St Andrews in Focus Issue 69 Mar Apr 2015

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

March/April 2015 Issue 69, £2.00

the award winning magazine for St Andrews www.standrewsinfocus.com

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

From the Editor

Does anyone these days try to foretell the future? I ask because a new year usually prods you to make New Year Resolutions – most of which never get kept – and predict what the future might hold. I almost did it myself in the last issue. Since our world has latterly been changing at such unprecedented speed, I think on balance it might be wiser neither to resolve to do anything different, nor try to forecast what might be invented, developed, or become. Among many past prognostications, which today seem beyond belief, there’s the King of Prussia in 1864 commenting about trains, “No-one will pay good money to get from Berlin to Potsdam in one hour, when he can ride his horse there in one day for free.” In 1903, the President of the Michigan Savings Bank told Henry Ford’s lawyer not to invest in the Ford Motor Co. because, “The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty, a fad.” Even the esteemed Lord Kelvin got egg on his face when in 1883 he proclaimed that, “X-rays will prove to be a hoax.” So really my advice is, don’t – unless you’re willing to risk your descendants laughing at you.

Flora Selwyn

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The views expressed elsewhere in this magazine are not necessarily those of the Editor. © St Andrews in Focus (2003) MARCH / APRIL 2015 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 • Community Council • John Cameron recalls • Reflections on Occupy Central • Ken Crichton • Culled from the Web • Ask the curator • Reviews: – The Traveller’s Guide to Sacred Scotland – Cryptogram – The Botanic Garden in St Andrews • Poet’s Corner: – Happy Birthday Wilma!

– To a Cat – T For 2 • Cherokee Wisdom

10 10 10 10

SHOPS & SERVICES • Prezzo • Financial Advice • Giving Something Back . . .

• Workplace pensions • Roving Reporter

11 11 12 13 14

CENTRE SPREAD FEATURE • The old Co-op’s cash carrier

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TOWN & GOWN • The James Gregory Telescope • A brief history of logarithms • Somebody loves me!

• Boarding School life

19 20 20 21

EVENTS • On the Rocks Preview • British Science Week • Moses • RAF exhibition • Selected Events

22 23 23 24 25

ORGANISATIONS • Cancer Research • Street Pastors • Ladies Putting Club • The Gardeners’ Club • 8th (Fife) Scout Group • Senior Citizens’ Tea Party

26 27 27 27 28 28

OUT & ABOUT • Pilgrimage • You can’t be serious?

• Hidden Gems

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NEXT ISSUE – May/Jun 2015 COPY DEADLINE: STRICTLY 28 MARCH

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

Cover: Malard Preening. An original photo by Ian Sturrock

FEATURES Howard Greenwell, Chairman

The Community Council January’s meeting of the Community Council heard two presentations; one from the St AndrewsLoches Alliance chair, John Matthews, the second from the Fife Council External Relations Officer, Dominique Robertson. Both were making presentations relating to a new request for St Andrews to “Twin” with Loches, a town situated in the picturesque Loire Valley in France. While John talked about the many synergies, exchanges, and achievements that have been organized by the Alliance in its 18 year history, Dominique talked about the other twinning initiatives in Fife and the potential sources of funding that would be available to the Community Council and the Alliance should the town choose to move toward a formal relationship and twin with Loches.

Over the years there have been many opportunities for the young people of Madras and St Leonards to engage with the young people of Loches through exchange visits, choral and orchestral tours, as well as some sporting exchanges.

Although the Community Council has always been fully supportive of the work of the St Andrews-Loches Alliance, it has not in the past felt able to support twinning. Over the lifetime of the Community Council, many towns have sought to twin with us, including towns elsewhere named after St Andrew, and the policy of no-twinning has avoided

causing offence to our many suitors. The Community Council has backed multiple arrangements, established “cultural relations” with other towns, including Upper Arlington in the USA and Loches. However, the Community Council does have a “Twinning Policy” dating from December 2002; that policy states that, “Twinning should not be a Community Council Decision alone; it should be supported by the people of St Andrews”.

The actual twinning policy has not been discussed for some considerable time.

Before the Community Council has any further discussion on the policy of twinning and the new request, we would like to hear representations from the residents of the Burgh on whether you would support the Royal Burgh of St Andrews twinning with another location, and in particular whether you would support St Andrews twinning with Loches.

If you wish to express a view on twinning, representations on both the specific policy, and on the specific instance of twinning with Loches, can be sent to: standrews.loches@gmail.com. If desired, we will also allow time for residents to make short statement representations to the Community Council meeting at the End of March, or End of April whenever we have enough input to allow this topic to be fully discussed.

Aside from twinning, Planning continues to be one of the major challenges facing

the Community Council. Even when we successfully argue that a proposed development does not meet agreed planning policies, and we manage to have the North East Fife Councillors agree with us, proposers still have the right to Appeal to Scottish Ministers to overturn the locallydecided decision. At the beginning of 2015 we are facing at least 4 such planning appeals: the controversial Visitor Centre and Biomass plant on the West Sands, the over-development of the old police station, and two proposals to develop new houses within the Greenbelt. While the Community Council supports both the concept of a Visitor Centre and the re-development of the old Police Station, we firmly believe that the proposed developments do not respect the character of the Royal Burgh of St Andrews.

We do not support any development in the Greenbelt. All 4 of these applications were refused, but now we need to make further representations to the Scottish Government Reporter to try to ensure that these decisions are upheld.

Finally, further to my call for more volunteers to join the Community Council, we are having some success in filling vacancies, but more people are still needed. If you are interested in helping the Community Council, then please email our Secretary, Patrick Marks. Full details of how to contact us can be found on our website at: www.standrewscc.net

John Cameron recalls

The Quintinshill Rail Disaster, 1915 My maternal grandfather, Hugh Urquhart, phoned at home early on Saturday morning 22 May 1915 was told to report to Quintinshill, where there had been a serious “incident”. He was out-door engineering chief of Glasgow and South Western Railway, which exercised running powers over the eight miles of track shared by various companies north of Carlisle.

The scene that met him was one of utter carnage; a south-bound troop train had collided with a local passenger train and a minute later a north-bound express had piled into the wreckage. The troop train caught fire. This spread to the other trains, with the result that 227 of the passengers were killed and a similar number left with terrible injuries.

My grandfather never really got over the sights he saw that day, but he proceeded to interview the rail staff, including the signalmen George Meakin and a near suicidal James Tinsley. The pair admitted an unofficial arrangement by which Tinsley rode up from Gretna on the local train to relieve Meakin at 06:30, half an hour after the end of the official shift.

In order to cover up the late changeover, Meakin would enter all train movements after 6 o’clock onto a separate piece of paper, which Tinsley would copy into the train register. With all the loops in use, Meakin shunted the local train on to the main line, but Tinsley, writing up his log, did not notice this usual maneuver and accepted the troop train.

It was clear the overwhelming majority of fatalities were among the men of the Royal Scots and only 58 out of 500 were present at roll call, the rest being dead or seriously injured. Considering the double collision and the fire, casualties in the other trains were lighter than might have been expected, with only two deaths in the local train and seven in the express. The reason was that the troop train was made up of decommissioned, gas-lit, light-weight coaches which shattered on impact, concertinaed from 215 to 67 yards and caught fire. These had been pressed into service because it was a bank-holiday weekend and

the carriages meant for the troops were dispatched elsewhere to take the travelling public to the beaches.

