St Andrews in focus • shopping • eating • events • town/gown • people and more
March / April 2011 Issue 45, £1.50
the award winning magazine for St Andrews www.standrewsinfocus.com
St Andrews in focus • shopping • eating • events • town/gown • people and more
From the Editor Nature, especially in its benevolent mood, never ceases to amaze me. After such a winter I saw snowdrops out in North Street on 23rd January, and heard a dunnock singing by the Kinness Burn. Ever optimistic, I am sure spring starts each year on 1st January! However, with all the doom and gloom in the media you could be forgiven for thinking there’s little to smile about. Yet around a dozen new individual businesses have started up in St Andrews in the last 6 months, and several others have upgraded. If the endless roadworks leave us with an improved environment there will be more to be cheery about. There’s certainly a spring in my steps today! All the same, a lot of the town does need a real tidy-up as well. How about it? Flora Selwyn
******** The views expressed elsewhere in this magazine are not necessarily those of the Editor.
MARCH / APRIL 2011 EDITOR Flora Selwyn Tel: 01334 472375 Email: editor@standrewsinfocus.com DESIGNER University of St Andrews Print & Design (printanddesign@st-andrews.ac.uk) PRINTER Trendell Simpson (ken@trendellsimpson.co.uk) DISTRIBUTER Elspeth’s of Guardbridge PUBLISHER (address for correspondence) Local Publishing (Fife) Ltd., PO Box 29210, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9YZ. Tel: 01334 472375 Email: editor@standrewsinfocus.com SUBSCRIPTIONS St Andrews in Focus is published 6 times a year. Subscriptions for 6 issues are: £12.75 in the UK (post & packing included). Please send cheques to: Local Publishing (Fife) Ltd., PO Box 29210, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9YZ. £22 overseas (post and packing included). Please use PayPal account: editor@StAndrewsinFocus.com NOTE: please pay with a Personal Bank Account, as credit cards incur a 3.9% charge.
Contents FEATURES • Town Survey News • For Easter – The Fruit of the Spirit • The Immortal Velsheda • At the Bus Station • The Golf Folio • Brigadier ‘Mac’ • Reviews: – Life Aboard a Liberty Ship – Treasures of St Andrews University Library – Mining Between Ceres & St Andrews – It’s Lovely to be Here
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SHOPS & SERVICES • Fairtrade Cotton • ‘I will look at this later’ • Russell Hotel • Intestacy • Back Pain Explained • Roving Reporter
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TOWN /GOWN • Prelude to the 600th • KK Day
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ORGANISATIONS • The St Andrews Community Trust • Organ Transplants • St Andrews United Sports & Social Club
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EVENTS • Scotland’s Garden Scheme • StAnza • Selected Events • Homo Sum • Toonspot
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OUT AND ABOUT • Craigtoun Park • Fife’s Far Frontiers • Nature Notes • Learn Something New
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NEXT ISSUE – May/June 2011 COPY DEADLINE: STRICTLY 28 MARCH
All contributions welcome. The Editor reserves the right to publish copy according to available space.
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Cover: David Roche’s photo of Gwinevere, one of the eagle owls he bred
FEATURES
St Andrews in Focus Town Survey – Supported By The Community Council Provost Frances Melville will open the exhibition in the Town Hall 10.30am. Friday, 22 April Thank you for sending in your completed forms – they make interesting reading and cover the entire town. Professor Gavin Reid, Economics, kindly facilitated the professional analysis of the results. The exhibition is in the lobby of the Town Hall, and is free. Do go!
For Easter Lynda Samuel
The Fruit of the Spirit After Pentecost’s glory, when God’s Spirit came, The huddled disciples were never the same.
His goodness, integrity, meekness and peace And none can dispute this is what the world needs.
Their ‘old life’ had died; it was buried and gone; Now out of their bodies true holiness shone,
To Him be all glory, it’s His life within, Transcending the human subjection to sin.
Arising from Jesus, the Rock and the Vine. They bore lasting fruit, which produced pure New Wine.
We spread the aroma of Jesus, our Lord, By servant-like actions, inspired by His Word.
With sanctified boldness and freedom from fear, They spread the Good News, so that all folk could hear
Now, burdens are lifted, the captives set free. Our love-inspired living, choice fruit on His tree.
Of the Christ who had died and was raised, now above, Who had conquered the world by the power of His love.
God prunes all the branches and nurtures the root, So His One Church produces her heaven-and-earth fruit.
A wonderful message – salvation by grace! The beauty of Jesus adorning each face.
The lord of the Harvest takes care of the rest. We’re fruitful, we multiply – others are blessed.
(This poem was entered in the Scottish Fellowship of Christian Writers competition, 2010)
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FEATURES Your editor’s son, Barry, tells the extraordinary story of the famous racing yacht he almost came to grief on a few years ago –
The Immortal Velsheda William Lawrence Stephenson (1880–1963) started out as a humble freight clerk, but a chance meeting at Stoke on Trent railway station with the American millionaire Frank Winfield Woolworth was to change his life. Woolworth, struggling to export fine porcelain home was amazed at Stephenson’s ability to solve logistical nightmares and by-pass “red-tape”; his “can-do” attitude seemed more American (or Scottish!) than English. Several years later when Frank Woolworth set up the English offshoot (F. W. Woolworth & Co. Ltd) of his American retail empire he made Stephenson a director. Proving to be a dynamic leader Stephenson went on to become managing director and a major shareholder. By the 1920s he was one of Britain’s richest businessmen. But there was more to William Stephenson than just retailing; he developed a passion for competitive sailing and used his substantial wealth to pursue it to its natural limit. Eventually he would own an extraordinary yacht, the Velsheda, specially designed and custom built to his exacting specifications, that he would race, though regretably only for 3 seasons, with exceptional success. Before Velsheda he’d owned and raced “White Heather II”, a 23m “K-class”, with sail number K7, designed by William Fife and built in Scotland in 1907 for the industrialist/ yachtsman Myles Burton Kennedy, who owned her till his death in 1914. Stephenson had her converted in 1930 to the new J-class specification, greatly increasing the overall
Velsheda in 1999 – Note state of art rigging & equipment plus cockpits. (With permission and thanks © Anne T. Converse Photography, USA)
size, power, and performance, using a complicated formula to combine the three. In his endless quest for the ultimate, Stephenson asked Charles Nicholson to design him the racing machine of his dreams; she was to be the “Velsheda”; cleverly named in honour of his three daughters, Velma, Sheila, and Daphne, who as a result were never quite forgotten by history. Velsheda as she was in the 1980s Nicholson had recently – Note the traditional rigging; wooden designed his first boom & blocks, simple steering post J-Class, “Shamrock V” and no cockpits in those days. (Both for another millionaire photos reproduced with permission retailer, Sir Thomas and thanks © Beken of Cowes) Lipton, so it was
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perhaps no surprise that Stephenson chose him. After Velsheda Nicholson went on to design two J-class yachts for the famous aviator and yachtsman, Sir Thomas Sopwith. All four of these yachts were built during the 1930s at the Camper and Nicholson yard in Gosport. Velsheda was to be one of the largest and sleekest pure sailing yachts of her day, yet still within the “J-class” rules so allowing her to legitimately challenge, and he hoped beat, any contender in the world. It’s not quite clear why he didn’t enter her in the America’s Cup itself, even though she was eminently suitable and indeed raced against – and often beat – most of the yachts that did. There may have been practical or logistical reasons for this. Some people speculate he worried about embarrassing his senior business associates on the other side of the Atlantic if he’d won. A more plausible explanation is that despite his own wealth he knew they had even more money to throw at it than he did and he preferred sporting competitions he could win, rather than financial ones he’d probably lose! Stephenson had White Heather II scrapped and the lead from her keel re-smelted for Velsheda. In 1933 his dream finally came true; Velsheda, sail number J-K7, was launched. He’d become the proud owner of arguably the world’s most advanced and spectacular sailing yacht; her gigantic laminated aluminium mast was easily the tallest in the world, very rare at any size in those days, together with around 10,000 square feet of sail made from terylene, then a revolutionary new material. Velsheda was an out-and-out racing machine, to be sailed only in ideal conditions. Below deck her accommodation was extremely basic with most of the space devoted instead to racing stores and equipment. Stephenson therefore also had a substantial and comfortable sea-going motor launch built, called “Bystander”, to provide support for his various racing campaigns as well as accommodation for himself and his guests.
FEATURES Ronald de Waal also originally purchased By 1937 the world had changed the storm) in the more extensive “companion a classic-looking 33m motor yacht called dramatically and J-class racing was article” online at www.J-K7.com (“J-K7” of “Santa Maria”, built in 1963 by Feadship for abandoned. Velsheda, with her rigging and course being her sail number). Henry Ford II, which equipment removed, found herself in a mud By the early 1990s he had refitted and berth on the Hamble. Velsheda was once renamed “Bystander”. Nearly five decades later Terry Brabant again laid up and in Now in safe hands it seems However, he then purchased all that was left of her; by need of more than a inconceivable that the Velsheda replaced this at great then mainly just a dented metal hull. With little TLC, preferably expense in 2006 considerable initiative and daring, and to a from someone with very will ever again risk being lost at tight budget, he had her rebuilt, though still deep pockets. The first sea in a storm, and equally unlikely with a brand-new-old 42m “Bystander” to without an engine and depending completely person to attempt her that an unknown, unqualified become Velsheda’s on sail-power. She was re-launched in second rescue was a amateur like me could ever hope to latest faithful 1984 and for the next few years she Swiss resident, but he just stroll up to her in a harbour or accomplice. led an adventurous (some might say unfortunately found the Now in safe reckless and chaotic) life mainly around project too daunting and marina and be casually hired there hands it seems the shores of Britain, but sometimes also in far more expensive than and then to join her crew! inconceivable that the Mediterranean, and even Caribbean on anticipated. Eventually the Velsheda will ever occasion. as before, just her again risk being lost During this largely undocumented period bare hull remained. In at sea in a storm, and equally unlikely that of her history she was sailed by numerous this state she was purchased by Ronald de an unknown, unqualified amateur like me different skippers and crews and offered for Waal, who reputedly spent many millions could ever hope to just stroll up to her in a charters to a wide variety on her complete harbour or marina and be casually hired there of unrelated people. No no-expense-spared and then to join her crew! I do very much doubt the majority of them reconstruction, using I personally had the thrilling hope you enjoy reading the story of how I understood and loved her computer modelling, experience of sailing aboard came to sail her, together with some of my very much, but she was wind tunnels, and with her, as a very inexperienced various minor exploits both on the way out to not always as well looked Dykstra & Partners meet her and home again as my adventures after as she deserved; I Naval Architects as the and junior deckhand, for continued. personally had the thrilling primary contractor. She several days. However, I Expect to hear a great deal more about experience of sailing was once again rewas lucky to still be alive by Velsheda later this year; the yachting world aboard her, as a very launched to very great the end of the week! is buzzing as, in the build-up to the 2012 inexperienced and junior acclaim in November Olympics, a spectacular J-Class Regatta is deckhand, for several 1997. Amongst her being planned. Enthusiasts should follow links days. However, I was lucky newest vital statistics (which will be updated as more information to still be alive by the end of the week! and records in this, her third incarnation, she becomes available) on www.J-K7.com You’ll be able to read the full account of now has the world’s tallest one-piece carbon my often surprising adventures (including fibre mast.
Hamish Brown
At The Bus Station The old men sit on the benches And watch the girls go by; There is a glint that lasts a moment In every rheumy eye.
The old men sit on the benches With knarled hands that shake; They’d sooner Strip the Willow but Can hardly stay awake.
The old men sit on the benches And buses come and leave But they have journeyed backwards To a youth of make believe.
The old men sit on the benches And the sun is warm and kind. They’ve had their fun and know it And do not really mind.
The old men sit on the benches A comforting sort of rule That lets them tut tut at the rush Of kids let loose from school.
The old men sit on the benches I’ve seen them for thirty year. So now I sit in the group myself And my bus will soon appear.
The old men sit on the benches And round them the housewives talk “Aye, the ninety-nine’s coming” And “Thank goodness we dinny walk”.
