St Andrews in Focus Issue 11 - July August 2005

St Andrews in focus • shopping • eating • events • town/gown • people and more

July / August 2005, Issue 11

the magazine for St Andrews

£1.50

www.standrewsinfocus.com

St Andrews in focus • shopping • eating • events • town/gown • people and more

From the Editor The Periodical Publishing Association (PPA) Scotland has just undertaken a review* of the magazine industry in Scotland.

I am astonished to discover that the value of this industry is estimated at £125 million! We’re a relatively small nation, yet the industry employs approximately 1,300 full time and 565 part-time staff with around 4,400 freelancers. The report states that the “Scottish magazine publishing industry is a similar size to the Cashmere industry in Scotland, the business tourism industry in Edinburgh and Edinburgh‘s flagship summer festivals and events in Edinburgh and the Lothians.”

Quite astonishing isn’t it? And this magazine is part of all that, because I filled in a questionnaire for the PPA! St Andrews in Focus already reaches a UK- and world-wide readership. Wouldn’t it be nice if Local Publishing (Fife) Ltd, the title’s Company, were to develop into a truly flourishing St Andrews business, employing local people, reflecting everything that is good about our town. Let’s promote that aim together!

Have a good summer – and may the sun shine for all of you.

Flora Selwyn * The Magazine Industry in Scotland – PPA April 2005

The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the Editor.

JULY/AUGUST 2005 EDITOR Flora Selwyn Tel/fax: 01334 472375 Email: editor@standrewsinfocus.com ADVERTISING MANAGERS Michael Milbank Mobile: 97887 756 980 Email: mwam@st-andrews.ac.uk Leslie Currie Mobile: 07710 477 766 Email: lesliecurrie@btinternet.com DESIGNER University of St Andrews Reprographics Unit PRINTER Tayport Printers Ltd. DISTRIBUTER Elspeth’s of Guardbridge PUBLISHER (address for correspondence) Local Publishing (Fife) Ltd., PO Box 29210, St. Andrews, Fife, KY16 9YZ. Tel/fax: 01334 472375 Email: enquiries@standrewsinfocus.com SUBSCRIPTIONS St. Andrews in Focus is published 6 times a year, starting in January. Subscriptions for the full year are: £10.00 in the UK (post & packing included) £18.00 overseas (post & packing included) Please send your name and address, together with remittance to: Local Publishing (Fife) Ltd., PO Box 29210, St. Andrews, Fife, KY16 9YZ. REGISTERED IN SCOTLAND: 255564 THE PAPER USED IS 75% RECYCLED POST-CONSUMER WASTE

Contents TOWN • • •

The importance of CSARA Neighbourhood Watch Safety tips from the Police

4 5 5

YESTERDAY/TODAY • • • • •

Alex Morris Harry Liddle Ian Seeley remembers Chris Dennis – Six years of joy Community Council

6 7 7 8 8

FEATURES • • • • • • •

Rotary’s Centenary The Old Course Hotel renewed RSCDS and Alastair MacFadyen Review – A Scottish Family Scorpions Roller Hockey May Mitchell’s footnote Ask the Curator

9 10 11 12 13 13 14

TOWN/GOWN • •

North Castle Street Blues Toonspot

15 15

SHOPS & SERVICES • • • • • • •

Why advertise?

Elspeth’s of St Andrews Roving Reporter International Cancer Research HQ Children First Pub Guide Miller’s

16 16 17 18 19 20 21

EVENTS • • • • •

St Athernase Church Ladies Lake The Art Club The Pittenweem Arts Festival List

22 23 24 24 24

OUT AND ABOUT • • • •

Confessions of a Solitary Walker A Load of Bull The Harbour The children’s Botanic Garden

25 25 26 27

NEXT ISSUE – Sept/Oct 2005 COPY DEADLINE: STRICTLY 28 JULY All contributions welcome. The Editor reserves the right to publish copy according to available space.

Cover: ‘Lammas Market & Fair’ – designed for this magazine by Karen Edward

3

TOWN

Donald McGilchrist, Chairman, introduces

CSARA

The idea of a Residents Alliance came about as a result of a very well attended public meeting hosted in the town hall by the Queen’s Gardens and Queen’s Terrace Residents’ Association on 24th June 2004. As well as members of the public and residents associations, Councillor Sangster and Inspector Dewar were present for a question and answer session.

The initial spark which ignited public indignation was a feeling that student accommodation was progressively taking over the town and that the traditional mixed community was being displaced to cater for university expansion.

The conclusion reached was that the area associations should continue as they were, but unite in an alliance to tackle more effectively issues of common concern. An effort would be made to locate and involve people with similar concerns who were isolated either as groups or individuals.

The Central St.Andrews Residents’ Alliance (CSARA) Steering Committee met formally for the first time on 25th November 2004, when a formal committee was elected, and since then has met regularly and discussed and agreed the way forward on several topics of concern to townspeople. It is important to make it clear that CSARA is not antistudent. Our positive aim is to maintain and improve the quality of life for all St.Andrews residents. A major plank within our objectives is to promote a mixed, vibrant, and sustainable community in St.Andrews. We have voiced concerns with politicians at all levels of government about the lack of affordable housing in St.Andrews. This is the main reason why St.Andrews is a dying community. Only 1.76% of the population of Central St.Andrews are children of Primary School age, while the figure for St.Andrews as a whole is 4.57%, compared to a Fife and Scottish average of almost 9%. Student Houses in Multiple Occupation have taken over at least 800 family homes in St.Andrews, or almost 10% of the total, and this has exacerbated an already critical shortage. This is not the fault of the students, but a result of underfunding the exponential increase in university education, with insufficient student accommodation being built.

While the Alliance is not aligned to any political party we have stated concerns to our MSPs and MP where appropriate, and in general our views have been well received and supported. For example our list MSP arranged a meeting at the Scottish Parliament at which the complexities of the Revenue Support Grant made to Fife Council by the Scottish Executive were explained. As a result of HMO owners being exempt from payment of Council Tax and Business Rates on their properties there is a loss of two million pounds annually to the Fife exchequer. We have not yet found out who actually pays for this, but no figures can be quoted to show that Fife Council is being reimbursed for this. At best, all income tax paying residents in Scotland contribute to make up this shortfall. We see this both as unreasonable and inequitable and are working to change the system to a fairer one, for example by submitting evidence to the Scottish Parliament Committee on Local Authority Finance.

University residences pay for services such as water, sewage, and garbage collection services, but HMO landlords of student properties pay nothing, and get other important tax breaks. We want to see a level playing field.

The Alliance has had assistance from our Westminster MP in our efforts to set in motion the standardization of the legislation on Houses in Multiple Occupation in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and England, each of which differs from the other. Scotland lacks safeguards which are already enacted in Northern Ireland We have appreciated the support and guidance of our Fife Councillors in our work and in turn tried to support them in what has clearly been a difficult period for them in their dealings with Fife Council on some aspects of their work. With the present structure of Local Government it is very easy for local interests to be overruled by Councillors with no direct knowledge of, or interest in, St.Andrews.

4

We have expressed our concerns on the effects of University expansion to the Principal and have received a fair hearing. This exchange of views we see as an ongoing process of advantage to both sides. We were particularly reassured to learn that any further expansion of student numbers can be accommodated in university residences. The University’s Chemistry Department is leading the way in some aspects of research into renewable energy and fuel cell development and we are keen to encourage this work. Would it not be nice to be able to board a ‘green’ tram in the residential areas of St.Andrews and alight on the platform at Leuchars railway station? Green transport is the key to maintaining a pleasant and healthy environment in the town centre, and we see this as being a priority for any plans in St.Andrews.

The Alliance was recently invited to make a short presentation to the Community Council, which we did at the May meeting. We strongly support the Council’s members who work so hard on assessing, and when necessary opposing, planning applications where the plans will affect the quality of life for St.Andrews residents. There is now a much better-informed debate taking place on the important issues facing the town.

The Alliance recently held a well-attended public meeting, where we highlighted what we saw as the principal points of contention in Fife Council’s Structure Plan, the St.Andrews and East Fife Plan, the Transport Plan, and the Core Policy Plan. We are of the opinion that unless a truly 21st century public transport system is treated as a priority and is in place to link up St.Andrews with its proposed satellite settlements at Guardbridge and Leuchars, before any other expansion for the town is undertaken, that traffic congestion in and around St.Andrews will become intolerable. We have submitted our observations to the Council on all of these plans. We were pleased to see the turnout at the Council’s public meeting at Kilrymont School where the Council took questions on aspects of their plans, but noticeably failed to give satisfactory answers to most of the questions! We have also liaised with the Green Belt Forum and the St.Andrews Preservation Trust, both of which are supportive of our work, as we are of theirs.

Looking back over the last six months since our first meeting we are amazed at where our initial concerns have led us to. Every question we answer seems to lead to even more investigative work being needed. It seems to us that democracy ceases the day after an election, and that it is essential that a new concept of citizen involvement in decision-making is developed, so our political representatives and their appointees take more note of the aspirations of their electorate.

The aim of our work is to promote a viable, vibrant, and sustainable society here in St.Andrews. For more news on our work, or to contact us, please log on to our website at www.csara.org.uk. If you do not have access to the internet then please write to the Chairman, Donald McGilchrist, at 3 Dempster Terrace, St.Andrews, KY16 9QQ. You don’t have to be resident in St.Andrews town centre to support our work and we anticipate and will encourage the formation of Residents’ Groups throughout the town to make the town a better place to live and work in.

TOWN

Rapid Expansion of

Neighbourhood Watch Association Nine representatives of Neighbourhood Watch a home owner is eligible to receive Schemes in St Andrews and District met last a significant discount off house December to discuss the best way forward to insurance simply by being a member grow the scale of the St Andrews and District of a Neighbourhood Watch Scheme, Neighbourhood Watch Association. In a very it seems to make good commercial fruitful meeting at the Cosmos Centre chaired sense to join. In addition, Members

by Malcolm Mitchell, a Constitution was agreed are able to purchase a variety of which provides a working framework for alarms at subsidised prices and of throughout the year. Since that first meeting, course, receive intelligence from Fife there have been Constabulary a number of other about If any existing Scheme wishes existing Schemes criminal to receive further information, and a number of activity in their new Schemes which respective areas, all they have to do is contact have joined the allowing appropriate St Andrews precautions to be PC Mark Anderson, Community and District taken. If any existing Neighbourhood Safety Officer on 01334-418745 Scheme wishes Watch Association. to receive further and he will be delighted to help. information, all they All told, there are over 3,000 have to do is contact households now benefiting from the safe PC Mark Anderson, Community Safety Officer umbrella of the St Andrews and Neighbourhood on 01334-418745 and he will be delighted Watch Scheme to help. Similarly, if any street, collection of Commenting on the high level of interest houses, or even a village, wishes to establish being expressed, Malcolm Mitchell said, “When a new Neighbourhood Watch Scheme, it really

Malcolm Mitchell, Chairman (back left), pictured with some of the Committee at a recent meeting in the Cosmos Centre. is very simple and Mark will be happy to assist.

We have all the documentation ready prepared and we can even provide a proposed Scheme with a draft Constitution, which will allow an application for grant funding. There are so many benefits of having such a Scheme and not only is there no cost, it will actually save everyone involved significant sums of money!”

For further information, please contact PC Mark Anderson, Community Safety Officer on 01334-418745

Fife Constabulary’s Community Safety Department, together with St Andrews and District Community Safety Panel, have designed and printed a ‘Handy Hints’ handout designed to keep residents, visitors and golfers alike free from crime.

With the Open Championship on the horizon and visitors expected to number more than two hundred thousand, the police are keen to promote ways of deterring the opportunist thief

as well as the most tenacious of criminals from spoiling such a prestigious event.

The panel members and Community Safety Officers will be out in force delivering information leaflets to hotels, B&Bs, Golf Clubs and numerous other venues promoting

messages of security and safety, all with the intention of ensuring that once again St Andrews can host the premier golf championship in style.

5

YESTERDAY/TODAY

“...if you work with tradition...”, wrote Alison Kinnaird in the April 2005 Scots Magazine, “it’s a bit like driving a car and using your rear-view mirror. You are going forwards – but it also helps if you can see what’s behind.”

Flora Selwyn was invited to meet Alex Morris, and opened another

Window into the past Born in 1907 at 126 Market Street, Alex Morris has seen St Andrews change before his eyes. His father, a member of the Town Council and Dean of Guild in charge of the housing committee, saw the beginning of Lamond Drive, which extended over the years to Largo Road, the longest street in St Andrews.

