St Andrews in Focus Issue 66 Sep Oct 2014

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

September/October 2014 Issue 66, £2.00

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

As summer slips into autumn, presaging another winter, thoughts turn to the perennial subject of the inevitability of change. There are those who fear change, and those who grasp it with both hands and make a success of it; all honour, therefore, to those who have resurrected Craigtoun Park. Then there are those who want to grasp opportunities short term without thought for the future, whether for personal gain, or simply from ignorance. Such people often vilify St Andreans who are passionate about the town, who stake all in the interests of long-term conservation.

None of us know how the future will be, but let us at least try to understand each other, work together in harmony for the benefit of the town and all of us, not just for the vested interests of the few. It’s the old question: quis custodiet ipsos custodies? St Andrews is precious, not only for those who live here, but for the whole of Scotland; let Wisdom prevail!

Flora Selwyn

******** The views expressed elsewhere in this magazine are not necessarily those of the Editor. © St Andrews in Focus (2003) SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2014 EDITOR Flora Selwyn Tel: 01334 472375 Email: editor@standrewsinfocus.com DESIGNER University of St Andrews Print & Design (printanddesign@st-andrews.ac.uk) PRINTER Winter & Simpson (ken@wintersimpson.co.uk) DISTRIBUTER Drop 2 Door (billy@drop2door.co.uk) 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.

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Contents FEATURES • • • • • • •

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Community Council Autumn Trees RAF Leuchars The Great War On the Bright Side Ask the Curator People – Letter in The Times – Newest Accomplishment – Norman John Spittal Reviews – Dry Stone Work – The Theology of Scarecrows

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ORGANISATIONS • • •

Nourish Scotland Christian Meditation Forgan Arts Centre

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TOWN & GOWN •

Time for a Tiger

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CENTRE SPREAD PULLOUT •

St Andrews Concert Diary

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SHOPS & SERVICES • • • •

“Beautiful Young People…”

Childcare Scheme Eating, at Hotel du Vin Roving Reporter

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EVENTS • •

Rat Pack Live Selected Events

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OUT & ABOUT • • • •

Waders It’s a Moot Point Moses Hidden Gems

NEXT ISSUE – Nov/Dec 2014 COPY DEADLINE: STRICTLY 28 SEPTEMBER

All contributions welcome. The Editor reserves the right to publish copy according to available space.

Cover: “Got’ya”, original photo by Ian Sturrock

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FEATURES From Howard Greenwell, Chairman

The Community Council As this is my first article for St Andrews in Gardens. Everyone is invited to attend. Even if you missed Focus, I wish to thank Kyffin Roberts for entering the Garden Competition this year, make a note to all the good work he did in his three years enter your garden for next year’s competition. as Chair of the Community Council. As he The last event I would like to mention in this article is noted in his last report, one of the major the regular St Andrews Community Council Coffee Morning. achievements of his chairmanship was the work undertaken These coffee mornings are held every 6 months, to give to bring Craigtoun Park back to life, and to give the park a members of the community an opportunity to come along very promising future. I want to add my thanks to Kyffin, all and talk to the local community councillors in a relaxed the members of the “Friends of Craigtoun”, also last, but not and informal setting, while enjoying a welcome cup of tea least, Jock Kirkcaldy of Cairnsmill Caravan Park (for all his or coffee with some home baking. It is an opportunity for work on the railway engine and Puffin Billy). The success of everyone to express views on issues that affect the town. the opening day at the end of June, where both the car park Our next Coffee Morning will be Saturday, 11 October starting and overflow car parks were full to capacity at 9:30am, again in the Supper Room of the with appreciative visitors, is wholly due to Town Hall, where you can meet with many Kyffin and the Friends of Craigtoun team that of the community councillors to express your the Community Council views. In addition to Tea and Coffee there is has been assembled. I am sure everyone in St Andrews will join me in wishing them every always a home baking stall, a plant stall, a only operates with success in future. bric-a-brac stall, a raffle, and usually some the involvement and Kyffin also continues to run the Summer entertainment from a local community group. support of the citizens Bandstand concerts by Martyrs Monument.

We look forward to welcoming you to this of St Andrews These popular, free events happen most event.

Sundays throughout July and August.

Finally, the Community Council only Everyone was welcome to come along to operates with the involvement and support listen to the school and club bands we invited to entertain of the citizens of St Andrews. November 2014, sees the us on a pleasant Sunday afternoon. Each concert started new elections for the Community Council. All of the events at 2.00pm (full details on the Community Council website mentioned above only happen because of the volunteers who ( http://www.standrewscc.net ). give up their time for the good of the St Andrews community.

Every summer we run a “Garden Competition” for all the The elections later this year are a good opportunity for new budding gardeners in the town. The judging took place at people to get involved. Full details of how to get involved the end of July. The presentation ceremony to announce the and how to vote in the elections will be published in the local winners will be held on Tuesday, 16 September from 6:30pm press and on the Community Council website nearer to the to 8:30pm in the Supper Room of the Town Hall, Queen’s November elections.

Mims

Autumn Trees The glowing flaxen sun wallows low on the horizon, casting soft enveloping light.

Beams radiate forth, like wands transforming heads of trees to gold; Gently the leaves fall, ochre-green.

Humbly I stand at the feet of these giant resplendent forest queens, And with wide-eyed witness, I sense that all is perfect, and how very privileged I am.

(Photo by Flora Selwyn)

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FEATURES

Sincere thanks to RAF Leuchars for this exclusive Press Release at such a busy time for them.

We send our very best wishes to all. We will miss you!

Date: 28 July 14

Royal Air Force Leuchars As North East Fife prepares to welcome the Army, and so begin a new chapter in the region’s long relationship with Defence, we pause to celebrate over 100 years of military aviation at Leuchars.

Although formally adopted as RAF Leuchars in 1920, the Station began life in 1911 when the first balloon squadrons of the Royal Engineers experimented in the skies above Tenstmuir Forest. They were soon joined by the ‘string and sealing wax’ aircraft of the embryonic Royal Flying Corps.

Like so many RAF stations, the airfield itself owes its existence to the stimulus of war, and work began on levelling the existing site on Reres Farm in 1916. Building was still underway when the Armistice was signed in 1918.

As the war clouds gathered over Europe once more, its maritime position ensured that Leuchars would play a key role in the defence of the United Kingdom. The Station came under control of Coastal Command and performed anti-submarine and anti-shipping strikes. On only the second day of the war, a Hudson aircraft of 224 Squadron became the first British aircraft to engage the enemy when it attacked a Dornier 18 over the North Sea. In February 1940 another 224 Squadron Hudson located the German prison ship the Altmark, which allowed for its interception by HMS Cossack and the liberation of over 200 British prisoners.

Following the war, RAF Leuchars returned to a gentler pace, hosting a school for reconnaissance and the St Andrews University Air Squadron complete with Tiger Moths. In 1950 the Station then entered the jet age as it passed from Coastal to Fighter Command and the Meteors of 222 Squadron made Leuchars their new home.

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As the Cold War reached its frostiest depths in the 1960s, the development of long range aircraft allowed the Soviets the ability to reach Britain. RAF Leuchars provided the northern element of the Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) Force; for four decades the Station’s pilots and fast-jet aircraft were on high alert to scramble and intercept unidentified aircraft approaching UK airspace.

Over the years the Meteor and the Vampire gave way to the increasingly more capable Javelin, Hunter, Lightning, Phantom and Tornado F3. In 2010, Leuchars became home to the first frontline Typhoon squadron to be based in Scotland. Within its first year of operation, Number 6 Squadron assumed responsibility for QRA (North) and successfully deployed as part of the UK contribution to Operation Unified Protector, the NATO mission over Libya.

FEATURES In 2011, following the most recent Strategic Defence and Security Review, it was announced that the Typhoon Force would relocate to RAF Lossiemouth in Moray and that Leuchars would transition to Army control in 2015. Thus, in May of this year, RAF Leuchars proudly celebrated its historic ties to North East Fife by parading through the City of St Andrews one final time. With ‘bayonets fixed, colours flying and bands playing’, over 250 airmen and women from the Station marched through cheering crowds as a Typhoon aircraft delivered a poignant salute from the air.

Speaking at the event, Air Officer Scotland and Station Commander RAF Leuchars, Air Commodore Gerry Mayhew said: “It was a tremendous honour to exercise our Freedom of St Andrews for the last time today in front of such a large audience. The support shown to the Station by the people of Fife and Tayside, in recent times and throughout our long history, has been truly humbling. I speak for all Royal Air Force Leuchars personnel, past and present, when I say we are profoundly grateful to the community we have been proud to serve, and proud to call home, for nearly a century.”

In 2015 Leuchars will become home to the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, 2 Close Support Battalion of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, and 110 Provost Company of the Royal Military Police. All are returning to the UK after nearly twenty years based in northern Germany, during which time they made vital contributions to operations in Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.

(Photos courtesy RAF Leuchars)

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FEATURES Michael Buchanan ponders

The Great War: Service, Sacrifice, Survival, Succession to by a U-boat and scuttled after the crew had grandfather) was seriously injured. They were taken to the lifeboats. en route from Leith to Liverpool to sail to Within five years of Christian Salvesen’s Gallipoli. Had they arrived, casualties could death on 15 January 1911, 8 of his 9 grandsons have been very high. Ironically, I may owe my served in the War. Of these, 4 lost their lives, existence to this disaster. Physically recovered 2 were seriously injured or from injury, my grandfather, lived on in poor health. All whose own mother had died Many families from Fife were in their 20s. At least 3 of young in 1909, married in and beyond must have his married grand-daughters’ October 1915. Hetty, his similar tales to tell of husbands took up arms. One eldest daughter, my mother, young lives cut short was killed aged 34, at Ypres, was born in 1920. Later living leaving a daughter aged 2 and for 60 years in St Andrews, his pregnant widow. she played her beloved cello most days and in In Great Britain’s worst rail accident, the some 1000 public performances.

Quintinshill Troop Train Disaster of 22 May The 4 surviving grandsons mostly lived into 1915 near Gretna Green, one grandson their 70s, as did Christian’s 4 sons, Tom, Fred, was killed and his first cousin (my maternal Ned, and Ted. Lord Edward (Ned) Salveson, after losing his own 3 sons, was involved in the War Graves Movement in Scotland.