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FEATURES Authors and artists, Paul Skellett and Simon Weitzman write exclusively about their unique
Golf Art Folio
artwork hand bound Creating the world’s most luxurious, unique into the giant Folio. Golf Art Folio was something of an happy The art pieces also accident for us, in that the original project, the feature satirical texts design of golf courses, started out as a twoabout the spirit of the page white paper, focussing on the work of the game, and the Folio European Golf Design Company (EGD), near is split into 18 art-led Sunningdale, Berkshire. chapters. From these humble beginnings the project Purchasers of evolved into a four-year mission, culminating the giant Folio will be in the production of the world’s biggest, most able to add exclusive expensive Golf Folio, a limited edition art additions, including bespoke art pieces, a publication looking at the history of the game, selection of aged leathers, personalised gold the land it’s built upon, and where the game is insignia, and hand-forged precious metalwork heading in the future, all illustrated with original for the cover. ‘Golf’ weighs over ten stone, or artwork. just over sixty-four kilograms. Each Folio is When we started, neither of us had any real numbered, certificated, signed, and dedicated background in the sport, apart from Simon’s by the authors, artists, and numerous cousin, Elliott Bernerd, who was a former owner contributors. There will only ever be ten of the of the Wentworth golf course. Folios made, each one taking three months Honestly, we had never swung a golf club to construct, with a starting price of £30,000 in anger! We came from media, TV and film ($46,500 / €35,500). production backgrounds, and had been working Golf Art Folio is an attempt to reconnect on other projects. It just struck us, during a people with the spirit of the game. We wanted break in the film project we were working on, to create something exceptionally beautiful that that the golf course was perhaps the biggest golf lovers would appreciate as an installation art canvas on the planet. We knew the guys at piece, but that would also give them something EGD and had backgrounds with production at original, with unique artistic impressions and the International Management Group (IMG), satirical text to keep those so the initial idea was simply who view it smiling. We also to write something about We hope we have wanted to create something how these amazing designs for people who love art, were transposed onto the delivered something but who had perhaps not landscape. EGD sent us to beautiful that will be previously thought of the golf the European Institute of course as being the world’s Golf Course Architects, and appreciated by golf greatest art canvas. they sent us to the industry and art lovers alike For the keen golf as a whole. Then Colin collector, wanting something Montgomerie came forward, that perhaps weighs less than 64 kilos, there’s becoming the resident professional on the a smaller, handmade, leather-bound publication production and the whole thing just took off. edition of the Golf Folio, again leather-bound Four years on, the project has evolved beyond with gold insignia, with a personalised gold recognition with well over fifty contributors from plate, containing 320 pages, and printed on the higher ends of the golf industry, course 170gsm art paper. There will be 2100 copies architects being very much the focus. produced as a limited edition, with a retail price It was only in 2009 that we finally got to of £350 ($540 / €415). The publication retains play on a full-size course! much of the art from the original giant Folio, We were working with a Hollywood TV each one numbered, certificated, signed, and director on a project with course designer dedicated by the authors and artists. Tom Doak. We had arranged an interview with We’ve spent several years visiting clubs, him at the Renaissance course, on the East working with both well-known and lesserLothian coast, not realising at the time that we known archives, finding some fantastic had been entered into the annual challenge imagery, mainly from the late 19th and early there. It could have been quite embarrassing, 20th Centuries. The two things we really but fortunately we got around in a very credible noticed were the smiles on the faces of the seventy-two, which we felt wasn’t bad for a first players back in those eras, and the amazing attempt. Unfortunately we didn’t do so well on way that land was created for the game, the second hole! without the tools and equipment now at the The luxury Folio, described as a ‘modern disposal of designers. The architects, both antiquity’, is a self-contained piece of unique historical and contemporary, are very much art, measuring over a metre in length, printed the unsung stars of the game. They have both on 350gsm museum archive-grade paper, each
the vision of the land and the appreciation of what the player can or cannot do. They are the constructors of the puzzles and the stories the course offers the player; without their imagination and artistry there would be no golf. We wanted the art and text to reflect that spirit, reminding people that the game is not just about the money, it’s about the beauty of the land, having fun, at whatever level you take it. We are also producing individual art pages from the giant Folio, printed on 350gsm museum archive-grade paper using top grade pigment inks, with each artwork measuring over a metre in length; also releasing limited editions (100 of each page) at £295 ($455 / €350) for tube-packaged prints, numbered, certificated and signed by the authors and artists, with hand-framed prints starting at £495 ($765 / €585). We realise there is a high end collector and corporate market for the luxury Folio, but as we wanted to connect with everybody, we built it with each page designed as a contained piece of artwork, so that anyone can own part of the Folio, putting it up in their homes, or workplaces. We will also be releasing limited edition miniature prints (1000 of each art page), printed on 300gsm art paper, with each artwork measuring 50 centimetres in length at £95 ($150 / €115) for tube-packaged prints, framed prints starting at £150 ($230 / €180). We hope we have delivered something beautiful that will be appreciated by golf and art lovers alike, because the game has so many design influences. Over the past few years we have established a great relationship with the Fairmont group that has culminated with us launching our previews at Fairmont St Andrews. We very much wanted the project to be seen first in St Andrews so art from the publication, the Folio itself, plus other contemporary artworks by us are all on display at Fairmont St Andrews. Having really enjoyed the process it’s been a pleasure to meet people in an area we previously knew little about. People have been very generous to us; we have learnt so much, apart from how to play the game, where our skills on the course have remained consistent – consistently useless! The Folio is available by individual commission from March 2011, along with the art pieces. The limited edition collector’s publication is available for reserve from April 2011, with copies available from early summer 2011. For more information you can contact art@wonderlandgallery.com Orders can also be taken via communication with this magazine. (Photos courtesy of the authors)
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FEATURES Katherine McIntyre, who took care of him during his last years, revives fond memories of
Brigadier Hugh Murray Johnstone McIntyre C.B.E. D.S.O Following a visit to an exhibition and on reading many articles about the ask any of his men to do anything he was not prepared to do himself. local history of St Andrews, made me realise just what a contribution This meant he was personally involved in actions that brought him into has been made by residents past and present, to many historical close contact with the enemy. He would even drive out close to enemy events. lines in the moonlight on personal reconnaissance trips. The desert, Brigadier Hugh Murray Johnstone McIntyre C.B.E. D.S.O., who died he maintained, was the perfect environment for battle, as there could at almost 101 on the 13th of August 1993 and is buried in the Western be few civilian casualties. Because of his courage and achievements Cemetery, had close associations he received an immediate with St Andrews stretching over reward of the DSO after Tripoli almost a century. and was mentioned twice in Young Hugh and his two dispatches. sisters were born in Bangalore, “The Brig” saw further India, where their father was action in Sicily and the Italian serving in the Indian Army. campaign before returning to Their mother was the daughter Britain in December 1944 and of a Cupar lawyer and all three finally retiring to Kent two years children returned at a young age later. to St Andrews to be educated. In his youth Brigadier Hugh went to live with his Mac had been a great grandmother, Ann Russell, who sportsman, playing rugby for lived in Howard Place, and he the Harlequins and was more attended Clifton Bank School on than competent in cricket and the Scores. Education in England hockey. His Indian connection followed at the United Service was evident in his skill as a College, Westward Ho, a school horseman and as a polo player. made famous in the book Stalky Golf would have been an ideal and Co by Rudyard Kipling. sport, he was taught to play Hugh’s talents and character were as a schoolboy by Old Tom rewarded when he was made Morris over the first five holes Captain of School in his final year. of the The Old Course, but the Because of his background injuries sustained to his wrist at interests and personal qualities Tobruk precluded his playing in Hugh decided on an army career, later life. receiving his commission at In retirement the Brigadier Woolwich in 1910, beginning travelled extensively, lecturing, 36 years of military service. He rediscovering his love of maintained that if born in India gardening and music. “Mac” it was always “in the blood” and was particularly fond of the because of this, he first served opera. He took up Scottish It was at the commencement of the Second as a gunner on the North West Country Dancing again, World War that his qualities as a leader Frontier in the 3rd Peshawar attended the RSCDS Summer Mountain Battery. School until he reached his of men and as an outspoken critic of During the First World War 92nd birthday. bureaucracy and orthodoxy came to the fore he went with his regiment to Throughout his life and Mesopotamia, now Iraq, and took wherever his military career part in all the major battles fought there. Between the world wars, Hugh took him, Scotland and St Andrews were always very dear to him. served as a gunnery instructor, was in charge of the guns in Hong Kong He returned many times to holiday at all times of the year, always and happened to be in command of the guns in Gibraltar at the time of accompanied by his meticulously kept log books detailing distances, the Spanish Civil War. times, including rough sketches of the terrain. The habits of soldiering It was at the commencement of the Second World War that his die hard. qualities as a leader of men and as an outspoken critic of bureaucracy As with most artillerymen his hearing had been damaged by the and orthodoxy came to the fore. Whilst serving in Norway in 1940 with roar of the guns and this damage became more severe with age. He his regiment, the 51st HAA Regiment (Heavy Anti-Aircraft) he saw the was particularly lucky that his daughter-in-law was a history teacher with potential of the 3.7” HAA guns. They had been designed to be used with a real love of her subject. She accompanied him when he retraced his elevated barrels against enemy aircraft, but as an experienced gunnery wartime steps from Egypt, through North Africa and Crete to Sicily and officer, he could see that they could be used to good effect against Italy. His memory was always sharp and he would correct the guide if ground targets. The orthodox opinion was that the gun carriages would wrong about descriptions of battle etc. not support such use. McIntyre proved them wrong, particularly on his Brigadier Mac was the President of the 51st HAA regiment RA Old next posting, with the Eighth Army in the Middle East. One of his roles Comrades Association, attending yearly reunions. He was presented was to advise on the anti-aircraft defence of Crete. His advice was not with an autograph and scrap book by the Association for his hundredth implemented and Crete fell to an airborne German invasion. It was later birthday. It contains a large number of letters and cards, showing the admitted that if his advice had been followed, the invasion would have affection and respect that the ordinary soldiers had for him and the been much more difficult, if not impossible. esteem in which they held him, even after half a century. Present in Tobruk during the whole fourteen months’ siege, “Mac” died in Cheshire, where in later years he had made his home his regiment gave sterling service, on one occasion destroying 12 with his daughter-in-law, and was interred in St Andrews in accordance German 88s and shooting down 280 Stukas and Junkers. He was with his wishes. An excellent epitaph is provided by a letter sent by a severely wounded. While being evacuated by boat he could be heard former gunner for Mac’s memorial volume, “In those days and in all vehemently protesting that he was still able to fight. Recovered, Hugh subsequent days of action, your leadership and enthusiasm made you returned to his regiment in time to take part in the advance to El an inspiration for each and everyone of us and raised us up to share Alamein with the Eighth Army, where he commanded the 2AA Brigade your vision of duty and purpose” responsible for the defence of the ports. At this time he earned the affectionate nickname “Mad Mac”. He led by example and would never (Photograph courtesy Katherine McIntyre)
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FEATURES: REVIEWS A. Glengarry reviews
Life Aboard a Wartime Liberty Ship by Ian M. Malcolm Published by Amberley Publishing at £16.99 and available from all good bookshops During the Second World War, when Britain’s very survival depended on her Merchant Navy, ships were being sunk faster than they could be replaced. The mass production of the Liberty Ship, on the assembly-line method in the USA, solved the problem, and Britain received 200 of them under the Lend-Lease Agreement. From 1943 until 1951, Ian Malcolm was a radio officer/purser with Alfred Holt & Co., owners of the Blue Funnel Line and the Glen Line. His voyages on the Liberty Ships Samite and Samforth, described in the book, were during wartime, after which he spent a year on the Samnesse, trading mainly between Italy and East Africa. Subsequent voyages were made to the Continent, Far East, Australia and Indonesia. Dealing mainly with life on board his ships and how he spent the, sometimes, prolonged spells in port, Ian begins his story with his entrance into the
Merchant Navy and continues with his crossing to Canada on the Queen Elizabeth to join the Samite in Baltimore. During the Samite’s fifteen-month voyage, she called at various ports in the USA and North Africa while Ian’s next ship, the Samforth, on her ten-month voyage, visited Canada, Egypt, Arabia, India, Mozambique, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Norway and Finland. Life Aboard a Wartime Liberty Ship is an engaging memoir of a young man’s maritime adventures, the people he met, the countries he saw, and the intoxicating thrill of life at sea. About the author On leaving the sea, Ian was employed as a clerk in Dundee for two years, but disliked the job so much that he left to work at GPO Coast Stations, spending a year at Wick Radio and two years at Portishead Radio, in Somerset.