An investigation was quickly set up, led by the Royal Engineer Lt-Col Druitt on loan to the Railway Inspectorate, who had clearly been instructed to wrap this thing up.

In contrast my grandfather was a railwayman of indisputable integrity; instead of a rush to closure he began by observing that there was never only one cause for this kind of disaster. A copy of his report, found after his death, reads like a modern air crash investigation as he noted that this was often one of the busiest stretches of double-line railway in the UK. Early mornings could be a nightmare as a result of chronically bad timekeeping by two late night expresses from Euston – the 23:45 to Aberdeen and the 24:00 to Glasgow.

While the signalmen’s mistakes were the immediate cause, the scheduling should have been sorted out long previously, the fire and high death toll clearly resulting from the carriages used. The implication that the two signalmen were fall guys and that faults lay further up the chain of command outraged the boards of the railways involved; it almost cost my grandfather his job. The letter he received from his own board made it clear that the only reason he was not dismissed was that sacking their senior engineer would draw press attention. The government and the army were also infuriated to have it revealed that troop transport was not given priority and that antiquated and dangerous stock had been used.

Unsurprisingly Tinsley and Meaken were arraigned before the infamous “government” judge, Alexander Ure (Lord Strathclyde). They were sentenced to three years and 18 months respectively. While the authorities managed to keep the full story under wraps until the end of the war, powerful lobbying from other railmen led to both being released after just 15 months.

The general suspicion of ‘shoulder-sloping’ higher up the ranks can be ascertained from the fact that both were immediately re-employed: Meakin as a guard, and Tinsley as a lampman.

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FEATURES Jennifer Morton sends her

Reflections on Occupy Central As the last barricade of the Occupy Central movement was removed that a Scottish government better understands the values and desires from the city’s streets, my time in Hong Kong came to an end. The city of Scottish people. For others, the vote was decided by economic underwent a dramatic change during my time there, and the Hong Kong I considerations, and for others still, social expectations concerning the left was not the same Hong Kong I arrived at a few months prior. The soquality of life in an independent Scotland was the decisive factor. It is called Umbrella Movement was the longest, largest, and most publicised hard, and somewhat misrepresentative, to generalise the motivations protest in Hong Kong’s history; a protest which left the city’s streets in and considerations informing the decisions of an entire nation under paralysis, challenged Hong Kong’s relationship with China, and posed a few headings. Yet, it is precisely this which I think sums up why the far-reaching questions for Hong Kong’s people, concerning their individual referendum was hailed as exemplary for Hong Kong. The referendum and collective identities. gave every citizen the opportunity to weigh the value of independence The root of Hong Kong’s civil disobedience movement was a political against their own personal situation, aspirations, and concerns for the one. When Hong Kong was handed over to China in 1997 after decades future. It awarded every Scottish person the opportunity to have a say in of British colonial rule, it was accompanied by the the monumental decision which shaped, and will signing of a constitutional document, the Basic continue to shape our future as individuals and the Hong Kong I left was Law, which outlined the retention of Hong Kong’s as a nation, simply through the act of ticking “yes” status as an autonomous region – with its various or “no”. not the same Hong Kong I democratic freedoms and capitalist system intact Witnessing the frustrations of people arrived at a few months prior attempting under a “one country two systems” framework. The to get their voices heard in vain, I eruption of protests and erection of barriers in the leave Hong Kong with a realisation of how much I heart of the city was triggered by the conviction that Hong Kong’s political have hitherto taken for granted. The one fundamental difference between future has taken a decisive step away from this democratic direction. the events in my home town with that of my home for the last few months The source of controversy was Beijing’s White Paper released last is that Scotland’s political future was decided by Scottish people at the year, which outlined the new guidelines for the election of Hong Kong’s ballot box, whereas in Hong Kong, denial of the channel by which to air Chief Executive in 2017. Ironically, the new electoral process gives Hong one’s political views forced the struggle on to the streets.

Kong’s people more democratic powers than they have ever had before: The argument that Scotland’s interests are dictated by Westminster unlike the colonial days, every citizen will be entitled to vote for their was one aired frequently in the run up to the referendum. Yet, for me at region’s most powerful political leader in the next election. Yet, behind least, a comparison with Hong Kong highlights the hollowness of such a the “one person one vote” mirage, there is a catch that, for many Hong view. The Edinburgh Agreement signed by the Westminster government Kong people, has proven unbearable. What the protesters lament is their granted the Scottish government the right to hold a referendum and city’s future as a “fake democracy”; one in which every person indeed has award its people a fair and democratic outcome on the question of a vote, but where the candidates they can vote for are pre-vetted by the independence. On the contrary, a place in which the destinies of its country under whose auspices their fate lies irrevocably – China. people really are dictated by another government, is Hong Kong. It was, The struggle for democracy in Hong Kong has thus been inextricably and remains, unthinkable that the government in Beijing would ever allow bound up with the question of identity. Identity in Hong Kong is a concept Hong Kong people a referendum over a disputed issue of any sort – increasingly intertwined with politics, and which has brought Hong especially one concerning the electoral process of their Chief Executive.

Kong’s people face to face with a conflicted consciousness. On the Although the protests attracted headlines around the world, they did not – one hand, identification with China, of which Hong Kong is inseparably and, it seems, cannot – budge the Beijing government. a part, is politically associated with the Communist Party of China’s In Hong Kong, the protests now lie in the past. Once again, it is (CCP) values and ideology. On the other, identification with Hong Kong vehicles, not people, which traverse the city’s streets. Despite the as an autonomous region distinguishes Hong Kong people as citizens worldwide appeal they attracted for their cause, the protestors’ aspirations with democratic freedoms under a capitalist system. Soon after the have not gained any credence in Beijing. No changes have been made protests broke out, Hong Kong’s occupied streets reverberated with to the procedure by which the Chief Executive will be elected in 2017, chants calling for a “Hong Kong for Hong Kongers”. It became clear and the prospect of a Scottish-style referendum remains a distant dream. that the two identities were being pitted against each other in a way that Unlike Scotland, whose people have spoken and whose voices have rendered them incompatible. Resentment at Beijing’s stranglehold over been heard, Hong Kong people have spoken, but their voices have been the autonomy of Hong Kong has reinvigorated the sense amongst Hong ignored.

Kongers that they hold a differentiated identity from the mainland – an The bitter realisation has dawned on many that Hong Kong’s future identity they believe they must fight to protect. does not lie in its own hands. To keep on fighting could seem naiveté; yet, On the other side of the world, another country was going through to stop could equally be labelled defeatism. Although the physical barriers a potentially ground-breaking transformation, too. The referendum on have been removed from the streets, Hong Kong’s people maintain their whether to have an independent Scotland was narrowly defeated in a differentiated sense of identity. What effect the ongoing struggle will have, nail-biting contest, which returned spectacularly close results between it is impossible to say. Unlike the case of Scotland, autonomy for Hong pro-independence voters and their adversaries. During my time in Hong Kong people has not been given to them on a silver platter. Yet, the desire Kong, many people asked me the reason why some Scottish people of the people to secure their political future has not diminished. Futile or desired independence. The answer, I believe, is enormously varied. For not, the seeds of protest have been planted. I daresay that the fight is not some, a vote for independence was a vote for identity – the conviction over yet.

