St Andrews in Focus Issue 14 Jan Feb 2006

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

January / February 2006, Issue 14

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

Last time, I mentioned a whiff of something in the air – it foreshadowed the scent of sweet success. The Periodical Publishers Association (PPA), Scotland, held The Scottish Magazine Awards 2005 dinner at the Roxburghe Hotel in Edinburgh on St Andrew’s Night for some 300 publishing and industry colleagues. Fred MacAulay from BBC Radio Scotland, hosted the awards ceremony. Many of the distinguished panel of ten judges were also present and Sally Cartwright OBE, Publishing Director of Hello! magazine and chairman of the judges, applauded the editorial excellence of Scotland’s burgeoning magazine industry. Nick Creed from Carnyx Group and Chairman of PPA Scotland, spoke of the “fantastic breadth of talent, quality and professionalism” and recognised that it was the “sheer passion and commitment from everyone involved in magazine publishing that makes the industry in Scotland what it is today” (the PPA web page). And this magazine was Highly Commended out of seven listed in the Small Business Company category! Considering that this is only the 14th issue I can’t help feeling pleased on behalf of everyone associated with this magazine, especially when viewed against the background, newly published in the PPA report, “The Magazine Industry in Scotland” – “there are over 700 magazines, published by over 195 organisations with an estimated turnover of £125m.”

And so, to ane an’ a’, a very hearty Guid New Year, and mony o’ them!

Flora Selwyn

Contents TOWN/GOWN • • • • • •

EDITOR Flora Selwyn Tel/fax: 01334 472375 Email: editor@standrewsinfocus.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

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FEATURES • • •

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

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2006

Sir Kenneth Dover retires St Leonard’s – Scottish Independent School of the Year Elma Cheetham reminisces Burns, and our national identity University’s own radio station ToonSpot

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The winds of change Fairtrade Status for St Andrews Poetry Corner – To a Mouse (no, not that one) – The Oystercatcher – Golf Book Reviews – Just Being There...

– From Settle to Dundee – Tommy’s Tunes Dr Bell revisited St Andrews – street names A Fisherwife’s Gala Dress Contrasting Lives – Tom Gordon – Ursula Carson Haydays Ask the Curator The Museum Needs You!

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EVENTS •

Selected List

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SHOPS & SERVICES • • • •

Designer & Printer A new Byre – Crawford collaboration Mr Fish n’ Chips Roving Reporter

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OUT AND ABOUT 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

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The Lade Braes threatened Kinburn Bowling Club ScotWays seeks your help World Wildlife Fund Cambo Snowdrops A Winter Walk

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COVER: ‘Dawn over the Castle Sands’ – photo by Flora Selwyn

NEXT ISSUE – Mar/Apr 2006 COPY DEADLINE: STRICTLY 28 JANUARY All contributions welcome. The Editor reserves the right to publish copy according to available space.

TOWN/GOWN

Sir Kenneth Dover I recall that when the late General Douglas MacArthur addressed Congress after his dismissal by President Truman, he cited, “Old soldiers never die, they only fade away.” If the saying were applied to the chancellors of universities, it would need a somersault thus: “Old chancellors simply die, they don’t just fade away!”

Yet here am I, ‘fading away’ (while MacArthur did the opposite and died as well) by resignation. That requires not exactly an apology, but – not the same thing – an apologia.

I am tempted, when asked about my ‘job’, to say that it has five unusual features: 1. No pay – which makes it different from most ‘jobs’. Having enjoyed graduation dinners, and the company of people who have earned Honorary Degrees, I wouldn’t expect money as well.

2 & 3. How I answer depends on whether the questioner seems to imagine that I have a dedicated space containing a whacking great desk and a room next door for a young woman making coffee.

If so, I say, “no office, no secretary“.

But in a university context that would be monstrously unjust to the people who ensure that I don’t forget things I need to remember: Ian Wright, Lorraine Fraser, and Joyce Scott. Add to those, Jim Douglas, Princeps Bedellorum.

With them available I don’t need office trappings of my own.

4 & 5. No retiring age – and I can’t be fired.

Well, I suppose I can’t be fired. I imagine that if I behaved so disgracefully as to wreck a graduation, or never, never turned up when my presence was required, the Privy Council might be petitioned to do something about it. But I never tested that.

There have been two occasions on which I could have been repudiated or censured by the General Council, my constituency. One was in 1984, when I was among the majority of Oxford dons voting against conferring an Honorary Degree on Margaret Thatcher, and one Alumnus, who happened to be a Member of Parliament at the time, wrote to me angrily demanding my resignation. No-one else raised the matter.

The second occasion came ten years later when my autobiography was published, and a man in St Andrews, whom I didn’t know, took up much of the front page of The Citizen demanding my resignation, on the grounds that I had caused the suicide of an Oxford colleague. Apart from a favourable piece in a departmental publication, I don’t know of any other comment in St Andrews. If I am to that extent ‘controversial’, the extent is very small.

With the enthusiastic support of the General Council I disagreed strongly with one decision of the Court when Steven Watson was

Principal, and some years later with another decision, with no significant support, and too late anyway. Resignations often generate gossip about strife in high places, but as my children are in their fifties, I coud not easily claim a need, as politicians like to profess, to spend more time with my family. My reasons for resignation are wholly – in the non-judgemental sense of the word – pathological.

My first ten years in office were entirely enjoyable, but after spending January to March 1991 at Stanford, I found it hard to shake off a disagreeable form of Californian flu. When the cardiologist , to whom I was referred, asked me point-blank, “Are you dreading the graduation?”, I realised the answer must be, “Yes!” A combination of thorough testing and wise prescription ‘sorted me’ (to use a Scots idiom, of which I have become fond), but I hit a new low in the summer of 1996, with an awareness that I was moving pretty fast into the Seventh Age of Man, so woefully summarised by Jaques in As You Like It (and his, “sans everything” covers – well, everything. Anyone who witnessed the four occasions on which I fell over spectacularly in public is assured that on three of those occasions I was completely sober). By now I realised that I had precedents for resignation.

One of them was very distinguished; the Queen Mother had promised to resign from the Chancellorship of London University when she was eighty and kept her promise. The other was negative; I had seen the Earl of Stockton at Oxford stumbling through Encaenia when he was ninety, the Vice-Chancellor apprehensive at his elbow.

When I left Corpus in 1986, and again after Stanford in 1992, I had ambitious plans for academic reading and writing; learning Sanskrit and Hebrew; bringing my elementary Arabic and Russian up to a useful level; writing my autobiography; completing books I had already begun (one in 1949!).

Then in 1998, a year and a bit after our Golden Wedding, Audrey suffered a stroke and was in hospital for nine weeks. It is our great good fortune that, although it has severely reduced her mobility and generated both fatigue and arthritic pain, it has not in any way lessened her goodwill and good humour. We share domestic management – except that I do all the shopping, and since I gave up driving in 2003, having crashed into one of our gateposts because of visual error, I go partly by bus, partly with the invaluable help of generous friends and neighbours. It will not, I imagine, surprise anyone that I have virtually no time for academic work. The surprise may be that I don’t mind. It may well be that I feel my debt to Audrey to be so great as to submerge all else; but it would be disingenuous not to acknowledge also my debt (since 1996) to the muchmaligned antidepressant Seroxat. As Solon said, I learn all the time as I grow old – and learning is inexhaustibly enjoyable.

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TOWN/GOWN

St Leonards – an IB World School days in September. There was great excitement when the approval came through on 7th October.

Can you imagine how rewarding and fulfilling it will be for students in their Sixth Form years at an IB World School in the ancient University town of St Andrews! St Leonards students will work, relax, and “rub shoulders” with students from all over the world, all of whom enrich, and are enriched by, the diversity of language and culture which surrounds them. IB students accept and celebrate their differences and in so doing Answer: Attending IB workshops as help to break down the barriers to peaceful co-existence. part of our preparation for teaching the The Diploma is more than a collection of subjects; it is a coherent International Baccalaureate Diploma Headmaster, programme of study of six academic disciplines and includes a course in programme from September 2006.

Robert Tims Theory of Knowledge (known world-wide as ToK), the writing of a 4000word piece of personal research (the Extended Essay) and, to ensure the The International Baccalaureate Diploma is a unique preparation for students are not blinkered in their academic studies, a component called university, and for life in a world that is shrinking on the one hand, but Creativity, Action and Service (CAS) – which is increasingly fractured on the other. No school just what it is. can just decide to teach the IB. There is a The International Baccalaureate So, with the IB authorisation, the successful rigorous application process involving a huge amount of preparation to ensure the whole Diploma is a unique preparation for integration of schools to form St LeonardsNew Park and the reduction in day fees, it school community understands the international university, and for life in a world that is not surprising that visitors comment on a nature of the programme. The IB workshops are school brimming with confidence and a “buzz” just part of that process and those teachers who is shrinking on the one hand, but and sense of excitement within our walls. have already attended them have returned full of increasingly fractured on the other.

These changes, together with our outstanding new ideas and with contacts to teachers all over examination results, brought us additional the world. recognition from the Sunday Times, in which we were named Scottish After about nine months of careful preparation and planning by our Independent School of the Year. teachers, we had an inspection team from the IBO in the school for two Questions: What were five St Leonards teachers doing for a week in Bratislava last summer? Why were two teachers sent to Ottawa in December? What will another group of teachers be doing in Athens next summer?

Elma Cheetham reminisces about the

“Fringe” benefits of the Part-Time Evening Degree Course Having a friendly conversation with the editor of St. Andrews in Focus can have hidden dangers!

I happened to remark I had got more than just ‘learning’ from my time as a student, the first ‘benefit’ being I had made so many new friends, the second, the kindness I received from the staff and tutors. That was all Flora needed!

“Right”, she said, “you can tell us all about that in the next issue”. So be very careful when talking to her – next thing you know you’ll be putting pen to paper. The trouble is, she is so nice it is difficult to say “No”!

I well remember my first evening when I went to Lower Parliament Hall for the four weeks before the start of the academic year.

This is now called “Study Essentials” and is a splendid introduction to what is in store. Being on my own I remember I was a bit apprehensive, and I knew that I would be older than the others. (I discovered afterwards that the next in age was 20 years younger!). Most of them seemed to be in the 30-40 year age group, with perhaps one or two in their 50s. Some had come with friends, but over a welcoming cup of coffee I discovered there were those, like myself, who were on their own. By the end of the four weeks we all knew each other, felt completely at home, and were not afraid to voice our opinion on various topics.

After our first English lecture I told Gillian, our tutor, how very much I had enjoyed it. She said, “So did I, and I was dreading it”. When I asked, “Why?”, she replied that her experience of 1st year undergraduates was that she couldn’t get them to talk. “I couldn’t get you lot to stop” she said, “it was wonderful!”

The other students accepted me as one of themselves, as was very evident when I ended

up in Ninewells Hospital after breaking my hip coming out of Schoolroom 1 after an evening English lecture. Our very first essay was due to be handed in the following week and everyone was wondering how they would get on. I said, “It’s all right for you lot – do you realise it is 62 years since I last wrote an essay?” – and down I went: I thought there were only two steps, but there were three!

This was my first experience of all the kindness I was to receive. My fellow students in the IT (Computing) class all signed a huge “Get Well” card which I still treasure. It had been made in the department and is truly a work of art. The nurses had it sitting on the window sill to cheer everyone up. Then the students in the English class sent me the largest bouquet of flowers I think ever arrived in Ninewells. The nurses apologised because they didn’t have enough vases, so, as I was going home next day, suggested I take them with me. Fortunately, Joan Stewart, one of my best friends in St. Andrews, was visiting me that afternoon. She took them with her, put them in an old-fashioned ewer, and they sat on my sideboard and cheered me up tremendously for the next three or four weeks.

The University staff were wonderful. The IT Department allowed me to come in when the University was closed for Christmas and New Year, and, with their help, I caught up and was able to start Semester 2 with the other students. The English Department allowed me to hand in the essay due when I fell down the steps, write another, and a further one during the summer break, thus enabling me to go on with my studies. Another way in which the

The University staff were wonderful

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staff were so kind was when they discovered I had difficulties with my sight and they always ensured I had a larger print copy of any ‘hand-outs’, something for which I was so very grateful.

As I said, the other students just accepted me as one of themselves, and when anything was being arranged, such as the Christmas lunches, it wasn’t a case of “Would I like to come?” – it was, “You’ll be coming Elma”. I didn’t get to the first Christmas get-together – I was at home with my crutches! The first I attended was held in the Mexican Restaurant.

I had never had a Mexican meal before, but I’ll try anything once, (incidentally, I enjoyed it), but I shall never forget the expression on the waiter’s face when I said I was there for the students’ lunch. I told the others and they laughed, then one of them said, “Never mind Elma. He probably thinks you are a whitehaired professor we liked so much we asked you to join us!”. That is an example of the camaraderie which we all enjoyed..

One event I shall miss is the ‘end-of-theacademic-year’ barbecue organised by Torn Potter in his lovely garden. We had our last one this year, and perhaps, like me, the others will remember in future years the phone ringing and Tom saying, “What about another barbecue?”

If anyone reading this is apprehensive about applying for the Part-time Evening Degree Course, my advice to you is, “Go ahead and do it. You will get more out of it than just a Degree, and the ‘”Fringe Benefits” are free!” Pick up the ‘phone and speak to Alison Andrews, the co-ordinator. She will be delighted to hear from you.

TOWN/GOWN Matthew Watson, 3rd year undergraduate of English and Modern History, University of St. Andrews.