In 1956, he resigned to train as a teacher – at Edinburgh University and Moray House – qualifying in 1961. Four years later, he was promoted to Principal Teacher of Modern Studies at Viewforth High School in Kirkcaldy, retired in 1987, and has lived in St Andrews for the last twenty years. He is the author of Dundee Memories, published in 2005, and has recorded seven audio books; covering Dundee Memories and all his voyages. Since 1993, he has been a regular contributor to Nautical Magazine, has had articles in Sea Breezes, and, in 1997, won First Prize in the Article Section of the Marine Society’s competition.
Helen Cook reviews
Treasures of St Andrews University Library Third Millennium Publishing, London, 2010. ISBN 978 1 906507 15 2 Available at all good bookshops and the University Library, price £15 Published on the threshold of the University celebrating its 600 years of being, the Treasures of St Andrews University Library focuses on a selection of its many treasures in the form of printed books, manuscripts, muniments, and photographs, ranging from 1478-1996, all of which are used in the pursuit of teaching and learning. Numerous beautiful illustrations in colour and black and white illustrate the book’s text, which takes the form of contributed essays by ‘fifty friends of the Special Collections Department, all of whom have a connection with St Andrews University as staff, students, or visiting researchers’. The essays are wide ranging in subject. They include contributions entitled ‘The Most Celebrated Scottish Intellectual of the Renaissance’, ‘A Careful Process of Trial and Error, Notebook by Douglas Dunn 1979-83.’; ‘Syrupus, Wassers, Confectios, and Pillules’; ‘Perfectly Proportioned’; and ‘Galileo and his Intellectual property’ by two mathematicians. While the illustrations of ‘Burnished Gold and Lush Tropical Foliage’ remind readers of the beautiful colour and design detail of mediaeval manuscripts and books. Photographs interest many, and there are contributions on various aspects of the University’s famous photographic treasures, c.750,000 images, dating from the earliest days of photography.
But Treasures of St Andrews University Library would not be complete without contributions concerning the Library itself, which has been suggested ‘can claim to be the oldest continuously functioning library in Scotland’. Those essays contributed by Library staff paint the picture of how the Library, its books and collections evolved over the centuries, and keep increasing. The Treasures of St Andrews University Library does not forget the part played by the University in the education of women, and this is the subject of ‘A Very Nice Class of Girls’, the ‘Presentation album for Louisa Lumsden, 1900’. While ‘Defying Social Convention’ celebrates the achievements of the artist Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717), who was hailed as the greatest nature artist of her day. Printed on fine quality paper, Treasures of St Andrews University Library is edited by Norman H. Reid, and other members of the Library staff, and has a foreword by Louise Richardson, Principal and ViceChancellor, St Andrews University. This is an attractive addition to the University’s publications, conducive to further reading. A short review cannot do justice to the scope and interest of its contents.
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FEATURES: REVIEWS Richard A Batchelor MSc, FGS Leverhulme Research Fellow in Geology, University of St Andrews, reviews
Mining between Ceres and St Andrews by John McManus, Emeritus Professor of Geology, University of St Andrews Published by Windfall Books, 2010 (ISBN N0. 978 0 9557264 8 4) Available at J & G Innes and all good bookshops, price £10 This book looks at various aspects of the relatively unknown coal industry of North East Fife. Extraction of coal in this part of Fife was at its height during the 18th and 19th centuries, feeding local needs such as domestic heating and the burning of lime for agricultural use. The book begins with a review of the geological history of the area which led to the formation of the many coal seams (up to 17 in places) about 300 million years ago. It also discusses the geological processes such as faults, folds, and volcanic activity, which disrupted the distribution of coal seams, and which in turn made mining more difficult. There follows a review of coal mining in Scotland, and Fife in particular, over the last 800 years, describing the transition from manual labour to mechanical mining methods.
Most of the book goes into great detail about the coal seams, their distribution, thickness, quality and duration of mining, for seven coalfields: Ceres-Callange, WinthankCassindonald, Lumbo-Mount Melville, Claremont-Denork, Denhead-Gowkston, Drumcarrow and Laddedie. Drawings of selected mine plans show how the coal was removed from the mines. The final chapter examines the restricted, but important occurrence around Drumcarrow of ironstone, a rock which, when heated, produced a valuable iron ore which was sold to smelters in the West of Scotland. Colour plates show the remains of mine drains and pit shafts, which can still be seen today. Personally, I would have appreciated a larger font size on the diagrams. A few typos
can be ignored as they have a tendency to creep into the most rigorously-edited texts. Finally, the Glossary could have been augmented by a handful of extra words from the text to assist the non-specialist. All in all, this book is a valuable addition to the knowledge of an important, albeit restricted, industry in NE Fife. It will be of value to industrial archaeologists and local historians, but the wealth of detail could also appeal to geologists who would appreciate the geological complexities of the area and their effect on the viability or otherwise of individual coal mines.
Michael Tobert (author of ‘The Mating Call of the Racket-tailed Drongo’ and ‘Pilgrims in the Rough‘), reviews
‘Lovely To Be Here’ by James Yorkston
Published by Domino Press, 2011, and available from Domino Records www.thedominopress.com price £9.99 Not an easy life being a singer-songwriter. I hadn’t realised this. I imagined you just had to rock up to some gig, wade through a chorus of beautiful women who can’t wait to strip you to your bare essentials, perform and go home to Match of the Day. Apparently not. It’s a long crawl up a ladder that barely inclines beyond the horizontal and passes through places which most of us would prefer to be spared: low dives, cemeteries, red squirrels, and vegan restaurants. It’s a tough life, but James Yorkston’s account of his own is very funny. You laugh as he struggles, you joyfully read along as he dreams of chickpeas and waits a year for a contract that never comes. You rejoice in his every success – he goes to a back-street music store in a strange city, and there’s his record; hurrah. At this point, I have to declare that ‘Ah kenned his faither.’ In fact I ken his faither. His faither is extant and living locally. Knowing the father makes you reflect on how far the apple has fallen from the tree. In James’ case, a very long way. Good for the apple, you think. Courageous. For all James’ trials and setbacks and inevitable lonely hours in strange cities (about which we’re not told), his life, in its quirky, bizarre way seems an admirable one for those with the constitution to bear it. Cemeteries? Squirrels? I refer you to page 83. He’s in Berlin and a photographer appears who wants to take his picture, we presume for a magazine of some sort (details are scarce). They go to a cemetery famed for its red squirrels. They hunt around, find one, fail to stun it sufficiently
for it to stand still for a photo-shoot, start to freeze, retire for a warming dram, return to the cemetery and find themselves locked in. Did they get the photo the second time? We don’t know. The squirrel is forgotten – escape from the locked cemetery is now uppermost in their minds. This is Berlin; there must be a tunnel or a wall. Is there? We don’t know. We are not told. Instead, James meets a man who is also locked in – is this a function of veganism: that you’re never alone, even in a cemetery at dead of night? – and the man, as luck would have it, knows the escape route. How? Wall? Tunnel? We are back sinking beer before he has a chance to divulge (which he never does), although James does tell us, as the bullets whistle over his head, that the price of real estate in this part of the city might be affordable even to singer-songwriters. I am tempted to regard the cemetery/squirrel incident as deeply metaphorical. To be photographed alongside the beautiful red squirrel you have to visit a dangerous cemetery in the worst part of Berlin. But the squirrel is elusive. It ducks, it dives, it escapes along tunnels unknown to the singer/songwriter. What then is the best that the hero can hope for? It is no more than to escape, to live to fight another day. But, in the hero’s mind, the squirrel lives on. He will pursue it relentlessly, passionately, uncertain as to where his quest will lead. Will James find his squirrel? Or will he wake up one day and realise that his dream of chickpeas is pointing the way to a greater love? We don’t know. Or if I know, I mustn’t say. I urge you simply to read on, dear reader, read on. The book will amuse you and reward you and make you want to go to James Yorkston’s next gig. You might even want to buy one of his six acclaimed CDs (Details available from Domino Records).
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SHOPS & SERVICES Marie Robinson and Mary Popple ask you to
‘Show off your label’ – Fairtrade Fortnight 2011 This year in Fairtrade Fortnight (till 13 March) supporters of Fairtrade are being asked to ‘show off your label’, and not surprisingly, the focus is upon Fairtrade cotton. The intention is to highlight the injustices that make Fairtrade a vital lifeline for some cotton farmers in the developing world. So here goes, with some questions and answers, and a closer look at one cotton-producing Fairtrade co-operative in Mali, West Africa. What is Fairtrade cotton, and is it organic? There is no difference in quality between Fairtrade and ordinary cotton, though the seeds used are non-genetically modified, and the cotton may be organically produced, but is not necessarily so. Fairtrade aims to support the most marginalised farmers, not all of whom can convert to organic farming. However, very strong and clear environmental standards based on the UN Environment Programme are maintained by Fairtrade. It also encourages sustainable farming, the recycling of materials, and the avoidance of soil erosion and water pollution. What does the Fairtrade Mark on a cotton product mean? The FAIRTRADE Mark, for instance on a cotton tee-shirt, means the material is certified Fairtrade, rather than the garment. It tells us that the cotton has been sourced from a Fairtrade-certified producer organisation in a fully-certified supply chain, where there is full traceability of the cotton. Every operator in the supply chain, from the ginner to the spinner, knitter, weaver, dyer, garment factory, and sub-contractor has to be certified to handle Fairtrade cotton. Supplychain operators are asked for independent evidence that they are making efforts to meet recognised labour standards. Cotton farming: the developing world v. the developed world. Two-thirds of the world’s cotton is produced in the developing world. Production is fragmented and small-scale, there are no government subsidies, and many of the farmers live in poverty, on less than $2 a day. Most cotton farmers grow no other cash crop, and it provides their only income. World prices of cotton have been unstable for a long time, farmers being severely affected by falling prices and the lack of long-term security. Simply switching production to another cash crop is generally not an option. These small-scale farmers cannot compete with cotton farmers in the developed world, many of whom in Europe, America, and China are highly subsidised. Fluctuating world market prices are less critical here as producers’ subsidies ensure continuing production, and indeed encourage overproduction. Affordable credit is available if needed, unlike in the developing world. So how does Fairtrade help? There are 33 Fairtrade cotton producer groups in developing countries, in India, Burkino Faso, Cameroon, Mali, Senegal, Egypt, Brazil, Peru, and Kyrgyzstan. Fairtrade
provides a lifeline to these farmers by ensuring that they are paid a guaranteed minimum price for their cotton crop, which covers the sustainable costs of production, encouraging long-term investment. Fairtrade gives small-scale farmers access to global markets, as well as helping them to work their way out of poverty. Farmers also receive an additional ‘premium’ to invest in community projects – how it is spent is a collective decision. Producers growing and marketing Fairtrade cotton are organised in co-operatives, which means that they can share equipment, knowledge, labour, and market goods more effectively than they would as individuals. Fairtrade co-operatives are expected to go on developing and improving: producer groups are committed to putting in place further programmes to increase sustainability through improved farming methods, product quality control, environmental protection, and social development. How does Fairtrade work in practice? The Dougourakoroni Co-operative, Mali, central West Africa, was founded in 1996 with the aim of improving the living standards of its 81 members through cotton production. Now the co-op has 169 members. Cotton is the only cash crop grown in the area, but farmers also grow millet, sorghum, maize, and peanuts for food, in rotation with cotton in order to protect soil fertility, and production relies on rainfall rather than irrigation. The Mali National Union of Cotton Producers supported the co-operative’s application for Fairtrade certification because of the high quality of its cotton. In 2004, the co-op was inspected and certified as meeting Fairtrade standards by the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation (FLO) based in Germany. Part of the total production of cotton at Dougourakoroni is now exported under the conditions guaranteed by international Fairtrade standards concerning minimum prices, sustainable production methods, democratic management, and so on. Confidence that standards are being maintained is essential to both producers and consumers. The co-op’s elected Premium Committee decided to fund construction of a school in 2005. Previously, children at Dougourakoroni were taught outdoors under a tree, which meant lessons were cancelled during bad weather. Premium money has also been used to build dry, secure warehouses. Future proposals include: wells for clean water; a health centre and nursery school; a soap factory for alternative employment; new agricultural equipment; literacy programmes and vocational training; expanding maize production to ensure self-sufficiency. Dougourakoroni Co-operative is affiliated to others, forming a 20-strong group in the area, 16 of which are now Fairtrade-certified. They meet regularly to discuss improvements to the way they operate, and plan to create a central body that will simplify the certification process and encourage new Fairtrade co-operatives in their area.
