Pollok Leisure Pool and Library, Glasgow, is open 9am-9pm Mon-Fri, 10am-4pm weekends. Open Museum, tel 0141 552 2356. www.pollok-kist.co.uk