Some 9 descendants have, since the 1950s, attended the University of St Andrews.

Jeremy Salveson of Elie, died at the age of 51 in 2014 as the result of a skiing mishap. He was the great-grandson of Tom Salveson. Ronald Charles Salveson also died in 2014, aged 81; he was the great-grandson of Johan Theodore Salveson, Christian’s elder brother, who settled in Scotland in 1843. Their ‘send offs’ were on 25 and 23 April in Elie and Harpenden respectively Many families from Fife and beyond must have similar tales to tell of young lives cut short.

100 years on, let those who are left remember them all as the Commemorations of the Great War unfold over the next 4 years.

Between 1914 and 1919, of the 972 University of St Andrews alumni who served, 130 fell. Their names are recalled in the Roll of Service and the Roll of Honour. The War Memorial in St Salvator’s Chapel is a permanent tribute to the fallen.

‘For God’s sake, we will remember them!’

(Photo courtesy Michael Buchanan) The Salvesen family, c. 1935. Hetty is 2nd from the left.

Recently some tentative aggregate estimates of the human cost of the Great War have surfaced in print. They were: Service participants 65m; Casualties, killed in action 6m; deaths from illness 2m, wounded 21m; civilians 6.6m.

Such stark statistics underline the scale of carnage on all sides. However, 100 years on, it may be easier to re-imagine and empathise with the overall sense of loss by relating to specifics.

Christian Salvesen, my great-greatgrandfather, was born in Norway in 1827, settling in Leith in 1851, eventually prospering in the world of shipping. One of his ships, after his time, became the first WWI British merchantman lost through enemy action at sea.

On 30 October 1914, SS Glitra was brought

John Cameron’s views are

‘On the Bright Side’ later film productions. The same thing happened in It used to be said that Scottish clerics warned their folk against being too the environmental conflicts of the later 20th century happy, in case their Calvinist God became displeased and all manner of with deeply misanthropic books such as Rachel unpleasantness resulted. In fact, the ministers of my generation were a Carson’s apocalyptic Silent Spring. Her extreme cheery bunch; it was environmentalists who issued dire warnings that the rhetoric generated a culture of fear which led to the earth goddess Gaia would exact retribution. banning of DDT, as a result of which millions died of malaria in Africa.

The best antidote to such nonsense is the famous book But Is It Paul Ehrlich’s Population Bomb was a retread of the old Malthusian True? written by Aaron Wildavsky, former head of political science catastrophe theory that population would outpace agricultural growth, at the University of California at Berkeley. In what is a citizen’s guide leading to mass starvation. His ideas appealed to eugenicists and oneto environmental issues he argues that trial and error, rather than an child policymakers in China, but his forecasts looked silly when the green excessive use of the precautionary principle, is the best way to manage revolution produced vast increases in global food risks. The idea that no action can be taken if the production. consequences are uncertain prevents the very tests It used to be said that The last of this trio was Al Gore’s globalthat would demonstrate safety, blocking the benefits of Scottish clerics warned their warming disaster movie An Inconvenient Truth, new technology. The violent opponents of GM crops, folk against being too happy which was wildly unscientific, but still shown to many who destroy field trials and spread misinformation Western schoolchildren. His scaremongering and about the risks involved, are little more than Luddites. exaggeration have led to disastrous policy decisions which undermine Across the world I believe farmers produce crops of better quality and energy production with severe economic and social consequences. quantity, in a more environmentally sustainable way, and at lower costs as A new university session is almost upon us. It would be a pity if the a result of genetic modification. Wildavsky’s book is also a guided tour of next generation had their youthful hopes clouded by the fears of the green global environmental panics. It shows that claims of imminent catastrophe extremists of my generation. Even in the darkest days of the nuclear era invariably turn out to be false, unproven, or negligible. He makes a clear Kenneth Clark closed his legendary “Civilisation” by reaffirming his belief and compelling case for challenging conventional wisdom as well as in “the God-given genius of certain individuals.” He was right to do so, for ignoring media hysteria about improbable ecological perils. the prophets of doom underestimate how inventive and resourceful we In these centenary years of the Great War we see how public are, how extraordinarily well we adapt to new situations. perceptions were altered by the emotional input from the war poets and

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FEATURES Samantha Bannerman, Curator of the Preservation Trust’s Museum

Answers Your Questions Q. At a recent talk, there was mention of a Captain Allen of the 7th Battalion, The Black Watch, of Northcliffe on the Scores.

I was wondering if you had any more information about Northcliffe and the people that have lived there?

A. Northcliffe and the matching villa Rockview were built in 1865 for Dr John Adamson and Dr Oswald Home Bell.

The architects, Hall and Henry, were influenced by the neighbouring University House. Dr Bell was the nephew of Dr Adamson, and the pair established the Douglas Cottage Hospital at 33 Abbey Street in 1864 for the treatment of minor injuries. Upon the death of Dr Adamson in 1870, the Hull-Dalmahoy family moved into Northcliffe and the adjacent Rockview became occupied by their daughter, Mrs Violet Dalmahoy, until her death in the early 1960s. In 1875, the Hull family moved from Northcliffe, and the house was acquired by a widow, Mrs Rose Emily Cheape (or Allen), who we believe is a close relative of the Captain Allen referred to at the talk. Unfortunately,

been an active member of the Voluntary Aid Detachment during the Second World War. She remained at Northcliffe throughout her life, until her death in 1973.

current census records do not show Captain Allen living at Northcliffe before 1911, so it is difficult to know what his exact connection to Mrs Cheape was.

Mrs Cheape altered the house throughout the 1890s, adding an Edwardian style veranda in 1903. After the First World War, the Allen family sold the property to Major and Mrs Randle Jackson from Ross-shire, with their two young daughters Ann and Dorothy. Dorothy rose to become an authority on the biology of the parasitic wasp, publishing several papers on the subject. She conducted experiments in her home at Northcliffe where she had a laboratory and, despite having no academic training, she was inducted as a Honorary Fellow in the Royal Entomological Society in 1959. She was well known in St Andrews, having

A studio portrait of Mr and Mrs HullDalmahoy at Northcliffe in c1870 (Photos courtesy the Preservation Trust)

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FEATURES: PEOPLE John Birkett drew your Editor’s attention to the following

Letter in “The Times”, on 19 July 2014, from one Eddie Poyner, in Lanark Sir, At a St Andrews university debate I recall it being stated that red gowns were introduced in the late 1800s so that students could be more

easily spotted entering houses of ill repute. A member of the audience asked if that was why divinity students continued to wear black.

Roy Cammack’s

Newest Accomplishment

Does anyone know what the true origin of the Red Gown is? Please get in touch if you do.

Flora Selwyn chatted with weel kent

Norman John Spittal

Issue 44 (Jan/Feb 2011) told Roy’s story. Now he’s finished making a model train layout in his living room, which he is delighted to share with this magazine’s readers.

It took him 8 months to complete, only constrained by a lack of space. “It’s not a toy” Roy insists, “it’s a very timeconsuming business.” His 90 year-old, and 83 year-old neighbours have shared his enthusiasm working the trains; “it’s not just youngsters you know!” who like model railways.

Nimble-fingered Roy once made dolls’ houses with their furniture for his daughter. This latest venture, therefore, came second nature to him. As a boy he claims he never had ambitions to be a train driver!

(Photos by Flora Selwyn)

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Norrie, as his friends know him, and his wife-to-be Anne, were, by chance, both born in the St Andrews Cottage Hospital in 1947. Norrie’s parents, from a family of farming folk serving at different farms in Fife, decided to settle in St Andrews, in Lamond Drive, where Norrie grew up. He attended the Fisher School, then the Burgh School, passing his 11-plus at the newly-opened Langlands School in 1958.

He progressed to Madras College, but he didn’t enjoy school. In fact he hardly turned up for lessons, preferring to play golf, or “go down to the Fishermen’s Club” near the harbour. I was surprised no-one noticed, but Norrie was clever enough to sign himself into class before spiriting himself away. Nevertheless, he did play as a hockey full back for the School.

As soon as he could, Norrie joined the wider world without any qualifications and started at the Paper Mill in Guardbridge, working with the guillotine operator, then with the cutter operator. Soon after, he left to become a technician in the University’s Geology department. Here he was trained in making slides of geological specimens. “It was very interesting”, involving the cutting of immensely thin sections of rock to put onto glass slides for researchers’ microscopes. Norrie demonstrated for me the thinness of the sections of rock he cut as thinner than his cigarette paper! His job also involved field trips to various places in Scotland, especially Skye, to obtain rocks. Once he had a meteorite to work on, but he wasn’t told where it originated.

At one time, while working for the University, Norrie also cleaned windows for his uncle who had suffered a bad fall. Realising he was doing too much, Norrie left the University after 10 years. In 1970 window cleaning won out! In addition, Norrie ran Woolworth’s stockroom for years, until the store closed down.

For 44 years now he has been cleaning the town’s many windows. He keeps his ladders and trolley in Henderson’s old garage; the name is still faintly visible over the door. Self employed nearly all his life, Norrie is not yet thinking of retiring.

Married to Anne in 1973 in Martyrs Church (where later his daughter was also married) then with son, Scott, and daughter, Julie, to support, Norrie has always worked hard. Today he is also a proud grandfather, very much enjoying the next generation.

Though he disliked school, Norrie is an avid, wide reader in his spare time. He has also collected stamps all his life, among them first-day covers, one of which is signed by Seve Ballesteros. The Boys Brigade played an important part in Norrie’s young life in St Andrews, from membership of the Life Boys (later absorbed into the Junior Section) right up to Seniors. Having gained all the requisite badges, he was awarded the Queen’s Badge in 1963, when he was 16. He was also a member of the ICTHUS Youth Club, a Christian Fellowship Club, then based at St James’ Church on the Scores.

It is always a privilege to meet a true St Andrean, a vital part of our town’s heritage. Thank you for meeting me Norrie!