This sounds like a success story – and there are many others. But there would be no success without the consumer. Fairtrade offers us a choice – the chance to buy ethically produced, high quality goods. The Fairtrade Foundation website www.fairtrade.org.uk/producers/cotton lists the major high-street stockists of Fairtrade cotton goods, while Traidcraft (www.traidcraftshop.co.uk, or many church stalls) also sell a range. See below for where to shop in town, or the Fairtrade Town Campaign website directory (www.fairtrade-standrews.org.uk). Wherever you purchase a Fairtrade cotton garment, remember to ‘show off your label’, proudly.
Student Roberta Cimino ‘shows off her label’, with fair trade scarf and bag. Fairtrade Cotton in St Andrews Accessorize bags Beetle cushions, door stops, draught excluders, scarves BESS hoodies, tee-shirts Boots socks Monsoon (summer) skirts, tee-shirts Morrisons cosmetic pads Oxfam aprons, bags, scarves
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SHOPS & SERVICES
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Spiritual Light Within Victory Memorial Hall, St Mary’s Place, St Andrews. Spiritual meetings every Saturday. Doors open 6.15pm. Service starts 7.00pm. Second half starts 8.30pm. until 9.15. Entry £3. (Optional raffles £1). We have different visiting mediums every week. Private readings are available. Further information: 01334 476 448
ALL INCLUSIVE WEDDING PACKAGES from only £35.00 per person Dates still available for 2011 (terms and conditions apply) 76 The Scores, St Andrews, KY16 9BB Tel: 01334 472451 Website: www.bw-scoreshotel.co.uk
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WINTER LECTURE PROGRAMME Tuesday 1st March at 7. 30pm Tuesday 5th April at 7. 30pm Medical School, North Haugh Entry free – all welcome
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SPRING SALE IN THE GLASSHOUSE Saturday 12th March 10am – 12 noon
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 Charity No. SC006432
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SHOPS & SERVICES Andrew Wright might think
“I’ll Look At This Later” I suppose we are all guilty of putting off for a “rainy day” dealing with slightly complicated things, assuring ourselves we will come back to them later. In the case of PAYE Coding Notices this can prove rather expensive. Tax codes are used by HMRC primarily to collect tax from pay or pensions. But they are also used to collect tax on other untaxed sources of income, for example, National Savings Bank interest, rental income, or benefits in kind (company car benefits, medical insurance premiums paid by Company etc). In these cases, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) do not have the current year figures and usually rely on the latest figures they have, which could be significantly out of date. Also, for higher rate taxpayers, HMRC attempt to collect the additional tax due on investment income, including bank interest from the latest available figures (which are usually too high). In the other direction, HMRC give tax relief against higher rate tax liability for gift aid donations and pension contributions, again based on the latest figures available to them. So it is important to check that your figures are approximately correct on the Coding Notices, especially in the current situation where bank
interest has fallen so sharply. For taxpayers who prepare Tax Returns, the figures will be automatically corrected on their Tax Returns so the only downturn of inactivity could be a cash flow shortage as more tax than necessary is taken from your pay or pension. For those not required to prepare a Tax Return, the extra tax paid may never be recovered, although we are told that HMRC will be issuing annual summaries on forms 810 in future (which, in turn, will need to be checked). Pensioners who receive more than one pension, may receive separate coding notices for each pension coding notice they receive. Typically, their personal and age allowance is allocated to their largest pension with the code being restricted to collect the tax due on the state pension. The smaller pensions then have a “BR” code which means tax is levied at basic rate. In the past, there have been problems with personal allowances being credited twice, leading to an underpayment of tax. This should not happen in future as HMRC’s new computer should handle the problem. However, as readers will be aware, many taxpayers have been issued with demands for tax from HMRC for the 2008/9 and 2009/10 tax years,
which have largely arisen because of faulty coding notices. If this has happened to you, you should consider asking for the tax to be cancelled by claiming relief under extra statutory concession ESC A l9. If you have any concerns relating to employee or pensioner tax, you should telephone HMRC on their new dedicated line 0845 300 0627 or contact your own accountant, or contact Henderson Black – see below. So while it is a little late for New Year resolutions, a Lenten penance may be appropriate, prompting you to clear your “rainy day” pile, including PAYE Coding Notices! For further information on this, or other matters, please consult: Henderson Black & Co. 149 Market St., St Andrews. Tel: 01334 472 255
Hugo D’Bere, your Grizzly Gourmet, reviews
The Russell Hotel The Scores, St Andrews The Russell Hotel occupies an excellent position on the Scores, but unfortunately does not have the best of views from the restaurant/pub because it is really a little too far along at the end away from the sea. It has, however, a nice Victorian-style bar with excellent beers; Stella, Carlsberg, Hugo dining Tennants, St Andrews Ale, Guinness, Bellhaven, and Bodington. It has excellent hearty bar meals at reasonable prices. It is a nice place to go on an evening with the cosy coal (gas) fire burning away. The restaurant at the back, known as the Supper Room, has been there for many a year. I have never had a bad meal in it. The décor is slightly dated, but it is very cosy and there is the adjacent “locker room”, which can be used for a small function. The theme there is golf, and one is surrounded by various “lockers” of famous golfers. The Supper Room is so intimate that you can overhear conversations at the next table –
eavesdropping on students’ shenanigans can be quite interesting (too much information perhaps!) Three courses came in at £26.50. Muffy and I shared a bottle of Amarone (a real treat) at £29.50. This was a velvety dark ripe fruit wine at a hefty 15.5% alcohol. I had plump mussels in a garlic creamy sauce, while Muffy chose the berries and melon covered with a warm sabayon. I chose the liver as a main course, because it is unusual to find that on a menu in the UK . It was done perfectly, very thin, but just flash fried, so not tough, and served on a bed of cabbage with plenty of potatoes and vegetables. Muffy’s venison Wellington looked like a large tennis ball, a truly stupendous portion, so much so that Muffy could not finish it, although there was certainly nothing wrong with the tender pink venison inside. We shared a sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream . It is all good stuff. A great place for a couple on a cold winter’s evening. Not really suitable for children. Hats off to Gordon and Fiona De Vries, who have run the place for years. Overall score 9/10.
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SHOPS & SERVICES David Adie writes: “this article is not intended to be a substitute for specific legal advice. In any given situation, full and detailed legal advice should be taken from a Solicitor”
Intestacy
Although it sounds like another nasty medical comprise one half of the moveable estate if condition, intestacy is quite simply dying there is no surviving spouse, or a third if there without leaving a Will. Possibly a worse fate is. If there were say, four children, then they would be dying and leaving a Will which does would each be entitled to a quarter of that not dispose of your whole estate (partial third, (or half) each. intestacy). A Lawyer should correctly draw up The distinction between moveable and a Will disposing of all of the residue. heritable estate is important. Heritable estate The modern Law is governed by the comprises land and buildings, and moveable Succession (Scotland) Act 1964. The Law estate is broadly speaking, more or less the Commission is currently looking at succession rest of the estate, such as money, bonds, rights and there is talk of changing it, but cash, investments etc. as yet nothing has happened. Watch these Only once the prior and legal rights have pages if anything does. been claimed and dealt with, does the free The Law basically states there are three estate get looked at. Free estate goes to different things to be taken into account if various individuals in a pre-determined list or someone dies without a Will. These are prior order. The order of succession is (a) children, rights, legal rights, and the (b) parents, and brothers free estate. and sisters (if someone In relation to prior survives from both I have said before in this classes, then each class rights, a spouse would be entitled to an interest magazine that the moral takes half), (c) brothers in the house in which the and sisters if no parents of the story is to make surviving spouse was alive, (d) parents if no ordinarily resident up sure you have a Will and brothers and sisters to a maximum value of alive, (e) spouse, I reinforce that message (f) uncles and aunts, £300,000. In addition, there would be furniture and (g) grandparents, plenishings in that house (h) grandparents, up to a maximum of £24,000 and a monetary brothers or sisters. It can be seen from this sum up to £75,000 depending on whether that the spouse is well down the list. there are any children of the deceased, in The effect of this is that in some which event the figure would be £42,000. intestacies the spouse is not entitled to all For legal rights the spouse would also of the husband or wife’s estate and this can be entitled to one half of the balance of the have catastrophic consequences. I have seen moveable estate, or if there were children, clients who have had a spouse die and the one third of the balance of the moveable surviving spouse has had to forego a share estate. The children’s legal rights would to a large part of the estate. If the house is
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over £300,000 sometimes the spouse has actually to buy part of the house from other family members who often make a claim. I have said before in this magazine that the moral of the story is to make sure you have a Will and I reinforce that message. Broadly speaking, there are special rules which apply to civil partners and also to co-habitees. Remember that if a person dies intestate it is more work and more hassle to confirm the estate. It is essential to petition the Court to have someone appointed as executor and it is necessary to obtain a Bond of Caution, i.e. a form of Insurance Guarantee to ensure the correct administration of the estate. This all involves time as well as cost. For a modest fee it is therefore well worthwhile doing a correct and properly drawn Will which a qualified Solicitor can not only produce, but is also ultimately responsible for. As always, this Article is intended to be very general and does not purport to provide specific advice tailored to readers’ individual needs. Specific legal advice should always be taken, taking into account your own circumstances.
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SHOPS & SERVICES Chartered Physiotherapists Julie De Angelis and Clayton Hardisty explain
Low Back Pain “Slipped Disc” Most of us have experienced low back pain at some point in our lives. It may be mild or severe in nature, fleeting, or persistent. It can extend to the buttocks, thigh, leg, and foot as sciatica. Occasionally it involves areas of numbness or tingling and can be associated with specific lower limb muscular weakness. There are many potential causes of these signs and symptoms. Injury to the intervertibral disc is often a likely candidate. The Disc. The discs sit in between the vertibral bones of the spine. One of its many functions is to act as a shock absorber. The basic structure of the disc can be separated into two distinct parts. The outer structure is composed of many concentric rings of fiberous material called the annulus fibrosis, rather like the layers of an onion. This configuration provides great strength, but also mobility. The inner part of the disc is filled with a fibrogelatinous pulp, looking a little like crab meat. It is constrained within the strong outer annulus. A good example of this type of soft centre with a retaining wall would be a well-known and locally-produced fudge donut, where the outer donut wall keeps the fudge from leaking out. Damage to the outer layers of the annulus may cause pain and it weakens the structure. Further trauma can result in the annulus allowing the nucleus to squeeze out to form a bulge. This scenario is what we have come to know as a ‘slipped disc’ or a ‘herniated disc’. As is common in medicine, one disorder can have several names. How does it present? The typical age of first onset of a disc-y back is from 18 to 45 years. It is therefore usually a younger person’s disorder in the first instance. There is often a history of a significant event that causes the initial problem. Laying paving stones, moving awkward furniture, shoveling snow, could all form part of the early history. Conversely, prolonged sitting, travelling in a car or plane may, with some individuals, cause that original onset, because sitting also produces heavy loading of the disc. That, coupled with the duration of the journey, can deform the annulus. Having been damaged, the disc never recovers to its pre-injury status. What follows can be episodic low back pain over many years. From this point onwards, innocuous or unguarded movement can produce sudden severe pain. Stooping to put in contact lenses or to shave, sneezing, shaking the duvet, picking up the dog’s bowl or putting on a sock, have all been the trigger of a severely painful episode. However, when people presenting with these nasty problems are quizzed in detail they often describe a predisposing activity in the last 24 hours or so. More sitting than usual, hoeing the garden, finding the Christmas decorations in the loft or lifting, are activities that can strain the disc leading to a minor twinge or a gentle tired ache. These are the “warnings” that are usually missed.