Robert Burns: Ploughman, Poet . . . Destroyer of National Identity?

Robert Burns has ruined the Scottish national identity! There, I’ve said it. It perhaps might not be the most popular statement about the national bard that you will hear this month, but nonetheless I think it is a valid one. Every 25th January people around the globe (including us Scots) will dress up and play at being Scottish with haggis, whisky, kilts, and pipes, and for one day profess their love affair with the poet-farmer. Hugh MacDiarmid gave a good picture of it in his poem A Drunk Man Looks At The Thistle: You canna gang to a Burns’ supper even Wi’oot some wizened scrunt o’ a knock-knee Chinee turns roon to say, “Him Haggis – velly goot!”

And ten to wan the piper is a Cockney.

No’ wan in fifty kens a wurd Burns wrote Men and women will enjoy an evening of ‘Scottishness’ served up on a hollow plate of quasi-traditional ceremony and celebrate the man they have come to view as the embodiment of what it is to be a Scot.

Some might say that this is a real triumph, that it is great that Scotland, and one of her sons, is recognised the world over, but I say to them, “does a modern Scotland really want to trade on a now defunct (one must ask if it ever even existed) image of itself?” Is it not time that we tried to show the world that we are more than just Robert Burns? While I recognise that a country will always be stereotyped to some extent by the outside world is it not unnatural that we define ourselves by not much more than that stereotype? We have presented a one-dimensional picture of ourselves to the world in order to gain recognition and as a sad consequence we have come to believe in that picture. We seem to have forgotten how to believe in ourselves, how to be innovative and new, how to respect our true traditions. We have placed all our eggs in one basket.

I don’t want to sound too mean-spirited about the whole Burns Supper affair because it is a way to celebrate an incredible poet and an incredible country, but at the same time it cannot be allowed to be the only way we celebrate. In terms of Scottish cultural history there is so much more than just Burns and I think people are aware of that, but for some reason are scared, or just unwilling, to embrace it. Burns is not the only poet that Scotland has produced, though the way he is talked about you would be almost forgiven for thinking he was, but the others seem to have been forgotten, or left as footnotes in our rich literary culture. Where is the celebration of the original nationalist poet John Barbour? Burns’ hero Robert Ferguson? the Fife poet Robert Henrysoun? or the man quoted above, Hugh MacDiarmid? What about the novelists, the artists, the philosophers that this small land has produced – people that have given enjoyment, that have provoked thought, in short people who were considered masters in their field in their lifetimes? Why has the nation forgotten these men in favour of one? Of course Burns deserves to be celebrated, but to do so at the

expense of these men and the many more that have charted Scotland’s passage through the ages is showing a blatant disregard or ignorance of what we have been bequeathed.

We must embrace our culture and our history – not belittle it by boiling it down to one man and his one day. When you think of a country, say France, so many names of cultural significance come to mind, Voltaire, Rousseau, Zola, Eugene Delacroix, Marcel Proust, Monet, Cartier-Bresson (the list seems never-ending) because the French people have not been, and are not, afraid to declare their rich cultural heritage. The Scots must do likewise, and soon. Only benefits can come of this. The world should be made aware of Scottish authors, poets, etc, and through that they would gain a more true and balanced image of Scotland itself. The most important benefit I believe would be a public proud of its cultural/literary past and thus more willing to support, create and accept a future of thinkers, writers, painters, and the like.

I started by making a rather bold statement and one many might totally disagree with but, as the date for the Supper draws closer, I would like to think that as you get dressed up in your tartan, ceremoniously carry the haggis to the table while reciting Rabbie, you might raise a toast to all those neglected figures of Scottish culture deserving of appreciation and give thanks not just to the one man, but to all of them that have played their part.

There is an exhibition in the University library charting Scottish poetry (it has a section pertaining to poets associated with St. Andrews as well).

Evening Degree Programme Keen to get a degree?

Too busy to study full-time?

Try the flexible route to your MA General degree at the University of St Andrews via the Evening Degree Programme • • • • •

One or two evenings of classes per week Broad range of subjects Minimum age 21 Flexible entry requirements Fee Waiver scheme for people on low income or State benefits

Find out more from: Alison Andrews Evening Degree Co-ordinator Telephone: 01334 462203 Email: parttime@st-andrews.ac.uk

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TOWN/GOWN On Monday 28th February 2005, the sounds of the first ever student radio broadcast in St Andrews rang out across the town.

For the team of fifty students involved in Star FM (as in ‘ST Andrews Radio’), it was an exciting, but terrifying, venture into the unknown. Almost a year from then, the team has quadrupled in size and is relishing the chance to create its own new opportunities.

Student radio has a long, but unfruitful history in St Andrews.

It has been well documented that for decades, various groups of University students have had the ideas, motivation, and support to set up a radio station in the town. However, it all fell down on so many logistical, financial, and organizational hurdles, that each attempt resulted in a false start. Naturally, the ultimate goal for any small radio project is to run a permanent broadcasting service, but this understandable desire turned out to be the common stumbling block for students with aspiration. Think about it: a small number of fulltime students responsible for organizing, maintaining, and arranging funding for a public entertainment service.

Step forward Steve Pidcock and Sandy Walker. These guys graduated in the summer, but during their last year at St Andrews they made a lasting impact on the University by setting up Star FM. The significant difference between the actions of this pair and those of previous teams was an emphasis on research and common sense in their initial decisions. After contacting many existing student radio stations for advice (including those at Edinburgh and Glasgow Universities), Steve and Sandy set about forming plans for a pilot two-week broadcast. This was not only a more realistic target for a pioneering radio project, but meant that the test could serve to assess the legitimacy of long-term broadcasting in the town.

It only took a small amount of publicity to quickly involve around fifty students keen to be part of a success story. Steve and Sandy then secured support from the University, the Students’ Association, and the Rector, Sir Clement Freud. They set up links with Londonbased station, XFM, and spent time learning at Tay FM, in Dundee.

It took great perseverance to secure funding to the tune of around £3000 for the two-week project, but the dynamic duo rose to the occasion, with major contributions from the University and the Rector’s Charitable Fund. Local businesses were involved too, after being presented with the opportunity to sponsor individual radio shows on Star FM. The location for a temporary studio was the cloakroom in the Students’ Association building, which was originally designed to house such a facility.

Star FM was broadcast live on 87.7FM and online for two weeks from 28th February 2004, under the terms of a Restricted Service Licence (RSL), issued by OFCOM (Office of Communications). Live shows ran for six hours every day, divided into two-hour morning, evening, and late slots. Subject material ranged from magazine-style shows to a variety of musical genres, and poetry, history, religion, and debate showcases.

The project was great fun for all of those involved and turned out to be a resounding success, with over 15,000 website hits every day!

Following their positive experience of a radio pilot, Steve Pidcock and Sandy Walker looked to the future and set about forming a committee to take the project forward after their graduation. I was asked to be Manager of Star and along with the eleven other committee members, began planning for academic year 2005/6. We decided that in order to have an accessible base for staff recruitment and establish a more sustainable structure and financial system, we should become an affiliated society of the Students’ Association. We also agreed to progress by operating more frequent two-week RSL broadcasts, with increased airtime and new techniques employed each time.

Since September 2005, the Star FM team has been working overtime to secure financial backing and ensure high broadcasting standards for this academic year.

The Society has over two hundred members and a staff boasting many talents. It really is frustrating to think that so many creative students did not have the chance to benefit from student radio in St Andrews until 2005! At the time of writing, we are half-way through our first RSL of the year.

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After a legendary launch party, Star FM returned to the airwaves on Raisin Monday and is broadcasting for twenty-four hours every day for two weeks. We have eleven hours of live shows every day, sandwiched between periods of continuous music from our carefully-compiled play lists. Sir Clement Freud was a major financial contributor once again, donating enough from the Rector’s Charitable Fund to cover the total costs of the OFCOM licence. The Students’ Association has also given significant funding and allowed us to use a great room in the former Laundry as our studio. Before going on air, we were given useful advice from Bryan Paige, Programme Director at Rock FM, and we gained the support of BBC Radio One DJ, Zane Lowe. Our team of presenters, news personnel, and technicians is producing a very high standard of broadcasting material and receiving an overwhelming amount of positive feedback from listeners. I must add that whilst the bulk of our audience pick up our waves in St Andrews, many also tune in via our website from all over the world. We have regular listeners in the United States, in Canada, South Africa, Thailand, China, Norway, and Spain, to name but a few countries.

The long-term goal of Star FM is, of course, to run a permanent student radio station in St Andrews. However, for now, we will organize frequent short broadcast events and each time become more competent and adventurous in our techniques. We hope to secure the involvement and support of more local businesses and establish educational links with local schools, ensuring that Star FM is a thoroughly community-led project. The next scheduled two-week RSL will start on 27th February 2006, again on 87.7FM and www.standrewsradio.com. For further information/enquiries please contact radio@st-andrews.ac.uk

David Wilkinson Manager, Star FM

FEATURES David Wasserman, the new owner of Hamilton Hall, met Flora Selwyn at the end of September to tell her of his plans and aspirations.

The Winds of Change What do we mean by “identity”? The term is used loosely by so many of us – national identity, personal identity. Is there such a thing as community identity? It’s a debate that rouses passions on all sides, especially among those, for example, who fiercely defend “Scottishness”, reciting endless tales from history to prove that it exists. In our town there are St Andreans who deplore changes, claiming that they “ruin its character”. At the same time there are folk who insist that, ”you’ll never change St Andrews. It’s always been the way it is and you’re wasting your time trying to change it!” I wonder if those people have ever heard the dictum, “if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got”? Hugh Lyon Playfair, Provost of St Andrews, must have understood this, for he single-handedly did change St Andrews in the 19th century – for the better – and what he did was eventually taken for granted as a “good thing.”

Now we’re on the brink of another change, hopefully also “for the better.” The wind of change that blew St Andrews Bay Golf Resort into being, and latterly changed the ownership of The Old Course Hotel, is about to blow strongly on Hamilton Hall.

David Wasserman, Principal of Wasserman Real Estate Capital LLC, believes that the intended residents of the Hall when refurbished will be, “deeply appreciative of the ambiance and the experience of St Andrews and Scotland.” He plans to restore and upgrade what has become, through neglect, “a bruised

eye, so to speak, on the town”. Consulting closely with all the relevant conservation bodies, and the planning authorities, David will convert Hamilton Hall into the St Andrews Grand, 23 residences, “individual havens within a Castle”, for 115 invited families and individuals world-wide who will become “club” members. Hurd Rolland Partnership UK have been appointed to restore the 110-year old building and also bring it into the 21st century.

The top storey will become a penthouse with “a more contemporary layout surrounded by glass and a terrace that provides views of the sea and the Old Course.” Interior designer Randall Ridless LLC, of New York, says that, “Each residence will be designed with a flavour that reflects historic Scottish architecture combined with a discreet luxury that is extremely comfortable, but not pretentious.”

Every effort will be made to enfold the club members in luxury from the moment they arrive, and that includes chauffeur-driven cars (to avoid adding to St Andrews’ parking problems), and helicopters for conveyance to other golf courses.

An on-site concierge, daily housekeeping, groceries delivered prior to arrival – all this and more will form part of the personal service at the St Andrews Grand.

There will be a library, two spas (one for men and one for women), a private dining room, and even a pub with a billiard table, to help “make them feel at home.”

David Wasserman knows and loves St Andrews from long acquaintance, and he believes that investment in the town is of vital

David will convert Hamilton Hall into the St Andrews Grand, 23 residences, “individual havens within a Castle”

importance. He plans to recruit staff locally, and he is sure that “members of the club will avail themselves of all the good that the town has to offer” – restaurants, concerts, the theatre, etc. As a golfer himself, David sees his new acquisition chiefly as “a signature destination for the most elite and dedicated of golfers.”

Underlining his commitment to the game, this August he secured in the East Neuk a co-controlling interest in the Kingsbarns Golf Links. In addition, he took part in the Dunhill here in the autumn, when he “was seen as less of a developer and more of a golfer!”

David is youthful, energetic, enthusiastic.

He has a law degree, is married, with two (almost) grown-up children. His home is in Providence, Rhode Island, a forward-looking city with drive. Wake up, St Andrews!

Evening, West Sands, by Ursula Carson

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FEATURES Donald Macgregor explains St Andrews’ new status

Fairtrade Town On St Andrew’s Day, at a ceremony in the Council Chamber of the Town Hall, St Andrews became a Fairtrade Town, joining almost 150 others in the UK as well as hundreds more cities, towns, and villages, that are working towards Fairtrade status.

What does that mean?

In May 2000, Garstang in Lancashire declared itself ‘the world’s first Fairtrade Town’. The campaign caught the imagination of local people, the interest of politicians, and raised awareness of the Fairtrade Mark in the area. St Andrews has met all five of the goals which have to be attained to justify Fairtrade Town status: 1. The local council (in our case the Community Council) must pass a resolution supporting Fairtrade, and serve Fairtrade coffee and tea at its functions. We did this unanimously several months ago, following a presentation by Fairtrade spokesperson Alice Curteis.

2. A range of Fairtrade products must be readily available in the area’s shops and served in local cafés and catering establishments.

3. Fairtrade products must be used by a number of local work places (estate agents, hairdressers etc) and community organisations (churches, schools etc). More than 50 shops, cafés, restaurants, workplaces, and community organisations in St Andrews either sell or use Fairtrade products, and the number increases weekly – there are too many to list here, but the complete list can be found at: www.fairtrade-standrews.org.uk 4. The council must attract popular support for the campaign.