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

We can consult locally 4

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

FEATURES Flora Selwyn chatted to Lisa Crichton about her Dad

Ken Crichton

Things evolve over time, so Ken’s daughter, Lisa and I did a bit of in Kingsbarns, Ken becoming Postmaster. During his seven years there research. Born on 24 August 1928, Ken was brought up in Letham, going Ken became chairman of the Kingsbarns Community Council; today he to school in Forfar, first to the Primary School then Forfar Academy. still remains a Patron of the Kingsbarns Flower Show. They then moved to Leaving at 15, Ken worked first in Dundee. Then he relocated to his St Andrews where they ran a B&B. father’s birth town, Liverpool, to train as an auditor for BEA, British Ken has always been actively involved in his community, as a parent, European Airways. On their website, the National Careers Service as a Mason, in the High Wycombe Dog Training Club, in which he earned says, “To do this job, you will need to have excellent maths and IT skills. a Diploma for the Proficiency Class. It was therefore not surprising that You will also need good communication skills, and work with tact and he became a prominent member of the St Andrews Community Council, diplomacy”, which happens to describe Ken to a T! shortly after moving here. In addition Ken belongs to the Royal British Called up during WWII Ken joined the RAF, hoping to become a pilot.

Legion, on whose behalf he lays a wreath in alternative years at the War However, since he was trained as an auditor, that’s what he was detailed Memorial in St Andrews. to do in the RAF for the two years of his service. After Ken is the sole person running a charity called the war Ken returned to BEA. St Andrews Events, which has just held the 12th Ken has always been In 1956 Ken met his wife-to-be, Jean – who successful Hogmanay Ceilidh at the St Andrews Town actively involved in his Hall. Up until last year, the proceeds from this were was working in BOAC, British Overseas Airways Corporation – at a hockey match between BOAC and donated to the Annual Senior Citizens’ New Year Tea community BEA, in which Ken was playing. After the match there Party; the ticket stubs for this event also allowed the was a dance, Jean serving refreshments. They were married in 1958, people attending to get a free meal at Hope Park Church in the spring. starting married life in a caravan by the River Thames, before buying a Ken also organised the Tea Party till 3 years ago, when he handed the house in West Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. responsibility to Izzy Corbin.

BOAC merged with BEA in 1974 to become BA, British Airways.

Somewhat restricted in activity nowadays because his eyesight Ken worked with the new company until he retired. Lisa remembers her has been deteriorating through AMD, Ken continues to be active within father was given a record player on his retirement, “which I thought was the community. Very much a family man, he and Jean enjoy their three extremely strange, because he never listened to music!” adopted children, Donna in Glasgow, Lisa in St Andrews, and Andrew in The family moved up to Scotland in 1986. At first, Jean had wanted London, with six grandchildren between them. to stay south of the Border. However, Lisa’s elder sister Donna came to Scotland to study medicine. In 1986 Ken and Jean bought the post office (Photos courtesy Lisa Crichton)

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FEATURES

Culled from the Web (where else??)

HEARD ON THE LONDON UNDERGROUND A list of actual announcements that London Tube train drivers have made to their passengers . . . apologize for the ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, I do you’re all dying w kno I ice. delay to your serv you happen to rse, to get home, unless, of cou ch case you’ll whi in ife, ex-w my to be married und and go in stbo We the want to cross over to n.’ ctio dire e osit opp the

‘Your delay th is evening is caused by the controller suffe line ring from E & B syndrome: knowing his el not bow from his backside. I’ll le know any furth t you er information as soon as I’m given any.’ d s first or the ba the good new ay was id Fr st ‘Do you want la at th t od news is news? The go and had a grea I hit the town d an y ts in da po rth a my bi ere is news is that th d East time. The bad n Mile End an ee tw be re he ew ach m re so ’t re on w ilu fa ably eans we prob Ham, which m n.’ our destinatio ‘Ladies and gentlemen, we apologize for the delay, but there is a security alert at Victoria station and we are therefor e stuck here for the foreseeable future, so let’s take our minds off it and pass some time toge ther. All together now.... ‘Ten green bottles, hanging on a wall…’ ugh Baker Street.

‘We are now travelling thro et is closed. It Stre er Bak , As you can see had actually told would have been nice if they but no, they don’t lier, ear you tell ld cou me, so I ’. that like think about things

‘Beggars are operating on this train. Plea NOT encourag se do e these profes sional beggar you have any s. If spare change , please give registered ch it to a arity. Failing th at, give it to m e.’

e our on th ot rush h h West ly e a m in e d extr nce During an , the driver annou sauna, e th r ine is way fo th t h g Central L wels ri wl, ‘Step unately, to Indian dra entleman... unfort dg ladies an ided.’ rov are not p ‘Let the passen gers off the tra in FIRST!’ (Pause ) ‘Oh go on then, st uff yourselves sardines, see in like if I care - I’m going home.... ’ ose. Try not to the doors to cl en.’

‘Please allow ld the doors op ho e ith ‘Pleas ions.’ ct ru st in te confuse this w ra stinct and sepa The two are di ‘Please note that the beeping noise coming from the doors means that the doors are about to close. It does not mean throw yourself or your bags into the doors.’ e some idiot has ‘We can’t move off becaus r.’ doo their hand stuck in the

‘To the gentle man wearing the long grey trying to get on coat the second ca rriage – what part of ‘stand clear of the do ors’ don’t you understand?’

s that there is ‘May I remind all passenger any part of the on wed strictly no smoking allo are smoking a you if r, eve How nd. rou Underg it round the rest s pas you that joint, it’s only fair of the carriage.’

BRITISH NEWSPAPERS

Commenting on a complaint from a Mr Arthur Purdey about a large gas bill, a spokesman for North West Gas said, ‘We agree it was rather high for the time of year. It’s possible Mr Purdey has been charged for the gas used up during the explosion that destroyed his house.’

(The Daily Telegraph) Irish police are being handicapped in a search for a stolen van, because they cannot issue a description. It’s a Special Branch vehicle and they don’t want the public to know what it looks like.

(The Guardian) At the height of the gale, the harbour-master radioed a coast guard and asked him to estimate the wind speed. He replied he was sorry, but he didn’t have a gauge. However, if it was any help, the wind had just blown his Land Rover off the cliff.

(Aberdeen Evening Express) Mrs Irene Graham of Thorpe Avenue, Boscombe, delighted the audience with her reminiscence of the German prisoner-of-war who was sent each week to do her garden.

He was repatriated at the end of 1945, she recalled,’He’d always seemed a nice friendly chap, but when the crocuses came up in the middle of our lawn in February 1946, they spelt out ‘Heil Hitler.’’

(Bournemouth Evening Echo)

And just a small addition. This is what Cicero wrote in 55BC: “The Budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome will become bankrupt.

People must again learn to work instead of living on public assistance.”