Common features. Disc-y problems are normally worse in the morning making getting out of bed and moving from sitting to standing difficult. Sufferers are often unable to stand erect and may have one hip sticking out to the side, the result of a spinal curvature called a scoliosis. This body shape is caused by the injury and disappears as it recovers. After getting up, symptoms ease slightly as the day progresses. Gentle movement, standing and walking take the edge off the pain. The pain itself is deep and very hard to put your finger on. It often forms a band across the back. There can also be no actual back pain at all, but severe buttock and posterior thigh pain instead. What can I do? Those of us unfortunate enough to develop disc-y low back pain should consult their GP for advice and pain relief. The Physiotherapist, after examination and diagnosis, has several treatment options. Hands-on techniques, such as joint and soft tissue mobilisation around the injury site can restore movement and reduce symptoms. Electrotherapy can also ease pain. Vigorous manipulation is contraindicated in the first instance for discogenic presentations, used inappropriately can produce rare, but serious complications. If someone says they can put a disc back in, don’t believe them, they can’t. If extruded disc material could be put in we would not have Neurosurgeons at Ninewells removing it. The most relevant and effective response is a tailored exercise protocol which can reduce the disc bulge and associated pain. The beauty of this approach is that it puts patients in a degree of control and gives them the skills to potentially stop further episodes becoming as severe, as long as they listen to their body and heed those “warnings”. Prevention is always better than cure. Being aware of your back feeling vulnerable from time to time and acting on that is crucial. Maintainance. The vast majority of episodes resolve spontaneously. Making changes to your lifestyle such as losing excess weight, keeping fit, evaluating how and what you lift, how long you sit without standing, and countering stooping activities with frequently arching backwards, all have a role. Improving posture alters the loading of the disc and can help matters. These modest considerations can have a positive effect in reducing the frequency and severity of recurrent attacks. They may also reduce the likelihood of the problem evolving to affect the spinal nerves.
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SHOPS & SERVICES
Roving Reporter 1. Last May, Hazel and Victor Collins set up meetings of Clairvoyance/Mediumship at the Spiritual Light Within, Victory Memorial Hall, St Mary’s Place, St Andrews. A professional medium, Victor gathers people who “come for a reason” to meet at 7.00pm every Saturday. Doors are open at 6.15pm. Different invited mediums take the first half of the evening till about 8.15pm. After a break for tea/coffee, sandwiches, and biscuits, the meeting continues for people “who feel they’ve got something”. Victor told Reporter that the Spiritual Church “is not entertainment”, but has serious intent. He is obliged by law to read a disclaimer at the start, which explains that the meetings are “a form of experiment; no claims are made and results cannot be guaranteed”. There is no membership commitment, anyone can attend and all are made welcome. A charge of £3 per person covers expenses. In addition, Hazel and Victor have raised considerable sums for charity through the meetings. They hope, “to reach a wider spectrum of people. The more through the doors, the more for charity”. For further information the Collins can be contacted on 07512 776 601 or by email: spiritman1@hotmail.com 2.
*Ellen * *Fox* and * Ursula Bhut of B&H,
Bell Street told Reporter of their new plans: “Hi all St Andrews Citizens, the girls at Fox & Bhut are sorry to be leaving the girly emporium of Bell Street, and look to say Au revoir as opposed to Farewell. Unfortunately Fox & Bhut has joined the list of “short-lived shops” in St Andrews, but not without positives! In 18 months of trading, the colourful duo have successfully established their brand; sellers of unique and vintage-inspired, designer, and ethical creations, including several ranges of Fair Trade African Clothing and Jewellery, and lovely Scottish wools; all appropriate as the wares of the original “Outfitters to the Girltry”. The pair have enjoyed a good relationship with students, participating in the many charitable events, including the prestigious FS and Don’t Walk charity shows, and they are planning to continue apace. After a difficult situation with the tenancy, and a saga named affectionately, “3 Tree Hill”, Ellen and Ursula took the decision to alter the way their business operated and have launched the new F&B BUS in order to take sales directly to their market. In a 1955 Airstream Cruiser, truly vintage and truly ecological (having been manufactured from excess aircraft aluminium after the 2nd world war) and being positively gorgeous, it’s hoped that the concept of the F&BBUS will accurately reflect the style, ethos and fun of the products within and be a happy sales pitch around St Andrews and the rest of Scotland’s studentdom! The new website launches soon, keenly reflecting the new adventures of F&B in style and content. The interactive blog page will keep everyone up-to-date with where to find F&B. It will feature their twitter feed also! Many of the St Andrews students have already clicked the “like” button on the F&B Facebook page – the campaign to increase numbers continues. If Facebook-friendly readers do like Fox & Bhut, then this is a way to show the love!” Reporter wishes them (Images courtesy F&B) well.
*****
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3. Reporter discovered that in November last year, Moira and Graeme Cockburn of St Andrews Hearing Services Ltd joined forces with the family-run House of Hearing, based in Edinburgh. While Moira can still be found front of house at 24 Argyle Street, St Andrews, (01334 470 011), Graeme will be there alternating through the week with the new manager, Andrew Quinn. House of Hearing, Reporter learned, was founded in the 1960s by David Fairfield, whose son Stephen is now in charge. Four years ago a new branch opened in Galashiels, with St Andrews now being the second in line. House of Hearing have always had a strong presence in Fife, particularly in Kirkcaldy, but travel all over the region (and beyond!) visiting clients in their homes. With a reputation for excellent customer service and care, House of Hearing offer hearing instruments at a range of prices to suit all budgets, starting from around £750. All their hearing aids are available on a 30-day, no obligation free trial basis, which allows “an opportunity to try them out at home, work, social situations, or wherever the client is experiencing difficulty.” Interest-free credit facilities are also available on request. Reporter was not surprised that enhanced hearing immediately improves the quality of life of those in danger of withdrawing through gradually increasing hearing loss. Since Reporter interviewed Graeme in 2008 (issue 29) hearing aid technology has advanced even more. No-one needs to feel uncomfortable wearing a device, as the latest models are more discreet than ever. Andrew mentioned that House of Hearing also provide custom-made earplugs, of various types suitable for anything from industrial noise to snoring! Products for musicians include earplugs with special music filters, and custom-fit in-ear-monitors. Reporter is comforted to know he will be in good hands whenever his hearing diminishes! Andrew Quinn
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4. Reporter well remembers the day nearly three years ago when Mohammed Mohiuddin (Mohi, to his many friends) opened his Maisha Restaurant in College Street, St Andrews (01334 476 666). Now very much part of St Andrews, highly successful and forever busy, Mohi is celebrating three welcome awards since last summer: The Community Council Floral Award St Andrews Garden Centre Shield; the Qualityfoods certificate for Presentation and Service; Kingdom Promotions inclusion in their new guide for Good Food and Good Service in Comfortable Surroundings. Very much a family man, Mohi, who already has a Masters in IT from the University of St Andrews, nevertheless still finds time for an evening degree course in Arabic! Students here are very grateful for all the support Mohi gives them, as well as the many activities he sponsors. Reporter is full of admiration.
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SHOPS & SERVICES
5.
Another young entrepreneur has taken the plunge. Reporter met Natalie Anderson, who last month opened her Elisabeth May Shoe Boutique, 146 South Street, (01334 208 066 yes, BT has new numbers!) Natalie’s infectious enthusiasm had Reporter smiling. Brought up in St Andrews, she has taken time to earn a degree in Film and Media Studies from Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, followed by extensive experience in various retail areas, as well as detailed market research. “I always had the dream of having my own shop”, Natalie explained, and now the dream has come true. Aiming to attract a dynamic clientele, the range of brands will include Ravel, Moda in Pelle, Redfoot, French Connection. Reporter was fascinated to hear of another, Ragged Priest Vintage, which customises shoes from the past, the most popular, Converse and Doc Martens! Until Elisabeth May Shoe Boutique opened these were only available in Topshop London and Manchester. Shoe prices are wide-ranging, from around £20 for sandals, £50/60 and £80/85 for heeled shoes.“To accompany the shoes” Natalie offers handbags and jewellery. Natalie and her staff will run ‘shoe parties’, and ‘girls’ nights in’, with champagne and talks on everything to do with shoes – an unmissable opportunity to get the girls together, even an alternative ‘Hen Night’ idea, and shop for shoes out of hours. A tea/coffee machine will allow customers to refresh themselves while choosing their foot-pampering ware. Natalie’s aim is very much personal service. There are no children’s shoes. Natalie can also be contacted on her mobile: 07525 838 575 and by email: nataliekerr@btopenworld.com, or alternatively, on Facebook by searching ‘Elisabeth May Shoe Boutique’ (until a web page is made).
catered for – they can ask to have their dissertations typed up and printed. Elaine has had very wide experience in the business world and can provide references. Don’t hesitate, says Reporter; everyone can use a bit of help, especially as it’s charged by the hour and is totally reliable.
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8. Fiona Ramsay contacted Reporter to tell him about the very useful help she’s been offering in the St Andrews area and beyond. She has a “Girl Friday” service covering things like dog walking, or cat feeding while owners are away. Collecting and delivering groceries, tidying gardens, running errands, looking after houses for people on holiday, helping fill out forms or sort bills – all this and more Fiona will tackle. She is fully insured, and police-checked. Sounds like something to give you peace of mind, thinks Reporter. Fiona has a website: www.walkabout.vpweb.co.uk and she can be reached by telephone on: 07909 895 811.
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6. Reporter loves a celebration! The Happy Hacker in the Burghers Close, South Street is 1-year old! Congratulations Murray Duncan and Elaine Guilfoyle! , who would like to thank everyone for their support. Everyone talks about the recession – Reporter is delighted that these folk have also ‘broken the mould’, along with others in our special town. What’s more, they told Reporter that this magazine has brought many customers to the shop, which is, of course, music to the editor’s ears as well! As you can see from the photo below, the shop is a cornucopia of goodies to please the most picky golfing enthusiast. Long may you flourish, says Reporter!
Beachwear at Elspeth’s of St Andrews
***** 7. Elaine Guilfoyle has a second string to her bow – she runs Gilly’s
Admin Service, Tel: 01334 473 916; Mobile: 07747 115 526; email: g.a.s.@btinternet.com She listed an astonishing range of what she offers; copy typing, audio transcription, correspondence, raising invoices, medical transcription, ‘sickness and holiday cover’ for small businesses, reception cover, product purchasing. In fact Gilly (her nickname) can cover pretty well any business transaction. An impressed Reporter perfectly sees the advantages; no VAT (not registered for it), no rent for office space, no equipment to buy, no National Insurance or employee legislation to worry about. All a stressed-out business person has to do is contact Gilly and ask her to do whatever’s needed, be it one-off or long-term. Students too are
9 Church St St Andrews Tel: 01334 472494
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TOWN & GOWN Christopher Macleod, from the University of St Andrews Symphony Orchestra, invites you attend
Prelude to the 600th: a Musical Celebration of our Collective Anniversary
The University’s 600th Anniversary marks Director of Music Michael Downes, and an important landmark in its own history, and Principal Louise Richardson. that of the town. It is also a moment of great The 600th Anniversary Composition potential. Within the context of public sector Competition had its deadline in early January, funding cuts to education and the arts, the and the number and quality of submissions 600th Anniversary celebrations offer all those received was astounding. Entries were received with connections to St Andrews – be they local from all corners of the UK, from those still in residents, alumni, current school to mature students students, or staff – to reaffirm and those already making The chance to hear and celebrate the town and significant headway in the three world premieres, University’s commitment world of professional music. which represent the to culture and the arts in a Three pieces have been climate of austerity. The entire short-listed as potential very best of new community has a role to play winners. Simon Smith’s orchestral music in the in this, and already the scale submission – Against All UK, shouldn’t be missed Things Ending – is inspired and variety of the celebrations planned is exciting. by Stephen Donaldson’s The University of St Andrews Symphony ‘Thomas Covenant’ novels. Smith holds a Orchestra has chosen to mark the 600th by B.A. from Cambridge, has been described by organising a nationwide competition for young The Scotsman as “a composer determined composers. Entrants have been asked to to go places”. Mark Boden’s Six Degrees is compose and submit an original orchestral the latest work from a composer whose work composition of 9-12 minutes in length that will has already been broadcast on Radio 3 and be used to celebrate the Anniversary. Open to recorded by the BBC National Orchestra of all under 30, or in higher education, the winner Wales. He is currently studying for a Masters’ – to be chosen from a shortlist of three that will Degree in Advanced Composition at the Royal be performed at a public concert titled Prelude College of Music, where his music has been to the 600th on 21st April 2011 at 7.30pm in noted for its “subtle preoccupation with the Younger Hall – will receive a prize of £1,000. patterns of the natural world” and engaging The judging panel is made up of internationallytreatment of the issue of climate change. Simon acclaimed composer Sally Beamish, Symphony Wilkins’ The Sun Rising – inspired by the work Orchestra conductor Thomas Butler, University of John Donne – is a musical investigation of Composer in Residence Richard Ingham, the passing of time and the journey of student-
hood. With B.Mus. and M.Mus. degrees from Royal Holloway, University of London, Wilkins hopes to continue his compositional studies to Ph.D. level, where the £1,000 prize would no doubt come in handy. All that remains is for the judging panel to pick the winner after hearing all three performed at the Symphony Orchestra’s concert on 21st April 2011. Prelude to the 600th has been two years in the making, and we’re sure that the results will be worth the effort that it has taken. The opportunity not only to air exciting new works of music, but also to offer considerable support to an up-and-coming composer at a time when it matters most, is exactly the sort of thing we want St Andrews to be associated with. And it’s clear that we’re not alone in this: the Symphony Orchestra has been lucky enough to secure support from Ernst & Young, Brewin Dolphin, Fairmont St Andrews, PrintMyThesis.com, and Cairn o’ Mohr Fruit Wine for the event. The chance to hear three world premieres, which represent the very best of new orchestral music in the UK, shouldn’t be missed. As if this weren’t enough, however, the Symphony Orchestra will also perform two old favourites at Prelude to the 600th: Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 (‘From The New World’) and Borodin’s In the Steppes of Central Asia. We hope the whole community will turn out for what will surely be a once-in-a-lifetime concert.