That’s what I’m trying to do by writing this article.

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A local Fairtrade steering group must be convened to ensure continued commitment to Fairtrade Town status. The members of the steering group were present at the declaration ceremony.

By buying and using Fairtrade products, which are marked with the Fairtrade logo, we in St Andrews can do a little bit to help people in the developing world achieve a decent standard of living.

To a Mouse

by Colin McAllister (With apologies to The Bard) Wee sleekit, electronic beastie, O what a current’s in thy breastie!

Thou need na click awa sae hasty, On speedy screen!

I wad be laith to unplug thee, From thy demesne!

I’m truly sorry the computer’s speed Has the human brain quite left for deid, An’ justifies that ill opinion, Which makes men grumble At thee, thou electronic marvel, Be thou e’er sae humble!

I doubt na, whyles, but thou may blink; What then? Weel then, here’s what I think!

Ilka body has a virus – It’s no uncommon; Are na computers just like us, An’ almaist human!

Thy wee bit program’s got a bug, Thy silver screen’s the breakfast o’ a dug!

An’ naething I ken o’ what to do, It’s got me beat!

An’ soon the hale world will ca’ me mug, An’ fule complete!

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Thou kens thy spreadsheets through and through, An’ what wi’ Windows thou canst do, An’ sae thou thocht, thou hadst it made, But it wasna long, Before thy passwords were gainsaid An’ proved thee wrong.

That program that was so well written, Now wi’ a bug is badly bitten, An’ the computer’s worse than useless, Nor any guid.

By a human hand thou’s been smitten, Nor by a squid.

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane, In proving computing may be in vain: The best programs o’ mice an’ men Gang aft agley, An’ lea’ ‘e us nought but grief an’ pain For promised joy!

Still thou art blest, compared wi’ me!

The off switch gies guid rest to thee; But thou giest bad dreams tae me, O’ technofear!

My job next year I canna see, My prospect’s drear.

Safety Panel

FEATURES: POETRY CORNER On Monday, 3rd October 2005, the Special Collections Department of the University Library held a reception to celebrate their exhibition, St Andrews: the Poetry Town. The occasion also celebrated the publication of The Book of St Andrews, edited by Professor Robert Crawford (see the Nov/Dec issue of this magazine).

A poetry competition for children, held in conjunction with this event, was judged by Kathleen Jamie of the School of English.

Prizes for the children were awarded by local poet and Director of StAnza, Anna Crowe.

Kirsty Liggat (Canongate School) won first prize in the P5-P7 category. An accomplished artist, Kirsty illustrated her winning poem.

– Heralding the New Year, and to celebrate our talented youngsters, Kirsty has written for this magazine a completely new poem, and drawn a beautiful oystercatcher to illustrate it.

The Oystercatcher A glimpse of red a flash of white the oystercatcher dives in flight to reach the shore, across his back a night-dark cape of deepest black.

His pattern weaves against the sky the sea is hushed as he pipes his cry.

We are proud to publish the runner-up in the S4-S6 category John Laurence Smout (Madras College) for his poem

Golf It is not a game That I have ever played nor One that I have ever Watched, or been able to watch Without feeling my life trickling away through My fingers like so much sand in the Bunker of wasted time on the Golf course of life. And so I cannot tell you of the strange Magic that, for those whose best days Are spent propelling small plastic balls Through the air, this game entails.

But of one factor I can speak With a measure of authority, and that Is of the strange growths which, Over the centuries since wooden club First met leather, for, in days of yore, It was of cowskin that were derived those Curious round birds, so apt to fall from the sky With characteristic cry of fore fore Onto the heads of passers by, all Those years ago, has infested First St Andrews itself, but spreading From Fife to contaminate Scotland, Britain, America and the rest of what we, In our proud foolishness, are pleased to call The ‘developed’ world. The strange symptom To which I refer is, of course, The Golf course.

Stage one involves the purchase of a Field or meadow from an amenable Farmer. This is followed by the systematic Extermination of all life, until the landscape Resembles more closely that of The pockmarked and lifeless moon Than our sweet and bountiful earth.

The illness now firmly established, The land is subject to a profusion Of short green growths and large Yellow abscesses filled with sand Which sprout alarmingly from the waste Like the Martian vegetation in the War of the Worlds.

Then, at great length and expense All aerating, soil dwelling animals are killed off, And later at even greater length and expense The soil is aerated by hand using spikes.

“.......large Yellow abscesses filled with sand...” (photo, Flora Selwyn)

Finally the grass is cut Into a stripy pattern and the whole silly business is complete.

It would be nice for the health of the planet if In their spare time from curing cancer, rabies and S.A.R.S. The world’s great disease specialists could find Some time, possibly during a lunch hour, or On a slow day when not too many people are dying, to develop A cure for the golf course.

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FEATURES: BOOK REVIEWS

“Just Being There:

with Bears and Tigers in the North Sea”

by Andrew Wylie, (2006) Edinburgh: Dunedin Academic Press, pp. xiv + 156 Review by Professor D. W. D Shaw Anyone who has taken the train south from Leuchars will be familiar with a particular species of fellow passenger travelling from Aberdeen.

Sometimes looking pale and weary, but more often playing cards and tucking in with gusto to their six-packs, rough, tough, and with a liking for alcohol – these are the men going home from the ‘rigs’ (wrongly named as it turns out) in the North Sea. To expose this impression as entirely misleading is one of the aims of this engaging book.

Andrew Wylie writes as the first chaplain to the oil industry, based in Aberdeen. He did not come to this task without experience. He mentions service in the Navy, time at university, ministry in the Church of Scotland in Stepps in the Central Belt, in Lausanne in Switzerland, for fourteen years in a well-known Edinburgh church, and for a short while in ecumenical administration, and as industrial chaplain. Even with this background, in order to be accepted as chaplain to the oil industry he had a tough job persuading the sceptical management, fearful of ‘interference’, that there was a job to do. However, his cajoling, persistence, informed suggestions and enthusiasm finally won out and he was duly allowed to fly out to the North Sea platforms and flotels.

In fifteen chapters he deals with the various experiences, discoveries and challenges of his chaplaincy. He is principally concerned with the men (mostly men, though there are now a few women) who work offshore, a fortnight at a time. He describes the two hour helicopter flights to and from the platforms, where communication with fellow passengers is impossible because of the essential ear muffs to block out the noise.

He gives the details of the accommodation offshore, the routine, the treacherous storm-bound and often freezing conditions, and so on.

One reads of Andrews Wylie’s experience at the time of the Piper Alpha disaster in July 1988, when 167 lives were lost and only 67 survived.

Describing it as ‘the defining moment for everyone’, the scene, when he flew out to an adjoining platform, is movingly described, as indeed is the aftermath. His reflections on the role of the church in the face of tragic disasters is very much to the point.

Andrew Wylie does not abstain from criticism – for example of media coverage of disasters, of aspects of management, of the institutional church – and this generally appears justified. He also offers suggestions for the future, particularly in relation to families of the offshore workers.

His understanding of chaplaincy is well articulated and could well serve as a model.

His writing, fluent, clear and with humour, is imbued with humanity. He also has an eye for the idiosyncratic, as when he describes the platforms sometimes acting as resting places for many birds, blown off course from their long migratory flights. He adds, ‘Often I was reminded of the human parallel where the headstrong allowed their optimistic aspirations to override their ability to fulfil them’.

Given the many technical terms with which this study abounds, it is just as well there is an extensive glossary. There we learn among other things that the ‘bear’ of the title is ‘A member of the crew. Often on contract. They could be notable for their physical bulk, the grubbiness of their overalls and their tattoos. There could be an ear-ring or two’. The ‘tiger’ of the title is ‘same animal, different name’.

Each of the chapters is prefaced by one or two extracts from the author’s log, which give a contemporaneity to the subject under discussion. The final entry of his log is reproduced and tells us something of the author’s own aim: ‘there have been so many friendships formed – adversity is a great welder; time alone will show if some suggestion of Christian infection has begun’. Describing his feelings during his final helicopter flight after emotional farewells, he says ‘a bumpy spiritual journey had come to a happy conclusion in the middle of the North Sea’ .

For the reader, this is a valuable opportunity to get inside what goes on and to meet the people who, in a hostile environment, operate these lonely, far-flung giant structures. Travellers on the train from Leuchars will certainly look at their fellow passengers from Aberdeen in a new way.

Marina Branscombe traces

The road from Settle to Dundee What do you do when, many years after his death in St Andrews in 1985, you come across the manuscript of your father’s memoirs? Well, this happened to me and at first I couldn’t face the responsibility; I put it back in the attic where I found it, but later, retired, I started to read it and couldn’t put it down. This man, James Riley, had experiences that we, his family, never suspected, and what’s more he had the skills to describe them. There were photographs too. Now, after some work on our part, we have printed his story.

We knew the bare outline of our father’s life, born 1912, his childhood in the Yorkshire Dales, student days in Edinburgh, wartime service as a surgeon in Gleneagles and Bridge of Earn, but we had never heard him relate this stream of amusing anecdotes, and had no idea about his exciting experiences in Malaya commanding a mobile surgical unit with the Indian Army.

The remainder of his career was spent as a radiotherapist in Dundee Royal Infirmary, and he is remembered now mainly for cancer research.

There is an increasing interest in medical history. Ninewells Hospital has just mounted a lottery-funded exhibition at the far end of the main concourse, for which many people have provided material. Next time you are there, have a look, and look in your attic as well, for you never know what you might find!

“Hospitals at War – medical care in Tayside 1939-45”, is in the Main Foyer, Ninewells Hospital, November 2005 - March 2006.

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Listening and Remembering: memoirs of a Settle boy,

by James F. Riley, is £8 from selected bookshops, including the Medical Bookshop, Ninewells.

Also available from Marina Branscombe, 32 North Street, St Andrews, at £8, or £10 incl. p&p.

FEATURES: BOOK REVIEWS

‘There’s sure no passion in the human soul, But finds its food in music.’ (George Lillo) Joyce McIver has passion, and she also has music. Since 1999 she has put these together in the shape of a series of books aimed at helping to make primary school children as passionate about music as she is. to motivate and give the With a music degree from The flavour of the music and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music words.” Glossaries of terms, (Glasgow 1965) and a Teaching such as guid-willie waught: Diploma, Joyce’s teaching career friendly (good will) drink, are given with the verses. Some began in Paisley Grammar School. of the books also provide useful snippets of historical and In 1979 she came to St Andrews geographical information associated with the songs. with her husband and two children, “What’s in my head,” Joyce emphasises, “is to give returning in 1982 to teaching violin children a love of music, and most especially with both privately, and in primary three of the books, Scottish music.” She felt that an schools all over Fife. She is now inexpensive book with special appeal to young children retired, and a new grandmother. would help to keep the tradition alive. In 2002, Joyce was Joyce was given Scottish Robbie Shepherd’s special guest on Radio Scotland’s music to play from the moment The Reel Blend. Lumphanan Primary School pupils sang she started to learn the violin at Westering Home, and their recorder group played the primary school, and she loved Children at a girls’ school in Ghana enjoying Tommy’s Mingulay Boat Song. Their musicality, their clear diction, it. When teaching, Joyce tells, “I Tunes through a teachers’ exchange programme. and their evident enjoyment all bore witness to Joyce’s used to write out sheets of music The books have also gone to Bangladesh and India success. for the children with all sorts of to be used in education programmes.

To date there are five books. Joyce hopes to produce different themes, Scottish, Burns, many more, “There are lots of ideas for Tommy,” she Christmas, classical as well, and enthuses, “I’d love to do a Gaelic book eventually!” French tunes also I thought for many years about compiling these groups of tunes into appeal. So Tommy, ”the cute fiddling cat from Fife” is set to become truly little books.” Cats being a great love, Tommy McTavish from Falkland in international – a typical Scot, wouldn’t you agree?

Fife was conceived as a cute cat character who would lead the children through the music collections, starting with Tommy’s Scottish Tunes.

Tommy’s Tunes are available at £2.99 in Ottakars, J. & G. Innes, and Fun is the overriding principle of all the books. Tommy, drawn by The St Andrews Art and Music Shop (both in South Street), or direct from Andrew Magee, one of Joyce’s former pupils, tells his readers about the Joyce McIver, 8 West Acres, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9UD music, giving them tips such as, “Start at my first paw print” or, “Look out for all the G notes in a row!” He has his own tune, which can be played by itself, or sung solo, or as a round (in which case Tommy’s paw print shows where to begin each part).

Every book ends with Tommy’s Quiz. Answers are not printed, for Tommy says, “Check with your teacher if you’ve got all the answers right. Good luck!” All the tunes have words and illustrations on the page opposite the music, encouraging singing as well as playing. The music itself can be played on the piano, keyboard, recorder, flute etc.

In Tommy’s Burns Tunes, instructions are given for a Burns Supper, along with appropriate verses as well as tunes, ending, of course, with Auld Lang Syne. “Sometimes I include two or three verses, and then other times I just maybe have a chorus, so there are never too many verses for young children to cope with. The aim is

Tommy’s Scottish Tunes Tommy’s Burns Tunes Tommy’s Scottish Island Tunes Tommy’s Party Tunes

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FEATURES

The real Dr. Bell?? asks Gavin White

The book referred to below is An Old Educational Reformer: Dr. Andrew Bell, by J.M.D.Meiklejohn, and it is published by Blackwood (Edinburgh and London) 1881. I wondered if Meiklejohn was being too hard on Bell so checked with the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography on both parties. Meiklejohn is much praised as an educationalist, his “Meilkejohn Readers” were widely used. On the Bell entry Meiklejohn is described as an “acerbic biographer”, but the description of Bell’s character is more negative than anything in Meiklejohn. Meiklejohn used the conventional biography by Southey as his source. Southey was less outspoken, but it is all there.