If you look at Holy Trinity Church, on the Church Square side facing Lloyds TSB Bank, you will find four stone portrait heads, bosses ornamenting the window arches. These were the craftsmen responsible for refurbishing the Church in 1908, and the third one from the left is Mr Morris, the plumber.

“I’ll tell you one thing we miss,” Alex said when I asked him about the old days, “Each shop was owned by the proprietor and they lived in the shop as a family business. I don’t think they got many holidays! Dundee was a popular rendez-vous for people having a day out. Thursdays and Saturdays you’d get a reduced railway ticket.” Both those half days, of course, were the only times free, and there was a railway station in St Andrews then, where the bus station is today. And what were the attractions in Dundee, I asked? There were picture house choices; “You’d get to see the latest pictures which you wouldn’t see here. You’d also have the King’s Theatre, and the Palais, too, for dancing, and an indoor swimming pool which was an attraction in the wintertime.”

Sometimes Alex would cycle to Newport, leave his bike at the garage, and take the Fifie ferry over the water.

Most local boys served their golfing apprenticeship on the Jubilee Course. In 1898 William Auchterlonie, Open Champion (1893) was commissioned by the Town Council to lay out a short course between the New Course fairway and the sand dunes.

The result was one played four holes out and five holes in. It was free golf, of course, but visitors paid 3 pence. “In time we graduated from the Jubilee Course, sometimes called the Duffers Course, to the Eden Course.”

Alex recalls the horse-drawn taxis that plied their trade, and remembers “the noise of the horses trotting on the cobbles, and the wheels bound with iron.” His mother always told him to “use the crossings” in Market Street because the road was so muddy in the winter. In summer the Town Council would send a horsedrawn cart round spraying water to keep the dust down in the main streets! “The streets were either very wet or very dry,” said Alex with a smile. The crossings he mentioned were a mixture of cobbles and slabs.

Alex was apprenticed to the St Andrews Gas Company, set up in 1834/6 and which, in 1949, became part of the Scottish Gas Board. Alex was appointed Manager in 1951, retiring later after 47 years in the gas industry. The centenary of the Company was marked in 1935 by giving an extra £5 to each employee. This effectively doubled that week’s wages. With a wry grin Alex said that the Bell Rock Tavern and the Auld Hoose Tavern at each end of Shorehead benefited enormously! Remember, a pint of beer then cost 6d (roughly 2p in today’s coinage).

Part of Alex’s job to begin with was to read the gas meters.

These were set slightly higher than the price of gas, so that when they were emptied the customer was pleased to receive change.

One letter Alex received from a customer in St Monans in 1938 asked him to, “Please call at your earliest at the above address, the blinking gas meter won’t fizz….” Coal used to be brought in by sea, the last being unloaded in 1934 from The Locksley from N. E. England. Supply by sea was the rationale for building the Works at the harbour. The doors never shut, which attracted students to creep in to warm themselves and chat to the stoker.

When the Works were threatened with closure the students protested loudly! However, in February 1962 the gas-making plant was finally closed after 126 years.

Today Alex lives quietly with his memories. He has just become a Great-Grandfather, “I have a son who’s a grandfather – it makes me feel strange!” he sighs. And the town, he thinks, is too small for the present size of the University. “Fortunately, I don’t find my day too long.” he informed me – and that must surely be a sign of true contentment!

6

The gas works site

The gas works

The last coal ship

YESTERDAY/TODAY

Harry Liddle kindly took time to chat to Flora Selwyn.

Born in Warkworth, but brought up in Alnwick in Northumberland, Harry’s life has reflected many of the changes of the 20th century. Mr Liddle Senior was from a long line of mining engineers, and Harry too was destined to follow in his footsteps. However, the Second World War cut short his training, when he was just 19. Call-up papers were delayed, so ambitions to become a pilot were thwarted and Harry found himself an NCO in the Navy, later attached to the Fleet Air Arm. A girl at a dance asked Harry if he had met her sister. He hadn’t, but before long Madge, then in the Wrens, became Mrs. Liddle. They were married in Boarhills Church in 1946, (Madge’s father was the stationmaster in Boarhills). The reception was in the Tudor Inn, St Andrews; they had wanted to have it in what was then the Grand Hotel (now Hamilton Hall), but it had already been fully booked.

On honeymoon in Spittal, near Berwick, Harry recalls seeing a fish jump out of the water. To Madge’s astonishment, Harry dived into the water, with his clothes on, and caught it! They ate it later!

For a while Harry and his bride lived in Sunderland, where Harry worked in the shipping industry. However, Madge was a St Andrews girl, and they decided to return here.

For the next 34 years Harry was an engineer at Curtis Fine Papers in Guardbridge.

Harry had been a scholarship boy at Alnwick Grammar School. It was there that he learned to love sport of every kind. Before the war he was for a while a professional sprinter.

In South Africa with the navy, Harry learned to play golf. He later taught Madge how to play, and as her grandfather had been a golf teacher, she took readily to the game, later being made an Honorary Member of the St Regulus Ladies Golf Club.

I asked Harry if golf was his main passion, “Oh yes!” was the instant reply. He has been a member of St Andrews Golf Club for 50 years and is an Honorary Member. Nick Faldo became a very close friend who is always in touch. That friendship is precious to Harry and can be gleaned from this extract from a letter he received on his 80th birthday in August 1999:

“Harry, whilst we may not see one another as often as wished, you have been a constant support to me and my game.

Your unconditional support and loyalty over the years never ceases to amaze me and I know I can always rely on you to provide me with succinct words of wisdom in your letters, especially at the time of Major tournaments…..You are clearly an inspiration to all around you and loved by all….Thanks for everything, Harry. You are one of God‘s gems…”

Harry never misses a day on the courses, even going out before Sunday worship at Holy Trinity Church – “And I attend Church every Sunday without fail.” His greatest triumph in 60 years of golfing is to have scored 10 holes-inone, the latest one on his 84th birthday, at the eighth on the Balgove, using a seven iron! The first one was also on the Balgove when that course re-opened in 1993.

Many lady golfers have reason to be grateful to Harry for his teaching. Sadly, Madge became ill some 18 years ago and for a time Harry gave up all his activities in order to nurse her before she passed away.

A devoted Mason, Harry was Master of Earlshall Lodge and also of the Royal Arch Chapter in Cupar. “They do a tremendous amount of good”, Harry said, when I asked him about the Masons. He recounted one amusing incident concerning the Tercentenary dinner of No.3 Scone and Perth Lodge. Arriving at the door he was told he was to propose one of the main toasts of the evening. Completely thrown by this unexpected information Harry said, “I couldn’t eat my dinner, because I was working up my speech!”

Another talent is painting. “I used to do it in a small way at school. I didn’t bother, just did it for fun.” However, when Madge was very ill she asked Harry to do a painting for her, and that started him again. His living room has many framed pictures adorning it and they are delightful. Reproduced here with Harry’s permission is his tribute to Nick Faldo’s three championship wins.

Mention of school, brings to mind the old school song. Here is the first verse – it could have been written for Harry himself: Forty years on when afar and asunder Parted are those who are singing today, When you look back, and forgetfully wonder What you were like in your work and your play: Then it may be, there will often come o’er you Glimpses of notes like the catch of a song

Visions of boyhood shall float them before you Echoes of dreamland shall bear them along: Follow up! Follow up! Follow up! Follow up!

Follow up!

Till the field ring again and again, With the tramp of the twenty-two men, Follow up! Follow up!

Ian Seeley is

Going Back

Be windblown Grange my chosen way Or by Kincaple’ s lands, Or shall I crest the Puddock Brae And see the golden sands; And pick out each grey standing tower That prods the steely skies?

Can I resist the drawing power That in the old town lies?

So much has changed, my eyes are peeled, No sign of Fairy Glen; And what’s become of Ireland’s Field Or leafy Spinkie Den? No horses graze on Canongate Or up by Lumbo Burn; It’s houses, houses everywhere Where once swayed golden corn.

A few gaunt pines still mark the spot Where ice met polished stone; How long, how long before the rot Of progress sees them gone?

And do old family names survive, Like Lister, Clarke and Kirk?

Do Cunningham and Gourlay live Near Chisholm, Herd and Dick?

And what of Auchterlonie, aye, And Niven, Cross and Spence?

Shall Christie, Pirie, Ainslie die Before the great advance?

Old orders change and men decay, A new breed takes their place; Perhaps that’s why I’ve stayed away And run a different race.

For that was then and this is now, And so it has to be; It’s as an exile now I know The city by the sea.

7

YESTERDAY/TODAY

Six Years of Joy

By Chris Dennis, Madras College – former pupil as of 03.05.05 They say that school was a time to look back upon with joy. When I look back, on my time, I’m hit with mixed emotions. Part of me is sad that everything is over, but part of me is ready to move on. Reflecting back on my time I find that there are simply too many memories to recite.

It all began with timid and not so eager little kids. Reading class lists on the first day, I remember not knowing anyone, but now if l look at those same names, everyone has a horde of stories to tell. Over the next six years these little kids became little adults. I believe that this year we have turned out doctors, dentists, writers, scholars, and actors, just to name a few. Without the powerful education that we received and without the heavy support of the Madras team, many of those who fell along the way would not have got up again. Because of the support of our teachers, our dedicated year staff, our friends and, of course, ourselves, I can look back on what is, and what I hope will remain to be, the best six years of my life, with pride, enlightenment and, of course, joy.

Whatever part of myself l look at I find that I can never forget these last six years. I have learned so much more than the relatively simple things teachers and friends meant to teach me.

I remember back to when I was in primary seven and some used to say that we hated school, an attitude that I am sure kids that age still have. Now, that philosophy could not be farther from the truth. Along the way education changes those attitudes and makes us realise that instead of trying to hate something, we should give it a go and eventually it will grow on us. School not only taught us how to do this, but is the single best example of it in practice.

Although I may be ready, mentally speaking, to move on and get stuck into life, it doesn’t mean that I want to. I never would have looked at school this way six years ago.

If you said that school only taught you English, Maths, French, or whatever, you would be wrong. In the beginning that would have been correct. But, as time passed and carried us though our school careers, the subjects that we were learning about changed from these simple, generic subjects into the much more complicated subject of our lives, and indeed we learned how to live. Although we were not taught this directly, school took on a different meaning near the end. We were slowly realising that we were no longer kids and that we would have to make choices that would cause major changes in our lives. We had begun to learn about life and therefore, ourselves. We were actually beginning to discover who we were and

are. For the first time we had actually started to put these new skills into practice and begun to live. If I had not stayed at school and learned to be the person that I now am, I would not only never have made all the memories that I have, but I would also not have the knowledge that I possess on life and, therefore, how to live.

Over the past six years I have cried, loved, learned, worked, and of course, lived. They say that these years are the best of your life and I can assure this fact to be a hundred per cent true.

The Community Council Donald Macgregor So you’re not sure who’s on the Community Council? Here are four long-term members for a start: Joe Peterson, Ken Crichton, Dennis Macdonald, Kenneth Fraser; and one more recent one, Elise Methven. They form the Recreation Committee, and these are a few of the things they do: you’ve probably heard of the Beautiful Scotland and Beautiful Britain in Bloom competitions, or the awards for the best maintained war memorials in Scotland, or the Fife Best Kept Town Awards. The committee coordinates different groups of St Andrews’ multi-layered society to increase the floral attractiveness of the town. The criteria for success in such competitions now include environmental aspects – every year the expert judges ask, for instance, about progress on the Recycling Centre site off John Knox Road – and local participation, e.g. by schoolchildren and interest groups. The Community Council works closely with Fife Council’s service departments to try to ensure St Andrews is looking good – especially on the route that Joe, Ken and the rest decide to take the judges on!

In the old days the Town Council ran the Best Kept Garden competition. The Rec. Committee has introduced six different categories – such as private gardens, window-boxes, hanging baskets, categories for businesses such as hotels and boarding-houses – all with a trophy (like the Isla Tait Trophy, or the Yvonne Stewart-Meiklejohn Shield) for the winners and a certificate for the runners-up. I know from attending

8

awards ceremonies that these prizes are both well-earned and appreciated.

In late November the Council presents the annual Art and Photographic Exhibition. It started seven years ago when the photographic competition for the Boots Trophy, previously held in July, was amalgamated with a St Andrew’s Day (later Week) art exhibition. The Victory Memorial Hall now sees 50-60 art entries and 70-80 photograph submissions, and a great deal of help is given with all aspects of the shows by the St Andrews Photographic Club. And here too there are prizes in all categories.