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

Answers Your Questions Q. I am attempting to find out as much information as I can about the Mount Melville Estate. My great-great-greatgrandfather was born at Denork in 1805, and I would like to know more about the history of the estate and its owners.

A. The Mount Melville Estate was historically associated with two of the most distinguished Fifeshire families – the Melvilles of Carnbee and the Whytes of Maw. Sir Robert Melville acquired Carnbee in 1309, and the estate remained in the family for nearly 300 years. In 1598 most of the Estate was sold by Sir James Melville, however he retained a small portion in order to save the territorial designation; this preserved the relationship between the Melville name and the land.

Sir John Melville’s grandson, Andrew Melville, married Helen, the youngest daughter of Robert Whyte of Bennochy. The family were descendants of the Whytes of Maw, a prominent Fife family at the time of James III. Andrew and Helen’s son, Robert Melville, was born in 1723; as a teenager he joined the British Army, eventually rising to the rank of General.

Robert’s relative (possibly an uncle), Melville of Strathkinness, bequeathed

the Melville estate to Robert in his will.

In 1790, Robert had a mansion built on the estate, where he lived until his death in 1809. The Mount Melville Estate then became the property of his cousin, John Whyte of Bennochy. John Whyte Melville, son of Robert Melville, and his wife Catherine Osborne, daughter of the Duke of Leeds, later inherited the estate in around 1818. Their only son, Army Major and novelist Major George John Whyte Melville, died in 1878 in a hunting accident; the fountain in Market Street that still stands today was erected in his memory by the family not long after his death.

The mansion and surrounding grounds remained in the Melville family until sold by James H Balfour-Melville to James Younger in around 1893.

James Younger demolished the existing mansion and built his own. During the extensive build of his mansion, James Younger lived in Denork for several years, having had it extensively refurbished prior to moving in. As well as re-building the mansion, the grounds were also significantly landscaped. In 1920, a number of lakes and an island village, now known as the “Dutch Village” were added.

The mansion at Mount Melville prior to reconstruction by James Younger.

Image taken from the St Andrews Citizen dated 20-10-1900.

The mansion designed by Paul Waterhouse for James Younger.

Image taken from the People’s Journal dated 16-12-1905.

The passing of Mr and Mrs Younger saw the mansion and grounds sold for £25,000 in 1947. The name of the Estate was changed from Mount Melville, to Craigtoun, and the house became a maternity hospital, then a care home before closing in 1992.

(Images courtesy the Museum)

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FEATURES: REVIEWS Author Jane Yolen reviews

The Traveller’s Guide to Sacred Scotland

By Marianna Lines Published by Gothic Image Publications, 2014. Available at all good bookshops, price £16.99.

I have known Marianna Lines for almost twenty years, and under her guidance visited a variety of Pictish Stones, stone circles, the Wemyss Caves, Dunino Den, and even poured a libation at the foot of the Collessie Man with her after my husband’s tragic death.

But as a consummate writer and editor, I came to her Traveller’s Guide to Sacred Scotland with a perfectionist’s eye. And as a lover of Scotland’s ancient treasures, I opened the book with a concern for authenticity and clarity, those sometimes uneasy bedfellows often seduced by story.

I needn’t have worried. Marianna’s artistic eye—she is well known in mythic and cultural circles—has seen the beauty in these spaces and places. Her long association with the sacred sites have given her insight into both the history and the mysteries. The photographs—both taken and chosen—are a good representation of what a visitor will see.

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And the addition of some of Marianna’s own art work helps the reader re-imagine images that have often been worn down by centuries of rain and cold as well as by the secondary uses of these stones that have often been cannibalized in buildings or as border markers, or even as garden ornaments.

From the opening few lines by the brilliant Orkney poet George Mackay Brown, through the Timeline and Glossary of Terms (always helpful, and too often not included in travel books), to her poetic Introduction, then an opening mini-essay entitled Who Were the Picts? we know we are in good hands.

We want to take this tour with Marianna Lines.

Each of the Counties and Shires has its own chapter. Each is fronted with a map with the principal sites marked, Ordinance Map numbers included. And each has a short, pithy, lyrical introduction to the area. Ancient abbeys, chapels, churches, intact castles and castle ruins, individual standing stones and stone circles, Celtic crosses, unearthed Pictish villages, Neolithic farm sites, ancient tombs, Viking howes, ravaged monasteries, they are all here. And more.

Accompanying each entry is Marianna’s clear narrative that includes not just descriptions and the history as known, but references as well to cultural meanings, lines of poetry or prose written about the place by visitors, and other things of interest. For example, when speaking of the Dwarfie Stane on Hoy, she sets us squarely in the highest mountain of the Orkneys, tells us something of what the stane looks like, lets us see it with a clear photo, mentions Sir Walter Scott’s story of Trolld, a famous dwarf in the Norse sagas and his relationship to the Stane. Then she tells of a modern musician who, living on Hoy, created the St Magnus Festival in Kirkwall – all of this in three remarkable, tight paragraphs.

Yes, there are less inclusive guides around.

There are books too large to lug. But this one is easy enough to fit in a backpack, or a car seat pocket; it is easily worth the money spent.

One trip around one county or shire, and you will have your money back, with a brand new understanding of the Scotland whose ancient ways you are walking, sometimes even without realizing it.

FEATURES: REVIEWS Author Andrew Duff reviews

Cryptogram

By Michael Tobert Published by Cosmic Egg Books (2014), it is available on www.amazon.co.uk and from all good bookshops.

Signed copies are at Waterstones in Market Street, and at Toppings in Greyfriars Gardens. Price, paperback £9.99.

‘After all, it is no more surprising to be born twice than once’, Voltaire.

Cryptogram, Michael Tobert’s dystopian novel, explores the intertwined lives of three lovers – two men and a woman – across eight hundred years.

The book begins with Suzanna, Stephen, and Rokas playing a strange game, a strippeddown version of pool, where the sides are wood and the rebounds unpredictable. The year is 2050, and conflict-ridden Northern Europe is in the grip of the shadowy gun king, Porphyrian. As the characters move around the table, it seems their lives are richocheting off each other, like the balls in the game they are playing.

Just as revelations about Suzanna’s tortuous past seem to bring the story within one’s grasp, the narrative shifts eight hundred years into the thirteenth century. Now we are among the Cathars, witnessing Suzanne’s interrogation at the hands of two inquisitors,

one of whom, the gargantuan ‘R’, is given the seemingly impossible task of defending her.

When Suzanne’s brother, Stefan, is caught fleeing through the Languedoc countryside, the shape of this remarkable novel starts to appear.

For the rest of the book, the story shifts back and forth, occasionally dropping in on other centuries too.

This is a cleverly-constructed novel that tackles big ideas, central of which is an exploration of what it means to be conscious.

Tobert appears to follow the famous dictum of the arch rationalist Voltaire, “after all, it is no more surprising to be born twice than once.

Everything in nature is resurrection.” In this world of reincarnated possibility, how does one make the right choices? How do our resulting actions affect the lives of others? Does one really make choices, in any meaningful sense, at all? Are we condemned to make the same mistakes again and again, or can we create our lives anew?