(Photo by Flora Selwyn)

FEATURES: REVIEWS Robin MacKenzie reviews

Dry Stone Work

By Brian Johnstone Published by Arc Publications, 2014. Available at J & G Innes in St Andrews, price £9.99.

Brian Johnstone is a prominent figure on the Scottish poetry scene, best known perhaps as one of the founders of the StAnza Poetry Festival, and its Director from 2000 to 2010.

He is also a very accomplished poet in his own right, as his new collection, Dry Stone Work, amply demonstrates.

In a nod to Robert Frost, perhaps, the construction of walls (dry stone dykes in this case) provides a major source of imagery for Johnstone, with the four sections of the book (‘Footings’, ‘Tracings’, ‘Heartings’, ‘Copings’) all taking their name from stages in the wallbuilding process. Indeed, the patterning of sounds in the title poem – ‘back’, ‘crack’, ‘slack’; ‘fast’, ‘past’, ‘gasped’ – suggests that the placing of stones in a wall might serve as a metaphor for the arrangement of words in the poem, as indeed the book’s epigraph, by Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, confirms: ‘The stones we writers use are words.’

Throughout the book, as in his previous collection with Arc, The Book of Belongings,

Johnstone’s attentiveness to the objects and beings that surround us in our everyday lives is evident: a blanket ‘flops down from the cupboard shelf’ and ‘slumps like wood ash’ on the floor; strawberries lie on a plate like ‘eight blood red hearts’; an air bubble trapped in an old glass the poet has broken is ‘released here/ from what had confined it, the old air/ mingling with now’; and the noise of wasps is ‘a tinnitus so spare/ it barely murmurs in the ear’.

But it would be misleading to suggest that Johnstone’s poems draw only on the evocative minutiae of domestic life: music (especially jazz, with Sonny Rollins and Billie Holiday, but also the Beach Boys) haunts this collection, the cornerstone of which is perhaps the sequence of poems entitled ‘The Ring Cycle’. This is not, as one might expect, a meditation on Wagner, but a description of a circus, whose performers, for all their skill, totter constantly on the threshold of danger or failure. Sometimes this is physical, as in the lion-tamer who fears not so much the lion’s jaws as its blank,

expressionless pupils, and sometimes emotional, as in the ringmaster who ‘needs […] his voice to sound true’ or (perhaps most subtly) the clown, literally and figuratively the fall-guy for the punters’ ‘blunders’ and ‘gaffes’: ‘I’m the spectre that haunts their conceit.’

These are only a selection of the poetic offerings to be found in Dry Stone Work. As the distinguished poet Douglas Dunn writes on the back cover, the book is ‘packed with original strengths, delicacies, variety, and a vivid awareness of life’. And at one hundred and three pages (including notes), Dry Stone Work is hardly the typical ‘slim volume’ of poetry publishing these days. All the more, then, for poetry lovers to enjoy!

Leslie Stevenson, retired Hon Reader in Philosophy, University of St Andrews, introduces his new book

The Theology of Scarecrows

Published by Publish Nation, 2013. Available at J & G Innes in St Andrews and all good bookshops, price £7.99.

I have written and rewritten these stories over the past ten years or so, since retiring.

Potential readers can be reassured that they don’t need to know anything about philosophy, and that the somewhat unorthodox theology that comes into the title story hardly reappears until the lengthy last story, in which Heaven turns out to be not all it is cracked up to be. Stories nos.

2 to 4 form a trilogy set in the mythical ancient Kingdom of Jujubia, where the royal family were held in reverential awe. Nos. 8 to 13 are located in Scotland, which may or may not contribute to their alcoholic strength, but perhaps (like the water that goes into the whisky) the setting contributes

a distinctive flavour. No.12 is a blundering attempt at Burns-inspired doggerel (at least it is short!).

A little philosophy enters in unobtrusively here and there, but more obviously in the last two stories. No.13, a playscript, has deliberate echoes from Plato – his cynical character Thrasymachus in Book I of The Republic, and themes from his Socratic dialogues Symposium, Phaedrus and Meno – but you don’t need to know that to enjoy the story (I hope). No.14, which goes on for nearly 10,000 words, tries to imagine Heaven, and its problems which are not usually thought about; the cast of characters includes St Peter, St Paul, guardian angels on the phone, C S Lewis, and a touch of Monty Python.

No. 9 was published in Debut in 2012, and an earlier version of no.13 was published by The Philosopher’s Magazine back in 1999.

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ORGANISATIONS From Matilda Scharsach, Communications Manager, Nourish Scotland

Nourish Scotland – Making Sure We Are Growing What We Eat And Eating What We Grow I think I am safe to say that we have all noticed much more local and artisan food in Scotland. Farm shops and cafés are popping up everywhere, restaurants are stocking more local ingredients, and farmers’ markets are well and truly established. Exciting foody things are happening everywhere!

But, as a society, and within our communities we need to do so much more to make Scotland’s food sustainable. Nourish Scotland is working hard to make positive changes by reconnecting producers, growers, retailers, consumers, and all who care for local, sustainable food in Scotland. We are creating a stronger food culture to make healthy, local, seasonal, and organic food available everywhere in Scotland.

Our network of over 1,000 supporters connect on matters as diverse as allotments, to permaculture and community-growing, and land ownership.

What is Nourish doing to help build a sustainable food nation?

Our events connect people and projects; for example, our recent New Boots on the Ground workshop, which showcased, sharing ideas about community access to land, urban community farming and how to make it as a new farmer.

This year we will be running a conference about food sovereignty; looking at how people across the Commonwealth can get fair access to land and affordable food.

We run training programmes too, for example our New Farmer Programme. Local food is a growing market in Scotland. Small foodgrowing businesses are always looking for skilled staff. Many people are keen to set up their own food business and sell direct to local customers.

Some farmers are keen to diversify, and grow some food for the local market alongside their core business. There are many community gardens starting to produce food; they are looking for skilled growers. But it’s not easy to get the training and experience you need before you are ready to start your own business, or even to apply for a food-growing job. The New Farmer Programme is designed to fill this gap. Participants are given a great start, learning about marketing and business planning, but also getting out in the fresh air and mud, learning practical skills such as how to put up a polytunnel! The course also includes a season’s work experience with mentoring. The 2014 programme, running from March to December, is focused on vegetable and fruit growing, for sale direct to customers.

We also work alongside partners such as the Soil Association and Scotland Food and Drink to influence Scottish Government policy and legislation. At the moment we’re working on getting a community ‘right to grow’ in urban areas. We also work hard to influence what the government is doing about food and health, the environment and childrens’ diets.

The problem with our food Food is key to our lives, but in Scotland we are still mostly growing, sourcing, selling, and eating food that can be harmful to our health, economy, climate, biodiversity, also communities.

Scotland has highly-productive agricultural land, but is mostly farmed with large scale agri-business and with industrial processing, so we often eat bland supermarket food to which we and our communities have no local connection.

Scotland’s food exports are a success story, but food poverty and malnutrition in Scotland are increasing. The unsustainable food system is contributing to serious local as well as global health problems.

Mechanised agriculture with high use of pesticides and herbicides is destroying our biodiversity. 30% of carbon How you can add your voice to ours emissions are generated by Even those of us committed to the food industry, causing sustainable local food find it hard Participants on our New Farmer Programme learning to put up a damaging global climate change, sometimes to find time to make polytunnel (Photo by Andrew MacDonald) unpredictable harvests, rising food changes in our lives to do this. We prices. find ourselves in supermarkets just Many of us eat too much meat, which can be bad news for the to save time, or keep meaning to dig over that vegetable patch and put in environment, as carbon emissions from meat production are much some tatties, but don’t get round to it. Join Nourish Scotland. We can help higher than from vegetables, fruit, or cereal crops. The meat we eat is you make that commitment. When you join we ask you to make 3 simple often imported, poor quality, or badly processed, which is bad news for pledges, which could be to grow your own vegetables, or cook at least one our health. meal from fresh a week, buy a few more organic ingredients, or join local As well as eating too much fat and sugar, we are also still wasting community growing projects. It needn’t be anything major, and we won’t too much food. Indeed if food waste were a country, it would be the third hold you to it! You’ll also get our magazine and discounted rates to our top carbon dioxide emitter after the US and China! events.

We’d also love food organisations, growers and retailers to join us; in Our vision the pipeline is a one-stop-shop member map, where anyone will be able to At Nourish Scotland we believe localised food systems are better for our look up anything from farmers’ markets to box schemes to direct farm-gate environment, health, community, economy. We are building a movement sales. to create a food system that is: You can sign up to our networking website for free. You’ll find all sorts of contacts and can join discussion groups on everything from allotments to • locally based with shorter supply chains rearing poultry! www.nourishscotland.org.uk • organically grown • less dependent upon meat • promoting and respecting seasonality Our website: www.nourishscotland.org.uk • resilient and beneficial to our climate and biodiversity Email: info@nourishscotland.org.uk • Fair and accessible to all, making us more healthy Tel: 0131 226 1497 • Creating a sustainable livelihood for producers

From the Rev Ronald Matheson, back after three years

Christian Meditation I joined a Meditation Group, greatly privileged to be invited by the leader, a Franciscan Friar, and Chaplains of the local hospital in Sliema, Malta. It was a branch of the world community of Christian Meditation founded by a Benedictine Monk, John Main. It is now led by his successor, Laurence Freeman, also a Benedictine.

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The local branch in St Andrews meets at 7.15pm every second Tuesday for half an hour of silent meditation. Anyone is welcome to join us. To find out more, please contact: The Rev Ronald S Matheson, 41 South Street. Mob: 0770 406 7412.

Email: matheson.ronald@yahoo.com

ORGANISATIONS Kirsty Martin introduces the

Forgan Arts Centre

One of Fife’s Best Kept Secrets – A Real Hidden Gem Are you interested in learning a new craft, developing the previous week, beginning Monday, 8 September. further an existing skill, or simply enjoying a few hours in Details to follow on our website. the company of people with whom you share an interest?