Each December the Students’ Association and the Community Council offer a great example of Town-Gown Liaison when the Senior Citizens’ Christmas Party is held in the Students’ Union – it dates back to Victorian times, but we weren’t running it then! Hundreds attend every year for a mixture of entertainment, nourishment and nostalgia provided by ‘weel kent’ local entertainers, the students and staff of the Union, and the guests. Each guest receives a raffle ticket, and local traders very generously provide all the raffle prizes.

NB: if you are a local resident past your 60th birthday and want to attend the Christmas Party this year, give Ken Crichton a ring on 478936 – however, if you were there in 2004 you’ll get an automatic invitation. You’ll also get one this year from the Local Office if you’re renewing your bus pass. See you there!

FEATURES Public Relations Officer, (and Past President) Ian Johnston reflects on the

Centenary of Rotary International Members of over 32,000 Rotary Clubs worldwide are this year celebrating A major project the 100th Anniversary of Rotary International, an organisation founded in was started in 1996 Chicago by a lawyer, Paul Harris, and three of his business associates. to provide clean water Harris found life as a single man in Chicago in the late 1890s to be to the Bangladeshi a lonely one, so he conceived the idea of a club which would bring village of Nadia. Seven professional men together in order to generate friendship and, most wells were sunk, many importantly, to bring about mutual benefit in strictly business terms. Since latrines were built, thus members met in rotation in each others’ offices, the name ‘Rotary Club’ improving the health of was adopted. Still in use today, the Club motto, ‘Service above Self’, was over 5000 people. And chosen in 1913. these are just a selection After a slow start, Rotary Clubs began to spring up all over the USA of the multiplicity of and Canada, reaching Europe when the Rotary Club of Dublin was projects carried out by founded in 1911. So many Clubs had been inaugurated in the UK that it generations of Rotarians. was decided to form a British Association, which became in 1922 Rotary Kilrymont Rotary International Britain and Ireland. Paul Harris and his Club members soon Club of St Andrews was realised that their abilities should extend from merely promoting their inaugurated in August Left – President Brian Gray, Kilrymont Club businesses to meeting the needs of their communities. So was born the 1996. Angus Peter was Right – President Patrick Rentoul, great Rotary tradition of caring for those in need, creating friendship, Founder President. In its St Andrews Club world understanding and peace. short history, the Club In 1927 four St Andrews businessmen met two members of Dundee has been putting into Rotary Club to discuss the formation of a Club in St Andrews. The practice ‘Service Above Self’, very successfully providing community subsequent inaugural meeting took place on 29th November 1927. Local and vocational awards, CD-Roms to schools, primary school quizzes, medical practioner, James Orr became the Founder President. For many and assisting young people to attend challenging enterprises, Camp years, meetings were held in the Tudor Café. Today they take place RYLA, Duke of Edinburgh Awards, and the Jubilee Sailing Trust. It has weekly in the St Andrews Golf Hotel. The set its sights high, sharing vocational skills, Rotary Club of St Andrews is proud to look planting 100 roses at Holy Trinity Church, back on 78 years of Community Service to sending a birthday cake to Gibson House, The Rotary Club of St Andrews is young people, the elderly, the needy, and and donating £1000 to D.S.F in order to proud to look back on 78 years of the housebound, as well as its support for send a team to Glasgow for their Special many International projects.

Games.

Community Service to young people, In the spring, the grass verges on the President Patrick Rentoul of the approaches to the town turn golden with all St Andrews Club, and President Brian Gray the elderly, the needy, and the the daffodils planted by the primary schools. of the Kilrymont Club, along with all the Over the years the Club has initiated many members, extend grateful thanks to the housebound, as well as its support youth projects, set up a fund to assist townsfolk of St Andrews for their continued for many International projects.

Rymonth House, and donated medical generosity over many years, helping to fund equipment to the local hospital. For 50 years so many worldwide schemes. Rotarians are the Club has been providing newspapers justly proud of their reputation for service. and magazines to the local hospital, and a Christmas Tree to Holy Their belief in freedom and democracy, coupled with acceptance and Trinity Church. Many Club members have given their services to other tolerance of other people, their religions and political persuasions, has organisations. Madras College pupils are sponsored annually in Youth earned them international respect and recognition, together with their Leadership Award courses. desire for world peace, friendship, and care for mankind.

The Three B’s Bedding Bits & Bobs 47-49 Kinnessburn Road, St Andrews, KY16 8AD Phone 01334 470700 Photocopying 5p per sheet A good selection of haberdashery, including a range of craft materials for card-making.

Wools include, Plumé 3ply & 4ply, double knitting, Chunky, & Aran Dance wear now in stock – shoes and outfits Also in store, a large range of fancy goods + rolls, sandwiches, and juice

9

FEATURES Flora Selwyn had the great and unexpected privilege of talking on the phone to Mr Herbert V. Kohler Jnr. in America, new owner of

The Old Course Hotel have hosted such prestigious championships as the PGA Championship, Mr Kohler’s warm manner put this the US Women’s Open, the Palmer Cup, and will host the Ryder Cup in nervous editor at ease immediately! His 2020. story was captivating.

I asked, naturally, why St Andrews? Mr Kohler is a golfer. He has In 1873, Mr Kohler’s grandfather been coming here regularly to play the game, not only in St Andrews, but founded the Kohler Co. in Sheboygan, all over Scotland. One day in August of last year he received an email on the shores of Lake Michigan, making from France wondering if he would like to join a consortium to buy the Old cast iron agricultural implements, such Course Hotel. “As a matter of fact I could hardly contain my excitement,” as ploughshares. He went on to become he said, “The Old Course Hotel is sitting on the 17th hole, probably the the Mayor of his community and also the most famous in all golf!” Now he owns 99% of it, the R & A has the other founder of the local opera.

1%. “I’m very humble about the whole thing,” Mr Kohler assured me.

By 1899 the town was becoming One of the first things Mr Kohler did, was to check the water pressure congested, so Mr Kohler decided to move in the Hotel, because there had been complaints, especially about the out some four miles into the country. An showers. To his surprise the pressure was only 12psi! When boosted, invention involving a horse trough and leaks appeared all over the place, and it was realised that the only way hog-scalder introduced the Company to was to rip out all the old plumbing and replace it. Now the pressure is plumbing, which then became another 45psi and “at least, you can get a hell of a good shower!” Over the past part of the manufacturing output. Employees went to the factory at first two and a half years no money had been invested in the Hotel, and by horse-drawn streetcar. When this became burdensome, they began “you can’t do that. I think we caught it just in time.” 55 rooms will be building houses nearby. fully renovated by the Open in July this year; the remaining 139 will be Mr Kohler passed away and his brother took over. He was anxious completed by next year. Mr Kohler is determined to give the Hotel a “very to avoid the possibility of a shanty town rising round his factory, so he Scottish character – it’s very important to me,” while bringing it up to went to England, where he met Sir Ebenezer Howard, founder of the world-class standards. He also says he’s “enjoyed creating activities for Garden City Movement. On returning to the States, Mr Kohler consulted our guests in the Old Course,” one of which the country’s most prominent architects, will shortly involve a jazz ensemble. and together they built an architecturally Once the Hotel is refurbished, Mr Kohler outstanding village for the workers. will start on Craigtoun Manor, by the Dukes Called originally “Riverside”, the villagers Course, “such a marvellous structure.” He is themselves decided to change the name looking forward to restoring it and perhaps to “The Village of Kohler ”, and today it is a making it into a time-share (weekly contracts) thriving community of nearly 2000 people. or fractional-share (monthly contracts), to be The factory itself employs 6000 people, and run by the Hotel. a further 2000 work in the Hospitality field.

At the start of our talk, Mr Kohler said, Kohler has two hotels: The American Club, an “I’m a fairly modest person, and I generally upscale hotel with 240 rooms and suites; and like my actions to speak before my words.” I the Inn on Woodlake, a mid-priced hotel with honestly believe that we are extremely lucky 121 rooms. The Kohler Water Spa, located to be able to welcome Mr Kohler. I should within The American Club, is renowned like to wish him well, and I hope that his throughout America, and in addition there involvement with the town will be both happy are four championship golf courses ranked The American Club and fruitful. among the top 100 in the USA. These courses

Renton Oriental Rugs Established in 1976 by Graeme Renton and now owned and run by his son Douglas, this wonderful and exotic bazaar is crammed full of riches from the Far East.

During the past thirty years the owners have developed an extensive network of suppliers from around the world that provide the shop with a variety of specialist rugs, carpets and furniture.

Whether you are looking for either new or antique rugs, Indian, Afghan, Persian, or Turkish, you can be guaranteed to find that something special and unique for your home.

At this friendly, family-run business, you can even take home a selection of rugs to ‘live with’ for a few days to make sure that you have made the right choice, because, says Douglas, “the rugs can look quite different in your own home.”

In the past few years Douglas and his wife Donna have extended the shop’s offerings to include a fantastic range of hand-made furniture from Indonesia and Thailand, rich in colour and unique in design.

If you are looking for something beautiful for your home, visit Renton Oriental Rugs, and be transported to another world.

10

Renton Oriental Rugs 77 South Street, St Andrews, Fife Tel: 01334 476334 Fax: 01334 475721

FEATURES

Fifty Years On Reflections on the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society (RSCDS) Summer School at St.Andrews, by Alastair MacFadyen My first sight of St.Andrews was from the train as it approached the town in August 1955. The reason for this first visit to Fife was to attend the Summer School of the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society. Still in my teens, I had embarked on this adventure with some apprehension. I need not have worried because it soon became clear to me that the seasoned members of the School were keen to welcome newcomers and to ensure that they had no reason to feel excluded. Fifty years on, I remain tremendously grateful for the reception I was given and for the friends I made then, many of whom, like me, are still Summer School devotees.

By 1955, the Summer School was already a well established annual event, having taken place for the first time in 1927, four years after the formation of the Scottish Country Dance Society in Glasgow. The cofounders, Ysobel Stewart and Jean C. Milligan, were sufficiently confident about the success of their Society to contemplate a first Summer School. Their choice of St.Andrews as its venue has had a very happy outcome. Apart from one year in Edinburgh and the six years of World War 2, a Summer School, based at University Hall, has been held every year in St.Andrews since 1927. It’s for this reason that, as the Society has expanded into a worldwide organisation, many members of its international family have come to regard St.Andrews as their Mecca.

When I made my first acquaintance with it, the Summer School was presided over by Miss Milligan, who was Director from 1927 until her death in 1978. As a newcomer, I soon became familiar with the rules and rituals of the School. Before the addition of the Lumsden Wing, University Hall was reserved entirely for ladies during the School and the upper floors of the building were out of bounds to all but the most daring of the male population. The early locking of all outer doors was also a problem for the younger female residents of University Hall when they wished to participate in our jaunts into the town for a late-night snack at Peter’s Cafe, a Lammas Fair expedition and, occasionally, a midnight swim. Pre-arranged points of re-entry into the Hall overcame this particular inconvenience. Fortunately, conditions were more relaxed in the accommodation allocated to the men and other ladies, at St.Regulus and Hepburn Halls, for example. What fun we had! All very innocent, of course! Much time and effort was spent in preparing for the weekly ceilidh. I remember we were given full use of the St.Regulus kitchen to prepare our refreshments and, meanwhile, a lady in our company, especially skilled with words, was sent off to take a bath where, we were assured, she would compose her best ceilidh sketches.

The mornings of the School were taken up with our programme of classes. We were very fortunate to have the benefit of some able teachers and I certainly learned a great deal from them. Miss Milligan managed a large class in the Younger Hall with the greatest of ease and her all-seeing eye missed nothing. She was

always ready with a friendly, but pointed, quip for those whose response to her instruction was rather blunted by their previous night’s frivolities.

In the 1950s, the highlight for the men attending the Summer School was the second session of the morning when they were taught Highland step dancing by the celebrated dancer and teacher, Bobby Watson of Aberdeen. His lessons were always very entertaining, but he also worked us very hard. The combination of an hour of non-stop dancing with the sun beating down on us through the glazed roof of the Drill Hall left us all bathed in perspiration but, nevertheless, very satisfied with our morning’s work. Some refreshment at Kate’s Bar was a necessary diversion before heading off for lunch!