Meiklejohn’s daughter, whom I only met once, married my great-uncle, a St Andrews doctor. I think it is true to say that the Madras System was never used at Madras College. It presumed that teaching was the transmission of facts, and not the development of intelligence. I doubt if it was used in secondary education anywhere. I first read the biography when preparing a bibliography for the Scottish Church History Society, when I was in Glasgow, but there is a copy in the St Andrews University Library.

Everyone knows that Madras College was founded by Dr. Bell, and that his name is given to the street, but who was he? There is a biography by Professor J.M.D.Meiklejohn, whose chair was funded by the will of Dr. Bell – though so inadequately that the Professor had to write textbooks to make ends meet, which he did to the great benefit of schools all over Britain. And he was a Professor of Education in a University which did not teach the subject, so it is not clear what work was required. But now to what he had to say about Dr. Bell, and first about St. Andrews: “The traveller on reaching it sees at once that he has fallen out of the usual track – has gone away from the common world, and that he has come into an outlying place…

The look of some of the streets, even now, is the look of the fifteenth century. Perhaps a cart rumbles through one of them, once an hour, and this serves to intensify the silence.”

“Bell’s father was a barber in the city”, though more a maker of wigs than a cutter of hair, and he sent his son to the University, where he was taught by a professor who “generally preached with his hat on”, and “preferred to sleep under four-and-twenty blankets”, though presumably he did not perform these two functions at the same time.

At the age of twenty Andrew Bell went to Virginia as a tutor, left during the Revolution, and was shipwrecked off Nova Scotia. He was then ordained in the Church of England and in 1787 went to Madras as chaplain to the East

12

India Company. There he acquired a number of chaplaincies with pay, but few duties, and became rich; Meiklejohn does not mention his trading on the side as this was normal and would explain his fortune. He ran a home for orphans, and one day saw an Indian writing in sand, which was copied by boys for yet other boys. “He turned his horse and galloped home, shouting, ‘Heureka! Heureka!’, and now believed that he at length saw his way straight before him. The plan of making one boy teach another gradually spread throughout the school.” In 1796 he left India and returned to Britain, where he wrote a report on what he called the Madras System. He bought land in Dumfriesshire, and married a learned lady, despite being warned that learned ladies are “most generally deficient in that delicacy and correctness which render a woman most truly amiable.” The couple separated after six years, though Meiklejohn refers to Bell’s “somewhat combustible disposition” as the probable cause.

Bell became a country parson in Dorset, and some said he was wildly successful, while others said he was a clown. He presented the Madras System of teaching to the Church of England, fought battles with Lancaster and his rival system, and was famous and popular. But Meiklejohn is not impressed by, “This claim to teach a subject that the teacher does not himself know… “, and as for Bell’s books, “Dr. Bell wrote a terrible and lumbering style, and no one now can read his books.” Summing

up, “At the root of Dr. Bell’s theory there lay two fundamental blunders. The first was, that civilization meant conformity to the type in the mind and conduct of Bell himself…. The second was that what has not been done by the great unconscious powers in thousands of years can be done by one conscious man in a few months or years.” He poured scorn on Bell’s notion of “patenting the plan of asking one boy to teach another”, and referred to those “ who would like to patent the Atlantic Ocean…”. But in fact his System worked for a time, though it had most difficulties in St. Andrews.

As he grew older, Bell grew more eccentric, and more convinced that he alone had the key to education. He wrote, “Do not talk to me of your colleges and your universities. They are asylums for the maimed, the halt, and the blind; more, they are receptacles for the dead, who cannot hear the new word of life which I have spoken, and who must sleep on.” He died at the age of 79, leaving a vast fortune tied up in a will which he had kept changing, but which endowed Madras College. And his System died too. It only worked where “memory and drill are alone concerned”. “He is forgotten as the date of the Pyramids,” as Meiklejohn noted in his inaugural lecture, “Education is the act of the living mind with the living mind.” The Madras System attempted to shortcut this process and while it may have been enough for rote learning in the earliest stages, it soon gave way to the encounter of minds with one another.

FEATURES

The Gates and Wynds of St. Andrews

by Caroline Makein St. Andrews’ three main streets converge at the Cathedral, the mediaeval focal point of pilgrims. Protected by the city walls, the city was accessed through the various ports, the West Port being a fine example. Dwellings, shops, workshops, hostelries, and alehouses would have lined the pilgrims’ routes and this mediaeval street plan retained its size and its distinctive form up until the 19th century.

Originally, names of streets and wynds were descriptive – as in South Street, North Street, and Market Street, though ‘Gate’ would have been used in place of ‘Street’.

A 1642 map of St. Andrews, by James Gordon of Rothiemay, is particularly interesting, showing the ruined Cathedral, Castle, city walls, and the ‘lang rigs’ behind South Street and North Street. The windmill, to the north-west of town is clearly visible in the vicinity of Windmill Road today.

A fascinating book by Robert Smart and Kenneth Fraser called “St. Andrews Street Names”, published by the University, explores the history of the names. Where does Dauphin Hill come from? Smart and Fraser have the answer: ‘The earliest forms of this name are Dapon Hill, Dappin Hill, Daupin Hill. It is derived from the dapping process used by the washer women and dyers who frequented this area until the Town Council started feuing it out from 1776 onwards. The ‘h’ is a 19th century addition’.

Butts Wynd was a 17th century lane leading to the Bow Butts, where archery was practised at the west end of the Scores. It was re-adopted from Scores Lane in 1853.

In 1836, according to the New Statistical Account, the population in St. Andrews was 5,725 with 1,296 families and 863 houses in the parish. St Andrews was a market town with three fairs annually, the Senzie Fair, the Lammas, and the third on 30th November. There were 39 inns and alehouses in the city. Since the previous Statistical Account in the 1790s there had been great improvements – better pavements, street lighting, many old houses

had been pulled down and replaced by more The 19th Century brought numerous changes, “commodious and ornamental houses”, also some names were anglicised and developers gaps in streets and lanes had filled up. often chose names commemorating Greyfriars Gardens was town property themselves or family connections. More recent in 1820, on John Wood’s map, and renamed developments have been named after provosts, North Bell Street circa 1838. The New public figures, historical persons, golfers, and Statistical Account records: writers. “a line of communication between North Dempster Terrace was developed 1870Street and Market Street being erected – a 1901. George Dempster was elected Provost in handsome street or row, consisting of houses of 1772. The Dempster family for two generations considerable magnitude...several of the houses represented the entrepreneurial spirit in have already been erected, and several more St Andrews owning a distillery and a canvas are to be erected next season. It has been factory and many other projects. Charles named Bell Street after Dempster was in trouble Dr Bell.” in 1807 for ploughing The 19 th Century brought Dr. Andrew Bell up the bleaching green numerous changes, some (1753-1832), as anyone (commonly called ‘the names were anglicised and who attended Madras dining room’), lying next College will know, was to the Swilken Burn, developers often chose names the founder of the school south west of the new commemorating themselves or and others based on the bridge. family connections monitorial system, where Charles and his the older pupils played a son, Cathcart, owned part in teaching the younger. He left most of his the Links land until 1821 when James Cheape, considerable fortune for educational purposes.

Laird of Strathtyrum, bought the feu of the South Bell Street was mapped from 1849, Links from them. The siting of the R & A though no houses built. It was decreed to be Clubhouse went back to 1803 and the start of called Bell Street on 13th January 1896 when the Dempster Case, the legal battle that North Bell Street changed its name to Greyfriars arose from what became ‘the Rabbit Wars’.

Gardens.

St. Andrews Town Council had pledged the Cow Wynd, which led north from the Links as security for a loan in 1797 and, unable west end of South Street, was developed and to make the repayments, the Links were sold renamed Alexandra Place in 1869-70 after and eventually came into the ownership of Alexandra, Princess of Wales (1844-1925), Charles and Cathcart Dempster, who turned the later Queen to King Edward VII. Alfred Place Links into commercial rabbit breeding grounds. developed between 1862-1870 and named The area of the golf course had legal protection, after Prince Alfred Ernest Albert (1844-1900), but who could stop the rabbits? The Links were Queen Victoria’s second son, who visited reduced to a state “entirely useless for golfing”.

St. Andrews in the 1860s.

The case rumbled on from 1802-1820, at great In 1858-68 Queen Street, now Queens legal cost to all involved. In 1820 with the Gardens, was being developed in honour of spectre of further legal action the Town Council Queen Victoria. The gardens on the west side and magistrates encroached land between 1st were added to the street scheme in 1861. It was and 2nd holes, now Links Road, and the Society George Rae’s design for the front elevations of of Golfers won the concession to have land for the houses in Queen Street that was preferred their clubhouse, which was designed by George by the Town Council in 1857.

Rae and completed in 1854.

Jane Ann Liston on the intricacies of

The Newhaven fisherwomen’s gala-dress The outfit I am wearing in the picture is the gala-dress of the Newhaven fishwife. It belonged to my Grandma, Esther Liston, who was the last Newhaven fishwife, only retiring in 1976 aged 80. The gala-dress was worn on Sundays and for festivals such as the Harvest Thanksgiving, which in Newhaven naturally included an emphasis upon the harvest of the sea, and for concerts given by the Fisherlassies’ and Fisherwomen’s choirs. A more practical navy blue costume was worn while actually carrying the fish in the creel around the streets.

The costume itself is a fankle, to use the technical term, to put on for the beginner, having not a single button or hook, being held together by ties and many pins. First of all there is the shor’ goon, a long blouse with short sleeves, one side carefully laid in place across the other. Then comes the first of the cots, or petticoats, red and white striped and with a tape to tie it around the waist. Next is the yellow and white cot, which gave the Newhaven fisherwomen the name ‘yellow butterflies’, their Fisherrow counterparts having a blue one instead. I find the use of the term ‘yellow butterflies’ intriguing, as the only British yellow species, Brimstones and Clouded Yellows, are not often seen that far north. This cot too is tied around the waist.

The cots are heavy material, flannel I think, and are good at keeping the draughts away from the nether regions as I have found, though getting them dry before the days of tumble-driers must have taken some time. There is a cotton apron of blue and white stripes, also tied on, and a

pooch matching the shor’ goon, which always makes me think of the sort of pocket worn and lost by Lucy Locket. So far, so good. Now comes the tricky part. The apron, pinned inside the yellow cot, has to be kilted up over the red one, and pinned so that it hangs neatly in place. My poor husband, who was completely unacquainted with this garb, was commandeered to assist, and somehow got it right, guided only by a small doll and my vague memories of being dressed up in it twice in my teens; a friend is definitely recommended to help the unpractised. Not only are the cots thick, the yellow one has a sort of bustle, which was actually to help support the creel rather than to enhance the figure.

Once the skirts are properly kilted and hanging correctly in a neat point and the muttered imprecations from the assistant kneeling on the floor are over, a broad satin ribbon is tied into a bow with nice long ends and pinned with a brooch on the bosom, also holding together the shor’ goon; remember there are no buttons. I use my St Andrew pilgrim badge, as what could be more appropriate than the patron saint of fishermen?

The outfit is crowned with a shawl, in this case a beautiful Paisley one. Not everyone could manage to put their own on, and prior to a choir concert Grandma was much in demand for tying them. I’ve just about got it right, but the shawl does tend to slide off my straight hair. The outfit is completed with black shoes and white hosiery. Thank goodness for modern tights; traditional stockings would be far too draughty!

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FEATURES: CONTRASTING LIVES Some remarkable people live quietly and modestly in St Andrews; Flora Selwyn popped in to see

Tom Gordon – a man of many gifts Tom Gordon’s great-greatthem, because they “felt that a way grandfather moved to St Andrews of life was slipping away and there from nearby Balmerino. He had would soon be no-one left to tell been discharged with pernicious the story.” The book, with its many rheumatism from the Royal Artillery photographs, is a true historical in1827 having served for 22 years. document, told “as it was” by Tom himself was born at 29 North someone who was part of it. Tom Street, down the close nicknamed gave me a copy and I couldn’t put the “cockle entry”, because Tom’s it down. grandfather and his brothers In August 1952 Tom married preferred to bait their fishing lines Elizabeth (Betty), his sweetheart with cockles rather than the more since Burgh School days. They had usual mussels. their reception at the Victoria Café Education followed in a in St Andrews, where Betty worked. progression from Burgh School to Betty recalled that the Café’s owner, West Infants, to Fisher School, then Miss Blair, ran the place more or back to Burgh School, where he less as a hobby, and when she died took his qualifying exams, equivalent all the staff were given bonuses to later 11+. At the Burgh School, according to their seniority – Betty among other things, Tom learned to received £50, a very generous dance. With a chuckle he recalls, amount in those days. Tom “They put me in a purple blouse laughingly brought to mind that half with a frill down the front and I was of their 118 wedding guests forgot Tom, Elizabeth and their greatgrandchildren fair disgusted and wouldn’t dance in their jackets, it was so hot, and that that. But I had to dance – I wasn’t happy!” he was obliged to pay for the floor to be repolished since the dancing had At age 13 Tom left school, his first job being in Cupar at the bus been rather vigorous! garage. “I was pump boy, I worked all night filling up buses with petrol or Whaling ended for Tom in 1958 and for the next sixteen years he diesel. When the buses came in I filled them up, then I worked with the worked at the Guardbridge Paper Mill, a job originally intended just to fill engineer, Frank Pirie, until 6.00am. I got about 12/6, (12 shillings & six one winter!. He also took up his golf seriously, becoming Vice Captain pence)”. Living in digs in Cupar, only about 5/- out of that wage “came of the St Andrews Golf Club. As a younster, “so high”, Tom’s “blacksmith back to the house, and after that not a lot was left for me”. A month or so turned cleek-maker” father had made Tom’s very first golf clubs. In Tom’s before his 15th birthday, Tom went to sea. “Father took me in at 9 o’clock blood, of course, there was also fishing, and he worked creels and nets and I was on the sea at 12 o’clock.” As Merchant Seaman T124, Tom was out of St Andrews harbour with his youngest son Tommy, until angina a deck boy under Royal Navy discipline for a year, required to do all the forced him to give up in1991. things – “what you were told” – such as scrubbing decks, polishing brass etc. on the old fishery cruiser HMS Norna. Occasionally, he would get the job of assisting the gunner to clean the guns, and actually firing one at target practice was his biggest thrill.