As well as formal classes we are also offering 3 new If so, Forgan Arts Centre in Newport on Tay could be the groups that will run more as social gatherings than as place for you! classes: Created in 1978, following the closure of Forgan CRAFTS SEWING BEE on Thursday afternoons from Primary School, Forgan Arts Centre – an educational 2.00 till 4.00pm. Meet with friends with a similar interest charity, is in the process of registering as a Scottish in sewing crafts – have a chat, cup of tea, work on Charitable Incorporated Organisation – SCIO, whose main whatever project you are interested in. Learn from each aims are, ‘to provide recreational activities through the other and enjoy the company. advancement of the arts, heritage, culture, or science, with the object of improving the conditions of life’.

BRIDGE GATHERING/CLUB: Also, ‘the advancement of citizenship by Depending on the level of interest and Forgan Arts Centre fostering a community spirit’. preference, this could be held on either a has a well-deserved The Centre has, until now, been run by Monday, Thursday, or Friday afternoon. Come reputation as a a voluntary committee under the auspices of along and play in a friendly, sociable, not too very friendly and Fife Council. The Centre is now entering a competitive group. period of transition and while it will continue welcoming place BOOK GROUP: We would like to know if to operate under the umbrella of Fife Council, there might be a demand for a regular book once registered it will be run by a Board of Trustees, group, meeting perhaps once a month. It could be held during elected by the membership. They will be responsible for the day or in the evening. Could you let us know if you are the planning and development of courses, the finding and interested in joining a group at Forgan and your preference funding of tutors, fundraising, and applying for grants to as to when you would like it to be held. Contact: improve the outdated facilities in a Victorian building. info@forganartscentre.co.uk It is a daunting task, but an enthusiastic committee has been working hard for months, learning new skills with We welcome any suggestions for classes you would the help of Fife Council, Fife Voluntary Action, Business like us to offer. Forgan Arts Centre has a well-deserved Gateway, North East Fife Rotary, and many others. Our reputation as a very friendly and welcoming place, aim is to launch Forgan Arts Centre in September with where work of the highest standard is produced. Please an increased number of classes that hopefully will have a come and join us. broad appeal to both adults and children – with morning, afternoon, evening, and for the first time, weekend classes.

Our traditional classes will continue; eg. Art, Pottery, Contact Details Upholstery, Stained Glass, Crafts, Floral Art, Dressmaking. forganartscentre.co.uk In response to market research carried out as part of www.facebook.com/forganartsfife our business plan, a series of Taster Sessions and Tel: 01382 542 062 Masterclasses was held in July including Photography, Address: Pottery for Children, Health and Wellbeing, Music and new Forgan Arts Centre, Cupar Road Arts and Crafts subjects.

Newport on Tay, DD6 8RA We are now planning our new timetable, it is almost complete and will soon appear on our website to be Charity Number: SC0008537 updated regularly. Classes commence the week beginning Monday, 15 September. Enrollment will take place during (Photos courtesy Kit Martin)

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TOWN & GOWN George Phillips recalls his

Time for a Tiger In 1985 I was invited to lecture in China. I nearby Singapore. This prompted Seng Luan to decided also to go to Malaysia, because I had say, “Time for a Tiger” and tell me that this was a standing invitation to visit Professor Lee the title of the first volume of Anthony Burgess’s Seng Luan in Penang and thought that I might Malayan Trilogy, novels based on his years in never again have the opportunity of visiting the colonial Malaya. When I got home I enjoyed Far East. Thus, after three weeks in Tianjin, reading the whole trilogy. I read it again China, I flew to Penang to spend a week recently while preparing this article. These discussing mathematics with Professor Lee at books brought back so many of my memories the Universiti Sains Malaysia. The word sains of Malaysia. Burgess had an obvious love of is Malay for ‘science’. The Malay language languages, these books include many Malay has a number of words derived from English. words. There you will find that orang puteh For example, ‘police’ is polis, which is not means “white man”. (Orang utan means “man pronounced in Malaysia as it is in Glasgow! of the forest”.)

My friend Seng Luan (Lee is his surname) In Penang there were still some reminders is ethnically Chinese. Born in Penang, he of the British involvement in colonial Malaya. studied as an undergraduate in Kuala Lumpur, For example, there was a statue of Queen as a post-graduate in Edmonton, Canada. His Victoria, while several street names in first language is the Chinese Hokkien. He also Penang’s main centre, George Town, are speaks English, other Chinese languages, named after Britons. Two that I remember also, of course, Malay. The 2010 census are Lebuh Campbell, and Jalan Macalister. in Malaysia revealed that the three main Lee said he hoped that such names would be Malaysian ethnic groups, retained, since they were Malay, Chinese, Indian, part of Malaysia’s history. after three weeks in constitute respectively 60%, I returned to Penang for 22% and 7% of the population.

Tianjin, China, I flew a much longer stay, on study The four commonest Chinese leave, in 1986. Lee and I to Penang to spend languages spoken are worked very well together.

Hokkien, Hakka, Cantonese, I learned much from him; I a week discussing Mandarin; most of the Indian was very pleased with what mathematics Malaysians speak Tamil. I was we achieved in our research very impressed by everyone’s collaboration. But I had an language skills. I remember a Malay girl, exciting and worrying experience at the end of just beginning school, who recited to me the this second visit. When I set off to return home, Mandarin words for the numbers one, two, as my passport was being checked at Penang three, and so on. Although I was well aware of airport before my flight to Singapore, the officer my own linguistic limitations, I told Seng Luan seemed puzzled. He said he couldn’t let me that, as well as English, I spoke the Aberdeen proceed to my flight because I had stayed for Doric. One day I said to him, “Fou’re ye deein?” about nine weeks instead of the four weeks I telling him that I had said “How are you doing?” was allowed. I had carelessly been unaware in Doric. Next day he greeted me with this that there was such a restriction on the length Doric phrase – at first I thought he must be of my stay. I feared that I would miss my flight speaking to me in his own Hokkien tongue! from Singapore to London. The official said, Seng Luan proudly drove me round “You must have known how long you could Penang making sure that I sampled some of stay. It is clear from your passport that you the local fruit. So for the first time I encountered have travelled a lot.” However, to my great rambutan, papaya and star fruit. My host relief, he relented, and said, “I must reprimand was delighted that I enjoyed Malaysia’s most you severely”. He kindly added, “And thank famous fruit, the durian, of which it is said, “It you for coming to teach us.” I replied that I was smells like hell and tastes of heaven”. I also grateful for all that I had learned in his country, tasted several varieties of banana, small ones, and we parted amicably. which I found tastier than those we usually I next went to Penang in 1987. The official get here. I also enjoyed Tiger beer, brewed in who was checking my passport looked up and

12

said, “Oh, it’s you again!” It was the same man. He said, “This time I will let you in for two weeks only. If you want to stay longer you’ll have to go to our office downtown.” I did that two weeks later, again staying in Penang for about nine weeks.

I enjoyed the local food very much, my favourite being a soup called Hokkien mee. I had it at breakfast time in an outdoor eating area just outside the University campus.

Penang usually has very humid weather, my shirt became soaked in perspiration during my morning walk for breakfast. I therefore put on yesterday’s shirt when I got up, changing into a fresh shirt when I reached my air-conditioned office.

I stayed in Rumah Tetamu, the university guest house. One day I met a very pleasant English visitor who was staying there just for the weekend. I was wearing shorts and was by then quite tanned. As our conversation proceeded it became clear that the visitor believed I was Malaysian. Finally, when he complimented me on my English, I couldn’t resist replying, “I had very good teachers”, adding “In fact, our headmaster was Scottish, and people say that I have a trace of a Scottish accent.” The lady who ran the guest house overheard our conversation. When I talked to her later, it was clear that she was astounded that I should ‘tell such a lie’!

During my 1987 visit Malaysia celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of Merdeka, its independence. I attended a celebration at the university that was attended by Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia’s first chief minister, who was then long retired and in his eighties.

Rahman was a great admirer of the UK. He had studied in England at Cambridge, as had Lee Kuan Yew, the first prime minister of Singapore. In the Malayan Trilogy Anthony Burgess jokes that Sultans are usually prescribed brandy by their doctors, although this is forbidden on religious grounds. In the evening of the Merdeka celebrations, I heard similar jocular remarks about Tunku Abdul Rahman.

St Andrews Concert Diary September–December 2014 www.st-andrews.ac.uk/music

PULL-OUT FEATURE The University of St Andrews is the home of live music in Fife. St Andrews in Focus offers you an overview of the extraordinary range of musical activities taking place from September to Christmas. For more information please visit www.st-andrews.ac.uk/music If you would like to receive weekly concert bulletins by email or the brochure ‘Music in St Andrews’ by post, please fill in the form at the end of this pull-out and return to Chris Bragg, Concerts Administrator, Music Centre office, Younger Hall, North Street, St Andrews, KY16 9AJ. SEMESTER DATE

TIME

CONCERT

VENUE

WEEK 1

Tue 16 September

13:10

Organ Recital by Nicholas Morris

St Salvator’s Chapel

Fri 19 September

13:10

Music Society Lunch Concert

Younger Hall

WEEK 2 Tue 23 September 13:10

Organ Recital by John Kitchen; St Salvator’s Chapel Music from Scandinavia

Lunch Concert by the Astrid Quartet

Wed 24 September 13:10

Byre Theatre

Wed 24 September 14:30

Research Seminar with composer Byre Theatre John de Simone; Writing a ‘Scottish’ piece

Thu 25 September 19:30

St Andrews Concert Series presents the Cavaleri Quartet

www.astridstringquartet.com

www.cavaleristringquartet.co.uk

Fri 26 September

Music Society Lunch Concert

Younger Hall

WEEK 3

Mon 29 September 19:30

Celebrity Organ Recital by Henry Fairs

St Salvator’s Chapel

Tue 30 September

13:10

Organ Recital by Robin Bell

St Leonard’s Chapel

Tue 30 September

14:15

Organ Masterclass by Henry Fairs

St Salvator’s Chapel

www.henryfairs.com

Wed 1 October

13:10

Lunch Concert by the Campbell Duo

Byre Theatre

www.campbellduo.co.uk

Fri 3 October

13:10

Music Society Lunch Concert

Younger Hall

Sat 4 October 10:00

Alexander Technique workshop with Heather Coates

Younger Hall, Rehearsal Room

Sat 4 October 19:30

NYOS:Futures and the Hebrides Ensemble Younger Hall perform Buckley and Shostakovich

www.hebridesensemble.com www.nyos.co.uk/orchestras-futures

WEEK 4

Organ Recital by Tom Wilkinson

St Salvator’s Chapel

www.thomas-wilkinson.co.uk

Tue 7 October 19:30

In the Wake of Neil Gunn – Mike Vass and Friends

Byre Theatre

www.inthewakeofneilgunn.com

Wed 8 October 13:10

Lunch Concert by Christopher Josey (tenor) Younger Hall and Carolyn Turner (piano); songs by Benjamin Britten