Fifty years ago, regardless of weather, the afternoons were spent on the beach. Large numbers congregated at a pre-arranged spot and, invariably, at some point during the afternoon, the pipes were tuned up to accompany an Eightsome Reel. As a young and fairly fit new boy, I was required to take my turn to run (there were few cars available then) up to the Hall to collect the afternoon tea, which was still the traditional feast of sandwiches, scones and cakes. Liquid refreshment was provided by the large pots of tea purchased at the beach kiosk.

A vivid memory of my second Summer School visit in 1956 was the invitation to take part in a sequence for the film ‘Scotland Dances’ (now an archival relic). This was a collaborative project between the RSCDS and Films of Scotland. Miss Milligan directed the filming on the University playing fields. In the autumn, I was present at the first showing of the film in an Edinburgh cinema, surrounded by family and friends eager to witness my screen debut. Imagine their disappointment, and mine, when it transpired, as the film progressed, that my sequence had ended up on the cutting room floor!

Apart from one or two absences, I have been a regular participant in the Summer School since 1955. Eventually, I was invited to join the teaching staff and for a period of four years, I held the position of Director.

I am very grateful to the Summer School for the opportunities it has given me and for the lasting friendships it has afforded me. Inevitably, over the years new ideas and changes have been introduced into the School to satisfy the requirements of those attending. I am delighted to note that there will be a good attendance again this year – almost 800 dancers from 33 different countries.

I wish the Summer School well for the future and trust that its long and happy association with St.Andrews will continue for many more years to come.

Summer School:dancing at the Bow Butts in the 1950s

11

REVIEW Sheila Partington reviews

A Scottish Family: The story of Eight Generations by Betty Willsher (Librario, £9.99) Most families have favourite sayings and stories that connect us to the past, that are repeated whenever Uncle Will is mentioned, or Granny’s response to a domestic disaster is recalled. With retelling, they are often embroidered. By the time we are middle-aged and begin to ask what really happened, it’s often too late. Digging up the family tree is one of the most popular retirement pursuits, and Betty Willsher, whose eleventh book this is, provides in it delightful evidence of the rewards. She is already well known for her two recent books on St Andrews and its characters and Photo by Pieter Burgess connections, but unlike many people her skills are scholarly. Her lifelong interest in the past was evident with her two books on what the symbols and epitaphs on Scottish gravestones could tell us. In A Scottish Family she brings to life ordinary citizens of eight generations of her own family, and in so doing, illuminates two hundred years of the sort of life most of us lead – prosaic, sometimes humdrum, touched by flashes of unexpected happiness, of sudden tragedy, of loss of hope, and, if we are lucky, the satisfaction of a job well done.

It is difficult for the present, saturated as we are with vivid images of people, places, happenings at the touch of a digital button, to realise how rare it was to have a picture, a remembrance of someone whom death or a journey had removed. So the heartbroken Alexander Russell in 1854 had to call in a local artist to draw a shadow portrait of his 22-year-old wife, Keturah, with her golden hair on the pillow, dead, in the hope that her three children might remember her.

Keturah, the first in the family to bear the name that runs like a golden thread through five generations had been the youngest of six children of an energetic and highly principled Master of Elgin Academy, and her own little daughter, known as Tudy, carried on the name.

That it was a shadow portrait of Keturah is ironic. It is hard to have a clear view of women and their lives. Whereas men’s accomplishments are in reports, Council Minutes, etc. women are often in the background, having to be guessed at or inferred from letters, little notes on greying, blurred photographs. Women’s names changed from father’s to husband’s, and often a birth entry in Old Parish Registers carries only a father’s full name.

Betty’s family has been exemplary in this regard and a great boost for those of us who are often accused of being mere hoarders. Along with papers, she has those tiny things that are too often thrown away – the little bit of the first Keturah’s wedding dress that was customarily tacked to the new bride’s bonnet for church, and the dress Aunt Mina made for little Keturah, Tudy , which can still be worn by Betty’s great grand-daughter today.

Theirs are lives that to us may seem narrower and plainer. But close communities meant you had to consider carefully how they were run.

One envies the newspaper able to report a Council meeting which was

12

discussing the iniquities of landlords trying to close Rights of Way, with the statement, “Twaddle was spoken without Mercy”.

But you also had to consider matters of conscience. Charity, then, was not overseas, and even if news of disasters took long to arrive, they weren’t softened by a direct debit to Oxfam or Christian Aid. Charity meant the poor, the widows and orphans, the ill, who begged in the next street.

In the 1860s Betty’s grandfather, Alex Russell, who had become Provost of Elgin, had to pilot through the Council – and the ratepayers, never forget the ratepayers – Improvements to the Academy where, he said, “without a good Liberal education at a cheap rate, such a city as Elgin would not prosper”, as well as how to run the Morayshire Poorhouse which most people dreaded for the unfeeling architecture and equally unfeeling rules, (and in case that seems far away, Betty herself was at school in County Durham with Workhouse girls, “in their hideous ill-fitting uniforms” and seemingly perpetual colds). When there were complaints about Dr Gray’s Hospital in the town, the Magistrates, three councillors and the Provost “had a pretty hard time of it” investigating, “... six nights a week, four or five hours every evening spent examining families”. In effect, they were their own Board of Inquiry, and every note was made in longhand in pen and ink.

Betty’s own character and delight in the quirks and corners of people’s lives shines through: the upright schoolmaster who wore the same slippers to the annual ball for forty years: the three “unprotected Females” (married women!) who sailed from Leith on a continental tour; the young pilot in the RFC in 1917 who never saw his 21st birthday, but wrote to ask “has Betty’s tooth come through yet?”

As well as hoarding, there can be the charge of looking back rather than forward, but this book with its patient portrayal of feelings and ambitions which are common to every human life, casts a light of understanding on our own lives. We can remake for our times, but we have a responsibility to hand on what was good from our past – care for others, a sense of community, the desire to see your children ‘settled’, the wisdom to thole what can’t be changed.

Like any good grandmother, and now greatgrandmother of seven, Betty brings her own childhood and young parenthood vividly to life with just the sort of stories that every family should record, as well as a lesson on the false trails that can mislead even a historian as alert as she is. It is a model for us all.

FEATURES Jo Alexander, Chairman and Head Coach of the

St Andrews Scorpions Roller Hockey Club Roller Hockey is among the fastest team teenage years. Here we have an extra sports in the world. opportunity for boys and girls to interact Roller Hockey has unique features which socially and to grow up together and hold the key to its appeal to both players help each other through the fretful and spectators. The speed of the play and years. the end-to-end action are at the heart of the St Andrews Scorpions Roller game’s instant appeal. It is fast, competitive Hockey Club has evolved from its early and above all, fun. It is played indoors in a beginnings in 1992, when a group of large sports hall on a rink and in many ways is parents, whose children were playing similar to ice hockey – without the violence and street hockey, felt that an indoor environment without the ice! A team consists of a maximum would be much safer. In the early years the of 12 players and a netminder, but only four founding members, Roger and Val Griffiths and outfielders and the netminder are on the rink Bill Black, were the driving force behind both at a time. Unlike football, where the substitutes the club and the institution of a competitive are often only used as replacements for injuries, league. Since those bygone days the game in roller hockey several different lines are used has become much more sophisticated. We play – so four outfielders (usually 2 forwards and 2 under the umbrella of two governing bodies: defenders) play for a couple of minutes, and Fife Skater Hockey Association (FSHA) which then switch for the next line of four, and then organises League fixtures, lays down the rules, the next line of four, and so on. In this way, provides qualified independent referees and many players can play and develop their skills, controls the discipline: and also Great Britain and the task of the coach is to select his lines Hockey Inline (GBHI) which is the national carefully so that body. The FSHA he matches the organises and runs a One of the interesting plus opposition – ie. strong country-wide League lines against strong points of roller hockey is that it and we play matches lines etc. every weekend in is one of only very few sports The game is 4 age-groups:10 & played on inline Under, 12 & Under, where boys and girls can play roller skates with a 14 & Under, and 16 hard ball and a long & Under. Our League together in the same team hockey stick (far season runs from longer than a field September until May hockey stick – who wants to run up and down and then culminates in a Play-Offs Tournament a pitch bent double?!) Skating, stickhandling, on a June weekend in Kirkcaldy when all the passing and shooting are the key skills and teams in the League compete in a breathtaking because it is a non-checking sport, players showcase of roller hockey. Currently we have and parents can enjoy matches in a safe over 50 youngsters playing with our club and all environment where sportsmanship, respect for four squads put in many hours of training and team-mates, for officials and for the game itself playing. Training sessions are split between can be encouraged.

Madras College, Kilrymont Sports Hall (our One of the interesting plus points of roller match venue) and the Cosmos Community hockey is that it is one of only very few sports Centre Sports Hall. We have several nationally where boys and girls can play together in qualified coaches who give up their free time to the same team. Since extensive protective train the youngsters. We also have a wonderful equipment is mandatory, both sexes can set of supportive parents who bring the players compete on an equal footing. It is highly to training and ferry them around the country to topical to suggest that sport is useful for matches at weekends. helping teenage boys get rid of excesses of As well as competing against Fife-based testosterone and aggression; and that exercise teams, over the years we have travelled to can also greatly assist girls through the difficult Perth, Dundee, Airdrie, Edinburgh, Kirkliston

St Andrews Scorpions 16s – 2004-05 and East Kilbride. In the last few years since the FSHA has affiliated to GBHI it now boasts a Scottish team at each of these age-groups, selected from the best players from each club. These players enjoy the benefits of extra national training and the thrill of playing for their country. Last season we had nine Scorpions players representing Scotland, and all benefited greatly from training and playing at national level.

At the most junior levels the Club ethos is built on teaching basic skills and having fun. We are not concerned about winning at all costs. Everyone gets a chance to play in matches and the emphasis is on creating a positive environment where players enjoy learning, improve fitness levels, and acquire new skills at the same time. The older age groups are much more competitive, but we still hold to the belief that we are imparting much more than just hockey skills to youngsters. Our coaches are ever mindful of the quote, “A youngster doesn’t care how much you know, Until he knows how much you care.”

Education is a process which extends far beyond the boundaries of sport. The same basic principles which guide the controlled hockey player underpin his approach to the wider world. An intrinsic element of the hockey game is self-discipline, sportsmanship and emotional control. Learning and practising these qualities will equip young people with the basic toolkit for life in the adult world of work and social interaction.

If you would like to know more about the Club, or if you have a youngster who would like to come and try out a different sport, please contact : Jo Alexander, 01334 475612 for more details.

P.S. – Paterson’s The Open Having read in the March/April edition of St Andrews in Focus the article about the forthcoming production of A.B.Paterson’s golf comedy The Open, May Mitchell from Leven wrote to Alan Tricker, (Director of the production of The Open at the Byre Theatre) about a planned tour to the States after the first production in 1950 at the Old Byre Theatre. Rollo Mitchell, her late husband, was a member of that 1950 cast.

“Bob Harlow, the editor of Golf World planned to take the complete cast of the 1950 production of A.B.Paterson’s The Open over to the States. In May 1950 a group of Golf World reporters saw a special midnight performance at the old Byre Theatre and began planning the American tour. Unfortunately Bob Harlow died before the tour could be arranged and the project was cancelled. I felt that this was a tragedy for A B Paterson, who had done so much to assist

the American golf correspondents when they covered all the great championships in St Andrews and worked to promote his play in the USA. There is no doubt that had The Open toured the USA, A.B.Paterson would have become not only a well-known golf reporter, but also a well-known playwright as well. It was some reward, however, that The Open was the first Scottish play to be televised by Scottish Television in the Fifties.”

13

FEATURES Want to know more about our town?

Well, you could

Ask the Curator

Q. Who was Eric Liddell (1902-1945)?

A. One of Scotland’s greatest athletes, Eric Henry Liddell was born in Tientsin, China, to Scottish parents. He studied Science and Theology at Edinburgh University, where his prowess as an athlete was revealed. He won the 100 yards and the 220 yards for five successive years at the Scottish Athletic Championships and played rugby for Scotland on several occasions.

In 1924 he was selected to run for Britain at the Paris Olympics. The heats were scheduled for a Sunday and Liddell, a man of strong religious principles, refused to run. He ran instead in the 400 metres, winning a gold medal and breaking the world record with a time of 47.6 seconds. He also won a bronze medal in the 200 metres.

Liddell graduated from university and became a missionary in China. He was caught up in the Sino-Japanese war and died in a Japanese internment camp. A monument to his memory was unveiled on the site in 1991. In 1982 a film about Liddell’s life, Chariots of Fire, won four Oscars, including ‘Best Film’. The famous beach scenes were shot on St Andrews’ very own West Sands. Liddell also preached at Hope Park Church in St Andrews in the early 1920s.

������������������������������������������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������� ��������������������������������������������������������

�����������������

A. The earliest recorded mention of Hallow Hill is 1555 when part of ‘alhallahill’, then belonging to the Augustinian canons at the Farmore interiors.p65 1 Priory, was being feued or let. The terms of the feu agreement forbade building on the site, probably because it was known to be an old burial ground. When members of the St Andrews Literary and Philosophical Society carried out excavations in the area in 1861 they discovered a large number of cists – stone-lined graves. Despite these findings, buildings were erected on the site in the late 19th century and in 1971 the Town Council decided to erect houses in the area.

Some time later the owner of No 12 Hallow Hill discovered human remains in his back garden. Another dig was organised, under Plaque on wall at Scores Hotel the direction of local archaeologist, Edwina Proudfoot. The excavations revealed an Q. I recently read A Distant Echo by Val early Christian burial site and evidence of a McDermid, which is set in St Andrews. In church-like building. The dig uncovered 145 the story a young girl’s body is found near graves, although it was estimated that there the graves at Hallow Hill. I wonder if you might be over 500 in total. Several of the can tell me something more about this graves have been left exposed for visitors to area. examine.

14

Q. Can you tell me anything about a building called the ‘double-decker’? When was it demolished and why? 5/26/05, 10:38 AM A. The double-decker was a tenement building situated on the corner of Market Street and Union Street. It was so-called because of the distinctive twin sets of dormer windows in the roof. Like many buildings in Market Street, the double-decker had shop fronts on the ground floor and flats above. As a result of the Government’s slum housing legislation in the 1930s, many of the buildings in Union Street, including the double-decker, were served with demolition orders. The thenowner offered to restore the building at his own cost but unfortunately a fire broke out in the premises, causing considerable damage.

The demolition orders went ahead, with the tenants being re-housed in the new municipal housing at Boase Avenue. The University bought the land but the Union Street site remained empty until the erection of the Buchanan Arts Building in the 1960s. The Union Street/Muttoes Lane clearances saw the demolition of 21 buildings in total.

TOWN/GOWN Rosie Davey, Colin Duffin, Ellie Gibson, David Marshall on

North Castle Street Blues Walking down North Castle Street, a chunk of Ladyhead chocolate cake in hand, you feel as if you can smell and hear the dusk descend on the town. Wafts of seaweed-covered sands, and the sharp spray of the sea off the castle assault the senses. The peel of All Saint’s bells slows time to a series of loud clangs, marking the imminence of leaving for the University graduates.

Are we sad to be leaving?

We first arrived in town as fresh-faced youths, eager with a sense of trepidation and anticipation for what lay ahead. In Hall we had bunk beds, or as the University termed them, ‘vertical twins’, to share with a strange, unknown roommate. The décor of our 4 by 5 metre broom cupboard was finished by a tasteful TV, which showed only German MTV, and a perpetually flooded shower. A host of different nationalities and stereotypes surged out of Hall each night to the serial fire alarms. ‘Pashminas’ mingled with new look junkies, and vied for space in a queue that never stayed still long enough to be counted by the luminous wardens in yellow jackets. Some of these were to become firm friends, some occasional faces that appeared around and about town over the years. We knew now that we were students at last, and we were happy. No longer under the thumb of parents or teachers, we were free to sleep in until midday, skip the boring lectures, go out on a week-night, and roll home at whatever hour of the day or night we pleased. A new era had begun. (Actually we were really conscientious, did all our work and got up for breakfast almost every day – a mark of the St Andrews student one wonders?! ed.).

Second year saw a move to smaller flat communities, and with it came extra tribulations. We had never imagined that living with people could be as difficult as all that. Friendships were put to the test by ignored housework rotas and tottering piles of washing up, rank with fungus by the end of the month. We found out you actually have to buy cleaning materials! Where from? Come to think of it, what exactly does bleach do?

Mid-term precipitated the first arrival of those small brown envelopes that we soon learned to associate with extortionate deductions from our baked beans fund. In addition to this, lectures now actually had to be attended, albeit only once in a while. Deadlines were suddenly more stringent. This was not at all what we had signed up for!

Left to right: Rosie, David, Colin and Ellie However, by this time St Andrews was our town and home. We could appreciate the routine of the academic year, the solidity of the friends we had made and the possibilities for greater involvement in clubs and societies. We all became distinguished in our field of excellence; Ellie in Ultimate Frisbee (before injury curtailed her glittering career); Dave became business manager of the semi-bankrupt student newspaper; Rosie learnt the drums (and bought earplugs for her flatmates), and Colin was chief pudding taster of the Pudding Society. Such achievements have rarely been equalled in four so young.

By the time we reached third year we had become hardened academics, and devoted followers of Neighbours. For the arts students, four hours a week took its toll and was replaced by many hours in the library (at least 3 – Ellie)! As for the science students, the hours remained the same, though no-one seemed to know exactly what they did. The scientists live on the fringe of St Andrews society, spending their time terrifying guppies in the mysterious Gatty Marine Lab (Rosie scared guppies for her dissertation. We’re not entirely sure what guppies are, but we think they’re a type of fish. ed.). The transition from sub-honours to honours was not merely academic: it was a time of maturation, developing confidence and shifting friendship patterns. David undertook the direction of The Tempest in St. Mary’s Quad; Rosie organised the Christian Union mission week; Colin continued his involvement in the university OTC pipe band; and Ellie acquired a passion for castles and flying buttresses.

By September 2004 we moved into ‘Number 49’, with an acute sense of what we would be leaving behind in 9 months time. Suddenly the end that had seemed such a distant notion in first year was on the horizon.

The year was filled with a renewed sense of wonder for the town, its people, and the things that make it uniquely St Andrews.

The most important of these is the people. You can’t walk down Market Street without meeting someone you know, giving the town an atmosphere of warmth and intimacy. Some days it can be a little too small: it can be awkward to meet your lecturer while buying ‘the Cheat’s Guide to Zoology’ (n.b. to my dissertation supervisor, this book is purely fictional – Rosie).

Now with games, gowns and graduation ahead of us, we are readying ourselves for departure. Our time at St Andrews has been a blessing and we are thankful for the friends that we have made and our formative time in this beautiful town. Whatever the future may hold we will always have our time at St Andrews to look back on with nostalgia: all those sunny afternoons kite-flying on West Sands beach, causing havoc at the Himalayas pitch and putt, not to mention the freezing afternoons in winter, layering on the socks and making copious cups of tea to help the studying go faster.

So walking down North Castle Street at dusk, a pleasure we recommend to all future comers, we pass on a legacy we never really owned, a town whose loveliness we only borrowed for our brief stay here.

Future students, we bequeath St Andrews on to you. Please look after it.

We’ll be back.

15

SHOPS & SERVICES

Why should you advertise?

– well, look at these results from an enquiry into the use of magazines……

Sales Uncovered – 04 May 2005 Study, conducted by TNS on behalf of PPA (Periodical Publishing Association) Marketing • Boost sales by more than 11% on average the use of magazine • Build market share and penetration by boosting market share volumes by more than 8%, for example the use of magazine • Improve sales performance further by increasing magazines’ share of the budget the use of magazine • Win new customers by delivering more than 8% additional market penetration on average – and, in addition, boost average weight of purchase the use of magazine • Give positive support to below-the-line promotion by adding 7% more market value share on average the use of magazine • Generate similar sales levels as TV but at substantially lower cost the use of magazine • Deliver a positive return on investment by generating an average return of more than two-anda-half times the investment, over the course of a year

Where St Andrews in Focus is concerned, advertisers are also boosting customer loyalty by supporting and enhancing a whole community. Just look at what readers have written, and these are just a tiny sample of the comments received: –

St Andrews in Focus is a strong, colourful and much admired publication which we would be delighted to see flourish.

–

I did enjoy reading it for the in-depth info which is not generally known.

–

So pleased to have discovered this magazine about my wonderful home town.

–

Thank you so much for everything. The article turned out very nicely and we have had some good responses. Everyone in the company feels so happy and pleased to be a part of the St. Andrews Community.

–

We’ve completed a few contracts and have also got a few on the books still to be done, all thanks to you and your super magazine! Now, thanks to all this extra business, Vin can afford to give me a pay rise...........

–

It’s a wonderful magazine. Congratulations! I wouldn’t miss it.

Elspeth’s of St Andrews Elspeth’s story....

My husband and I were born and educated in St. Andrews. My own family name of which I am very proud is Cunningham, originally fisher folk who stretch back many generations in the town. I have been married to Gordon for nearly 35 years. Gordon was the first baby to be born in the now-closed Craigtoun Maternity Hospital just outside St. Andrews.

I opened my lingerie shop, Elspeth’s Of St. Andrews, in Church Street in 2000, having relocated from my previous shop, West Port Lingerie, near the West Port in South Street, which I opened in1999. At the time I was already operating Cherries sandwich shop near the West Port from 1996. I was given the opportunity to take on the premises next door and I ran them for a short time as a Café, then made the transition to lingerie in 1999.

I needed more space, and in 2000 I relocated to larger, higher profile premises in Church Street, taking the opportunity to rename and relaunch my business as Elspeth’s of St. Andrews, giving it more character, with a feminine and personal touch. Church Street is a link road between two major shopping areas in a central location with a number of significant traffic generators, including a bank with an ATM, a bus stop, the community library, and several other successful local retailers. Their customers may become our customers and our customers may become their customers! In 2001 I also relocated Cherries to a more prominent position in South Street beside Crails Lane and opposite St. Mary’s College. It is convenient having both shops close to each other.

Cherries also has a branch in the Bonnygate, Cupar, which I opened in 1997.

I pride myself in stocking the leading major lingerie brands, including Lejaby, Fantasy, Chantelle, Triumph, and the exciting and newly arrived Elle MacPherson. I also stock many lines of non-wired, nursing bras, and a selection of sports bras for the serious athlete or weekend jogger.

The demographic mix of St. Andrews is wide and varied. I therefore have a broad customer base and take pride in satisfying my customers’ expectations. Not to forget the men, I carry a range

16

of Sloggi for Men underwear.

I have a range of nightwear for all ages, whether it be a glamorous negligee, a comfortable cotton nightdress, or cosy pyjamas which make ideal gifts. With holidays Assistant Fiona Grundy with Elspeth approaching I have an extensive range of swimwear which is cup-sized and will allow each individual to achieve a perfect fit and shape.

I travel frequently to the lingerie industries’ national fashion shows to discover and source the future fashions and innovations in lingerie, nightwear, and swimwear, which I then personally select.

Although I have an extensive stock from a size 30C to 48F, if I do not happen to have at the time what the customer desires, I will gladly order and send it on to them. In the past I have mailed orders to Egypt, Cyprus, the United States of America, Europe, and of course to many customers in the UK. I pride myself on the discreet and personal service my customers receive.

My staff and I have been fully trained by the major lingerie fashion houses in bra fitting and have gained many years experience to the highest standard and we describe ourselves as specialists.

I would not on any account sell a customer a poorly fitting bra.

It is a sad statistic that 87% of women today are wearing an incorrect size of bra. Women who are fitted correctly will feel much better within themselves. I know when I fit customers with the correct size of bra, they look better, they feel better, and it boosts their inner confidence as they leave my shop with a spring in their step and a smile on their face. Personal recommendation is the optimum advertising I hope to achieve.

SHOPS & SERVICES

Roving Reporter on the trail . . .

Smelly wheelie bins are definitely antisocial, and there’s no excuse either because Duncan Stewart’s Wheelie Bin Cleaning Company, PO Box 14750, St Andrews, KY16 9WF – 01334 870015 is there to make your bin hygienically spic and span.

Roving Reporter waylaid Duncan on the first warm day of May to tell his story.

Born in Kinross, Duncan worked for 21 years on a Kinaldy farm as tractor man – his family were mostly farmers – before being contracted as a forester in France for 6 months.

Working exceptionally long hours, he recalls, “I saw my wee lad for 3 days in 7 months”.

He then went to Wales, but the forestry company went bankrupt and Duncan returned to Scotland, and “that was when I started looking for something else.” Leafing through a franchise magazine one day, Duncan saw an advertisement for the Wheelie Bin Company and promptly went to Glasgow to make enquiries. “Then I was down in Wales a week for training. That was getting on for three and a half years ago.” The Franchise Company not only provides training in all aspects of working with the machinery and the public, it also provides the attractive cleaning vans with their cheerful, eye-catching logo.

