Many people who live in Lockerbie hope that the 20th anniversary of the bombing will be both a chance to remember the Pan Am victims quietly and an opportunity for the market town to move away from the disaster which has come to define it in so many ways.

Memories of the tragedy remain vivid for many older residents, but for much of the 4000-strong population knowledge of the events of December 21, 1988, come from other people's recollections and the media.

A memorial and garden of remembrance in the town's Dryfesdale Cemetery is the only physical marker of what happened that night and it is here that young and old will gather on Sunday, where a commemorative wreath will be laid by villagers and a reading will be heard by US Consul Lisa Vickers.

The village is keen that events on Sunday will remain low key. A special service at Dryfesdale Church will be held at 6.30pm and a vigil at the church in nearby Tundergarth, where the nose of the plane came down.

John Gair, 73, former principal teacher of history at Lockerbie Academy, said: "We respect those who have died and we pay due respect to them, but life does go on and I think in the main that was the attitude in Lockerbie fairly quickly.

"Now it is 20 years away and that means that a whole generation have grown up who were not alive at the time.

"There has to be a balance of paying every respect to the dead and marking what happened, but also allowing life to go on."

Those in Lockerbie on Sunday will also have an opportunity to reflect at various "places to remember", including Dryfesdale Lodge Visitors' Centre and Lockerbie Town Hall.

On display in the lodge is a quilt commissioned to mark the anniversary and made by the Solway Quilters.

It shows a tree whose 259 leaves represent the people who lost their lives while passengers on Pan Am flight 103, while the 11 pebbles below depict the town residents who died.

Former town councillor Marjory McQueen recognises the importance of remembering, but said that the town has always been keen to move on.

She said: "It didn't take long after the disaster for the town to rally and new buildings to go up where the accident happened. People expect Lockerbie to have a sombre feel and that it's going to be a sombre place, but that is not the case."

One positive thing to emerge from the tragedy was a link between Lockerbie and Syracuse University in the USA, which lost 35 of its students in the disaster.

They were flying home after a semester spent studying abroad.

A scholarship was set up in memory of the students who died to give two Lockerbie Academy students a year the opportunity to spend an academic year studying at Syracuse University.

So far 38 youngsters have taken part in the scheme.

Lockerbie Academy headteacher Graham Herbert said: "This was a really positive event to come out of the tragedy as the scholarship has been a life-changing event for the majority of those who took part."