Tom returned to the Merchant Navy, on the SS Ocean Volga, his first deep water ship, on which he took part in the invasion of North Africa.

Then in 1947, after active service on different merchant ships, Tom took his discharge and found a job as a hammerman at Forgan’s Smithy in Market Street . “Just for a laugh” one day, a couple of his mates signed him on in the Territorial Army! However, a year later “the sea bug bit” once more. Tom found that things had changed since he left the Navy and that jobs were hard to come by, so he enlisted with Salvesens of Leith on the whaling ships instead. For the next 10 years Tom hardly set foot in Scotland, working in the Antarctic on the factory ship the Southern Harvester, or on her whale catchers. “It’s a time I’ll never forget,” wrote Tom, in his book, Whaling Thoughts Recalled (printed by Nevisprint Ltd. Tom’s carvings Fort William). Tom has such a fund of stories to tell of his time on the whalers that his family and friends managed to persuade him to record While still at school Tom showed promise in art. Throughout his time in the Navy he used whatever paints he could find, including ships’ paint, to continue his hobby. He now has a fine collection of pictures, mainly in water colours. He also sculpted whale teeth. Poetry is yet another accomplishment (Dovering by the Fire appeared in the Sept / Oct issue of this magazine).

Today Betty and Tom enjoy family life amid a wealth of treasured memories. Their two sons, 5 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren all live close enough to visit often, and if my own experience is any guide, they surely all share a great deal of laughter and genuine ‘joie de vivre‘.

Tom’s book, Whaling Thoughts Recalled may be purchased direct from Tom at 12 Market Street, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9NS Tel: 01334 476 559 Tom’s navy discharge document

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FEATURES: CONTRASTING LIVES Ursula Carson looks back on her

Adventurous Life Since I was a small child I’ve been a traveller, boys called them “anglo-cops”. The groups and perhaps it’s in my blood, being half Welsh did not meet face-to-face. The questions and half Irish. Born and brought up in Barry, on answers were first recorded by me on tape, the South Wales coast, I qualified in Business which I then played back to each group. Some Management in Cardiff. I have lived and worked significant results came from these exchanges in Dublin with the British Council, in London enabling friendships to form between previously with the BBC, thoroughly enjoying living in both incompatible people; one set started a car club cities covering 4 years. Through a friend-of-atogether. My next job was as Assistant Director friend of the family I was offered a job in New of the National Court Volunteer Training Project, York – it was quite an experience for one year. and as the name implies, we advertised for, Then I teamed up with two other girls to drive interviewed, and trained men and women Agency cars across the U.S., eventually arriving volunteers as mentors and tutors to teenage in San Francisco – an interesting city which delinquents, re-integrating them into the was deep into “flower-power” in the ‘60s. There community. After two years I asked for a year’s I joined a Federally-funded research project unpaid leave to travel around the world with into the causes of alcoholism. My job was to SERVAS. interview the new entrants to the programme I found SERVAS when I was living in on their history of drinking. The men, who were Boulder. It’s a world-wide Peace organisation, attempting to cure their addiction, worked and now in 80 countries, promoting international lived in a super-store and hostel owned and understanding through personal contact. run by the Salvation Army. I found it fascinating People are accepted as Hosts or Travellers and fulfilling. My desire for adventure was also regardless of their race, religion, or culture. I being met by being a member of the Sierra have been Host and Traveller for many years.

Club, providing access to mountaineering. After To become a SERVAS Traveller and stay two years, my interest in mountains induced me as a guest in people’s homes, you are first to move to Boulder, Colorado, at the foothills of interviewed, you supply references, complete the Rocky Mountains. a letter of introduction, Living for 3 years with photograph, which Since I was a small child in the U.S. my parents gives details of your I’ve been a traveller, and were asking, “When are intended travel. This you returning?” I did is verified, signed, and perhaps it’s in my blood, return to the U.K. for a stamped by a SERVAS being half Welsh half Irish secretary and must be summer, but went back to Boulder and enrolled immediately shown to in Psychology classes at the University of the Host on arrival. No money is exchanged.

Colorado, also becoming a volunteer counsellor So, travelling west, my first country was Japan, in the Juvenile Court. It was here I first met where I stayed for 5 weeks and lived with 8 Quakers, among whom I made many friends. families, joining in normal family life, SERVASI found them people who lived their views style. This included meals sitting on the floor at on morality and ethics. Later, I was offered a low tables using chop-sticks, and experiencing position by the University with the Institute of many other customs different from my cultural Behavioural Sciences, involved in research upbringing. There was always one person in into communication and hostility problems the family who could speak English. It was all within the community. I was asked to set up an amazing, wonderful experience. Next was a programme involving a group of young, Hong Kong for 2 weeks – no SERVAS hosts at adjudicated delinquent boys, whose parents that time in the ‘70s, but I found the two books were Mexican-born, exchanging questions and which I carried invaluable at all times, “Around answers with a group of white policemen – the the World on a Shoe String”, and “Around the

World on 7 Dollars a Day”. My next country was Thailand, which included 2 weeks in a Buddhist Monastery in the jungle. Next was Nepal for 2 weeks, and then on to India and Kashmir, where I travelled around extensively for 5 months, occasionally staying with SERVAS families, and Indian girls I had known as students in Boulder.

From New Delhi, India, I joined an overland bus to London. We were some 22 persons altogether, travellers, students, hippies. The route was through Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Greece, Europe, stopping off for a few days in capitals, or big cities, according to our route and general agreement. It was in the ‘70s when one could do this, and we had several adventures! To relate just one: leaving Afghanistan for Iran, our English bus driver was arrested and we were taken under armed guard by soldiers to the city of Meshed. There he was taken off to the city prison, the bus was impounded in a cul-de-sac. Day followed day, the hippies moved off to Teheran. There were just 8 of us left when a Chief Executive of the bus company arrived and drove us overnight to Teheran. I had already insisted 3 of us visit Keith, the bus driver, in prison assuring him that I had found a British Council man who contacted the U.K. Embassy in Teheran.

Arriving in Teheran we were joined again by the hippies – and so on to London.

I stayed a few weeks with various family members and friends in England and Scotland, then back to New York and Colorado. Finally, I returned to live permanently in Scotland.

Haydays Project The Haydays project at The Byre Theatre is an opportunity for anyone over 50 to participate in a series of artistic workshops, which may include Tai Chi, various forms of Dance, Drumming, Calligraphy, Painting, Arts & Crafts, Photography and Floral Art. Originally set up with Arts Council funding, it is now run by a committee of volunteers and one part-time worker.

The classes are run in six week blocks on a Tuesday and take place in various parts of the Theatre. They start at 9.00am and run until 4.30pm.

During the year there are opportunities to take part in social and fundraising events.

Since Haydays began, the members have contributed to the theatre in many ways. Some of them are Front of House attendants, some Audio Describers, and as a result of the Drumming classes there is now an independent performing Japanese Taiko and Samba group called Byre Rhythm. They have been asked to perform at various events, their most recent being the opening of the Perth Concert Hall.

Anyone who is interested in Haydays may call in at The Byre on a Tuesday to see what we do. Enrolment forms can be picked up from the Box Office, or you can contact Isabelle Taylor at the address below: Abbey Street, St Andrews, FIFE, KY16 9LA Phone 01334 476288 Fax 01334 475370 Email isabelle.taylor@byretheatre.com

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FEATURES / EVENTS

Ask the Curator Lesley-Anne Lettice of the St Andrews Museum answers your questions Q. Can you tell me when the first bank in St Andrews was established? Also where was the original site of the Post Office?

A. The first public banking office to open in St Andrews was a branch of the Bank of Scotland in 1792.

The first agents were Charles Dempster & Son. The bank was situated in a small building behind 62 South Street. The building later became a private wash-house for a time. In 1811 the branch moved to larger premises at 43 South Street. From 1819 it was sited at 78 South Street, but returned to No. 43 from 1822-39. It was then removed to premises at the top of Westburn Lane until new, purposebuilt premises were opened on the corner of Queens Gardens and South Street in1871 (on the opposite corner to that occupied by the Town Hall since 1861-62). A grand, baronial-style building, it was demolished in 1960.

The Royal Bank was joined by many others, including the Eastern Bank of Dundee and the Clydesdale Banking Company of Glasgow (1838), the Western Bank of Scotland (1850), the Royal Bank of Scotland (1858) and the British Linen Bank (1903). St Andrews also had one of the earliest savings banks in Scotland. Established in 1816, deposits were originally lodged with the Royal Bank, but the St Andrews Savings Bank opened its own premises at 100 South Street in 1846, moving to the corner of Church Square and Church Street in1919.

St Andrews was associated with the National Postal Service by 1790, however it is difficult to locate an actual Post Office until 1820 – at 69 South Street. By 1854 the Post Office had moved to 89 South Street. After a brief spell at 7 Union Street, it settled in the ground floor of the newly-built Town Hall. A short time later, it was transferred to 107 South Street – previously a private dwelling.

The Post Office moved next-door in 1892, finally settling in another converted dwelling-house, 127 South Street, where it remains to this day.

Q. I recently saw a photograph of some Polish servicemen attending art classes in St Andrews during World War II. Any further information?

A. The art classes were taught by sisters, Winifred (1905-2001) and Alison (1907-1982) McKenzie.

Born in Bombay, their father George McKenzie, had trained as an architect alongside Charles Rennie McIntosh. The two had planned to set up in business together, but McKenzie went instead to India to join the family sawmill business.

Both sisters attended Glasgow School of Art and the Grosvenor School of Modern Art in London. They came to St Andrews in 1940 and set up home at 3 Playfair Terrace. During the war they set up art classes for Polish servicemen stationed in the town, teaching drawing and engraving.

The University allowed them to have the use of a room above Upper College Hall and the Committee of Adult Education gave them enough money to buy equipment such as drawing boards and wood-engraving blocks.

The initial response to the classes was overwhelming. Although few of the men had attempted engraving before, many proved to have considerable talent.

Winifred and Alison mounted the men’s work and organised exhibitions at which the work often sold. There were a number of exhibitions in Lower College Hall and an exhibition in the National Gallery of Scotland in 1943.

After the war both sisters taught at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee, introducing a wood-engraving class for Diploma students. Both McKenzie sisters had their work accepted every year by the Royal Scottish Academy. Winifred’s Blue Table was bought by the Duke of Edinburgh after being shown in the RSA’s summer exhibition in 1963.

The McKenzies retired from teaching in 1957 to look after their mother, but continued to work on their own projects, becoming well-respected in the British art world. The wood-engraving classes in Dundee were taken over by Josef Sekalski. Josef was himself a Polish ex-serviceman who settled in St Andrews and married the then Roberta Hodges, a teacher at St Leonards School. The Sekalskis, the McKenzies, and the Kidston sisters, Margaret and Annabel, formed a close-knit group of artists in St Andrews.

Dundee University Museum Collections and the St Andrews Preservation Trust have a number of works by the McKenzie sisters and their wartime pupils. St Andrews Museum in Kinburn Park has a fine collection of Polish war memorabilia donated by the Polish Forces Museum in Fife Committee in 1999.

St Andrews Museum Needs Your Help As well as offering an enquiry service and photographic services, St Andrews Museum also has a number of Loan Kits available for use by schools and community groups and individuals. These can be hired from the Museum free of charge. The existing Loan Kits – ‘Romans’, ‘Victorians’ and ‘World War Two – The Home Front’ – are currently being expanded and updated to included more objects, a ‘User’s Guide’, photographs and worksheets.

Currently most of the objects in the Kits are part of the Museum’s collections. Ideally, these should be replaced by ‘un-accessioned’ objects. The Museum would like to appeal to local people to donate items to the Museum for use in the Loan Kits. Objects sought for the Home Front Kit include the following; ration book, petrol ration book, clothing coupons, adult gas mask, baby’s gas mask, ‘Mickey Mouse’ gas mask, Civil Defence badges/armbands, hand-made toys of the period, blackout material, parachute silk, ‘woollies for the troops’ knitting patterns, comic books, recipes etc The Museum is also seeking objects for the Victorians Kit eg slate, slate pencil, toys and games, children’s clothing/shoes, school books/certificates etc All objects offered must be in good condition.

If you can help, please contact Assistant Curator, Lesley-Anne Lettice on 01334 412690.