Reporter asked Duncan how he got on in his new work. “It was a struggle to start with, but steadied up.” He had doors shut in his face at times. One person told him that, “getting business in St Andrews is like drawing teeth from a chicken!” He works long hours, sometimes “it could be 8, 9 or 10 o’clock at night before you get home.”

However, Duncan does make time for his hobby, tracing his family roots. So far he has gone back 10 generations to 1695. “I haven’t found any ghosts,” he says with a smile, but he did find someone who was a “scavenger” in the 1800s. That is the equivalent today of someone who recycles – which, it could be said, is what Duncan does with wheelie bins!

***

Another amazing transformation has turned KK Electrics (now over the road) into Shmooz, at 191 South Street, St Andrews. Roving Reporter dropped in to talk to Michele, the shop’s Manageress.

This is the 4th shop opened by Ian and Vicky Gorn, from Orkney. Ian took over his father’s gents’ outfitting business there and started both a ladies’ and sports outlet.

Shmooz is for a young, fashion-conscious clientele, knowing all about labels. There is Diesel, Firetrap, Bench, French Connection, Criminal, Lacoste etc. etc. to choose from in the huge, airy and modernised interior of the shop. There is ‘Fast Fashion’, designed to be worn only once or twice and therefore cheap (from only £10). At the top end there are Diesel jeans selling for £140. Michele says there are

11 locally employed staff trained to be “on hand if customers want individual service. If we don’t have something in stock we will do our best to get it.”

The shop opened on 12th May after a truly hectic period of work to get everything ready.

Hours are: Mon. – Sat. 10.00am to 6.00pm; Sun. 12.30 to 4.30pm. Go on, try a bit of retail therapy!

***

Roving Reporter supports respect for the environment, therefore he took the opportunity on a sunny day to visit the Bellfield Organic Nursery, Strathmiglo, Fife KY14 7RH – 01337 860 764 and spoke to its owner, Mrs Irene Alexander.

In 1954, Irene’s father, David Lowe, took over the family farm in Crieff and began raising pigs. Eventually, those pigs contributed their dung to the first organic potatoes on 5 acres of land. Before long, broccoli and salads were added, and Strathmiglo was taken over when the organic growers who had originally helped them, had to give up. To begin with in 1990, Irene said, “Me and me Dad and a few friends,” sold to a supermarket. However, “One day when I was harvesting courgettes, the supermarket told me that this was to be my last crop,” because they were going to get their supplies from abroad. It happened to be a good year and there was still a plentiful harvest. Nothing daunted, Irene and her son Derek cut out the middleman and sold their produce direct to customers. So the first ‘veggie boxes’ were launched. Today, Bellfield Organic Nursery has some 2300 satisfied customers all over Tayside, Fife, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, with deliveries carried out by 3 vans, and 5 self-employed drivers. All produce is rigorously inspected and controlled by the Scottish Organic Produce Association (SOPA) which is affiliated to the Soil Association.

Irene told Reporter that she feels she has “to educate people, especially in how to store vegetables.” She related how one young mother phoned to ask about a “round, green thing”. Told it was a cabbage, the young mother then asked how she was to cook it! The Nursery includes a newsletter, and recipes, with its deliveries.

The yield from organic farms is as good as from any others, and cheaper, in spite of what some people believe. For £10 you can have delivered to your door, a Standard Vegetable Box of potatoes, carrots, onions + a variety of seasonal vegetables. The same price gives you a Small Vegetable and Fruit Box. You can also order free-range organic eggs, organic milk, and bread. Just phone for all the details.

Reporter was curious about future plans.

Irene’s main ambition is “to grow as many organic vegetables as I can, to grow soft fruits,

and just grow more for my customers. We bring on all our own plants from the very beginning to the end.“ Daughter Aileen helps Irene do all the packing, while Derek attends to the growing.

Let’s add more St Andrews customers to the list!

***

Would you like a “gift for your body, topping up your energy”?

Roving Reporter suggests a visit to Reiki Master and Bowen Practitioner Alison Strandberg, 01334 478138. Alison explained that the name, Reiki, is a combination of two Japanese terms: Rei, meaning ‘universal’, and Ki, meaning ‘life force energy’. The technique is a healing one, used to “enhance wellbeing and to reduce stress and tension.”

Practitioners use their hands to direct a flow of energy to the person in need of healing. The client remains fully clothed throughout. Reiki can never harm anyone. Indeed, it is a means of enhancing personal growth and giving a better quality of life. “Anyone,” Alison said, “can learn Reiki, but first you have to be taught, or initiated, by a Reiki Master.” After that, it is yours for life to use as a self-help tool.

Reporter then wanted to know what Bowen is. It began in Australia. Tom Bowen (19161982) developed a system of Body therapy, using a non-invasive technique consisting of “positive and negative moves with the fingertips and thumbs across specific points in the body” to encourage “the body’s innate healing system into maximum performance.”

Allergies, asthma, backache, sports injuries, these are just a few of the problems addressed by this healing process. Again, the client remains clothed. There are no age restrictions. Alison works successfully with cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and she told Reporter how rewarding it is to see the emotional and mental improvements she records. She said that Reiki and Bowen work very well together, “to clear out all your junk”.

Alison is also a practitioner of the new Rising Star Healing System. The first group in Europe has been initiated in Guardbridge.

Asked about costs, Alison gave as an example, £25 for up to two hours of Reiki sessions, and £30 for each of three Rising Star sessions. Alison said that the practitioner and client between them decide how many sessions are needed. “But,” said Reporter, “you should arrange a meeting with Alison to talk through what you yourself could benefit from.”

***

17

SHOPS & SERVICES

The Association for International Cancer Research (AICR) Derek Napier, Chief Executive Madras College, set back from South Street stuffed envelopes and and the remnants of the Blackfriars Chapel, is sent out the earliest a handsome building dating from the 1830s. versions of the direct mail On either side of the Blackfriars Chapel is a programme that is now matching pair of elegant buildings, dating from one of the mainstays of the same period. The eastern building, on the AICR income stream. the left when facing Madras College, was the Colin Thomson was home of the Rector of the College, and in the the inspiration for the College’s early days was also the home of a charity and the driving number of boys who boarded with the Rector. force behind its steady climb to become one The young boarders lived in the three attic of the most significant funders of basic cancer rooms whose small windows front on to South research in Britain. His own work involved the Street and the Madras College lawn. design of anti-cancer drugs, and he developed How many citizens of St Andrews walking computer programmes which greatly speeded past this building know that it now houses up this process. Ironically, and tragically, Colin the Head (and only) Office of a remarkable Thomson died of cancer in 1997, a loss that is charity that supports some of the best scientific still keenly felt in the Association, but his widow, research into the causes Maureen, devotes her of cancer in the world? valuable time to the With little of the high profile The Association for charity as a member of International Cancer the Board of Directors. enjoyed by other cancer Research (AICR) AICR has two main charities, and only a has been based in St functions – raising Andrews since 1984, and funds and allocating modest name plate by the from its present office the money to the best in the former Rector’s front door of Madras House cancer research. Funds house administers over are raised by a number to identify it, AICR works 220 3-year projects in of means, but with two 21 countries around the main sources – a direct away quietly but effectively world. mail programme which Founded in 1979, reaches hundreds of the Association moved to St Andrews when one thousands of homes from Shetland to the of its trustees was asked to take on the running Channel Islands, and a donor recruitment of the charity and to establish a meaningful programme that recruits new donors who fundraising programme. The trustee, Dr support the work through regular direct debit Colin Thomson, happened to be a research payments. Funds are also raised through chemist at the University of St Andrews, and events such as the London Marathon and the it was through that happy chance that the recent Marathon des Sables, a five-day run charity became established in St Andrews. across the Moroccan Sahara, during which Colin Thomson and his wife Maureen started Dr Ben Edwards, who twice recovered from the fledgling charity on the road to success cancer, raised over £75,000 for the charity. literally from their front room, where they Legacy income from thoughtful and caring

The Scientific Advisory Committee

18

Madras House supporters also provides a sizeable part of the gross income.

Funds are allocated to research projects after a thorough and rigorous assessment process. Applications for funding are accepted in any area of cancer (unlike most other funding bodies, AICR sets no priorities), from any researcher, in any country in the world.

These applications are peer-reviewed by at least two experts in the particular area of science, assessed in detail by two members of the Scientific Advisory Committee, and then considered by the Committee as a whole. The Committee considers every application, grades it and gives it a score. At the end of the process AICR funds the projects in the order of merit, as far as the available funds go. This amounts to some £3 million each year for 1st year funding – with a commitment to fund for the full three years that takes the sum allocated for new projects every year to more than £8 million!

Total funding for all projects is over £20 million.

The Scientific Advisory Committee is made up of some of the finest research scientists in Europe, each of whom serves for four years on the Committee. They are not paid, but serve voluntarily.

AICR works out of one office, with a staff of thirteen. From that office in Madras House it runs fundraising programmes that raise millions of pounds, and administers a grants programme that pays out nearly £8 million every year. It achieves this through outsourcing the main fundraising programmes and by making best use of technology to allow the small number of staff to carry out tasks that would otherwise require dozens or people. A specially written software programme allows two members of staff to scan hundreds of forms a day and to capture the data on them automatically. The data so captured is used by other members of staff to import all the new records to the database, set up the direct debits for each one, produce letters of acknowledgement, and send off the direct debit forms through the banking system, all within two days of the forms arriving.

With little of the high profile enjoyed by other cancer charities, and only a modest name plate by the front door of Madras House to identify it, AICR works away quietly but effectively, and plays a major role in pushing the frontiers of cancer research to new and exciting limits. One of Scotland’s success stories, and the only UK national cancer charity with its headquarters in Scotland, it is passed by thousands of citizens and tourists every week, most of them blissfully unaware of the major contribution made in South Street to the fight against one of the world’s most common diseases.

SHOPS & SERVICES

CHILDREN 1ST – the working name of the Royal Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children, has been working for more than 120 years to give every child in Scotland a safe and secure childhood. Our 35 national and local services support families under stress, protect children from harm and neglect, help them recover from abuse and promote children’s rights and interests.

Families in Fife can turn to the charity’s Fife Family Group Conferencing Service, for help in finding ways in which to keep children safely in the care of their own family. CHILDREN 1ST has pioneered the use of FGCs in Scotland.

CHILDREN 1ST FGC Co-ordinators help family members who want to be involved with the child, to push aside the barriers or personal feelings against each other, to come together and focus on the child. They help the child and each individual family member to work out and put forward at a family meeting their views on how best to look after the child..

Jamie was only two when he came to CHILDREN 1ST but was already living for the second time in the temporary care of foster parents. He had had to face the risks of the drugs and domestic violence that had dominated his parent’s relationship. His parents had split up. The insecurity and neglect of his young life were clearly affecting him. He was struggling in learning to speak and he was a very anxious little boy. Jamie desperately needed a settled family. CHILDREN 1ST helped Jamie’s wider family – his parents, grandparent, aunts and uncles to come together, to forget about their own differences and focus on how they could care for Jamie. It was agreed that Jamie would be looked after by his Dad, with

help from the rest of the family. Today Jamie is a happier, secure little boy. He can now rely on his family to look after him.

CHILDREN 1ST’s Fife Abuse Recovery Service helps children and young people overcome the effects of abuse, and their parents and carers to support their children through this difficult time. This service works in partnership with the Fife Primary Care Health Trust’s Centre for the Vulnerable Child One of the National services, ParentLine Scotland, is a free anonymous helpline to help parents or adults in a parenting role provide the best possible care for their children. If you are worried about a child and would like to talk it over, please call ParentLine Scotland on 0808 800 2222. Parents call for all sorts of reasons, from bullying, to behaviour, or the effects of divorce on family relationships.

CHILDREN 1ST is fortunate to have loyal and long-standing support from the CHILDREN 1ST St Andrews Action Group. They are a large, sociable group of volunteers who are always keen to invite new members to join them. They organise several fundraising events each year, including the annual street collection in August.

This year, the Christmas Ball, organised by a sub-committee and held every second year at the Old Course Hotel, will take place on Friday

2nd December 2005 (Bookings for tables can be taken now) CHILDREN 1ST is very grateful to all the businesses in and around St Andrews who sponsor this event. It is always a great party night and gets everyone in the mood for Christmas.

If you would like to become a volunteer, or join (or help) the Action Group, please contact Jeannette Malcolm tel; 01333 340663 or e-mail jeannette.malcolm@children1st.org.uk.