Tue 7 October

13:10

Younger Hall

INFORMATION

13:10

Wed 8 October 14:10 Research Seminar with Tom Wilkinson; The Music of J.S., C.P.E. and W.F. Bach

Byre Theatre

Fri 10 October

13:10

Music Society Lunch Concert

Younger Hall

WEEK 5

Tue 14 October

13:10

Organ Recital by Chris Bragg

St Salvator’s Chapel

Wed 15 October

11:00-13:00 Percussion masterclass with Matthew Hardy

www.henryfairs.com

www.thomas-wilkinson.co.uk

Younger Hall

Wed 15 October 13:10

Lunch Concert by Matthew McAllister (guitar) St Leonard’s Chapel and Tom Wilkinson (harpsichord)

www.matthewmacallister.com www.thomas-wilkinson.co.uk

Wed 15 October 19:30

Scottish Chamber Orchestra with Karen Cargill; Mahler Kindertotenlieder

Younger Hall

www.sco.org.uk

Thu 16 October 19:30

St Andrews Concert Series presents Murray McLachlan (piano)

Younger Hall

www.murraymclachlan.co.uk

Music Society Lunch Concert

Younger Hall

Fri 17 October

13:10

Sat 18 October 20:00

Choristi Sanctiandree; J.S. Bach in St Salvator’s Chapel Church and Court

WEEK 6

Organ Recital by Michael Harris

Tue 21 October

13:10

Wed 22 October 13:10

St Salvator’s Chapel

Lunch Concert by Feargus Hetherington and Younger Hall Gavin Brady; sonatas by Elgar and Ireland

www.feargushetherington.com www.gavin-brady.com

Wed 22 October 14:30 Research Seminar with Dr Stravroula Pipyrou; Byre Theatre Lost in Fantasma: Embodiment and

Governance in Mafia Dance VOICES Thu 23 October 14:00

Fri 24 October

13:10

Vocal Masterclass by Roderick Williams and Iain Burnside

Younger Hall

www.standrewsvoices.com

Music Society Lunch Concert

Younger Hall

VOICES Fri 24 October 19:30

Song Recital by Roderick Williams and Iain Burnside

Younger Hall

www.standrewsvoices.com

VOICES Fri 24 October 22:00

Candlelit Angels: The Marian Consort Renaissance and modern music for the Annunciation

St Leonard’s Chapel

www.standrewsvoices.com

VOICES Sat 25 October am Outdoor a cappella with

The Other Guys and

The Alleycats

Various sites in www.standrewsvoices.com St Andrews and Fife Farmers Market, Kirkcaldy

VOICES Sat 25 October 10:00

Choral Workshop on Brahms’ Requiem with Gregory Batsleer

Younger Hall

www.standrewsvoices.com

VOICES Sat 25 October 14:00

Rufflets Cream Tea with Jazz performed by Martyna Wren

Rufflets Hotel

www.standrewsvoices.com

Scottish Opera Gala

Byre Theatre

www.standrewsvoices.com

VOICES

Sat 25 October

19:30

PULL-OUT FEATURE VOICES

Sat 25 October

22:00

Kit and McConnel; musical comedy cabaret

Hotel du Vin

www.standrewsvoices.com

VOICES

Sun 26 October

11:00

Festival Service; Bach Cantata no. 29

St Salvator’s Chapel

www.standrewsvoices.com

VOICES Sun 26 October 16:00

SCO Brahms Celebration (including Brahms’ German Requiem in its original version for piano duo)

Younger Hall

www.standrewsvoices.com

WEEK 7

Tue 28 October

13:10

Organ Recital by George Barrett

St Salvator’s Chapel

Wed 29 October

13:10

Lunch Concert by Eilidh Steel and Mark Neal

Byre Theatre

www.fiddleguitar.com

Wed 29 October 14:30

Research Seminar with Dr Jane Pettegree and the Library Choir; Singing in the Stacks; unearthing the treasures of the University’s 18th century music library

Music Society Lunch Concert

Younger Hall

Concert by University Gilbert and Sullivan Society in collaboration with the Friends of Scottish Opera

St Andrews Town Hall

Fri 31 October

13:10

Fri 31 October 19:30

www.gilbertandsullivan.wix.com/ standrews

WEEK 8 Sat 1 November 10:00-17:00 Conducting workshop with Younger Hall

Gillian Craig and Bede Williams

Sun 2 November 19:30

Heisenberg Ensemble; Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and Beethoven’s Symphony no. 5.

Younger Hall

Organ Recital by John Butt OBE

St Salvator’s Chapel

Tue 4 November

13:10

Wed 5 November 13:10

Lunch Concert by Choristi Sanctiandree; Music by James MacMillan and Bernard Hughes St Salvator’s Chapel

Wed 5 November 14:30 Research Seminar with Jonathan Kemp; Understanding the motion of the lips in

brass musical instrument playing

Byre Theatre

Wed 5 November 19:30

Scottish Chamber Orchestra with Younger Hall Llyr Williams and Alexander Janiczek – Mozart Violin Concerto no. 3 and Beethoven Piano Concerto no. 1.

Thu 6 November 19:30

St Andrews Concert Series presents Younger Hall Robin Michael and Daniel Tong; cello sonatas by Brahms and Schumann

Fri 7 November

13:10

Music Society Lunch Concert

Younger Hall

Sat 8 November 20:00

St Salvator’s Chapel Choir; Music for Remembrance

St Salvator’s Chapel

WEEK 9 Tue 11 November 13:10

Organ Recital by Alasdair Grant; St Salvator’s Chapel The Organists of the Age of Enlightenment

BRASS

Lunch Concert by The New Wallace Collection

Wed 12 November 13:10

Research Seminar with Sandy McGrattan Byre Theatre and John Wallace – 19th century brass music

BRASS Thu 13 November 09:30

Brass Masterclass by Peter Franks (Principal Younger Hall Trumpet, Scottish Chamber Orchestra)

BRASS Thu 13 November 19:30

St Andrews Brass, St Andrews St Salvator’s Chapel Renaissance Singers

Fri 14 November

13:10

Music Society Lunch Concert

www.kempacoustics.com

www.sco.org.uk www.llyrwilliams.com

www.stsalvatorschapelchoir.co.uk

Younger Hall

BRASS Wed 12 November 14:30

www.heisenbergensemble.co.uk

Younger Hall

BRASS Fri14 November 19:30

St Andrews Brass, RCS Brass, Younger Hall St Mary’s Music School Brass

BRASS Sat 15 November 15:00

Kingdom Brass, Carnoustie and Younger Hall District Youth Brass Band

www.cdybb.org.uk www.kingdombrass.co.uk

BRASS

Conducting Masterclass with Bede Williams

www.bedewilliams.com

Sat 15 November

17:00

BRASS Sat 15 November 19:30

Younger Hall

University Wind Band and Big BUSTA, Younger Hall ‘MusSoc’s Guide to the Galaxy’

(© Peter Adamson)

(© Peter Adamson)

PULL-OUT FEATURE BRASS

Brass Festival Service

St Salvator’s Chapel

BRASS Sun 16 November 14:00

Sun 16 November

Music in Museums; University Scholarship Brass Quintet

Bell-Pettigrew Museum

Sun 16 November 19:30

Piano and Harpsichord Evening by University students

Younger Hall, Rehearsal Room

WEEK 10

Organ Recital by Lionel Steuart-Fothringham

St Salvator’s Chapel

Tue 18 November

11:00

13:10

www.stsalvatorschapelchoir.co.uk

Tue 18 November 19:30

University Symphony Orchestra with Younger Hall Viv McLean, piano; Rachmaninov Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Dvorak Symphony no. 8.

Wed 19 November 13:10

Lunch Concert by Ralph Strehle (tenor) and Julia Lynch (piano) – including a new song cycle by Tom Wilson

Younger Hall

www.ralphstrehle.com

Wed 19 November 17:30

SCO Early Evening Concert; oboist Rosie Staniforth performs music by Bach, Schumann, Poulenc and Pasculli

Younger Hall

www.sco.org.uk

Thu 20 November 19:30

Priory Singers and The Voskresenije Choir Holy Trinity Church of St Petersburg; music from the Russian countryside

Music Society Lunch Concert

Fri 21 November

13:10

www.priorysingers.net www.voskresenije.blogspot.co.uk

Younger Hall

CPE BACH Sat 22 November 11:00 Concert by The Society of Strange and

Ancient Instruments

Younger Hall

www.strangenadancientinstruments.com

CPE BACH

Sat 22 November

14:00

Public Workshop on baroque dance music

Younger Hall

www.strangenadancientinstruments.com

CPE BACH

Sat 22 November

16:00

Chamber Music Masterclass

Younger Hall

www.strangenadancientinstruments.com

CPE BACH Sat 22 November 19:30

St Andrews Chorus and The Heisenberg Ensemble perform C.P.E. Bach’s Magnificat and Mozart’s Requiem (pre-concert talk at 1830)

Younger Hall

www.standrewschorus.weebly.com

CPE BACH Sun 23 November 11:00

University Service with the Silbermann Ensemble

St Salvator’s Chapel

www.stsalvatorschapelchoir.co.uk

CPE BACH Sun 23 November 16:00

Festive Evensong with the Silbermann Ensemble

St Salvator’s Chapel

www.stsalvatorschapelchoir.co.uk

WEEK 11 Tue 25 November 13:10

Organ Recital by Andrew Macintosh; St Salvator’s Chapel Music for Advent

Tue 25 November 19:30

St Andrews Chamber Orchestra with Ben McAteer; John Adams’ The Wound Dresser and Brahms’ Symphony no. 1

Wed 26 November 13:10

Lunch Concert by St Andrews New Music Younger Hall Ensemble; ‘Letter from America’

Wed 26 November 19:30

A cappella society Christmas concert

Younger Hall

Fri 28 November

Music Society Lunch Concert

Younger Hall

13:10

Younger Hall

WEEK 12 Mon 1 December 20:00

Music Society Singers and Ukelear Fusion; Holy Trinity Church Yukelele and Yuletide Harmonies

Wed 3 December 19:00

St Andrews and Fife Community Orchestra Younger Hall Christmas concert

Thu 4 December

19:30

www.benmcateer.com

University Madrigal Group Christmas Concert

St Salvator’s Chapel

www.madgroupsta.weebly.com

Fri 5 December 19:00

University Carol Service with St Salvator’s Chapel Choir and the University Scholarship Brass Quintet

Holy Trinity Church

www.stsalvatorschapelchoir.co.uk

Pre-Xmas Sat 13 December 20:45

St Leonard’s Service of Nine Lessons St Leonard’s Chapel and Carols

Sun 14 December 14:30

Music in Museums; ‘There was mickle melody MUSA at that childe’s birth’ – St Andrews Renaissance Singers directed by Claire Luxford

Priory Singers Carol Concert

Wed 17 December 19:00

St Leonard’s Chapel

www.priorysingers.net

Join our mailing list!