Thank You.

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Selected Events Thursday, 5 January – 7.30pm Scottish Chamber Orchestra Concert a Viennese New Year Concert. The Younger Hall, North Street, St Andrews Saturday, 7 January – 10.30am -12pm Junior Hortus children’s gardening club (age 5-12); Friends of the Botanic Garden, Botanic Garden – £6, Canongate, St Andrews. 01334-477178 / 01334-476452.

Tuesday, 10 January – 7.30pm The Redwood Trail, talk by Ian Douglas, Craigrothie; Friends of the Botanic Garden, School of Chemistry (North Haugh); free.

Thursday, 19 January – 7.30pm A Chamber Roofed by Heaven, a celebration of Kellie Castle Garden

by Andrew Snowball. St Andrews Gardeners’ Club. Hope Park Church Hall, Howard Place, St Andrews.

Saturday, 4 February – 10.30am – 12pm Junior Hortus children’s gardening club (age 5-12); Friends of the Botanic Garden. Botanic Garden, Canongate, St Andrews – £6. 01334-477178 / 01334-476452 Tuesday, 7 February – 7.30pm Travels in Iran, talk by John Mitchell, RBGE, Edinburgh.

Friends of the Botanic Garden.

School of Chemistry, North Haugh, St Andrews. free.

Thursday, 16 February – 7.30pm Greens maintenance and developing good lawns, talk by Douglas Shearer, Elmwood College, Cupar; St Andrews Gardeners’ Club, Hope Park Church Hall, Howard Place, St Andrews.

Friday, 10 – Sunday, 19 February – Art & Craft Fair 2006. Many items including painting, photography, needlework, and much more, at the Preservation Trust Museum, North Street, St Andrews Tuesday, 21 February – 8.00 pm.

At St Leonard’s Music School, The Pends, St Andrews. The Music Club: Florilegium. Programme: Father, Son and Godfather: Music

by JS Bach, CPE Bach, and Telemann. Tickets at the door: Adult £9 (Concession £8), Students £5, Children £1 Advance Notice Sunday, 5 March – 4.00pm.

At St Leonard’s Music School, The Pends, St Andrews. The Music Club. Configure 8 : Fenella Barton & Rick Koster, violin; Vanessa McNaught, viola; Sophie Harris, cello; Elizabeth Bradley, double bass. Programme: Haydn, Kodaly, Dvorak, Music for String Quintet

by Brazilian composers. Tickets at the door: Adult £9 (Concession £8), Students £5, Children £1

EVENTS / SHOPS & SERVICES

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At Elspeth’s of St Andrews, 9 Church Street Tel: 01334 472494

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SHOPS & SERVICES This magazine owes its success to many people. There is never a particular right time to say thank you, but Flora Selwyn feels that New Year, with its sense of renewal, is a good time to highlight and honour the work of the Designer and Printer, the key to this whole enterprise.

The University’s Reprographics Unit First of all, sincere thanks to Duncan Stewart, Design Wizard par excellence. The good, clear, and professional layout of the magazine attracts a great deal of praise from all quarters. Duncan puts up with all the vagaries of the Editor with exemplary patience. Sometimes I subject the first proof to a mass of red pen, and when I return Duncan has quietly rearranged the whole thing to perfection. Born in Wales to Scottish parents, Duncan graduated from Art College in Dundee. He told me that after working in Aberystwyth and Scarborough he joined Reprographics at its inception. Duncan says that in St Andrews , “I’ve enjoyed attending many classes and concerts offered by the town and University, taken part in Art Club exhibitions, learnt to play the guitar, got married, bought a house in Ceres and am just about to be joined at home by our third dog.”

Reprographics Unit For all your printing requirements and much much more All types of printing and design work undertaken, from simple b/w membership cards to full colour brochures Please contact us for a free estimate • • • • • • • •

Dissertations Theses Soft Binding Colour and B/W Printing and Copying Large Format Poster Printing Laminating Encapsulating Mounting Now located at St Katharine’s West, 16 The Scores, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9AX

Telephone: (01334) 463020 Email: amm@st-andrews.ac.uk www.st-andrews.ac.uk/reprographic/latestrepro.html

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Andy Mackie, the Manager of the Unit, is proud of the fact that all of his staff, which includes Margaret Smith, Rhona Rutherford, Duncan Stewart, and secretary Helen Kay, are long serving. Andy himself was trained as a compositor using hot metal, beginning his career with a small printer’s in Lanark and then moving to the Glasgow Herald. He moved to Pittenweem with his wife and shortly afterwards started working in the Printing Department at the University in 1984. In 1988 Bert Bremner established the Andy Mackie, Reprographics Manager Reprographics Unit, which included the Printing and Graphics Departments. Later the two Units became independent within the University with, the now Reprographics Unit, setting up in the Purdie Building on the North Haugh. They have recently moved to St Katharine’s West on the Scores.

Andy would like it to be known more widely that anyone, commercial or private, can use the services on offer, and says that, “We aim to provide a good service for all our customers.” There are two colour digital machines, ideal for short run colour work. Andy emphasises that he is now able to provide exactly what people want without the waste that used to occur with conventional litho printing – customers nervous of the expense of a litho reprint would often order many more copies than necessary. Andy is keen to “develop our colour digital printing further.”

Apart from designing, printing and copying, the Unit undertakes soft binding, laminating (A4 to A0), encapsulating, and mounting – “all your printing requirements and much more”, in fact. Free estimates are, of course, available.

I feel that this magazine surely encapsulates the professional excellence of Andy and his team.

SHOPS & SERVICES Sales Director Euan McGill introduces

Tayport Printers Everyone at some point has probably thought, “wouldn’t it be great, if we could step back in time . . .”

Well, that’s exactly where I found myself that first night I was shown around “Tayport Printers” with Ken Winter, who at that point was considering taking over the company. What we found that night was not quite “back to the future”, but more, “the land that time forgot”. With plummeting sales, little or no investment, and poor customer relations, the company was going nowhere fast; from the outside looking in, it looked as if the company had lost its way.

The first decision, if Ken took over, would not be an easy one!!! Do we let Tayport go under and raise it from the ashes like the phoenix, with all the stigma that attaches itself? Or do we do it the hard way and drag it up off its knees, screaming & shouting and into the future? Ken mulled it over for a few days and then came the phone call: “LET THE SCREAMING AND SHOUTING BEGIN......!”

Once we were in, the size of the task ahead became greater than we first envisaged. Firstly, we had to get the bank on our side; and address the debt we had inherited.

A business plan was put together and presented to The Bank of Scotland, who thankfully went with us. Now we could start to move forward. Our biggest problem was going to be, getting the credibility back to the company name . . .

That was nearly 9 years ago . . . Today we have established a comprehensive and high quality client base with customers spread right across Scotland, from the Isle of Skye in the west, to Inverness in the north, and Hawick in the south. We also regularly undertake work for a number of London-based agencies.

As you are aware, in business, just as in our private lives, first impressions are important, no more so than in the printed materials that we send to our customers, clients, our business partners, and our friends.

The appearance, the touch, and the performance of such written materials leaves such a lasting impression; they have to be done well.

This is always a consideration for us at “Tayport Printers” and it is why, in the last 3 years, we have invested over one million pounds, upgrading and refurbishing our Desktop Publishing Suite, introducing state-of-the-art printing presses, including computer-to-plate systems and, of course, our people.

All our employees are highly motivated, highly skilled and, most importantly, we ensure that all our products are of the highest quality. The service that we provide is professional and we are proud to be known as the kind of supplier our clients like to deal with.

The continued investment enables us to provide the fast response times and guaranteed delivery times that are essential to all elements of modern business. When all of these elements come together, what we have achieved has been amazing; Tayport Printers Ltd, of its size, is now probably one of the most technologically advanced print companies in Scotland.

Did we manage to get the credibility back to the company name? With clients of the calibre of St Andrews Old Course Hotel, St Andrews University, St Andrews Links Trust, and of course St Andrews in Focus, I Think We Have!!!!

We hit the ground running 9 years ago when we took over the company; it’s been a long hard journey and there have been a few casualties along the way. Through a lot of hard work and investment, we have progressed to the position we are in now. The next few years though offer us further potential.

“We never aspired to be the biggest printing company in Scotland, or even in the area. We want to be acknowledged for delivering the highest possible quality craftsmanship synonymous with Tayport Printers” DID WE MAKE THE RIGHT DECISION 9 YEARS AGO? . . . YOU CAN BE THE JUDGE OF THAT!!!!

Contact: euan@tayportprinter.co.uk or visit www.tayportprinter.co.uk Telephone: (01382) 552381 Facsimile: (01382) 553395 Address:

Tayport Printers Ltd Shanwell Court Industrial Estate Shanwell Road Tayport FIFE DD6 9EA

The desktop publishing suite

The 5 colour press

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SHOPS & SERVICES

Collaborative Project for the Byre Theatre and Crawford Arts Centre St. Andrews’ two main Arts organisations have recently joined forces on a Scottish Arts Council funded piece of Audience Development work. The two-year project aims to build on existing audience numbers whilst implementing creative schemes to bring in new ones. It is headed by Debbie Butler, until recently Marketing and Development Manager at the Byre. some stand-alone projects. Tom Gardner, Managing Director at the For the Crawford Arts Centre, this project will be an important part of their Byre, is confident that the project will broaden attendances for both move to new premises and their wider Visual Arts profile around Fife. A organisations: “We are very pleased with the appointment of Debbie dynamic two-way process can attract more visitors to St. Andrews whilst Butler as Audience Development Manager to head a joint project creating exhibitions which will be accessible to a wider audience than for the Byre Theatre and the currently around Fife. It is hoped that Crawford Arts Centre funded combined initiatives will be of mutual “We know that many people visit both the Byre and by the Scottish Arts Council. benefit in spreading the St. Andrews the Crawford, but we also know that there are many This creates a new opportunity arts message around the area and for us to explore cross-art form in encouraging people to experiment more who would enjoy our activities – this project issues aimed at widening the with new art forms. Diana Sykes, appeal of both companies and will hopefully let them know what’s on offer and Director of the Crawford welcomes this encouraging the development of initiative, “We know that many people tempt them to try something new!” new audiences.” visit both the Byre and the Crawford, At a time of increasingly but we also know that there are many tight funding for the arts, this project with The Scottish Arts Council is more who would enjoy our activities – this project will hopefully let them seen as important support for both the Byre and the Crawford in their know what’s on offer and tempt them to try something new!” bid to maintain and develop attendances. Expect lots of interesting Three specific target groups for the collaborative work have developments . . . been highlighted; young people in the 18 – 24 age group, who are nationally under-represented in arts audiences; existing and first-time users, who will be encouraged to experiment with new art forms; and the visitor market. Schemes to encourage visitors and audiences in all three areas will be initiated, some linking the two organisations and

SCOTLAND CAN CATCH THEM So can you – at the Scottish Shop, main stockist of official SRU & Rugby Nations

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

THE SCOTTISH SHOP 147 South Street, St Andrews Tel/Fax 01334 477170

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St Valentine’s Day

For your Loved One – cards (60p – £2) jewellery of all kinds

SHOPS & SERVICES Ian Thomson, Scotland’s Mr Fish n’ Chips!

Born in St Andrews, brought up in Buckhaven, now living in Leven, working all over Scotland, Ian Thomson is surely the entrepreneur’s entrepreneur.

He started his working life as an insurer with the Prudential, changing to the Legal & General in Edinburgh. Some 20 or more years ago one of his customers in Perth, whose wife was sadly dying of cancer, asked Ian to help run his shop. Having worked in a pizza outlet as a schoolboy, Ian had no hesitation. He eventually bought the shop, and now owns three in that city. One of these had been opened in 1901, amongst the earliest fish and chip shops in Scotland. It had an original iron range and tiles in perfect working condition and the original copper pans. However, because of regulations Ian was obliged to upgrade. He offered the range to Perth Museum, then to other heritage museums and got no response. “It broke my heart,” says Ian, “I had to have it smashed to make room for new frying ranges.” He still has the copper pans.

Then Ian bought a shop in Kennoway, followed by another in Kirkcaldy. Here, he won the first of many Seafood Seafish Quality Awards.

His deli in Perth is the inspiration for the ‘101’ logo. It represents a knife, plate, fork. Ian explained that awards are valid only for the actual places chosen. At the moment he has been short listed for another for his St Andrews shop, and should know the outcome by the time this magazine appears.

Ian not only wins awards, he judges them for the Fish Federation. ”It can take two or three days to come to a decision, but I’ve enjoyed it all,” Ian says. He got involved with the Fish Federation when they were recruiting staff and training them in Leeds, and gradually Ian was ‘sucked in’ as he puts it. Ian rightly feels he has done well.

On a visit to the US in the late ‘70s, Ian got the idea of starting a home delivery service. Back in Methil he was told it was a crazy notion and would never work. Nevertheless, he began to send his pizzas across the road in 1979, then within a couple of months he had bought 2 vans to take orders to private houses, the first home delivery in Scotland.

Just now, Ian is in the middle of building the first Fish n’ Chip Drive Thro’ in Scotland, in Glenrothes. It is also to have a sit-in restaurant, as well as a waitress-service restaurant. “It should be ready in April or May” Ian said, “My family’s all involved, and I’ve got a well-trained team ready to go.”