CHILDREN 1ST looks after children and families in Fife and across Scotland while its sister organisation, the NSPCC, works to help children in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

������������������������ ����������������������

��������������������

�����������������

����������

�

������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������

������������������������������������������������������������������������ ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������

���

19

SHOPS & SERVICES

How would you like to be in my shoes?

Bellfield Organic Nursery Strathmiglo, Fife, KY14 7RH A family-run grower of Certified Organic vegetables (Organic Certification UK3), we offer a box scheme straight from our fields to you. We also have organic fruit, bread, eggs, milk.

Please contact us: Tel: 01337 860764 www.bellfield-organics.com

20

BOOTMAKER & RETAILER 47 SOUTH STREET, ST.ANDREWS TEL: 01334 473355 You will always be welcome to inspect a marvellous selection of ladies and gents top quality Footwear

SHOPS & SERVICES

Miller’s Carolyn and Audrey Miller of Miller’s, 27 Church St, started out in business over 23 years ago. “We have always had a real passion for travelling and endeavoured to combine earning a living with life on the road.”

After graduating we bought an old van and marquee and started to sell ladies’ clothes at all the large outdoor shows throughout Britain and Europe. The garments that we always sold first were our own hand-produced knits and these proved to be the winner.

Five years ago whilst exhibiting at the Golf Open in St Andrews we discovered the empty shop in Church St. We immediately seized upon the opportunity to have a permanent base in Scotland, having already had a shop of 10 years in the picturesque North Yorkshire town of Helmsley.

We have evolved to selling other European ranges of ladies’ clothes alongside our own knitwear, which is still proudly hand-produced by our own small team of knitters.

����������������������������� �������������������������������

����������������������������������������������� ����������������� The Church St. Shop is very friendly and our customers know they will always find something highly original and just that little bit different.

Therefore we felt that the distinctive feel and grace of St Andrews was the ideal location in Scotland for our small family business.

NEW, NEW, NEW! For you ultra-busy guys

Order a Healthy Food panini + coffee, or soup, any time up to 2 hours before you want it (order the day before if you prefer) and it will be ready for you to take away – and it comes together with a Free Friendly Smile!

Le Rendez-vous Café, Market Street (by the fountain) – any time.

INVALID SERVICES Ltd. 01334 472834 / 01382 770303 Committed to quality ‘Care at Home’ Throughout Fife & Tayside Licensed by the Care Commission HYPNOTHERAPY can help with issues such as

Consultations in: The Old Course Hotel, Golf Resort & Spa. The Natural Therapy Clinic, St Andrews.

STOP SMOKING USUALLY IN 1 SESSION

For further information, contact Connie on: 0777 618 3695 www.connieweir.com Connie Weir BA(hons) Psy. DHyp

21

EVENTS Rev. Caroline Taylor, the present minister of St Athernase Church, Leuchars, invites you to visit.

Church Open St Athernase Church, with its distinctive It can be verified from ancient records that octagonal bell-tower and 12th century apse, is the “Ecclesia de Lochres” was granted to the open for morning worship every Sunday of the Priory of St Andrews by Ness, Lord of Lochore year (11.00 am) and accessible during the day (Leuchars) between 1183 and 1187. David de to visitors from the Bernham, Bishop beginning of April to of St Andrews, This year, however, we’ve the end of October. dedicated the church This year, in 1244, giving it the decided to go one step further worthy of his calling. In later years he was the however, we’ve name St Athernase, and offer guided tours on principal figure behind the Scottish National decided to go one thought to refer to Covenant (1638) which was signed in the step further and a Celtic monk of Tuesdays during July and churchyard of Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh, as offer guided tours on Columba’s era (6th August (other times on request) century). well as the Solemn League and Covenant Tuesdays during July (1643) which was accepted by the Parliament in and August (other Present-day London. His efforts secured the independence times on request). The impetus for this comes visitors to the church will encounter the names of the Church of Scotland and the fact that from the fact that our near neighbour, of those who were influential in their own he was three times Moderator of the General St Andrews, will once again be host to the Open time: the de Quinci family, who built Leuchars Assembly demonstrates the high regard in Golf Championship. Although we count many a Castle, notably Robert de Quinci, later Earl of which he was held. golf aficionado among our congregation, it was Winchester and a signatory to the Magna Carta; In Leuchars recognised that some visitors will not wish to Robert Carnegie of spend every day with their eyes focused on the Kinnaird, Ambassador It can be verified from ancient Henderson is also remembered as the green. They will be looking for places to explore to Mary of Guise and records that the “Ecclesia de man who provided the in the surrounding area, so why not our lovely subsequently to her means to establish Norman church? daughter, Mary, Queen Lochres” was granted to the a village school, and The present building is an amalgam of of Scots; the Bruce Priory of St Andrews by Ness, though the original building projects, alterations and extensions family, descendants building is no longer spanning a period of more than 800 years, of the same family as Lord of Lochore (Leuchars) standing, his name is the most recent being the creation of a ramp Robert the Bruce, who between 1183 and 1187 recorded in Henderson to make access easier for wheelchair users. built Earlshall Castle Terrace, close to Recent research suggests that the oldest on the edge of the St Athernase, and Henderson Hall (once a (Norman or Roman) part of the church – the village. (Unlike Leuchars Castle, Earlshall still church) on the main street going towards apse – dates back to the 1150s or 1160s stands and is now privately owned.)

St Michaels. He also provided a house and croft and it has been described as “possibly the A recently commissioned plaque, given by for the schoolmaster and endowed the library at finest Romanesque church in Scotland” (Fife, the Adam family in memory of William Adam, St Andrews University.

Perthshire and Angus by Bruce minister of St Athernase If Henderson were to return to Walker & Graham Ritchie). from 1957 to 1983 lists the St Athernase, he would recognise the beautiful The original chapel, ministers from the time of stone carving of old, but in other ways he would dedicated to St Bunan, or the Reformation. Our most find things much changed. There would have St Bunoc (commemorated famous incumbent was been no organ in his time, for instance, and in St Bunyan’s Place in the Alexander Henderson, who possibly he would be amazed by the presentvillage) is thought to date back was presented to the Living day variety of hymn books and translations of to around the year 900 and

by Archbishop Gladstanes the bible. Let us however give the last word was serviced by Culdee priests of St Andrews in 1612. His to the writer of the Letter to Hebrews: “Jesus until the Reformation in the arrival was inauspicious, Christ is the same, yesterday, today and 16th century. A stone from the however, as the congregation forever.” chapel graveyard, believed was disinclined to accept the to be of Pictish origin, was Archbishop’s appointee and We welcome you to visit us – for worship, discovered when Leuchars barred his entry. Undeterred, for an insight into our history, for light Castle was demolished in Henderson climbed in refreshments in our adjoining café (open 1948. It can now be seen in the through a window and over Tuesdays 10.00 am – 4.00 pm). church. time proved himself to be

22

EVENTS Gordon Senior’s

Ladies Lake On Sunday, 7th August, between the hours of 2pm and 5pm the gardens at ‘Ladies Lake’ will be opened to the public.

This will be the 9th successive year the gardens have been opened and as usual it will be done under the auspices of Scotland’s Gardens Scheme. This scheme is a charity founded in 1931 to support the Queen’s Nursing Institute, Scotland. In 1952 the Gardens Fund of the National Trust for Scotland became the second principal beneficiary. Scotland’s Garden Scheme receives 60% of the revenue generated, and the remaining 40% goes to Hope Park Church.

The entrance fee is a modest £2.50 and accompanied children are admitted free of charge. So what does one get for one’s money?

Well, the location is spectacular. ‘Ladies Lake’ is situated on the Scores about 150 yds West of the Castle. A private road leads to the house, which is set close to the edge of the cliff. The flower garden is laid out alongside 2 terraces; the upper one is about 50ft above the shoreline, and from it one looks down on the nesting fulmars; the lower terrace is about 40ft above the shoreline and the consulting engineer designed it so that it is cantilevered over the cliff face. The net effect is that standing on the terrace has the same effect as standing on the deck of a ship.

‘Ladies Lake’ occupies an extremely exposed site and as a result finding plants which can withstand the wind is a problem.

However, trial and error has proved that geraniums will survive if properly hardened off before planting out, and as I pen this article, about 2,500 geraniums are shivering in cold frames! When bedded out they will be surrounded by alyssum and phlox, about 5000 plants in all.

This year, music will be provided by a group from Glasgow called Bazaar. Electric guitars feature prominently and the music is brisk and tuneful. Afternoon teas are always very popular

and the ladies from Hope Park not only serve the teas, they provide the most delicious home baking. Joan Cran, an acknowledged plant expert will be selling plants from a plant stall, and as always, this will be a sell-out.

So why not come along on 7th August. Jean and Giles le Maitre will be on the gate and will be more than happy to relieve you of your money! An enjoyable afternoon is in prospect and the good causes mentioned earlier will receive all the money raised.

NPH Cinema 117 North Street St Andrews

In addition to seeing all the latest films at the NPH we now have a Screening Lounge available for hire for parties of up to 20, where you can enjoy watching your favourite film with your friends or colleagues.

23

EVENTS

St Andrews Art Club We will be holding our Summer Exhibition between 23rd July and 7th August in the club rooms at 14c Argyle Street, just outside the West Port. It will be well signposted. Readers of St Andrews in Focus are warmly welcomed to this exhibition, which is likely to include paintings of many local scenes, both in and around St Andrews, and other beautiful places in the East Neuk, at very reasonably prices. If our 2004 exhibition is any guide, potential buyers should make a point of getting there early, before the best pictures are snapped up. When you come to the exhibition please remember to complete your vote for the best picture on show. The best three pictures will win prizes.

Keen artists may like to join the art club. They will be able to pick up an application form at the exhibition. We run all sorts of classes and workshops, demonstrations and critiques of members’ work during the winter season from October to April. Everyone should be able to find activities to their liking whatever their previous experience.

There are also outings to attractive scenic spots around St Andrews during the summer. We hold four separate public exhibitions each year, including the permanent show at the St Andrews Health Centre.

Selected Events Crawford Arts Centre, North Street, St Andrews. Childrens’ activities throughout the summer. – please see local press for details.

Now to 25 September – Where the heart is, daily 2.00-5.00p.m.

Admission free. The Preservation Trust Museum, North Street, St Andrews. A series of exhibitions and events on the theme of food preparation and consumption in the home.

Saturday, 2 July – 4 September – St Andrews Museum, Kinburn Park. Famous Fifers, an exhibition featuring eminent men and women born in the Kingdom of Fife – artists, authors, entertainers, sport personalities, and political figures past and present. 10am5pm daily. Admission free.

Friday, 1 July – 7.30pm. Younger Hall, North St. St Andrews. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra, with pianist Christian Zacharias : Mozart and Schubert. Tickets £7 – £20 Students/unemployed/ children £5 – from the Byre Theatre , or the Younger Hall 01334 462226 Contact: 01334 475000 Sunday, 3 July – 7.30pm. St Andrews Bay Hotel. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra, with Cathy Marwood, viola. Mozart, Schubert. Closing concert of the East Neuk Festival. Tickets: £17, concessions £12, students/unemployed/children £5 (unreserved seating) Contact: 01334 475000 or the Byre Theatre, St Andrews: Sunday, 3 July – Craigtoun Country Park. Vintage Vehicle Rally Contact: Paul Marshall 01334 412 219 Sunday, 3 July – 2.00pm. Botanic Garden, Canongate, St Andrews.

Conducted Walk Normal entry fee – walk free.

Sunday, 10 July – 1.30pm. Isle of May boat trip with Fife Rangers (around 5/6 hours). Meet, Anstruther. Please book through the May Princess on 0133 312 228 Adults £20; concessions £15.50; under 16s £9.50 Wednesday, 13; Thursday, 14; Saturday 16 July – 10am to 4.30pm. Victory Memorial Hall, Albany Fairs Antique & Collectors’ Fair. Contact: 0191 584 2934 Thursday, 14 – 17 July – The Open Golf Championship Sunday, 17 July – St Andrews International Football Festival.

Contact: Lyn Barnett, 01686 622 666 Saturday, 23 July – morning – St Mary’s Place Car Park, Farmers’ Market Sunday, 31 July – North Haugh. St Andrews Highland Games.