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The University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland. No: SC013532

SHOPS & SERVICES

The New Picture House Winner of the RAAM Independent Cinema of the Year Award for Excellence Enjoy a pre-show drink in our lounge or book an exclusive function or children’s party with a private screening

www.nphcinema.co.uk

117 North Street, St Andrews Tel: 013334 474902

17

SHOPS & SERVICES Heather Lang

“Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art” – Eleanor Roosevelt, US diplomat & reformer (1884-1962) Jeanne Calment from Arles, France, entered into a contingency contract to sell her home in the town where she was born and had always lived. It was 1965. The terms of the contract stipulated that her lawyer, AndréFrançois Raffray, would pay Madame Calment 2,500 francs (around £3,000 in today’s money) every month for the remainder of her natural life then would take full possession of the property, valued around £50,000 at the time, on the event of her demise.

This must have seemed like a most favourable deal to both parties as Madame Calment had no descendants, and was 90 years old at the time. So this arrangement guaranteed her security and freedom from financial worries. She was born in 1875, the year before Queen Victoria became Empress of India. She could vividly recall meeting Vincent Van Gogh in 1888 when he came into her father’s shop. (She allegedly described him as “dirty, badly dressed, and disagreeable”).

Unfortunately for Monsieur Raffray, Madame Calment remained on this mortal coil for another 32 years, outliving him, becoming the world’s oldest person.

Although Jeanne Calment still holds the record, we as a nation are living longer. Out of the 13,350 centenarians living in the UK in 2012, 660 were aged 105 years and older. The number of people aged 90 and over increased to 806 per 100,000 in 2012, compared to 305 per 100,000 in 1982. Daytime talk shows run features on how, ‘60 is the new 40’ – before cutting to the news and a report of how we’ll all be saved/ destroyed by the latest statins (delete as applicable to the current press release).

Longevity can be a double-edged sword. To enjoy life, we need health. To quote Abraham Lincoln, “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”

Jeanne Calment took up fencing when she was 85; at age 100 she was still riding a bicycle.

She claimed never to have been athletic or fanatical about health and fitness, but ascribed her longevity and youthful looks to olive oil.

She enjoyed port wine and ate almost one kilogram of chocolate per week. Most other super-centenarians have similar ‘vices’, very few have had easy lives. Not everyone could or would want to live into their hundredth year.

The genetic one is definitely the main factor in reaching extreme old age, but there are consistent factors shared by the record holders that determine the quality of later life: 1. Be happy: Laughing produces endorphins, leading to more good feelings. When we’re happy, we’re probably less stressed, so we’re not affected by all of the damage stress and cortisol can do to our bodies and minds. We’re probably more likely to be active, too.

2. Keep body and mind occupied: Good health includes both physical and mental wellbeing. The two go hand in hand. A healthy mind contributes to a healthy body.

The mind, like the body, benefits from low blood pressure, low cholesterol, nourishing food, a healthy weight, and physical activity.

3. Think nutrition: Eat fresh, local, seasonal, organic produce, drink plenty of water.

4. Try new things: The brain loves novelty.

Although different types of mental skills change with age -- for example, mental computations slow down -- the brain never loses the ability to grow. And trying, or learning, new things builds new neural connections all through life.

FOR OUT OF TOWN LEGAL ADVICE Wills / Inheritance Tax Planning / Executries / Powers of Attorney / Guardianship Conveyancing / Commercial Property / Business Law

We can consult locally

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5. Be at peace with yourself: Liking one’s self infuses everything you do with a more positive outlook. You make better choices -- about what to eat, whether to smoke or drink, what you deserve in relationships.

Also you build greater stores of resilience that can help you bounce back from outside stressors.

6. Be sociable: According to a growing body of research, people who are socially connected live longer, maintain better cognitive health, with overall better mental and physical wellbeing. Humans are meant to be social animals.

7. Keep moving: Among all other lifestyle factors, movement is the linchpin to good health. People who exercise regularly have a lower risk of developing cardiovascular diseases, dementia, diabetes, depression, and osteoarthritis. They’re also more likely to maintain a stable, healthy weight, less likely to be obese, which is itself a risk factor for those diseases.

Heather Lang is a GOsC registered osteopath, ergonomic consultant, medical acupuncturist and multi-disciplinary manual therapist. She has worked extensively in osteopathic practice and development throughout the UK, Ireland, and Canada.

Heather has been qualified to conduct bio-mechanical assessments for over 20 years and is dedicated to diagnosis and treatment of pain and pathology.

St Andrews Osteopaths – Providers of effective treatment since 1998 136 South Street, St Andrews, KY16 9EQ. Tel: 01334 477 000 www.standrewsosteopaths.co.uk

ADIE HUNTER Solicitors and Notaries 15 Newton Terrace Glasgow Telephone: 0141 248 3828 Fax: 0141 221 2384 email: enquiries@adiehunter.co.uk

SHOPS & SERVICES Jonnie Adamson

‘Won’t somebody think of the children?’

A topic of significant personal interest has been the subject of some significant political posturing in recent times. This climaxed in the last budget, which brought announcements on a new scheme offering tax-free childcare which, depending of course on how the independence question is answered, is due to be introduced in autumn of next year.

Essentially, what happens is that you open a special online bank account. Then for every £80 you pay into it the government will pay in £20. You then use this account to pay your registered childcare costs.

Sounds simple enough, but there are, of course, eligibility criteria. To qualify, parents will have to be in work, earning just over an average of £50 a week, not more than £150,000 per year. Excitingly, the self-employed now qualify for the scheme (previous schemes were only open to the employed). Additionally, there is a ‘start-up’ period during which self-employed parents won’t have to earn the minimum income level, £50 a week. Good news for those starting out in business when income can be tight.

You are able to pay in money to the account as you like, but in practice this is likely to be regular monthly contributions. However, you will be able to save up contributions for the summer holidays, for example. What goes in does not have to match exactly the outgoings of the childcare costs each month. If you put too much into the scheme then you can withdraw it again (before you think there’s a quick buck to be made the government’s contributed proportion cannot be withdrawn as well!). It is not just parents who can contribute into the account.

Grandparents, for example, could help. In certain circumstances this might also help inheritance tax planning, should the payments be regular and out of excess income.

There are limits on what the government will put in – £2,000 per child up to a total maximum of £10,000. Moreover, the government will only pay out for children up to 12 years old.

If you already receive employer-supported childcare then you can continue to receive this as long as your employer offers it. Additionally,

Employers’ workplace nurseries won’t be affected either.

Quality childcare (thanks Margaret!) does play a very important role in modern life.

I do think that the widening of the scheme to the self-employed is a good and fair decision.

It also does not require the strict reporting on changes of circumstances, which caused problems under the tax credit scheme. Whether in practice the scheme runs as smoothly as is being suggested remains to be seen, but the simplicity of it compared to other schemes has to be applauded.

For further information on this, or other matters, please consult: Henderson Black & Co. 149 Market St, St Andrews Tel: 01334 472 255

Renton Oriental Rugs Tel: 01334 476 334

72 South Street, St Andrews Fife, KY16 9JT

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SHOPS & SERVICES

The Guid Cheese Shop

Amazing selection of the World’s best artisan cheeses

* Cheese & wine tastings * * Gifts & cheese accessories * * Relaxing coffee garden *

How to find us: Burghers Close, 141 South Street St Andrews T: 01334 477355

Print & Design We welcome commercial enquiries The services we offer include: • Colour Digital Printing • Graphics & Pre-Press • External Display Banners • 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 www.st-andrews.ac.uk/printanddesign The University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland, No: SC013532

Scotland’s Vocal and Choral Festival Thursday 23 October • Masterclass by Roderick Williams and Iain Burnside Friday 24 October • Song Recital by Roderick Williams and Iain Burnside • The Marian Consort: renaissance and modern music for the Annunciation Saturday 25 October • Outdoor a cappella • Choral workshop on Brahms’ A German Requiem with Gregory Batsleer • Rufflets Cream Tea with Jazz • Scottish Opera gala • Cabaret hilarity with Kit and McConnel Sunday 26 October • Festival Service • A Celebration of Brahms with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Chorus For further information see centre pages or visit: www.standrewsvoices.com Tickets on sale from Younger Hall from 1 August (box office: 01334 462226) – Festival Passes available.

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SHOPS & SERVICES: EATING OUT Hugo D’Bere, your Grizzly Gourmet (The Egon Ronay of the woods), visits

Hotel du Vin

The Scores, St Andrews The Golf Hotel has reinvented itself as the Hotel du Vin & Bistro. The Hotel du Vin is a small boutique chain of hotels throughout the UK with branches in places like Glasgow, Cheltenham etc. (see issue 64).