Unabashed, Ian is happy to sell Deep Fried Mars Bars. In fact, he is planning a unique competition to see how many can be eaten within a specified time. There’s no entry yet for such an event in the Guinness Book of Records, so watch this space! But, Ian stresses, all his products are fresh, that he never uses frozen fish or pre-treated potatoes, and he takes pride in owning a traditional fish and chip shop. And indeed, if you go into the back of his St Andrews shop, it is stacked high with sacks of Scottish potatoes. Fish comes from the East Coast if at all possible. The shop is spotless, and you can’t smell any trace of fat or cooking; it is absolutely shipshape and extremely well run.

Ian is married, with one son, (golfer with a low handicap!) who often helps in the shop, and a daughter presently studying in Dundee to be a PE teacher.

The shop is at 131 South Street in St Andrews.

Tel: 01334 470 400.

Highland Dress Hire from £40 ***** Ex-hire Sale starts Saturday, 14th January 2006

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SHOPS & SERVICES

Roving Reporter

1. Just a few short months and what used to be Cashmere Collections has transformed into Dynamic Hair, at 100 South Street. New owner, Paula Baker told Reporter all about it. Paula was Hugh Farquhar’s manageress in his salon in Church Street. The sudden and unexpected death of her boss this summer galvanised Paula into thinking about a career move. Her staff were 100% behind the idea, and when premises became available Paula and her two brothers took the plunge to start their own business. All Paula‘s staff went with her – and all their clients followed! Paula has lived in St Andrews since she was 6 weeks old. She trained as a hairdresser at Parrs Salon in Bell Street. During an earlier Open Golf Championship in St Andrews, Paula worked at the Old Course Hotel, meeting many golfing celebrities. Like so many St Andreans, Paula had the urge to see the world, so in 1986 she joined cruise ships as hairdresser and for 4 years saw many exotic places far afield.

She said that unfortunately, “the only place I really wanted to go to was Australia and I’ve never got there yet!” Paula’s elder brother, Alan, is a Major in the army. Brother Ian was a banker before realising his dream of working for Dunfermline Athletic Football Club. Paula says that she owes an enormous debt of gratitude to both of them, adding, “I’d also like to thank my girls and all my customers for their phenomenal support, and my family and friends for their help in letting me achieve this.”

Paula admits she never thought she would actually own a shop, but “it’s just a point in life when your directions change and let something happen.” Reporter would like to wish her, and her team, calm seas and prosperous voyage!

***

2. Roving Reporter can’t help thinking that St Andrews is becoming the Gourmet Capital of Scotland! Yet another splendid addition to the eating experience, Tapas, has opened at 177 South Street, Tel: 01334 471 111. Up a stair straight off the street you enter an atmospheric stone-walled space warmly lit and gently bathed

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. . . is delighted to find that entrepreneurship is alive and well in our town

in Mediterranean music to set the scene. Owner Michael Henderson enthuses about Spanish paella, “it’s quite an exciting way of cooking, and it’s fresh.” His new restaurant he feels is “a little seed that’s developed over time.” Many people enjoy sampling the numerous tapas bars in Spain, but Michael himself prefers to have something more than a bar. His dinner menu is therefore both comprehensive and moderately priced. For starters, a Hot & Sour Crab & Sweet Corn Soup is £4.50, while Mussels in Spicy Tomato & White Wine Sauce; Grilled Flat Bread is £6.50. A main course Vegetable Mezze Plate with Grilled Flat Bread comes at £10.95, and Whole Roasted Sea Bass with Fried Courgettes and Almond Sauce is £16.95. There are 3 Tapas Banquets to choose from, the first for a single person, the others for 2 people to share.

These offer collections, including for example, Morrocan Cous Cous, White Gazpacho and Rabbit, and quite a few other dishes. Michael told Reporter that the Banquets are much in demand. He hopes that they will encourage his customers to return and choose full meals, having sampled tasters, as it were. A varied wine list ranges from red Julienas, SA at £21.95 a bottle to rosé Sangria at £10.95 a litre, with many in between. Prices for wine by the glass appear on the list in brackets. At present, the restaurant is open from Tuesday night to Sunday lunch: Michael says, “That’s only because I’m manning it myself. In summer I hope it will be open 7 days a week.” You are advised to reserve a table well in advance, however, as Tapas is proving very popular. Reporter says his mouth watered just reading the menu, and it won’t be long before he’s enjoying the delights of Tapas himself.

refurbished premises. The decor at once calmed Reporter’s nerves after all his frantic rushing around outside.

He wanted to know about the transformation from coffee and gift shop to comprehensive therapy centre. “Margo McKee, the Manager and I have been friends for over 25 years, since we both worked at The Old Course Hotel,” explained Liz, “She’s been the inspiration, because she’s always wanted to manage her own business.”

Margo comes from The St Andrews Bay Hotel, where she was Senior Therapist. Prior to that she gained valuable experience at Gleneagles as well. All the staff at Chesterhill are fully trained professionals in the many therapies on offer, and Reporter enjoyed the friendly atmosphere. There are two therapy rooms upstairs.

Downstairs, which has full disabled access, there is a large treatment room, and a special, very private spray tan room which gives an all-over ‘tan’ lasting a good ten days.

Liz said that all the products in use are Organic Elements from Italy, and make-up is Art Deco. There is no bar to age or gender (though children under 16 must have parental consent) and you are invited to “give yourself some extra treatment time to enjoy a relaxing cup of coffee or herbal tea” while your skin tone and moisture levels are analysed with the aid of the “unique Organic Elements Skin Analyser.” Gift vouchers are available. What a lovely idea for St Valentine’s Day, as well as birthdays etc.

‘CHT, Committed to Harmony and Total Well Being’ – Chesterhill’s mission statement lives up to its aims, for Reporter’s Alter Ego was treated to a one-hour facial with massage and left feeling completely revitalised.

As well as all this, Liz still runs her exceptional catering business . Reporter has fond memories of a lunch party which had his guests enthusing even two years later about the quality of Liz’s cooking and service. See her website at: www.standrews catering.com or email her at: enquiries@standrewscatering.com

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3. Blink in St Andrews and the scene changes! Reporter noticed that Chesterhill Therapies had opened at 104 South Street, tel: 01334 473 230. Of course, in he went. He was warmly welcomed by owners Liz & Jim Mudie, who had literally only just opened their beautifully

Margo McKee

4. St Andrews’ Fair Trade aspirations have been given a significant shot in the arm with the opening of the town’s newest privately owned coffee shop, Con Panna at 203 South Street.

Behind the business are local couple Kathryn and Craig Nisbet and they now boast they are one of the town’s first coffee shops serving only Fair Trade coffees. And, the Fair Trade ethos doesn’t stop there.

With the exception of a couple of speciality teas, all their hot beverages are Fair Trade sourced, so too is their range of fresh fruit juices.

Going down the strong Fair Trade road was a step taken in conjunction with Scottish coffee suppliers Café Ecosse, with whom Kathryn started dealing some 15 years ago, when she was a partner in a tearoom business at the old Pavilion on the Bow Butts.

The doors at Con Panna opened at the end of September, and with the help of a team of friendly staff the coffee shop has quickly become a popular haunt with locals, students, and visitors. Once again, Kathryn has brought a range of home baking and homemade soups to the menu with all ingredients sourced locally, where possible.

“I am delighted that we have managed to attract a wide range of customers in the first few weeks,” said Kathryn. “I think we are offering a menu that suits a broad spectrum of people, from express lunches for those on the move, to speciality coffees and daily fresh scones for those who have time to sit and chat.”

“We have also started exhibiting a collection of photographs by a local man, Ryan Milne, and hope that exhibitions like this will change regularly with space being made available to local artists and photographers,” she added.

Oh! One final question from Roving Reporter – where did the name Con Panna come from? Well, many names had been banded about for the new business, but Con Panna (Italian meaning ‘with cream‘) was the best suggestion and came from Craig and Kathryn’s eldest daughter’s boyfriend!

OUT & ABOUT David Middleton pleads on behalf of

The Lade Braes – One of the Most Delectable Places on Earth It was Jo Grimond who kindly provided the title for this piece in his and progressively along its length when the water was no longer needed memories of a childhood in St Andrews. He paints a picture of regular for milling. The path then became the course of the old lade, which is still walks on the Lade Braes with his nurse, clutching a parcel of stale bread, extant under the pavements between Cockshaugh and Melbourne Brae. to feed the ducks in the Law Mill pond. On the way he remembers the The land from Cockshaugh to the town boundary has the appearance soothing gurgle of the stream and the freshness of the daffodils blooming of being natural woodland, but this is in fact a result of careful planning in spring under the budding trees. by two early champions of the walk, Jo Grimmond is not alone in eulogising Baillies McIntosh and Milne. John Milne, the Lade Braes. In 1913 David Henry who combined his civic duties with FSAS was stirred to an even greater employment as an architect, continued enthusiasm, “ ... ... our milllade was not the work started by John McIntosh in ordinary: [it] has throughout the centuries planting carefully selected trees along the stirred to poetic fervour many souls, both banks of the burn, sometimes at his own singly and in eligibly matched pairs, whose expense. feet have trod – as on air – the well worn In 1891 the walk as we now know path by its side. Many now in lands afar it stretched from Bridge Street to the doubtless cherish memories of rambles extremities of the Law Park Wood at its on the Lade Braes when hearts were western end. young and the world was all so fair and The Law Park Wood was regenerated promising”. and enhanced by the landowners, Today, both David Hendry and Jo the Boase family, in the early 1900s.

Grimond would find the Lade Braes much Around 1930, part of the wood became as they remembered it. While trees have a-Winnie-the-Pooh garden for children. been felled and replaced, the character The old stone bridge, was of course, of this “delectable place” has remained an ideal spot for playing Poo Sticks! In essentially unchanged. Its environment 1945 Phillip Boase became chairman of seems designed by nature, rather than the St Andrews Preservation Trust and by man, but while the Kinness Bum has the Law Park Wood is now owned and made its own course to the sea, its braes maintained by the Trust. The Braes have have been planned and nurtured over the signs of early human activity at the site of centuries to serve the needs of man, and a twelfth century chapel and graveyard ultimately to lift the spirit of those people at Hallowhill. In one of the ancient stone who have found their way to it. cists, some of which are still visible, The lade itself was designed probably the grave of a child containing Roman in the 13th century to provide water artefacts was found. for the Benedictine Monastery by the So, today, the casual stroller can Cathedral, where it was used by the sense the history of the Lade Braes monks for drinking, powering flour mills, as well as enjoy its natural beauty. and ultimately for their ablutions. This However, changes are proposed, which provided self-sufficiency for the religious would cause this tranquil walkway to community, and avoided the need for be widened and turned into a multiLade Braes at Cockshaugh circa 1905. The viaduct recently the monks to roam too far and put their user path for pedestrians and cyclists. built over the Kinness burn, carrying the railway to the East immortal souls at risk. By damming the Horses would also be permitted. Street Neuk and beyond can be seen in the distance. burn a mile upstream, a head of water lights and barriers would be erected and was achieved, which would wind its way road markings would be put in place to in a more elevated position on the northern braes and through the South segregate the cyclists from pedestrians. Where the horses would go is not Street rigs of the medieval town until it reached the rocky promontory of quite clear. the Cathedral.

Fife Council is consulting on an additional plan to make Lade Braes A period followed when other mills were built along the length of the Walk a Core Path. If designated as such, its protected status as a lade by the entrepreneurs of the day, and several others were established walkway would become even more vulnerable. Whether this is a desirable using subsidiary streams. Two of these mills, the New Mill and the Law change will certainly be debated with vigour in the town, and at the end of Mill, are still landmarks to be seen on the walk. the day, the Council will hear the verdict of the people.

Until the late 1890s, the lade was open, and the path ran along its Perhaps Jo Grimond’s reminiscences may have something to offer in edge. It was covered in mainly for safety reasons, firstly near the town, this debate. Noting the strict injunction against cycling on the Lade Braes (an activity then sternly punished by the magistrates) he observed that the town and the bicycle were locked in mutual necessity and suspicion. The ubiquitous bicycle was, he suggested, a utilitarian device, and was for that reason, jealously repelled from pedestrian areas.

Tranquil walkway or utilitarian cycle track, the decision will affect us all. The consultation is under way and everyone can influence the outcome.

A new generation of children discovers the delights of Poo Sticks

Further reading: The St Andrews of Jo Grimond, Allan Sutton Publishing, 1992.

A Journey Through the Lade Braes, Mathew Jarron and Jennifer Webster, St Andrews Preservation Trust.

The author gratefully acknowledges these sources of information.

The Scores today – Lade Braes tomorrow?

No thanks!

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OUT & ABOUT Secretary Morag Brown introduces

The Kinburn Bowling Club Kinburn Bowling and Putting Greens are nestled within the parkland at Double Dykes Road, a site which includes the Kinburn Museum and Café, and the Tennis Club.

Established in 1952, the Club celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 2002 with special additional matches with various local clubs. Through the years the popularity of the sport of bowling has waxed and waned. At one time the Club could close the waiting list due to the numbers keen to take part, but at present we are suffering in common with all other clubs in the area with a falling membership.

This is unfortunate as no other sport can provide such a pleasant way of keeping fit for everyone from age nine to over 90. Many Clubs can have three generations of one family competing together on more or less equal terms.

Although the property is owned by Fife Council and only leased to the Club we are responsible for all the maintenance of the Bowling green and the putting area, also the surrounding garden. It is a Public Green and we aim to be open for play all summer to anyone wishing either bowling or putting.

Even toddlers can enjoy a game of putting and it is a great family pastime. However it is quite surprising how many people are not aware of the facilities in Kinburn Park.