Contact: Ian Grieve, 01334 476 305 Friday, 5 August – 6.00pm. East Sands. Rock pools with Fife Rangers Contact: 01592 424 300 Friday 5 – Tuesday 9 August – The Lammas Fair & Market, Fife Council, 01334 417 846 Sunday, 7 August – 2.00-5.00pm Ladies Lake; Gardens Open Day, The Scores, St Andrews. 01334 477 769 Sunday, 7 August – 2.00pm Botanic Garden, Canongate, St Andrews. Conducted Walk Normal entry fee – walk free Sunday, 7 August – 7.30 -11.00pm. Town Hall, St Andrews, Summer Ceilidh & Old time Dance. The Bruce Lindsay Band with Andy Greig. Compère and singer, Charlie Braid. Tickets at the door, £6 (children under 12 Free) Lucky Number Draw. Refreshments by Le Rendez-vous Café. No bar. Contact: 01334 472 375 Saturday, 20 August – 12 noon – 3.00pm. Studio Theatre at the Crawford Arts Centre, North Street, St Andrews. Annual summer sale, Friends of the Crawford Arts Centre. Bric-a-brac, plants, books, home baking + 1 exercise bike.

Sunday, 21 August – from 12 noon. St Andrews Harbour Gala Day At the Harbour. All welcome. 01334-470222 Saturday, 27 August – 2.00-4.00pm East Sands Leisure Centre.

Safe Anglers, Safe Banks, teaches anglers in particular how to perform a rescue safely. Contact Fife Council, 01592 415 884 Sunday, 28 August – 2.00pm East Sands Leisure Centre Cliffs & Cockles, Fife Rangers: 01592 424 300

24

OUT & ABOUT Catherine McDonald had an unexpected bonus one recent winter’s day!

Confessions of a Solitary Walker It was a day like any other day when I set off for my walk along the beach at high tide. But for late November it had the feeling of summer, which added an intensity of enjoyment to the short winter’s afternoon.

I got as far as the East Sands car park when a black Volkswagen drove in with a flourish. The door swung open and out popped a young man with familiar gleaming white teeth and a young woman whose picture I had just seen dominating a glossy German magazine.

It was Prince William and his girlfriend Kate, armed with surfboards and flanked by bodyguards, out to take advantage of the favourable weather conditions.

So instead of continuing in the direction I was going, which was towards the harbour, I turned right round and went back on my tracks,

trailing behind them along the beach. To appear more convincing, I took off my shoes and paddled in the sea as any disinterested tourist might do. The East Sands Beach witnesses all kinds of bizarre behaviour, so there was nothing unusual about a middle-aged woman acting in this way in late November.

Although, as a town, we had promised to leave him alone and respect his privacy, one couldn’t help but wish one had brought one’s camera with one! I don’t usually carry a camera on my walks, but then I don’t usually expect to meet up with the Heir to the Throne in this way.

The temptation was too strong, and as I lived quite close to the scene it was no problem to nip back and get changed into some other outfit so as not to be recognized (as if they would have noticed anyway), and arm myself with the necessary tool.

A small crowd had gathered by the time I had completed my mission, as news has a way of travelling fast in St Andrews, and especially with regard to Royal activities. Furthermore, taking a photograph proved not to be the simple task I’d envisaged, nor was it helped by the presence of three bodyguards casually on the alert.

The big moment came, when William emerged from the sea and ran up to his girlfriend. As she placed her hand on his shoulder and began to murmur sweet nothings

into his ear, I found that I no longer wanted to take that photograph. All I wanted to do was enjoy the moment, unrecorded, with the rest of the crowd. The only picture I ventured to take was: the rear view of three bodyguards retreating, with William by then a mere speck in the distance and by now, a retreating figure himself, with his studies in St Andrews at the stage of completion.

In our local newspaper the following weekend I recognized a familiar beach scene: William and friends with surfboards and, upon closer inspection, me behind them. I went straight to the newspaper office to purchase a copy of this photograph, only to be told that it was a private one.

Some days later I phoned a friend to tell her the story and she replied, “I was just going to phone you. Did you know that you are in Hello! magazine?” Amazed at this news I then phoned my mother in Germany to tell her that I was in Hello! magazine with Prince William. “I was just going to phone you”, was the by now familiar reply. Whilst flicking through a magazine in a German hairdresser’s she had come upon an illustrated article about Prince William. In translation it read, “Enjoying his freedom and surfing with friends in Scotland”, and of course, in utter disbelief, she had recognized within the accompanying picture the image of her own daughter!

Alistair Lawson, Field Officer for ScotWays, explains the legal take on

A Load of Bull

ScotWays (the Scottish Rights of Way & Access Society) was recently approached by a highly agitated citizen of St Andrews, who had come across an – as she saw it – totally unjustified notice on the Coastal Path between the Maiden Rock and the Rock & Spindle. The offending words, in bold red paint, were “Beware – Bull in Field Ahead”. The lady sought ScotWays’ support for the view that this was against the law and that the public’s access rights were being infringed.

One of the arts of people management which ScotWays requires to deploy almost daily is that of letting people down gently and sowing in their mind, ever so delicately, the possibility that their point of view may not be the correct one. So it was in this case. Strange though it may seem, the law does countenance people and cattle sharing space, though there are laid-down guidelines for the owners of cattle.

The relevant piece of legislation is the 1967 Countryside (Scotland) Act, and the ScotWays handbook “Guide to the Law in Scotland” states: “No offence is committed under that Act where the bull is not more than 10 months old or is not one of the recognised dairy breeds and is with cows or heifers”. Cattle are, of course, animals and may well retain certain wild instincts, but this point is covered by Health & Safety guidelines, which state “a bull should not be kept on land crossed by a public right of way ... if the person having control of the animal has reason to believe it may present a danger to the public”. In other words, the owner, who is, after all, the person who knows the animal best, is required to make a judgement as to its temperament, and this principle applies equally to owners of other animals, who are likewise required to make judgements about the dependability of their animals. An indication of how well this principle works is that a cattleman, who has to handle his beasts every day, will quickly decide to dispose of any animal which is regularly difficult and which represents a risk to him. The other guarantee which the public can count on is that the owner will be only too well aware of liability factors and will judge very critically the temperament of his bull before grazing it in a situation where access rights apply. By and large, farmers know these laws and regulations very much better than the recreating public However, quite apart from what the laws and regulations say, another – and perhaps the critical – variable is the behaviour of the public.

Fatalities have occurred in situations where people have (i) come between

a bull and his harem, (ii) come between a mother and her calf, (iii) taken a dog into a field of cattle, (iv) caused the cattle to bunch in a corner or other constricted place, (v) come up quietly to a beast’s shoulder and given it a fright by appearing suddenly in its field of vision, or (vi) in the case of cattle-handlers, exhausted the beast’s patience by handling it, herding it and driving it into pens, buildings or vehicles Photo by Alistair Lawson where it doesn’t want to be.

One of the points reinforced by the new Land Reform Act, is that the public exercise their rights at their own risk and have to take responsibility for their own actions, both of which strictures apply very much in cattle situations. So, it is neither a question of always staying away from cattle, nor is it a case of always going in amongst them; the public have to make judgements too.

The good news is that most cattle, for most of the time, are intent on grazing and snoozing; in the bovine mind, these are generally very much higher priorities than lumbering about after human intruders. Quite a good tip is to pause at the field gate and let oneself be seen before advancing further into the field; if the cattle happen to be looking the other way, rattle the gate a bit and see whether that bothers them; usually it won’t. Another item of good news is that the new Act generally gives people equal rights in the neighbouring field, so it will often be possible to by-pass cattle altogether if, for example, one is faced with a field of young stirks, which are traditionally exuberant and can genuinely be intimidating.

So, the bottom line is that the law does allow people and cattle to share space; the critical thing on the Coastal Path is, therefore, the nature of the animal, rather than the nature of the notice.

25

OUT & ABOUT An invitation to support and value

Our Harbour The Friends of St Andrews Harbour is a group dedicated to promoting the interests of the harbour and its surrounding area. This group works on behalf of all harbour users and the people of St Andrews, and in support of St Andrews Harbour Trust. It was set up in 2004 to raise funds and awareness in support of small projects to improve the harbour area, in conjunction with St Andrews Harbour Trust and other agencies.

St Andrews Harbour is a Grade ‘A’ listed structure that lies between Fifeness to the south and the River Tay to the North on the East coast of Scotland, it is surrounded by a rocky coast to the south and sandy beaches and banks to the north and west. It must be noted that during the 1800s the harbour at St Andrews was an important local port and the approach to the river Tay and the port of Dundee ran through St Andrews Bay, before the channel moved further north. Thus, this small piece of water, although quiet nowadays, with most commercial traffic passing it by, was quite busy right up until the early 1900s.

Currently St Andrews maintains a small fleet of working vessels, principally small creel boats. The main catch is lobster, which is often sold directly to local caterers/hotels, or to wholesalers. The working boats tend to berth in the outer harbour, but move to the inner harbour in winter, in bad weather, or for repairs. There is an increasing number of leisure craft berthed in both harbours. The new, hydraulically operated footbridge has had the effect of dramatically easing access to the sea from the inner harbour. The whole Harbour area is open to visitors and locals and it has been estimated that around 140,000 people visit annually.

For a small annual fee anyone can become a member. Members will, throughout the year, receive regular newsletters containing up-to-date and historical information about the harbour and the surrounding area.

The Friends invite all who are interested in the harbour to join them. Further information can be obtained by writing to: The Friends of St Andrews Harbour, c/o The Harbour Office, The Shore, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9RG. 01334-47022 standrewsharbourfriends@yahoo.co.uk

26

During the summer a huge attraction is St Andrews Harbour Gala Day, this event is organised by The Friends of the Harbour. In 2004 it saw huge numbers of visitors to the stalls and attractions and this event is expected to grow in 2005. It is planned for Sunday 21st August – all are welcome, including visiting craft – the gala is expected to commence at 12.00hrs, with High Water at 16.45hrs (Photographs by G. Taylor). The Friends also organise the lighting of the Pier Beacon to signal the start of St Andrews Week in November.

OUT & ABOUT

Education in the Garden Jean Kemp – Friends’ Liaison Teacher

“How many people think twice about a leaf? Yet the leaf is the chief product and phenomenon of life: this is a green world, with animals comparatively few and small, and all dependent upon the leaves. By leaves we live.”

– Patrick Geddes, socio-botanist.

Normally a haven of peace and tranquillity, there are two days in the week when the Botanic Garden buzzes with excitement and the sound of children is everywhere.

Rushing from pond to beehives, from glasshouses to wormery, they are learning about the importance of plants to their lives. Almost without exception, the children who visit the Glass Class are unaware of their dependence on plants, and few of them have been to the Garden before.

The Friends of the Botanic Garden work tirelessly to promote the Garden and when Dr.Edith Cormack, past Chairman of the Friends, was asked by Fife Council to create an Education programme for school children, she grasped yet another challenge with enthusiasm.

Due to her tenacity, the programme has expanded steadily, and now more than a thousand young people come to the Garden each year.

A large glasshouse, called the Glass Class has been converted into a classroom, where children begin their study of topics as diverse as Minibeasts, The Rainforest, Recycling, and Conservation. An outdoor picnic area helps to make learning fun when the weather is fine, and the Glass Class is a refuge when the storm clouds threaten. Three experienced teachers are there to provide a programme in which the children are always active and fully involved in their learning.

It is important that the children of Fife are aware of the wonderful resource which is the Botanic Garden, and that they grasp the message inherent in the Education Programme – “By Leaves we Live.”

The programme is currently financed by ‘Take A Pride in Fife’; Friends of St Andrews Botanic Garden; and Scottish Natural Heritage

Invite you to visit a hidden treasure in the heart of St Andrews WOODLAND & WATERGARDENS HERBACEOUS & SCREE ALPINES & RHODODENDRONS GLORIOUS GLASSHOUSE COLLECTIONS OPEN DAILY ALL YEAR ROUND

CONDUCTED WALKS FIRST SUNDAY EACH MONTH, 2 PM

TO JOIN THE FRIENDS AND SUPPORT THE GARDEN CONTACT MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY. Canongate, St Andrews, Fife KY16 8RT Tel: 01334 476452 www.st-andrews-botanic.org

27

SUMMER CEILIDH OLD-TIME DANCE Sunday, 7 August 2005 7.30 – 11.00 pm Town Hall, St Andrews

The Bruce Lindsay Band with Andy Greig Compère and Singer

Charlie Braid

Tickets at the door – £6.00 (children under 12 Free)

- Lucky number draw Tea, coffee, soft drinks on sale, courtesy Le Rendez-vous Café, Market St. St Andrews - No Bar -