Amidst it all, the lives of the three lovers appear stitched together like pieces of a patchwork quilt. All three characters are developed with skill; Rokas, described as “a pantomime giant abandoned from above by a puppeteer with aching arms” is perhaps the most intriguing. It is around him that the other characters’ lives pivot, as they shift through the centuries. The denouement – set in a strange tribal wilderness – offers a glimmer of hope for the future.

This is the third book from Michael Tobert, a long-time resident of St Andrews. His first two books were humorous; Cryptogram is literary and shows him to be a writer of great inventiveness, skill and creativity. It is a thoughtprovoking, exciting, and beautifully written novel which deserves a wide audience.

R M M Crawford reviews

The Botanic Garden in St Andrews – The History of 125 Years 1889-2014

By Robert John Mitchell for the Friends of the Botanic Garden Price £10.00 from the Botanic Garden Gate House, or from the author by email: kingscroft@care4free.net – book £10 + post and packing £3.

This newly-published book is a lavishly illustrated, detailed history of the St Andrews Botanic Garden from its 19th century origins to the present day.This remarkable work reveals the history of the development of the Garden, with an insight that comes from the professional association of the author with the Garden for over half a century. This has been the period of its greatest development, including its recreation on an entirely new site during Bob Mitchell’s curatorship..

Bob Mitchell came from the Edinburgh Royal Botanic Garden to St Andrews in 1962, first as assistant, then as curator from 1967 to 1987, then as Honorary Curator to 2014, when he became Curator emeritus.

Bob’s predecessor J L Mowat , came to the garden in 1925. The Garden has therefore benefited greatly from continuity of management, as between them they have managed the Garden for over 90 years!

The numerous illustrations the author has gathered in this volume provide a vivid illustration of how the whole botanic garden concept has evolved over the past 125 years. The very first images from 1893 show neat, rectangular order beds laid out in the south-east corner of St Mary’s College. The founder of this Garden (at his own expense) was John Hardie Wilson (1853-1920). His father had a very succesful nursery garden in St Andrews, inspiring John with a life-long interest in plants.

He began work as a gardener in the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinbirgh, spent much time studying horticulture, eventually graduating with a DSc in St Andrews in 1889. In 1900 he was appointed lecturer in Agriculture and Rural Economy in St Andrews University, a post he held until his death in 1920. During his tenure, the Garden was equipped with an experimental glasshouse and expanded to the south of the Bute Medical bulding. This extension survived in part until the 1960s.

With the appointment of J L Mowat as first gardener in 1925 the St Andrews Botanic Garden soon became known for rock gardens. In 1937 the University decided to combine the management of the University grounds and the Botanic Garden under a Keeper of Grounds, with the management of the Botanic Garden enhanced by the creation of the post of Curator of the Garden and Grounds, a post that was held by J L Mowat from 1937-1967, while the Keepership was held by a succession of Professors of Botany. This incorporation of Grounds and Garden under joint management made it possible to use a number of suitable

sites around St Andrews for planting species of botanical interest. An outstanding example of this is shown in the photograph of the first Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) to be planted in St Andrews in 1947, very shortly after its discovery in China during the Second World War. In 1960 Professor J A Macdonald, as Keeper of the Botanic Garden persuaded the University Court to move the Garden to a new, much larger site (18.5 acres) at Bassagard (Gaelic: baile an t-sagirt – Priest Farm). The development of the Botanic Garden at this site was under the direction of Bob Mitchell. The dramatic and scenically successful development of this site, skillfully utilising the topography of the land with its outstanding rockery, splendid stream, and ponds has been a delight to all who visit the Garden. These physically diverse features provide a range of habitats that have facilitated the establishment of the array of species displayed in habitats reflecting their native origins.

Such a creation is an enormous accomplishment. Its various stages are excellently illustrated in the book with a collection of photographs that give a vivid impression of this achievement. The habitat diversity that has been created within the Garden has also made it possible to develop a species richness that makes it a major site for conservation, more than matching that of many larger gardens.

The role this Botanic Garden has in education and conservation is outstanding. The photographs demonstrate the range of activities for groups of all ages, from young childen to adult horticultural classes. The public appreciation of all the Garden represents, both to horticulture, conservation, education, and not least, to the defence of our environment, can be seen in the activities of The Friends of the Botanic Garden. The size of its membership, both in St Andrews and beyond, is due in large measure to Bob’s untiring enthusiasm. The book is a worthy testimony to all who have participated in creating and maintaining this very remarkable Garden; most especially to its author.

This history is a powerful reminder that Botanic Gardens take decades of care and attention to come to full development. Their role in making us aware of the importance of maintaining the wealth of plants in our environment cannot be overestimated. In this the St Andrews Botanic Garden is an outstanding example of what can be achieved in just 18 acres; this fine new book shows us just how inspirational it is.

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FEATURES: POET’S CORNER Colin McAllister

To a Cat

From Roy Chapman

Fair fa’ your friendly feline face, Around my house you move with grace Within each room you have your place.

Felix is your name.

Of mice there’s never a trace

Within my hame.

For Wilma Rutherford

Ye’ll surely have seen her, come wind, rain or weather Mebbe stopped for a natter, perhaps even a blether She’ll be walking with Freckle – without any ‘s’ They’re a lovely wee pair, ye will have to confess

Your presence has given them a fright, And put them all to speedy flight.

They’re gone all day and through the night

The little pests!

They’ve scampered away out of sight

Unto their nests!

Mouse-free my house you well do keep, Even though you are mostly asleep!

On any mouse, your prey, you leap,

He’s no chance!

And when it’s dead, you purr so deep

And even dance!

With cat food each day your dish I fill, But chicken soup’s your favourite swill!

Of milk not a drop you spill,

When drink you need!

And when I know you’re thirsty still,

Your miaow I heed.

O what a carefree life you lead!

You don’t hunt for your daily feed.

Instead I supply your ev’ry need.

Or merest wish!

Your miaows you know I always heed

And fill your dish.

Why do cats always land on their feet, While I the future with tremors meet?

You lap up ev’ry little treat

Like rav’nous gull!

A cat’s life must be very sweet,

If somewhat dull!

Felix, you have one life and eight.

I’ve but one, and eternal fate.

But if I walk a path that’s straight,

Then, through God’s grace, I hope to enter Heaven’s gate,

To end my race.

Happy Birthday, Wilma!

A guid fairmer’s daughter frae the kingdom of Fife This sonsie wee lass wid sure make a guid wife She wis wooed by a man frae oot o’ the west This man he wis Sandy, he wis ane o’ the best Emigrated tae Glasgow where her man had his work They wis pillars of community, of city and kirk Came through tae St Andrews for weekends and fun So the move back tae Fife had in this way begun A succession of dugs, she aye ca’ed them “her treasure” To be pampered and walked, they wis aye her great pleasure ‘Fore Freckle there wis Brian, wis her “darling wee man” Noo Freckle’s her champion and her number one fan And noo Wilma’s 90, let due deference be paid As she enters the start of anither decade To Wilma and Freckle we wish mony a guid walk If you see them, do stop them and hae a guid talk (With apologies to McGonagall)

Thank you Larry Rich for sharing this

Cherokee Wisdom One evening, an elderly Cherokee brave told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.

He said, “my son, the battle is between two ‘wolves’ inside us all. One is evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf wins?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “the one that you feed”

Sandra Skeldon

“T For 2” I’m not often left out on the street, ‘Cos you never know who you might meet ...