As a Club we have to be constantly thinking

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of ways to raise the considerable sums of money needed to keep up this rather extensive area. We have recently made an extension to the pavilion, which has greatly improved the facility, and are about to embark on the provision of artificial bankings round the bowling green. Our main problem at present is rabbits. These sweet furry creatures are not a friend to grassy areas and have created havoc in the past few years especially in the bankings.

Our bowling season starts in April and continues till early October. We provide a healthy mix of gentle exercise and friendly rivalry through the Club competitions and the annual fixtures against other clubs in the area. There are competition sections for men, ladies, seniors, juniors, and most of the ‘friendlies’ are mixed. There are also varying formats for matches; as well as the rink which comprises four players a side under the command of a team captain known as a ‘skip‘, there may be triples, pairs, or single hand play. Many Clubs, including ours, run sponsored Open Competitions during the season offering generous cash prizes.

Over the years many of Kinburn’s members have been winners in Scottish and Tayside Competitions.

The Fife Blind Association bowl on a Monday afternoon and use a ‘clock’ system to

know where the bowls and the jack are lying.

Their standard of bowling can often put many of the rest of us to shame.

During the school holidays Junior Golfers from as young as 4 have regular putting sessions under the supervision of the Children’s Holiday Golf Association and this gives them instruction on proper conduct on the course as well as the basics of putting.

Scores are taken very seriously and keenly watched for improvements.

Our Club also provides a ‘home from home’ for keen bowlers on holiday, mainly during the Glasgow Fair fortnight when, as well as a regular daily sweep, several other keenly contested competitions are run. The Club offers a welcome to anyone interested in taking up the sport. Bowls and shoes are available for players from age 9 upwards.

Free coaching is provided. Visitors and new members are encouraged to join in the weekly fun competition run on Monday evenings. The theme of the Club is friendship – working together and playing together for the benefit of the Club.

For further information, please contact Morag Brown, 01334 474 301

OUT & ABOUT Alistair Lawson, Field Officer of ScotWays requires your help in

Making the Connection Readers are invited to make known their opinion on the following recreation and access matter, which so far has only produced divided opinions amongst those who work in the field.

On the Guardbridge – St Andrews road, there is a point where the right of way from Balgove meets the A91; indeed, a relatively new ScotWays sign marks the spot and points the way up to Balgove and on towards Strathkinness High Road. That spot at the side of the A91 leaves a lot to be desired as the start or finish of a walk because, at first glance, there is nowhere else to go.

However, just over the road, just behind the fringe of bushes, is the cycleway / walkway along the edge of the golf courses, offering the perfect continuation of a walk which may have started in the Hepburn Gardens area of the town and might finish in the vicinity of the Gateway.

In order to optimise this potential link, a gate or stile in the roadside fence would be required, plus an additional sign to indicate the connection. However, the A91 is a busy road, and there are those who feel that to invite people in a relaxed, recreational frame of mind to undertake a crossing of that road would be to expose them to unwarranted risk. The counterargument, of course, is that people cross roads every day in life and know how to conduct themselves.

While such matters are ultimately determined by Roads Department staff who are familiar with traffic speeds, sight-lines, the known behaviour of walkers and such like factors, it might be instructive to know what a cross-section of citizens feel about the matter. Please make your opinions known either to the editor or directly to ScotWays (24 Annandale Street, Edinburgh EH7 4AN or: info@scotways.com).

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 WINTER LECTURE PROGRAMME First Tuesday at 7.30 pm Chemistry Dept., North Haugh ENTRY FREE – ALL WELCOME 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

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OUT & ABOUT

WWF – action to combat climate change Contributed by George Hadley, Senior Press Officer, WWF Climate change poses a devastating threat to the future of the planet. It could bring water and food shortages to millions of people around the world and put hundreds of thousands of plants and animals under threat of extinction. Here in the UK, we are already seeing changes in our weather as floods, storms, droughts and heat waves all become more frequent and severe.

Action is needed NOW from government and industry to stop climate chaos in the future. That is why WWF is working with business to affect real change. The power sector for example is the biggest source of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the UK, accounting for 37 per cent of such emissions. WWF recently completed an analysis of the UK’s major power companies, to assess what they’re doing to reduce emissions and how they could do it better. The publication of our findings has led to high level discussions with every company in the report, enabling us to use our influence to press for a low-carbon future.

WWF is also working with other organisations to get the message across, and we are now part of the new Stop Climate Chaos movement. We are calling on the UK government to commit to reducing CO2 emissions by three per cent every year.

In order to keep the pressure up, WWF is now calling for tougher limits on CO2 emissions via the second phase of the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). The scheme is the world’s first international trading system for CO2 emissions, and covers power generation and industrial installations across 25 EU countries. A robust second phase will help to deliver environmental benefits. And it’s a vital way for the UK government to meet its manifesto pledge by 2010 of cutting emissions by 20 per cent below 1990 levels.

Tough emissions limits and a robustly designed scheme will also provide longterm incentives for the development of low-carbon fuels and technologies, implementation of energy efficiency measures, and generation of renewable energy.

What you can do We’ve designed a great new online game, which is a fun way of learning more about the serious threat posed by climate change, and how our lifestyles directly affect the planet. When you’ve finished the game, sign our internet petition calling for action to combat climate change and you could also become an online campaigner.

You’ll find the game and petition at wwf.org.uk/climatechangegame.

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Join WWF! Becoming a member of WWF is easy and should take just two to three minutes. Give whatever you can, or become a member by donating a minimum of £3 a month. We promise to use your contributions wisely and effectively to help combat the threats to our environment and save endangered species.As a member we will send you three issues of WWF Action magazine (by paper or online) every year, so you can read how your support is helping. You’ll also find green solutions and exclusive money-saving offers from eco-friendly companies.

We can also all make changes in our lifestyles that will help combat climate change. Here are 10 tips on how you can make a difference.

1. Sign up for green electricity – visit www.ecotricity.co.uk. It’s easy, and only takes five minutes. Even better, it won’t cost you any extra!

2. Switch off all lights and electrical appliances when not in use – TV left on standby still uses up to 90 per cent of its full power.

3. Turn down your thermostat by 1C – it’ll cut your heating bills by 5 -10 per cent.

4. Switch to a gas oven if you can – on average, they use a quarter of the energy of an electric one.

5. Prevent heat loss by installing at least 15cm of loft insulation. Lag your boiler and pipes, use draft excluders, and put foil behind radiators on outside walls to reflect heat back inside. The loft insulation alone can cut your energy bills by almost a quarter.

6. Use public transport, cycle or walk rather than driving to work. Or, if you drive, try to share your journey with colleagues who live nearby.

7. The average item of food in a supermarket travels more than 1,500km. Buy fruit and veg that are in season to help reduce enormous costs resulting from importing produce and, where possible, choose locally produced food.

8. Buy energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs; as well as using less energy, such light bulbs last 12 times as long as standard ones. Check out the Energy Savings Trust website – www.est.org.uk – for a list of energy-efficient appliances and energy savings advice.

9. Only use a washing machine with a full load, and let clothes dry naturally rather than using a tumble dryer. You could also use ecofriendly washing powder that’s suitable for low temperature washes – visit www.wwf.org.uk/shop 10. Become an online campaigner. Together with 15,000 other WWF campaigners you can achieve real change on environmental issues such as climate change, sustainable development, toxic chemicals, and the marine environment.

For lots more information about climate change visit our website at wwf.org.uk/climatechangecampaign

OUT & ABOUT Catherine Erskine’s

Snowdrop Collection at Cambo To most people a snowdrop is a small white flower that blooms in the early part of the year and apart from welcoming its appearance as a harbinger of spring, the interest stops there. To a galanthophile, a snowdrop lover, the leaf shape and colour, the markings on the inner petals, the shape and size of the petals, the flowering time and growth habit are all of significance. One’s eye is always on the lookout for something different. Front gardens, embankments in towns, every drift of white in February will catch the eye.

I started collecting ‘special’ snowdrops the year I started selling snowdrops-in-the-green by mail order in 1986. Flush with the takings from my first season I blew the lot on Lilacs and some beautiful hellebores from Helen Ballard who was famous at the time for breeding hellebores. Her husband, Philip, was a snowdrop man and had a small list of snowdrop bulbs for sale. I bought 1 Magnet (still my desert island snowdrop) and 1 S.Arnott and was hooked. I now have over 200 different snowdrops in my collection and supply specialist snowdrops by mail order as well, although still in quite limited quantities.

As I write this in the last few days of November, I can feel the tell-tale signs of the onset of ‘Snowdrop Fever’. Peter Gatehouse is looking good, Hyde Lodge is flourishing and Mrs Macnamara is eagerly expected any day now. Gobbledegook to most people, to a galanthophile this makes perfect sense and is the sort of dialogue that passes for conversation among snowdrop collectors. Emails will soon be flying back and forth as collectors try to acquire sought-after bulbs by swapping with other collectors. The rarest snowdrops do not appear in catalogues and cannot be bought.

Collecting snowdrops has taken me to so many interesting places and introduced me to many and varied people. This autumn we were in Greece to see the snowdrops in the mountains there; next spring my diary is full of ‘snowdrop appointments’. I am speaking at Snowdrop Days in Somerset and at Floors Castle, selling snowdrops and snowdrop gifts at the Galanthus Gala in Shropshire, and have pencilled in a few days to look for new snowdrops in the woods of Angus and the Borders. I am determined that next year I will get to Dumfriesshire to explore the snowdrop

woods there. We have plans for the launch of a Scottish Snowdrop Festival in 2007 and are looking for other snowdrop gardens to join us and encourage more visitors to Scotland to enjoy the wonderful woods we have here at a traditionally quiet time of the year. I can’t wait!

Snowdrop collecting is good fun. I love the people I meet, the places I go to and the history behind so many of the snowdrops – how they acquired their names, where they came from? My snowdrop season lasts almost all year, and certainly will do now that I have started my snowdrop shop – a new snowdrop collection for Cambo. I trawl the internet for snowdrop memorabilia. All my friends and relations are on the look-out and I can see the ‘off-season’ being filled with embroidering snowdrops!

Veronica Smart suggests

A short walk for a winter’s afternoon It is always gratifying to see an industrial site returned to nature, made into a haven for wildlife, and an enjoyable place for a walk.

Lochore Meadows must be the example par excellence, where former smouldering coalbings have been levelled and landscaped and all is green and pleasant. Well worth a visit – but much nearer at hand we have Birnie and Gaddon Lochs at Collessie. This reserve has been created from the works of the former Kinloch Quarry, and was donated to the people of N.E. Fife by the Baird family and Pioneer Aggregates. The name was chosen in a competition at Ladybank Primary School.

The two lochs have been completely transformed from the gravel pits of their genesis. All kinds of flowering and berrying bushes and trees have been planted to encourage birds and butterflies, and the creation and planting of islands attracts all kinds of waterfowl. The newest innovation is the introduction of a small flock of hardy Shetland sheep to keep down the long grass and assist a wild flower meadow to flourish. A little shelter at the end of the walk houses a bulletin of birds which have been spotted during the previous month, and there is a page for visitors to record their own observations. Children love

to feed the ducks on the broad green lawn at the water’s edge – though at weekends later arrivals may find the ducks a little blasé from a surfeit of crusts of bread.

This is an ideal walk for our short winter afternoons. Just under an hour will take you round both lochs. From different vantage-points there are splendid views to the Lomonds,

and to the church tower and village of Collessie with its gentle rolling hills behind. Take the A91 from Cupar, and first left after the Melville Lodges roundabout (B937 to Freuchie). Parking is generous, and the paths well made and (except in extreme conditions) dry underfoot.

“Oh, I only eat Fisher & Donaldson’s!”

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Solving Sash Window Problems in St Andrews Sliding sash windows are found in many of the older properties in St Andrews and they are an important part of the local heritage. However, people who live in these beautiful properties are only too aware of the problems with sliding sash windows. They are difficult to open and close, the sashes rattle in the wind, and they let in cold draughts as well as dust and noise.

No wonder home owners are sometimes tempted to change their sash windows!

But this is not a good idea. Removing the original windows will ruin the character of traditional property and planning restrictions protect certain areas of St Andrews from such unsuitable alterations. Sash windows can be an asset and research shows that well preserved original features enhance the value of your property.

Fortunately, there is a reliable solution to sash window problems. Ventrolla is the UK market leader in sash window renovation services. Since 1986 when they won a Design Council Award for their patented method of upgrading old sash windows to modern performance standards, they have renovated many thousands of windows throughout Britain.

Ventrolla installation vans are now becoming a familiar sight in and around St Andrews. The Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews called upon Ventrolla’s expertise to renovate the sash windows in their clubhouse which stands in a prominent and very exposed location. Ventrolla were also involved in a major project at St Leonard’s Field for Robertson Residential. The luxury flats needed high performance windows but traditional appearance had to be maintained.

However, it is not only commercial clients who call on Ventrolla to solve their window problems. Many private clients who simply wanted to improve their sash windows whilst retaining the unique character of their homes have used the Ventrolla service (including the editor of this magazine – thank you once again for your custom Flora!).

Ventrolla carry out a free, no-obligation survey and provide a report on the condition of the sash windows. The customer receives a written quotation detailing the work needed to repair and up-grade the windows. The cost depends on the size and condition of the windows but customers are often pleasantly surprised to find that renovation is significantly cheaper than replacement.

To find out more about this unique service contact Ventrolla and let them solve your sash window problems.

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