Prelude to the 600th 21st April 2011 7.30pm Younger Hall. Simon Smith
Against All Things Ending
Simon Wilkins The Sun Rising Mark Boden
Six Degrees
Borodin
In the Steppes of Central Asia
Dvořák
Symphony No. 9 (‘From The New World’) (Photo courtesy Christopher Macleod)
Print & Design
We welcome commercial enquiries The services we offer include: • Colour Digital Printing • Pull-up Exhibition Display Stands • Graphics & Pre-Press • Illustration • Report/Dissertation Printing & Binding
• Wide Format Poster Printing • Short Run Customised Folders • Digitising of Images (multiple film formats & photographic) • Digital Photo Repair • High Quality Fine Art Printing
St Katharine’s West, 16 The Scores, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9AX T: (01334) 463020 E: printanddesign@st-andrews.ac.uk W: www.st-andrews.ac.uk/printanddesign The University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland, No: SC013532
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TOWN & GOWN
Kate Kennedy Day – 16 April Starting out from the University Quad on North Street at 2.00pm, the annual KK Procession will once again enthral the crowds of well-wishers. College Echoes will be on sale detailing the characters and the route of the procession. Charities will benefit too. With luck the weather will collaborate and make the event a wonderful celebration of the coming of spring.
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ORGANISATIONS From the Royal Burgh of St Andrews Community Council
The St Andrews Community Trust The St Andrews Community Trust was established through an agreement between the Community Council of St Andrews and St Andrews Links Trust. The purpose of the Trust is to distribute funds generated through the protection and trademark of the Town Crest of the Royal Burgh of St Andrews. Funds will be allocated to clubs, charitable organisations and good causes in and around the town. The Community Trust comprises two members from St Andrews Community Council, one member of Fife Council, and a representative from St Andrews Links Trust. Three local resident trustee positions will complete the board and the Community Trust is actively recruiting volunteers at the moment. To be considered for a Trustee position, please email info@standrewscommunitytrust.co.uk or write to: The Secretary, St Andrews Community Trust, C/O Murray, Donald, Drummond and Cook LLP, Kinburn Castle, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9DR. Please note, applicants must not be a Community Council Councillor, a Fife Council Councillor or a trustee of St Andrews Links Trust. The Trust will consider donations to projects in the Operating Area, being the area of the Royal Burgh of St Andrews Community Council and those contiguous community council areas surrounding St Andrews. Applications for
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grants should be made in writing, e-mail or via the website, clearly stating how much funding is required, any match funding applied for and how your project will benefit the people of St Andrews, and which of the Trust’s Objects your application covers. The objects of the Trust are as follows: • To advance citizenship, community development and regeneration within the Operating Area. • To promote civic responsibility, volunteering, the voluntary sector and/or the effectiveness or efficiency of charities. • To advance environmental protection and/or improvement within the Operating Area and in particular through:- the provision, maintenance and/or improvement of public parks, public open space, other public amenities, other environmental and regeneration projects; encouraging the more efficient use of the world’s resources; and in particular the use of more sustainable forms of transport and greater use of renewable energy sources so as (i) to minimise the proliferation of mines, wells, and other extraction facilities which degrade the natural environment; (ii) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, thus avoiding damage to the natural environment caused by global warming.
•
To advance health and well-being, particularly among the residents of the Operating Area. • To relieve those who are in need by reason of age, ill health, disability, financial hardship, or other disadvantage. • To advance education, particularly among the residents of the Operating Area. • To advance heritage, particularly among residents of the Operating Area, including through:- the promotion of projects increasing public knowledge of the history of St Andrews; preserving, for the benefit of the general public, the historical, architectural and constructional heritage that may exist in and around the Operating Area in buildings (including any structure or erection and any part of a building as so defined) of particular beauty or historical, architectural, or constructional interest. • To promote research, surveys, and feasibility studies designed to investigate possible approaches to furthering any of the previously listed objectives (subject to some restrictions on the proportion of available funding that can be used in this way) . • To promote, operate, establish and/ or support other similar projects and programmes which further charitable purposes particularly for the benefit of residents of the Operating Area.
ORGANISATIONS Betty Robertson was invited by Rotary Club St Andrews to relate her experience of receiving a donated organ. Her inspiring story is repeated here to encourage others to offer, and accept, the “gift of life”.
My Transplant Inner Wheel Clubs, to Rotary Clubs asking In 1965 during if they would pay my Golf Green Fees, my a pregnancy, own Rotary Club asking them to pay for I developed my petrol. A fellow member of Inner Wheel, Pre-Eclampsia. Margaret Brown, volunteered to be my driver This affected my and caddy. My golf balls were donated. blood pressure, Our schedule was: Tuesday, travel resulting in a premature birth and kidney to Scotscraig, Tayport, where we were failure. Kidney problems can arise during met by the press for a photo call to pregnancy, usually returning to normal within help sponsorship; 9 holes of Golf; on to 8-10 days, but in my case after 21 days, Carnoustie, overnight stay before 9 holes the position was serious, as there were no on the Burnside course; then Stonehaven artificial kidney machines available. for a further 9 holes. My original plan was to A new treatment called “Peritoneal have a treatment in Aberdeen that evening, Dialysis” had just begun in Scotland; in but their unit was too busy, so we had to fact I was the 3rd person to have it, first return to Dundee for an evening treatment in Dundee! It was textbook treatment, just before coming home to St Andrews at a bit scary. To-day it is called CAPD – 10.30pm. Next morning we left shortly after Compulsory Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis, 8.00am as we were due in Aberdeen at a bag exchange system carried out 3-4 10.00am for another 9 holes. After lunch times daily at home, infusing and removing it was Fraserburgh, to play 9 holes before surplus fluids and impurities. tea, on to Nairn, so that I could be close to Fortunately after 3 treatments, my Inverness for a further treatment at 8.00am kidneys responded, but only on a 1/3 of on Saturday morning. The rest of Saturday each because of the damage. At the time we rested before going to the theatre at Dr W.K. Stewart told me that if I didn’t do night, where as well as seeing the show too much, had no serious illness, I would we collected more sponsor money. At each be alright, but I would eventually require of the places I stopped I had magnificent treatment on a Dialysis Machine! Well at the hospitality, and sponsor money. Sunday age of 24, with a daughter age 6 and a son morning 9 holes at Inverness, lunch, then age 3, I decided that if life was to be short Crieff. Overnight stay, 9 holes; on to Alloa for it would be sweet for us all, and we would another 9 holes. To Dunfermline, overnight enjoy it with no restrictions! stay, 9 holes, lunch; back to St Andrews No further treatment, until in 1984, for another treatment, having passed my big 40, bed, then the last my kidneys were failing. As 9 holes over my predicted in ‘65 I was going I very much support favourite course in to require treatment with a St Andrews, the Eden; Haemo Dialysis Machine. the system in Wales, a further photo call I had the choice of Haemo where you have to opt for publicity, collecting Dialysis or CAP, and decided on the machine, out, rather than onto the more sponsorship; overall about 400 miles as this meant treatment 4-5 Transplant Donor List travelled. I set out to hours at a time, three times try and raise £1,000 a week, instead of 3-4 bag for RNLI, and to help exchanges every day. The with a holiday caravan for dialysis patients. machine meant I did not have to think of Finished with an amazing £4,760. treatment on the other 4 days. Prior to being The following year, I received my on dialysis I had not even heard of it, and I transplant on Easter Sunday in 1988! I was was more than wary. I therefore decided to telephoned at 2.00am asking me to go to spread the word about dialysis to let other hospital for a short treatment of dialysis. kidney patients realise it is not the end of Several tests and factors have to be normal living. considered before they make the decision The big hurdle is accepting that you to operate. I don’t think I stopped talking have a problem; once you get past, “Why all the way through the treatment. Then my Me”, decide what to do about it. To prove husband and I were taken by ambulance to the point, I set out on a sponsored golf Western General Hospital in Edinburgh, with trip, playing 9 holes at 9 different courses, a supply of cross-matched blood in case I fitting in three treatments in 8 days! Mad! required it after the operation. Immediately As you have plenty of time to think during I came round from the anaesthetic I felt treatment, I planned how to do this as different; I felt clear headed, alert not cheaply as possible, raising money at the sluggish, and I was pink not a muddy putty same time. I wrote, as a member of Inner colour. Right away you are allowed unlimited Wheel, requesting hospitality from other
fluids, after having been restricted to 1 litre a day. Next day, unrestricted food. Because you are on a high dose of steroids to help the new kidney, you are always starving, so instead of eating to live, you are now living to eat! Cereal, plus a cooked breakfast; a snack mid-morning; 3-course lunch; snack in afternoon; 3-course dinner; sandwiches or cheese and biscuits for supper! The result: from looking like a 61/2 stone stick insect, I went to 10 stones in 3 months. I am glad to say it steadied down as the steroids were reduced. I was back at work only 7 weeks later. It was very successful for 5 years, when unfortunately I picked up a virus. After a further two years I was back on dialysis. In February ‘95 I had another transplant in Ninewells Hospital, Dundee. (Unfortunately, due to lack of donors, the Unit in Ninewells Hospital is now closed and back to Edinburgh). Now I have 4 kidneys, only one working, but working well. I can’t get that virus again! Life is for living, take one day at a time and enjoy it. 2010 My kidney is still in very good order, and the hospital consultant is very pleased with the results. I continue to keep up my bowling, golfing, swimming, gardening etc, although a bit slower now, due to my age. In all I took part in 10 separate “Transplant Games” at various venues. This was fun, enabling me to catch up with other competitors. It is awesome seeing all the competitors on the final day, knowing that each of them has had a transplant of some description. I very much support the system in Wales, where you have to opt out, rather than onto the Transplant Donor List. There are people who still feel not enough will be done to save their lives if they carry the card. This is just not so. I also feel it is wrong that the family of ill patients can veto transplantation; it makes a nonsense of the patient’s wishes. There are also specialists not in favour of transplantation; all I can say to them is, “See how I looked, before and after, also the quality of life I would have been denied”. One of the winners of this year’s “Pride of Britain Awards” was Alison Jones. Born with Cystic Fibrosis, she has now had every major organ transplanted, one being a “Heart/Lung”. As her own heart was still in good condition, it was transplanted into a gentleman from Newcastle, who is now in good health. Apparently it is an easier and more successful operation to transplant heart/lung, as opposed to lung only! Alison has now completed her studies and is a Doctor. Well done Alison!
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ORGANISATIONS Club President Ian Simmonite, was in conversation with Flora Selwyn about the
St Andrews United Sports & Social Club – “Where we do more than just football”
Started in 1982 to support the St Andrews evenings during the winter sees competing day and has a late United Junior Football Club, the Sports and teams at carpet bowls. On Saturday night licence till 1.00am Social Club built the impressive clubhouse it’s dancing, with live entertainment. Different on Friday nights. in Langlands Road bands perform each On Friday overlooking the pitch. It week. Themed Cabaret nights the Hall is The Club welcomes new has a separate committee nights are presented on available for hire. members, including students to run its affairs. occasions throughout the It costs £40, plus The modest exterior year. There are parties a £10 deposit, £30 of the building belies the spacious, even at Hogmanay, and New Year’s Day itself. In is returned if the sumptuous interior. There is the Sports Bar, January there’s a Carnival Night; St Andrews Hall is left in good the Fullerton Lounge, and the Function Hall Day is celebrated and so is Burns’ Night. condition! with its superb sprung dance floor, “one of the Children enjoy a Christmas party, and The Club biggest in town”. Each of these areas has its the Oldies have a Christmas dinner and welcomes new own, individually decorated bar, fully licensed to entertainment. With disabled access and baby members, including students. Ian said that serve a wide selection of beers, wines, spirits, changing facilities, no-one needs to feel left out. there are folk from Dundee, Pittenweem, and soft drinks. The Club is open from 11.00am till late every Kirkcaldy, Newport, Crail, Anstruther, and even Members can play from the Glasgow area. pool, darts, or dominoes To join there is a one-off in the Sports Bar, and fee of £10 followed by there are teams to an annual subscription represent the Club in of £27 full membership, local leagues. A golf or £23 concession. You section plays on the Links do need a member to most Sundays, offering propose you, and a monthly fun competitions seconder. If you would for medals. For those like to ‘try before you who enjoy gaming, there buy’, you can be a are 2 machines with a member’s guest 4 times £250 jackpot. Couch in one year should you potatoes are provided live within a radius of 10 The Hall The Lounge with a 50-inch plasma miles from St Andrews, television showing all the or as often as you want freeview stations. in the year if you come From Thursdays to from outwith that limit. Sundays, the Fullerton A small entrance fee is Lounge caters lunches, payable by all guests. evening meals, and high Your editor had no teas. Want a quiet drink idea how lively this Club and a chat? Then this is is, it’s a revelation! Do the place. Monthly quiz ask for an application nights have recently form from the secretary. started too. You can telephone: Tuesday and 01334 477 367. Thursday evenings are for bingo in the Function (Photos courtesy The Bar The Bar Hall. Wednesday the Club)
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EVENTS Julia Young, of St Andrews Pottery, reveals how inspiration for gardening can be garnered from
The Scotland Garden Scheme The explosion for a “village gardens” opening. It’s good fun of gardening seeing the backs of people’s houses too! programmes on For this article I was lent a book meticulously television in the recording all the gardens opened in the sixties last twenty-or-so and seventies. Owners were approached each years has led to year and invited to participate, with some of the a huge rise in interest in creating, landscaping, excuses for wriggling out of opening a garden re-inventing, and rejuvenating gardens. very revealing. One poignant excuse for not Inspiration for one’s own garden is often opening was, “One old gardener – not up to gleaned by seeing other peoples’ gardens, but it.” The following year the same garden owner short of peering over walls or squinting through was recorded as saying, “New gardener, but his gates and fences, how do you get to see them? nerve has failed.” By visiting gardens in The Scotland Garden One with which I can empathise merely Scheme (SGS) is how. All over Scotland, from said, “Arthritis too troublesome”, and one with Shetland to Stranraer, hundreds of people open which I cannot empathise read, “We only have their gardens each year under this wonderful a woman gardener – will get back to you when scheme. There are big gardens we have found a man!” Rather and small gardens, castle nostalgically, for those of us All over Scotland, from gardens and cottage gardens, of a certain age, a gardener Shetland to Stranraer, Japanese water gardens and in Wormit in 1966 said, “Will hundreds of people alpine gardens, and usually tea do it once the Tay Bridge is open their gardens and buns to round off the visit! open!” And that meant, of Last summer one garden even course, open for the first time each year under this offered miniatures of whisky to ever, rather than open after wonderful scheme every visitor! yet another set of road works! The Scotland Garden Scheme started in Amusingly another complained “Can’t do it. 1931, and it has been raising money for various Staff troubles – probably never again.” Oh dear charities ever since. Participating gardeners me! And one who agreed to open said, “Nice nominate a charity of their choice and 40% of dogs welcome!” I’ve yet to meet a dog owner the day’s takings go to that charity. Some of who will admit to having a nasty dog! the charities which have benefited from all the The entrance fee for a garden in 1962 hard work that goes into opening gardens, are was two shillings “if a good garden”; one Alzheimer Scotland; Guide Dogs for the Blind; cannot help wondering who the arbiter of good Marie Curie; The Woodland Trust; Riding for the gardens was! “Head Gardeners get in free” Disabled; and the Royal Fund for Gardeners’ and presumably pinch ideas (if not cuttings!) Children, to name but a few. The other 60% (net for their own gardens! of expenses) goes to the beneficiaries of the 1984 saw the first appearance of The SGS which include, among others, Maggie’s Botanic Garden in the scheme, and in 1986 Cancer Caring Centres, and the Gardens Fund Crail was the first village to open a selection of the National Trust for Scotland. of gardens, followed shortly by Initially, the gardens which opened tended Pittenweem. Now a lot of villages to be rather large and grand – stately homes open a selection of gardens and country estates – but since Alan Titchmarsh each year. One of the highlights showed us that even postage-stamp-sized of the SGS year is the annual gardens in towns could be transformed into plant sale that takes place at horticultural delights, the variety is enormous. the beginning of October. This Frequently, gardens in villages get together is where “head gardeners”
bring along clumps of herbaceous plants they have split and divided, as well as seedlings grown on during the summer, supplemented with young trees and shrubs – all at fantastic bargain prices! You really could create a whole garden with bargains from the plant sale for a fraction of the price of plants from garden centres, happy in the knowledge that these are plants which have been born and bred in our own Fife climate. Hard working volunteers from Seasons of Ceres have taken over the organization of the plant sale, which takes place at Hill of Tarvit , an event not to be missed. Gardens are usually open on Sundays and sometimes on both days at the weekend. Details of all the gardens and their opening times are found in The Yellow Book (not to be confused with the Yellow Pages where it is hard to find anything!) which can be purchased from J & G Innes in South Street, St Andrews. J & G Innes have a long association with the Scotland Garden Scheme as for many years they printed all the posters for the open gardens. Now all the familiar yellow posters come from Head Office in Edinburgh. You can also access information about SGS at www.scotlandsgardenscheme.co.uk 2011 is the 80th birthday of the Scotland Garden Scheme. I urge you to fill your Sunday afternoons this year with visits to gardens, not only in Fife, but further afield too. You are guaranteed to have a wonderful day out, to be inspired by the gardens you see, and to be “wowed” by the high standard of home baking on offer everywhere! You will meet lots of other enthusiastic gardeners and just maybe a few “nice” dogs! (Photos courtesy Julia Young)
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EVENTS Annie Kelly, Media & Marketing Executive, StAnza, says Scotland’s International Poetry Festival is unfurling its banners around town from 16 March for a five-day celebration of poetry in St Andrews.
StAnza puts Poetry, Music, and Food on the Menu Now in its fourteenth year, StAnza attracts poetry lovers from all over Scotland, the UK and overseas. This year, nearly 100 poets, writers, artists, film makers, and musicians are involved in as many events, from centre stage readings to performances, slam competitions, jazz, and poetry nights, with over a dozen poetry-related art exhibitions, installations, and films. The line up is headed by Ciarán Carson, Selima Hill, Douglas Dunn, Paul Farley, Julia Donaldson, Philip Gross, and from the USA, Marilyn Hacker and the ‘King of Slam’, Bob Holman. Among the other international names are Chinese poet, Yang Lian, Germany’s Durs Grünbein, as well as poets from Italy, Belgium, Georgia, Iraq, and Australia. The famous StAnza Lecture, which in previous years has prompted much debate, will be given this year by the poet Professor Robert Crawford of the School of English, University of St Andrews.
Professor Douglas Dunn
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Among the new elements of StAnza 2011 is a unique collaboration with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Music Centre at St Andrews. StAnza’s launch night on 16th March has as its centrepiece a concert of poetry-inspired music with the SCO and Scottish mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill. The SCO and the Music Centre at St Andrews are also involved in a concert on 20th March at the Byre Theatre, which will premier three new musical settings to poems by the Gaelic poet, Sorley MacLean, whose centenary year this is. The festival is also celebrating Scotland’s Year of Food and Drink by putting the best of Scottish food and drink on the menu. It’s a unique chance to sample the tastiest cuisine the locality has to offer. Among the local and Fife-based food producers and retailers taking part are Fisher and Donaldson, Stuarts of Buckhaven, and Zest Juice and Coffee bar (who are hosting an Open mic evening). Keep an eye out around town for poets’ menus, even impromptu poetry recitals in shops and cafés. Eleanor Livingstone, who took over the helm last summer from Brian Johnstone, is looking forward to her first StAnza as Festival Director. She heads up a team of committee members and volunteers who give their creativity and energy year round to make the festival such a landmark event on the busy Scottish arts calendar. Another first is StAnza’s Gaelic Poet-in-residence, Maoilios Caimbeul, who is central to a special Gaelic Focus on verse, music, and visual art.
Julia Donaldson ‘I’m delighted we have such a diverse festival, ranging from the Gaelic Focus and Sorley MacLean, to New York-style poetry slams,’ Eleanor says. ‘It’s great to present such a wonderful programme to our audiences, and I’m sure they’ll enjoy it.’ Tickets for StAnza are on sale at the Byre Theatre, 01334 475 000. The full programme of events is at www.stanzapoetry.org (Photos courtesy StAnza)
EVENTS
Selected Events Thursday, 3 March – 7.30pm. The Playhouse Cinema, 6 Murray Street,Town Centre, Perth. Pavarotti Tribute concert. Contact: 01738 623 126. – 5.15pm. Younger Hall, North Street. Can a Scientist Believe in Miracles? A talk by Prof Colin Humphreys in the James Gregory Lecture Series. Contact: jglectures@googlemail – 8.00pm. St Leonards Music School, the Pends. Daniel Parkin, flute: Lindy Tennent-Brown, piano, play music by Blumer, JS Bach, Debussy, Prokofiev. Tickets at the door, £11, concessions £10, students, £3, children £2. Contact: www.saint-andrews.co.uk/smc Saturday, 5 March – 1.00pm-3.00pm. St Andrews Museum, Doubledykes Road. Chinese Lantern Workshop for 8-12-year-olds. Free, but booking required. Contact: 01334 659 380. Tuesday, 8 March – 10.00am. St Andrews Public Library, Church Square. Bookbug Session. Story, song, rhyme for babies, toddlers, pre-schoolers, & families. Scottish Book Trust. Contact: 01334 659 378. Thursday, 10 March – 7.45pm. St Salvator’s Chapel, North Street. La Serenissima. Vivaldi & his contemporaries. Contact: www.laserenissima.co.uk Saturday, 12 March – 2.15pm to 4.15pm. Holy Trinity Church Hall, Queen’s Terrace (East) Spring Tea. Holy Trinity Church Guild. Contact: Secretary, 01334 475 716. Wednesday, 16 to Monday, 21 March – StAnza Poetry Festival. See: page 24. www.stanzapoetry.org for all information.
Wednesday, 16 March – 7.30pm. Younger Hall, North Street. Concert, Verse in Music. The SCO. Conductor, Garry Walker. With Karen Cargill, Mezzo Soprano. Music by Battistelli, Berio, Harper (arranged Cresswell), Britten. – 6.30pm.Pre-concert talk for ticketholders by Lyell Cresswell in conversation with Dr Michael Downes. Tickets online: www.byretheatre.com from the Byre Theatre, or the Music Centre, Younger Hall.