I’m square, tiny and very old, With a black roof and the rest of me gold.

People walk around me, stop, and stare, Try the handle…If they dare.

My master’s at the shops, I do wish he’d hurry, He’s been a while...I’m beginning to worry A crowd has gathered, to peer and touch My bonnet and wheels. Don’t like it much.

I know I’m different, but I’m very shy, They say I’m Vintage, but I don’t know why.

Many photos taken…Oh! Here he comes at last…

He smiles and waves to all…we’re off, but not too fast…

Leaving these cars that are completely unheeded, I take him home where I’m loved and needed.

10

(Illustrated by Jackie Skeldon)

SHOPS & SERVICES Hugo D’Bere, your Grizzly Gourmet, dined in

Prezzo, South Street, St Andrews Mamma mia, how many Italians does St Andrews need? I am not referring to the noble De Angelis/ Janetta/Fusaro/Luvians clans, etc, etc, but in fact to the number of Italian Restaurants in St Andrews. At the top of the list, most exclusive and expensive is Rocca in Russacks Hotel. (see a previous review). They also have as an offshoot a deli in Bell Street. In addition however, there is Little Italy, Pizza Express, Zizi, and now Prezzo. This is to be followed by Tony Macaroni, who are opening (amazingly), next door to Prezzo. Café Janetta also sells some Italian food; no dxoubt other regular Restaurants have some Italian dishes on their menu.

There is indeed a high profit margin on Italian food, because most of it is basically vegetables, tomato, pasta etc, but you do begin to think there is a bit of overkill here.

The Saturday night when Muffy and I went it was actually very busy, even although the Students were away, and it was early in the year. As a matter of interest, I went round to look at Pizza Express after we had eaten and it was also equally busy, although Little Italy seemed closed for that time of year.

Inside, the décor at Prezzo is black, white and grey, with a number of mirrors. It has a vague “art deco” feel and it quite light and airy.

The staff were quite enthusiastic and friendly while the service was quite efficient, though they had just opened. It did take a bit of time for drinks to arrive and the litre of water which was ordered turned out to be half a litre, but that was not a disaster.

I had Calamari with a pesto mayonnaise.

This clearly came from the species “Ruberi innatubus bicicletta”. To put it bluntly, it was tasteless and rubbery, with the batter coating rather poor. Even the pesto mayonnaise was quite insipid.

Muffy (on a post-Christmas diet) skipped the starter. She had a pizza for main course, a long oval thing, which was one of the lightweight ones, but with a salad. Her only criticism was the edges were a bit dry and much of the filling was concentrated in the middle. The salad was fine. I had Spaghetti Carbonara, which could have done with a bit more garlic, but was certainly a big portion.

We shared a sticky toffee pudding for dessert, it came with vanilla ice cream and was fine, but could have done with some extra fruit in it.

I tend to avoid coffee in restaurants because I find it is often disappointing, although Italian restaurants are usually the exception. I sneak home and grind my own (Luvians) coffee beans for a decent cup.

To drink we had the aforementioned half litre of water, and I had a glass of Pinot Grigio, which was fine.

The wine list was fairly short. It had 9 reds, all but 2 of which were Italian; 7 whites, all but 1 of which was Italian; and 2 Rosés (Italian).

There were also some sparkling wines. The usual beers and soft drinks were available, San Pellegrino being much in evidence.

In terms of price, the whole bill was £43.85 (excluding tip), which was quite good value.

I would give it 6 out of 10. Probably better than Pizza Express, but if you want a more authentic Italian meal, go to Little Italy.

The question I would propose is, how can St Andrews really sustain this number of Italian eateries? Two or three might be okay, but this number seems a bit over the top. I wonder if Tony Macaroni realised that they were going to open next door to Prezzo, or Prezzo realised that Tony Macaroni were coming along hot on their heels. Presumably, they all entered into it with their eyes open, but it will certainly give the others a run for their money. What is significant is that Bella Pasta in Bell Street had only closed down a few weeks before and I wonder to what extent that was because of lack of turnover or profit. All will be revealed in due course.

Overall, 6 out of 10 and it is suitable for the cubs.

(Photo by Flora Selwyn)

John Redpath, wealth advice manager, Towry

Selecting the right adviser There has been plenty said in recent years about trust, or a lack of it, in and the answers from these would help to form a view the financial services sector – with many banks and financial advisers as to the competence of the adviser and their firm. coming under scrutiny for the appropriateness and suitability of advice In terms of qualifications, you should seek an offered to their customers. But if you are considering taking future adviser with at least a Diploma or equivalent in financial financial advice, it is important to remember that it is better to have planning, with a preference for those that are Chartered. For a long-term that advice than not. It is equally critical to find someone you can trust, and ongoing relationship, you would want a firm that treats you as an especially at a time when the need for advice is particularly strong. individual, therefore offering specific and tailored advice and not generic Forthcoming pension changes, continued uncertainty in investment guidance. markets, in addition to the rise in taxable estates mean that professional Financial planning tools such as risk profiling and cash flow analysis advice will be required more than ever. This advice has to be appropriate are commonplace now and provide great value in giving context to your to you and not the adviser. What is it then that you overall financial position, enabling educated should look for in an adviser or a firm when you and informed decisions to be made around risk This advice has to be appropriate require advice? and expenditure. The size of an organisation is to you and not the adviser Firstly, you should check they are FCAnot important, what does matter is that they are regulated, and what the professional qualifications financially strong and have resources to deliver the are for both the firm and the individual adviser. Do they advise on required level of advice to you. Good financial planners will spend time on specific areas that you are most interested in – such as retirement getting a deeper understanding of your motivation behind your need for planning or mortgage advice? If so, are these areas that you need advice. Understanding what is important in your life and what you want advice on either now or in the future? How do they charge for the to achieve, before underlying this with a financial plan that is tailored to advice, and do they make this explicitly clear to you? What are the you, will ensure you are getting the right advice. Online tools such as resources that are helping the adviser recommend long-term financial unbiased.co.uk will help you identify a suitable financial adviser who is decisions for you? These are just a few of the questions to be asked local to you.

11

SHOPS & SERVICES Stephanie Pratt, solicitor, Pagan Osborne

Giving Something Back . . .

Many of us give to charity on a regular basis, whether through donations, volunteering or shopping in a local charity shop. But have you ever considered leaving a legacy to charity in your Will?

Reviewing your Will requirements and the legacies you leave behind gives you peace of mind that your wishes will be carried out after you’ve gone, as well as being a great way of giving something back.

Not only will a legacy help support your chosen cause, it can also be a useful financial planning tool for Inheritance Tax purposes.

By leaving

For example, say a client had an estate of £700,000, which gives them a taxable estate of £375,000 after the Nil Rate Band is deducted.

Portion left to charity

Inheritance Tax rate

Inheritance Tax to pay

Estate passing to others

(£3,750) 1%

40%

£148,500

£547,750

36%

£121,500

£541,000

(£37,500) 10%

By leaving 10% instead of 1%, the client pays £27,000 less tax and gives £33,750 more to charity. The family only receives £6,750 less from the estate.