The Bistro has a very French influence.

The décor is all dark brown and cream with chandeliers and mirrors and certainly tries to provide the ambience of a French Bistro of the traditional type. The dining room is very similar to the old dining room of the Golf Hotel, the only major difference being there is a private dining area glassed off in the corner. They do a prix fixe menu which is good value at £14.95 for two courses or £16.95 for three courses. The steak frite, however, has a £4 supplement. Additional vegetables and side dishes have a £3.50 supplement, which could soon add to the price.

We went for the à la carte menu and had two very French meals. We both had onion soup at £5.45, which was quite authentic with a very thick onion base. There were proper bread croutons with gruyère on top, very filling. However it was not very hot.

Muffy had sole, which was lightly grilled in butter with capers. It came on the bone. I thought it would have been appropriate for them to advise that it came on the bone and to offer to take it off the bone if you wanted.

The fish was well cooked, though, and the

effort of removing it from the bone well worth it. Frites as a side dish were added at £3.50.

I had moules marinières, which came in an enormous black pot. It was a very hearty helping and the muscles were fresh, not at all Oddly there were certain items on the rubbery. Frites came with the moules, but we menu, which were not available, such as cod shared petits pois, again at £3.50 a portion. or scallops or strangely, burgers. Perhaps, The big disappointment came with since it was a holiday weekend, the lack of crêpes suzette for dessert. We both had fish could be excused, but why burgers? the same, and although flavoursome and The menu is definitely very French, so flambéed at the table with little saucepans if you don’t like French food don’t go. For of brandy, they were very disappointing. The example, the desserts were tarte tatin, crème basic crêpe itself was cold and should have brûlée, pot au chocolat, crêpes been served warm. As a result it suzette, and cheese. was fairly stodgy. This badly let The menu is The overall verdict is that down the meal. definitely very they could improve. Admittedly In terms of drinks, we shared the place has only just opened, a large bottle of sparkling water French but I would award 7 out of 10. It at £3.95, although carafes of could be 8 or 9. tap water were available. We had a halfThe staff were friendly and the service litre of Rosé wine, Château d’Astros. This was good, but just a little bit of extra effort was unexceptional, but perfectly palatable is needed. By the way, they do a Brunch (expensive at £20.50). It is good that they Gastronomique for £22.95 for 4 courses, sell not only glasses of wine, but half-litre which is also good value. Although they say carafes as well as full bottles. There is a fairly children under 12 years eat for £9.95, I would mixed wine list from all round the world, not not necessarily recommend it for the cubs. solely French.

A 10% automatic service charge was (Photo by Flora Selwyn) added, which I think is a bit naughty. I always tip anyway.

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

21

SHOPS & SERVICES

Roving Reporter reports 1.

out their own decoration; Ruth accepts commissions for personalised stationery; and Dagmar makes soft furnishings to order. The shop has one huge advantage – during the summer it is open from 11.00am till 8.00pm daily, except for Tuesday, when it is closed. Find them on Facebook: Yardbirds Guardbridge (tel. 07749 463 050, during opening hours) SimpaticaVintage (tel. 07974 195 538). You’ll be astonished!

What, Reporter asks, do you get when 4 creative ladies share resources? The answer is a new Home and Gift Emporium at The Stables, Old St Andrews Road, Guardbridge, situated in Rob Walker’s yard, beside the Guardbridge Inn. Two separate businesses are housed under the one roof, Yard-birds and Simpatica.

Reporter found the most delightful cornucopia of painted furniture, Harris tweed cushions, china of every kind, mirrors, ephemera of all sorts including unique hand-crafted cards, everything within the “concept of a bygone age”.

Reporter learned a new word, ‘vintiquing’.

It means, apparently, shopping for vintage goodies at shops like this one! All 4 women involved in the venture have diverse backgrounds, interests and skills, thus complementing each other. Tracey is happy to source items for customers; Doreen can source a selection of unpainted items for those creatively inclined, who prefer to carry

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2.

been carried out. Stuart Minick provides locally-sourced meat, Fisher & Donaldson make the buns, Birrell has the vegetables, Luvian’s supply the ice cream – a truly local symbiotic relationship that more retailers might emulate. You need time to study the menu: there are 9 Classic Burgers, 6 Famous Wraps, 6 Herbivore choices, 8 Make Your Own, 3 Classic Dogs, 8 Salads, 2 Shakes, 3 Speciality Shakes, 6 Ice Creams, 9 Make Your Own (Ice Creams), 7 Soft Drinks. Prices are no more than £6 (for the double GrillBurger). Good quality is the overall aim. As the Grizzly Gourmet said in Issue 61 (Nov/Dec 2013),”The formula seems right and I would award it 7/10 for the nature of the business, the quality of the food etc.” Reporter couldn’t put it better!

*****

(Photo by Flora Selwyn) 3.

Justin Hughes, owner of BlackHorn, 10 Church Street, St Andrews chatted with Reporter. Originally called Dakota, Justin explained that a conflict had arisen over the name, hence the change to BlackHorn. Open for a year now, Justin is proud of his local sources. “We strive to provide an awesome burger”, to which end some equally awesome research has

* * * *Reporter * welcomes

new initiatives in our town and is pleased to add this to his list from Christine Proudfoot, instructor at the new Kumon St Andrews Study Centre, at the Cosmos Centre, Abbey Walk: “I began my teaching career as an English language assistant in a German secondary school. After teaching for a

SHOPS & SERVICES

further ten years in US Forces schools in Germany, I returned to Fife where I taught for over twenty years in primary schools.

The study centre offers Kumon’s unique maths and English programmes to children of all ages and abilities. Established for over 50 years, the programmes initially start at a comfortable level, with a focus on building a strong foundation to enable children to develop their study skills and confidently tackle topics not previously studied. Kumon operates at exactly the right level for each student – regardless of their age – ensuring that the material encountered extends and develops their skills, confidence, and ability.

This kind of individual differentiation is a unique benefit of the programme, making it an effective complement to the school curriculum. I look forward to welcoming local families to the Kumon St Andrews Study Centre. Classes run on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 3.30pm – 5.30pm.

To find out how Kumon can unlock your child’s potential, contact me by email: standrews@kumoncentre.co.uk or phone: 0131 618 2315”

5.

second generation in charge, told Reporter that the firm has been established here for over 40 years. The family originally farmed near Kirkcaldy, but decided to move to St Andrews to offer plastering, tiling, and roofing services, in all the varied kinds listed on the company’s wesite: http://david-donaldson.co.uk. Employing 21 staff today, Brian says that, “nobody realizes the stuff that comes through” to his office. From a need to make more space, and also to modernize, the company has completely refurbished its premises. As Reporter discovered, a warm welcome greets people, and you can be sure of professional, personal, and expert attention.

*****

(Photo courtesy Christine Proudfoot) 4.

*****

Earlier in the year Reporter had painters in. Just as they were about to tackle an upstairs window, he discovered one of the panes was cracked. A phone call to weel kent David Donaldson Ltd, 01334 473 965 resulted in a new pane, expertly fitted within the hour!! Reporter was so delighted by this, he went to Donaldson’s HQ, 45d South Street, St Andrews to say ‘thank you’. Brian Donaldson, now the

Ken Mackenzie, manager of Blackwell’s Bookshop, told Reporter about their new location in the Student Association Building in St Mary’s Place. “While construction work on the “Union” revamp will not be complete for another year, one wintry day last January we were able to move our stock of 13,000 books from our old shop to our new, more prominent, unit along the side of the building” said Ken. Open to members of the public as well as to University staff and students, the shop carries a wide range of titles from academic texts to current popular fiction. In addition, if a customer cannot find a particular book in stock, staff offer an ordering service free of charge. “We are enjoying welcoming everyone to our new, brighter store,” continued Ken. “The relocation has made us more visible from the street, and while we look forward to the completion of building work in 2015, we hope that we

are already able to offer a high level of customer service and satisfaction.” The fresh location appealed to Reporter, who can never keep his nose out of books!

*****

6. Wow! That was Roving Reporter’s response to the new indoor school, and stables, complete with shower facilities for visitors at Drumcarrow Craig Equestrian Yard. Huge, clean, and quiet, the school promotes the development of horse and rider enabled by the expert tuition of Angus and Stephen Lohoar. The Lohoar family established the Yard in 1998 to offer livery for the local horse owner, to facilitate and develop all aspects of their horse through breaking and training, while specializing in the sale, production, and breeding of sports horses. Hamish, Alayne, with sons Angus and Stephen Lohoar now welcome Riding for the Disabled to the expansion of the Drumcarrow Craig facilities. Reporter is sure they’ll settle well in this professional yard with its friendly atmosphere, clean, well-kept accommodation set in beautiful countryside just outside St Andrews. Angus (07816 254 075) and Stephen (07811 480 233) welcome enquiries about any aspect of the facilities, teaching, training, horses for sale or lease at the yard. Please visit their website www.drumcarrow.co.uk for further information.

Rumalia and her foal Lennox, enjoying the paddock grazing at Drumcarrow (Photo courtesy of Victoria Warren (www.vicktrr.webs.com))

*****

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EVENTS Rymen Samra

Rat Pack Live Thursday, 23 October 2014 – 7.30pm, Alhambra Theatre, 33 Canmore Street, Dunfermline, KY12 7NX ~ Tickets: £23.50 & £21.50 Box office: 01383 740 384, www.alhambradunfermline.com / easytheatres.com The trio of Sammy Davis Jnr, Dean Martin, and Frank Sinatra were the definition of cool during the Fifties and Sixties and their Las Vegas showbar appearances were legendary. The city was abuzz with anticipation whenever the Rat Pack played “the entertainment capital of the world”.

Backed by the full sound of big band, they had attitude to spare. The rousing legend that is Sammy Davis Jnr, Dean Martin, and Frank Sinatra remains unmatched to this day. This unique chapter of musical history is superbly recreated by the incredible Rat Pack live concert show. The lavish production has played to capacity crowds throughout the UK. Underlining just what impact the Rat Pack have had on the world of music, the show has a set list of an incredible 45 worldwide hits to choose from. Featured hits by Dean include Everybody Loves Somebody, Volare, and Memories are Made of This. Sammy’s hits include Black Magic, and Me and My Shadow. Frank’s hits include Fly Me to the Moon, My Kind of Town, and My Way. Together there’s New York New York, Luck Be A Lady, and the Lady is a Tramp.