Saturday, 16 April – 10.30am-4.00pm. Hope Park Church Hall, St Andrews. Spring Show – The St Andrews Gardeners’ Club. Contact: Secretary, Mrs. S. Scott, Beley Bridge Farmhouse, Dunino, St Andrews, Fife. KY16 8LX. Telephone: 01334 880 341. – 2.00pm. From St Salvator’s Chapel, North Street. The Kate Kennedy Procession. Buy College Echoes to follow both route and characters (and help the charities’ collection).
Thursday, 17 March – 7.30pm. Boys’ Brigade Hall, Kinnessburn Road. Take a Few Flowers – Flower arranging demonstration by Mrs Peggy Reid. The St Andrews Gardeners’ Club. Contact: Secretary, Mrs. S. Scott, Beley Bridge Farmhouse, Dunino, St Andrews, Fife. KY16 8LX. Telephone: 01334 880 341.
Sunday, 17 to Sunday, 24 April – On the Rocks. Scottish students’ Arts Festival. For full details see: www.ontherocksfestival.com/
Saturday, 19 March to Sunday, 15 May – 10.30am-4.00pm (to end March) 10.00am-5.00pm (from April). St Andrews Museum, Doubledykes Road. Fife’s Industrial Past. Curated by the University’s Museum & Galleries Studies students. Contact: 01334 659 380. Saturday, 26 March – 7.00 for 7.30pm. The Scores Hotel, The Scores. Diabetes UK North East Fife – Buffet Dinner Dance and Charity Evening. Music by Billy Anderson. Tickets: £17.50 from the Scores Hotel and Tel: 01334 476 163. Saturday & Sunday, 2 & 3 April – 10.00am-5.00pm. Pittenweem, Fife, Spring Exhibition – Pittenweem Artists & Galleries Weekend. Details: www.pittenweemartsfestival.co.uk
Thursday, 21 April – 7.30pm. Younger Hall, North Street. Prelude to the 600th The University Symphony Orchestra plays the winner of the music competition celebrating the University’s 600th Anniversary. Also music by Dvořák and Borodin.Tickets at the door and from the Younger Hall. Contact: 01334 462 226. Friday, 22 April – 10.30am. Town Hall, St Andrews. Provost Frances Melville opens the Town Survey Exhibition. All welcome. Contact: 01334 472 375. Wednesday, 27 April – 7.30pm. Younger Hall, North Street. Symphonic Opera. SCO, Conductor, Jean-Christophe Spinosi, with Renata Pokupic, Mezzo Soprano. Music by Mozart; Rossini; Haydn. Tickets online: www.byretheatre.com, from the Byre Theatre, or the Music Centre, Younger Hall.
‘burgundy’
Homo Sum I do not make rules; I do not make laws; I have not made this imperfect World: I am merely one of its imperfect subjects. Homo sum.
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OUT & ABOUT June Baxter pleads for the retention of
Craigtoun Park Many readers will have been dismayed to hear that Craigtoun Park is experiencing financial difficulties and is in danger of closing down altogether. I understand that it is to be open free of charge next season, as the Dutch Village (pictured) and the famous railway will be out of use due to safety regulations. Mount Melville House, with its gardens and policies, was purchased by Fife County Council in 1946 on the death of the owner, Dr James Younger. The house was renamed Craigtoun House and was made into a Maternity Home, while the garden and grounds were opened as a Country Park. The Mount Melville Estate, formally home of the Whyte Melville family, was purchased by Dr James Younger of the Alloa Brewing family in 1900. The house was said to be riddled with dry rot so was Craigtoun Park is still a marvellous place for a family day out, and it demolished, and Dr James Younger employed Paul Waterhouse, son of would be tragic if it cannot be rescued. A couple of new play areas with Sir Alfred Waterhouse the famous Victorian architect, to build the present imaginative equipment have been installed. The gardens, when I visited house. Paul Waterhouse’s daughter Rachel married James’s son, also with my grandchildren last summer, were beautifully kept. The restaurant James, and it is probable that Paul Waterhouse was largely responsible is excellent, with seating both indoors and outside, and above all it is for the design of the Garden, as no other designer has been named. a perfect place for a family picnic, with plenty of In 1993 an area around Craigtoun Park, which grass for football and just running around, and other was still owned by the Younger family, was bought by Craigtoun Park is still a activities like crazy golf. The railway was always a the Japanese owners of the Old Course Hotel, and marvellous place for a family huge success; although re-routed from its original a new Golf Course, The Duke’s, was created. The day out, and it would be track past the fairy castle, it is still enjoyed by every original idea was for Craigtoun House, which had age. It seemed to be running very happily last been a maternity hospital, then a retirement home tragic if it cannot be rescued summer. and finally vacant, should be made into the Club I would suggest that far better publicity, and above all, signposting House, but this proved unrealistic. The Kohler Company has expended would be of great benefit. There are few signposts anywhere, while The considerable sums on renovation, but work ceased when the main Secret Bunker seems to have signs to it from all over Fife. The onecontractors folded and priority was transferred to putting Hamilton Hall off charge at the gate is ideal, as unlike the Lammas Fair one is not back into use. continually searching for change. Craigtoun Park is a great asset to Fife The Younger family were great benefactors to St Andrews. The and St Andrews, and it is crucial that a solution should be found. Younger Graduation Hall bears witness to this, and Annie, wife of Dr James Younger, was responsible for the rebuilding and refurbishment of (Photo courtesy Stephen Younger) All Saints Church in North Castle Street.
Alistair Lawson presents another offering in our occasional series
Fife’s Far Frontiers “If you go down in the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise...” You certainly are in for a surprise if you encounter the Black Beast of Blairadam, believed to roam Blairadam Forest sitting astride the Fife / Kinross border, just west of the M90 at Kelty (turn off at Junction 4).
Lochornie Burn bridge
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Blairadam House and Estate date from the 1730s, when William Adam bought them. The area was well-nigh treeless at that time, but William’s son and grandson devoted themselves to filling the landscape with varied, attractive, and natural-looking woodland. Sir Walter Scott became aware of what they were doing and encouraged the grandson to write a book about his methods. Sad to say, these trees and their descendants were felled in response to the nation’s war-time needs, and the estate was sold to the then newly-created Forestry Commission in 1925. In recent times, the forest has seen several generations of commercially-planted trees come and go, plus extensive open-cast coal-mining. The latter was only the final act in a much longer history of coal-mining in the area, and the Kelty Heritage Trust have made great efforts to tell the story of the mining and to provide forest walks to the main sites of interest. The modern Forest Office sits at the centre of the forest, and is at its busiest in early December, when Christmas trees are sold there. But what of the Beast? There are various stories of escaped panthers and the like roaming the Scottish countryside, but,
rather like Nessie, any sightings have been fleeting and any photographs dark, distant, blurred and inconclusive. Those of a cynical disposition might be tempted to wonder whether the alliterative attraction of the Black Beast of Blairadam was just too tempting to resist, leading someone’s imagination into the realms of fantasy. However, imagination has been given legitimate free reign in relation to the Beast, in that the outline of a stylized Celtic feline beast has been created on an old railway abutment a short way north of the Forest Office. The carving originates in an exercise by students of Lauder (Carnegie) College in Dunfermline. One of the students (a German woman) heard about the rumoured beast of Blairadam and researched the background to the Kellas Cat (there’s that alliteration again!), a mythical creature associated with the village of Kellas in Moray. She was commissioned to carve the cat by the Kelty Heritage Trails Group as part of their work at Blairadam. Interwoven with the cat motif is the text, “Touch not the Cat”, which is an abbreviated version of the motto of Clan Chattan, “Touch not the Cat but a-glove”. If readers are emboldened to go down in the (Blairadam) woods today, your big surprise is to be found at Grid Reference 130 949. (Photo and cat motif from The Forest Trails of Blairadam, a Forestry Commission leaflet, contact: www.forestry.gov.uk/scotland or tel: 0845 367 3787)
OUT & ABOUT Tony Hardie’s
Nature Notes – January 2011 Thorburn’s handbook of British Birds features both the Dipper and the Grey Wagtail quite beautifully on the same page. This is because both birds need the same habitat for survival; that is, a fast-running burn with white water supporting a healthy insect life both below and above the surface. The dipper takes the insects under water, and the wagtail, just as they emerge. We are fortunate that these lovely birds are to be seen on the Kinness Burn, but I think, not so frequently now. This may be due to the breeding Sparrow Hawk on the Lade Braes or simply to the condition of the water, which picks up so much silt. However, we can watch both species on the Kinaldy Burn, that runs into the sea close to Boarhills. The dipper is a blackish bird, a little smaller than the blackbird, largely thanks to its short stubby tail, and with a conspicuous white breast. It flies from one large stone to another, bobbing up and down on the stone, usually mid-stream before splashing off to swim under water to catch various delicacies; for example, a fresh-water shrimp! No wonder the birds always appear rather fat to this observer. A hard winter does little to deter them unless the water freezes right over. For
their size they build a big nest, usually under overhanging rock, often on a very wet site. But the big nest allows the dripping water to drain off and within is a warm second nest where the young grow quickly and are ready to swim at a young age, with, instead of white, the most lovely cream colouring on the breast. The Grey Wagtail, so often seen on the same burn as the Dipper is, I think, the loveliest of our wagtails, not to be mistaken for that smart Pied Wagtail which seems to be at home in South Street, St Andrews! The elegant grey wagtail has the longest of tails which is continually wagged. The male is yellow in colour below a grey mantle and flies in an acrobatic way to catch those insects as they emerge from the water, usually returning to the flat stone in midstream. To watch these birds is a delight. In mentioning Thorburn above, one of our greatest bird artists, I am reminded how much John Anderson’s colour photographs enhance these notes. I know that we are all grateful.
Grey Wagtail
(Photos by kind permission of John Anderson (Crail Birder: www.pbase.com/crail_birder))
Dipper
Angela Montford invites you to
Learn Something New in 2011… With Spring just around the corner (we hope), now is the time to brush up on some old skills or learn some new ones. What better place to do this than in the lovely surroundings of St Andrews’ Botanic Garden, where the Adult Education group has been busy planning some really interesting things for you to do. Why not sign up with a friend? For those with artistic leanings, or for those who have always wanted to learn to draw and paint, but have never got round to it, why not sign up for Perthshire artist Claire Dalby’s 6-week botanic illustration classes. You will begin with pencil studies, move on to monochrome, watercolour, and full colour, followed by enlargement of parts of flowers, using microscopes. Finally, you will make a composition based on the work done so far, aiming to achieve a combination of outline drawing and finished painting, with a good balance of harmony and variety. Claire will demonstrate techniques to the class and help you individually.
In April a one-day natural dyes workshop will be held by Fife artist and printmaker, Marianna Lines of Collessie. With her help, you will be able to experiment creating colour with flowers, direct from petals and plants growing around the Botanic Garden. Working on cloth and applying the dyes by hand, with no boiling required, the artist in all of you will have the opportunity to make something really special and unusual to take home to keep. Jean Stewart and Edith Cormack, with other tutors, are presenting four day-long workshops for beginners, on the principles and practice of identifying plants. Practical sessions will be held in the Glass Class and at field locations. The sessions will include how to use a key, how to recognise plant families, and how to understand the names of plants. •
• •
Botanical Illustration in Pencil and Watercolour: 6 x Saturdays, 26 March–7 May (excluding Easter Saturday, 23 April), 10.30am-3.30pm. Fee: £150. A list of artist’s materials will be returned to you after booking. Please include a SAE if you have no email address. Natural Dyes from Nature; Thursday, 14 April, 10.00am-3.00pm. Fee: £25.00. Know Your Flowers; 4 x Wednesdays – 2 March, 9 March, 13 April, 4 May, 10.00am-3.00pm. Fee: £100.00
All classes will be held in the Glass Class at the Botanic Garden, with other locations as specified. For full-day classes please bring a packed lunch. Tea and coffee will be supplied. Applications forms are available in the Gate House at the Garden, or you can apply directly by sending your full details and a cheque for the appropriate fee made payable to St Andrews Botanic Garden Education Trust to: Education Secretary, St Andrews Botanic Garden, Canongate, St Andrews KY16 8RT or for queries email Don’t delay, sign up today – we look forward to seeing you, along with the daffodils. (Photo of daffodils courtesy Angela Montford)
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