Many people leave a specific sum to charity. However, leaving 10% will ensure that whatever the value of your estate upon your death, it will be taxed at the reduced 36% rate. This is also beneficial if your estate decreases in value, as the amount you wish to leave to loved ones will remain proportionate to your charitable legacy.

At Pagan Osborne, we recommend that you 10% instead regularly review your Will and carry out some of 1%, the client pays Inheritance Tax Inheritance Tax planning to make sure that your £27,000 less tax and gives assets are properly protected. To help you do this An individual has a lifetime Inheritance Tax allowance, £33,750 more to charity known as the Nil Rate Band, which is currently we offer a complimentary review service, during £325,000. Where an individual is married and they leave which one of our advisors meets with you to get an their entire estate to their spouse, their allowance transfers to their all-round perspective on your legal, financial and property affairs, as partner. A married couple could therefore have a combined allowance of well as to discuss any specific queries you have regarding charitable up to £650,000. Any value in the estate over the Nil Rate Band will then giving. We call it a 360 Lifestage Review. be subject to Inheritance Tax at a rate of 40%.

There are various ways to reduce this tax liability, one of which is giving to charity. To encourage this form of charitable donation, the If you’d like to find out more about this free service, call us on Government reduces the rate of Inheritance Tax from 40% to 36% when 01334 475 001 or email paganosborne@pagan.co.uk you leave at least 10% of your estate’s “net value” (the amount of your estate that is taxable at 40%) to charity. This reduction can substantially decrease the amount of tax paid.

(Photo courtesy Pagan Osborne)

12

SHOPS & SERVICES Jonnie Adamson

Workplace pensions, are they worth it?

A number of years There is one main difference between ago stakeholder the new ‘Auto Enrolment’ scheme and the pension schemes stakeholder pensions; that is, the employer now were introduced to has to contribute, where before it was a choice. give employees a The contribution rates start off at 1% by both right to allow them to the employer and the employee, but will rise contribute to a pension to 2% employer, 3% employee in 2017, then scheme through their employer. Although touted to 3% employer, 5% employee in 2018. These at the time as being a major step in enabling the costs will not be insignificant for the employer. general workforce to save for their retirement, Looking at Australia where a similar scheme in practice it failed to capture people’s was introduced in 1992 employers’ contributions imaginations. As you had to be proactive and started at 3%. They are now 9% and look set join the scheme many employees for 12% in the near future. The felt that it was not worth bothering focus for paying for retirement It will be important about and so only a small is certainly moving from statefor every employer proportion were used. funded pension provision to to check what their In an attempt to get people private-funded pensions. contributing towards their At the moment only larger starting date is retirement the government is employers and some specific gradually phasing in a scheme whereby the smaller employers have been required to employee is automatically enrolled into a start up schemes; however, over the next business’ pension scheme and has to choose year or so we will see small employers to opt out. The default position is one of being required to enrol. It will be important for in the scheme, rather that being out of it. every employer to check what their starting Perhaps it is general apathy on the part of date is; this can be done fairly easily by employees, but it seems that this is working. entering your employer reference number Only a very small proportion of people are at: www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk after opting out. following the links for ‘staging date’.

This is another administrative and financial burden put on employers following the recent introduction of Real Time Information. It can add considerable worry and complexity to the preparation of the payroll. We can offer assistance should the need arise.

So, is it a good thing? Many would argue that it is, offering a path for millions to save for retirement where they would never have had the inclination to in the past. I worry that the perception will be that on retirement everyone will have a juicy pension pot. Often, however, this will not be the case as contributions from those employed on minimum wage, or even the so-called living wage, will be minimal, therefore there may be a few disappointed pensioners down the line.

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

13

SHOPS & SERVICES

Roving Reporter, prowling around 1. Reporter heard from a new enterprise called Free-Ur-Time. It sounds like the answer stressed people everywhere have been waiting for! June who runs it, offers to help with gardening, dog walking, basic office work (such as updating appointments and diary, checking mail etc.), shopping, cleaning, even home sitting. Vetted by a PVG police check with disclosure Scotland, June says she is a thoroughly reliable, friendly soul who can make life easier for you. For domestic work, shopping, basic administration, or gardening the rate is £10 per hour. Dog walking or home sitting (which includes daily security checks, general tidy, feed the cat, water the plants, stocking the fridge for returning owners) is £12 per hour. To contact this paragon, email: freeurtime@yahoo.co.uk or phone: 07724 661 605.

2.

*****

Animal welfare and the environment are of prime importance. Their organic, hand-picked coffee blend predominantly comes from Peru. Then there is the Pret Foundation Trust set up in 1995 to support homeless charities. Every soup and Love Bar Latte donates 10p throughout the year, which helped to raise over £1.2m in 2013. Unsold food at the end of each day is given to the homeless. Any registered charity interested in collecting unsold food on a long-term basis should get in touch with the shop. For vulnerable people and young ex-offenders there is an apprenticeship scheme to help towards gainful employment. Homeless charities can apply for funding provided they are local to a Pret A Manger, are registered as a charity, receive no more than 20% of income from statutory funding, and can solve a real problem practically. Pret A Manger’s own staff are loved too! To quote General Manager, Paul Beglin, “We are a company that really does treat its staff well, and has a strong conviction in developing its people.” All this, said Reporter, made him feel very happy.

*****

Pret A Manger has come to town, to Market Street to be precise. Reporter enjoyed his coffee and croissant, then got curious about the ethos of the house.

Launched in London in 1986 by Julian Metcalfe and Sinclair Beecham, there are now some 335 shops across the world.

As the website proclaims, the Company develops slowly, one shop at a time, since it is still privately owned rather than a public company. From the start, the emphasis has been on fresh ingredients prepared in-house daily, free from artificial additives. Once a week a food team meets to discuss novel ideas, often based on customers’ suggestions. Pret A Manger’s strategy is both ethical and sustainable.

3. A new business caught Reporter’s eye, M-E-N-S Styling Studio at 14a Bell Street (01334 209 0440). Owner Mariusz Majchrzak – Mario, to everyone who can’t pronounce Polish, welcomed Reporter. In Scotland for the past 2 years, Mario feels he has finally found his ideal spot, and he is happy to be here. Trained as a barber and hairdresser in his native Poland, where, he told Reporter, he reached 4th place overall in his profession, Mario has travelled in 9 different countries in the world to gain experience. Apart from Polish, he speaks German, Russian, some Arabic, and is perfecting his English. Apparently he became a barber on his mother’s advice, “hair always grows, so there is always work available!” He wishes everyone to know that he practises the traditional hot shave.

The shop is open from 8.30am to 6.00pm Monday to Wednesday. and on Saturday: 8.30am to 7.00pm Thursday & Friday: 11.00am to 4.00pm on Sunday. Prices

range from £30 for a Full Service to £10 for a clipper shave, or £5 for a beard trim.

Children’s haircut (under 13) and senior men’s is £10. Ladies will also be catered for by the time this magazine appears, when the salon becomes Unisex. Any time left over from this exhaustive schedule, Mario will spend fishing, his great love. Indeed, he is looking for a house with a sea view – any offers?

*****

4. It’s always sad when friends leave. These past 17 years Susanne and Hugh Livingstone have been faithfully serving their many customers at St Andrews Health Foods in Market Street.