Fascination in the musical phenomenon created by Sammy Davis Jnr, Dean Martin, and Frank Sinatra has created a massive revival of interest in the sound of big band swing. Prepare to experience the definition of cool. . . * The first entry drawn in our exclusive competition will win a pair of tickets to the show.

To enter please answer this simple question: Rat Pack Live features tributes to Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jnr. and which other famous Fifties and Sixties crooner?

Send your answer by email to: michelle@entertainers.co.uk with your name, address, email address, and daytime phone number. Closing date: Friday, 17 October.

There is no cash alternative; publication rules apply.

PS – the two winners of the Magic in Motown competition (issue 64, May/June 2014) were both from St Andrews, lucky people!

(Photo courtesy Rymen Samra)

Invite you to visit a hidden treasure in the heart of St Andrews OPEN DAILY ALL YEAR ROUND PLANT SALES AREA Open Till end of September END OF SUMMER FESTIVAL Sat 20th & Sun 21st September WINTER LECTURES Start 1st Tuesday in October Chemistry Dept. North Haugh TO JOIN THE FRIENDS AND SUPPORT THE GARDEN CONTACT MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY Tel: 01334 476452 Charity No. SC006432

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EVENTS

Selected Events Wednesday, 3 September – 12.45pm. All Saints Church Hall, North Castle Street.

Medieval Harp Concert, Simon Chadwick. Entry Free.

Contact: 07792 336 804.

– 7.00pm. New Picture House, North Street. RSC, The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Contact: 01334 474 902.

– 7.00-8.30pm. All Saints Church Hall, North Castle Street.

Landscape & Acrylic Painting Class for Adults – the first of a 12-week course. All canvases & drawing materials are provided, also refreshments. Fee: £160. Contact: jaclynstuart@hotmail.com

Saturday, 4 October – 9.00am-1.00pm. Argyle Street Car Park.

Farmers’ Market.

Thursday, 4 September – 7.00pm. New Picture House, North Street. NT Live, Medea. Contact: 01334 474 902.

Friday, 10 & Saturday, 11 October – 11.00am-5.00pm. Town Hall,

St Andrews. Sustainability Fair. Contact: Transition University of

St Andrews, transition@st-andrews.ac.uk

Saturday, 6 September – 9.00am-1.00pm. Argyle Street car park. Farmers’ Market.

– 11.00am to 4.00pm. Preservation Trust Museum, 12 North Street. Autumn Fair, arts, crafts, cake & candy, bric-à-brac etc.

Contact: 01334 477 152, trust@standrews preservationtrust.org Tuesday, 9 September – 10.00am. St Andrews Public Library, Church Square. Bookbug. Story, song, & rhyme for babies/ toddlers/ pre-school children and families. Contact: 01334 659 378, StAndrews.Library@fife.gov.uk Tuesday, 16 September – 7.00pm. New Picture House, North Street. NT Live, A Streetcar Named Desire. Contact: 01334 474 902.

Monday, 6 October – 7.00pm. Town Hall, Queen’s Gardens.

John Patrick Crichton Stuart, Third Marquess of Bute. A talk by Dr Rosemary Hannah. The Annual Preservation Trust Lecture. Tickets £10. Contact: 01334 477 152, trust@standrews preservationtrust.org Friday, 10 October – 9.30am-5.30pm. Parliament Hall, South Street.

St Andrews Dante Lecture Series. First of 3 public lectures in which different scholars discuss individual cantos of the Divine Comedy.

Free entry. Contact: rpw@st-andrews.ac.uk

Tuesday, 14 October – 9.45 am. St Andrews Bowling Club. First fortnightly meeting of the Probus Club. Members meet for coffee, followed by talks and discussion. Retired business and professional men welcomed as new members. Contact: the Secretary, 01337 830 262.

– 10.30am-12 noon then 1.30pm-3.00pm. St Andrews Museum, Kinburn Park. In a Cardboard City. Carboard artist Charlotte Duffy invites 5-7-year olds (morning, must be accompanied by an adult) and 8-12 –year olds to build a city out of cardboard. Booking required: £3 / £2.50. Contact: 01334 659 380, StAndrews.Museum@fife.gov.org

Thursday, 18 September – 7.00am-10.00pm. Referendum Day.

Thursday, 16 October – 7.15pm. New Picture House, North Street.

Royal Ballet, Manon. Contact: 01334 474 902.

Wednesday, 24 September – 6.30pm. All Saints Church Hall, North Castle Street. Great War St Andrews: John Ripley VC. A talk for the Preservation Trust by Stephen Ripley about his Great-Uncle. Free entry. Contact: 01334 477 629, curator@standrewspreservationtrust.org

Friday, 24 to Sunday, 26 October – St Andrews Voices. A celebration of music for the voice. Venues throughout the town. Programme available at the University Music Centre, North Street, The Information Centre, Market Street, and other outlets. Contact: standrewsvoices@gmail.com

Sunday, 28 September – 2.00pm. New Picture House, North Street. Billy Elliot live from Victoria Palace. Contact: 01334 474 902.

Sunday, 26 October – 3.00pm. New Picture House, North Street.

Bolshoi Ballet, Legends of Love. Contact: 01334 474 902.

Monday, 29 September – 5.15pm. Venue TBA. What is a person?

Insights from Neuroscience & Christianity. A talk by Prof. John Wyatt in the James Gregory Lecture Series. Contact: erp@st-andrews.ac.uk

*****

Monday, 27 October – 7.15 pm. New Picture House, North Street.

The Royal Opera House, Verdi’s Il Due Foscari. Contact: 01334 474 902.

Thursday, 30 October – 7.15 pm. New Picture House, North Street.

National Theatre, Live, Frankenstein (with B Cumberbatch).

Contact: 01334 474 902.

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OUT & ABOUT Hamish Brown

Alistair Lawson of ScotWays

Waulked by the waves They move shuttle-fast Then fly up at a loom of fear, Unravel like a pullover Before flickering off Like a sequined plaid

Aeons ago, when I was a student in the Geography Department at St Andrews University, the late great Kate McIver took great pains to impress upon us the importance of the Markinch Gap, the existence of which has determined lines of travel in central Fife since the earliest times. A glance at modern maps will show that the A92 and the Kirkcaldy-Cupar railway make use of the gap to creep between the flanks of East Lomond on the one side and the Cults ridge on the other.

I have to confess to having had little reason to think about Markinch in the intervening years, until recently, when I found myself in contact with the Markinch Heritage Group, who engaged ScotWays to help them install signposts and interpretation boards on their local network of paths, “The Braes Loan Trail”, which lies to the east of the village. As a result, I now know that the cemetery at the north end of the village sits on the site of a Moot Hill, where people are believed to have gathered in ancient times to hear the disputes of the day discussed and judgement dispensed by the Earl of Fife, or his representatives.

As the accompanying illustrations show, a new interpretation board depicts the ancient scene, and passers-by can now absorb the information and project the view onto the hill before them. New signposts, a leaflet, and that ubiquitous modern sine qua non, an app. (covering 19 points of historical interest) guide visitors round the trail. A second interpretation board – and a convenient bench for weary walkers – is to be found near Dalginch, from where there is an extensive view to the south, including everything from the Bass Rock to Arthur’s Seat and the Pentlands. Closer by, Balgonie Castle is shown, together with an all-action depiction of a medieval nobleman and his hunting hawk.

If readers are already reaching for their boots and rucksacks, the key thing you need to know is that the trail is just 4 kms long – little more than a casual stroll. However, before setting off, make sure you visit the website www.markinchheritage.org.uk, where you will find out a great deal more about Markinch than is contained in this short “taster”.

One very challenging piece of local information, at least from the point of view of St Andrean readers, is the assertion that the tower at the ancient Markinch church may be older than St Rule’s Tower in St Andrews. Can this be true? It’s a moot point ...

Waders

Redshanks (Photo by kind permission of John Anderson (www.pbase.com/crail_birder))

“No, they are not open to discussion”

26

It’s a Moot Point . . .

(Images © Markinch Heritage Group)

OUT & ABOUT Arlen Pardoe

Hidden Gems in St Andrews (in plain view) Focussing on features that are in plain sight, but often overlooked Postboxes Postboxes are iconic items of street furniture, painted red since 1874 (though some were painted gold in 2012!). For the last 20 years all UK postboxes have been manufactured in Denny, Stirlingshire by Machan Engineering. Others in St Andrews bear the names of McDowell Stanson Co Ltd, London & Glasgow; W T Allen & Co Ltd, London; Allen & Co, London; Carrondale;

Carron; Derby Castings Ltd, Derby. The postboxes have a cypher indicating the King or Queen reigning when the box was installed. The boxes in St Andrews show cyphers of Queen Victoria and King George V. After national outcry, and some vandalism, the cypher used in England for Queen Elizabeth II was abandoned in Scotland and instead the crown of Scotland is used. There is no Royal cypher on Royal Mail vans in Scotland.

(Photos courtesy Arlen Pardoe)

There are three main styles of postbox – the Pillar Box, the Wall Box, and the Lamp Box (often on a free-standing pillar).

Pillar Boxes:

Ellice Place GR cypher

College Street GR cypher Wall Boxes:

City Road Scottish crown

Broomfaulds Avenue Scottish crown

Lamp/Pillar Boxes:

Double Dykes Road VR cypher

Hepburn Gardens Scottish crown

Argyle Street GR cypher

South Street Scottish crown

Bridge Street Scottish crown

St Mary Street Scottish crown

Ruthven Place Scottish crown

Two more unusual postboxes These are larger than the standard box of their type.

This allows for a larger volume of post.

Tom Morris Drive Scottish crown

South Street Scottish crown

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THE St Andrews pet shop!

Stocking the widest range of pet foods, accessories.

Anything not stocked we can order.

78 South Street, St Andrews, KY16 9JT Tel: 01334 470 873