Now they have retired. When Reporter went to make some final purchases he naturally asked about retirement plans.

Both Livingstones are multitalented, so it was obvious they were not going to sit and do nothing. Susanne is an accomplished knitter of children’s clothes. Hugh paints.

He also makes splendid model boats, as well as beautiful traditional wooden toys, revelling in producing such things as a rocking horse for their two small grandchildren. The horse even has a music box in an unmentionable place, which plays when the tail is lifted! This tickled Reporter

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

14

SHOPS & SERVICES enormously! It looks as if both Susanne and Hugh will be as fully occupied as ever.

And if anyone wishes to contact them the number is 01333 313 313. Reporter wishes them a very happy, healthy, and productive retirement – lang may their lum aye reek!

are not only just a hair salon, we also have a professional barber shop – perfect for St Andrews golfers. Many hotels surround the new salon meaning Spoiled is the perfect go-to hairdresser for tourists staying in the area and hotel staff.” Why not make an appointment for a hair makeover at the new salon, calling 01334 470 564.

*****

(Photos courtesy Susanne & Hugh Livingstone) 5.

* * * * * “St Andrews

is a fantastic place to be right now”, Glenn Malloy, salon director of the new Spoiled Hairdressing, Albany Place, said to Reporter.

Having lived in the town for five years, and already with a successful salon in Cupar, the time felt right for him and business partner Steven Davies to open in their home town. “Spoiled is the ultimate boutique hairdressing destination, representing the 21st Century salon experience, with superlative modern hair styling and the very latest in hair treatments and hair care products. Spoiled combines a laid back classic attitude with professional skills and a five-star bespoke service”, Glenn told Reporter. “It was important for me and Steve to open our second salon in St Andrews as we have lived in the area for five years and know it well. With fifteen new staff, it is a great opportunity for us to build relationships and widen the Spoiled brand.

This is a very exciting time for us as we

6. New businesses are always welcome in our town, Reporter stresses. He is pleased to introduce Blue Star Cleaning (St Andrews) Ltd. Trading for just 11 months, owner David Rundle has been happy to receive excellent feedback, with a 5-star rating on his yell.com account. “I have 6 years’ previous experience in ‘care at home’ and ‘home help’ services”, he told Reporter, “as well as 10 years in management.”

David’s rates are from £11.50 an hour.

He is fully insured, with both public and employee liability. As well as providing an affordable cleaning service, he believes in being reliable, and dependable. At present David has 3 employees. Naturally he looks forward to expanding his independent company as he becomes better known Reporter wishes him good fortune. He can be contacted on: 07565 849 015.

Please also see his website: www.yell.com/biz/blue-star-cleaning st-andrews-st-andrews-7824696/ (Photo courtesy of David Rundle)

*****

7. 5 years in business should be celebrated, says Reporter, who is pleased to receive this from Murray Duncan of The Happy Hacker, 141 South Street: “Due to success and demand the years have been a great experience, from our first Open in 2010 until the present time, and we are already looking forward to this year’s Open. We cater for a market that people love to see and also purchase from. Over the years we have made friendships with people all

over the world, the UK and locally, because most golfers have a collection of some description, or even a separate golf room.

We have great satisfaction sourcing items for them to purchase, and that gives us additional pleasure in running the business.

We also try to stock unusual, rare golf items and gifts for every golfer, whether lady or gent, and there are some great offers to be found. We would just like to say that we hope the next 5 years are as good as the last. Many thanks go to all the people who give recommendations to our business, e.g. caddies, B&Bs, hotels, taxi drivers, and other local people and businesses, too many to mention, but thanks to you as well. You are always welcome to call in for a chat or some banter. Also many thanks to Flora for this addition and her help in our initial advertising campaign. We have also had a great addition to the lovely courtyard with The Old Cheese Shop of St Andrews opening, which serves coffee/wine/beer and cheese platters in the garden. This gives visitors to both shops somewhere to relax in beautiful surroundings”. ‘Lang may yer lum reek, Murray’ adds Reporter!

*****

8. Cheryl Binnie contacted Reporter to tell him about her innovative new Coach House Cookery Courses in her “light-filled coach house kitchen on a local farm”.

Everything the aspiring cook needs to know, from how to do things, to the history behind it all, is on offer. “Learn classic French techniques, as well as how to bend the rules” says Cheryl in her flyer.

Originally from Texas, married to a Scot, but recently sadly widowed, Cheryl has spent a lifetime “pursuing her love of all things culinary” becoming highly qualified along the way. Intrigued? Then get in touch quickly before her classes become full up (her maximum number per class is 6).

Call her on: 01334 476 837 or email: chefcheryl2@gmail.com

15

CENTRE SPREAD FEATURE

Jurek Pütter

The Co-Op’s Lamson Rapid Wire Railway Cash Carrier 1950 Some things, he had come to know, once discovered, were forever indelibly etched on his consciousness. In 1950, aged six, changes were coming breathlessly thick and fast. Starting school a year earlier had been a big change. Until then he had lived ‘south of the Kinness Burn’, in the new housing estate, close to the sea at the East Sands and that great southern arc of fertile farmland rising up progressively through ancient tiered raised beaches beyond the City’s boundary. Suddenly, early in 1950, through the machinations of his parents, he found himself living in the old town’s east end. Overnight he had become a ‘townie’. A New World lay at his feet, and he set out to savour it.

One day his mother had asked, “I’ve made up a small shopping list, nothing complicated. I want you to take this basket, the list, this ten-shilling note, go to the Co-op next door and buy these items. Do you think you can do this?” Saturday morning isn’t the best time to hit a six year-old wearing a cowboy hat, a fake buffcoloured buckskin jacket with long sleeve fringes, a gun belt and a colt revolver bought in Woolworth’s. He eyed the raffia basket, concluding it was too big for a cowboy. Holding it by its long handles it reached to the ground. “Well?” his mother enquired, with a ghost of a smile playing enigmatically and enquiringly on her face. He pursed his lips and made a face. “You’ll find something interesting in that shop, if that is, you care to go”. He didn’t reply. They continued to play the game of speaking to each other just in looks. He pursed his lips again, slowly held out his hand for the money and the list with the ‘divvy’ number 811 clearly written on the top of the page. His mother smiled slyly. He knew the look, knew that he was hooked, for he knew that when she said that there would be ‘something interesting, nothing to do with shopping’, that he couldn’t resist the challenge. He put the money in his ammunition pouch, pressed it shut, set off, not reluctantly, but with suspicion laced with curiosity.

It took him all of thirty seconds to reach the Co-op’s main door. The shop was full of giant women of all shapes and sizes, most wearing long coats of dull colours, some baggy or fitted, loose or belted, with hats, scarves, gloves leather and knitted, with shopping bags and baskets. He surveyed stockinged legs of various complexions with seams straight and crooked and laddered, sensible shoes of many subtle shades of black and brown, some scuffed, some polished. There was the familiar choral chatter of women’s voices blending into a rich cacophony, which was simultaneously impenetrable and indecipherable.

After a short time he found himself tuning in to another sound, discernibly mechanical, which he determined came from overhead. Looking upwards towards the source he saw it. ‘It’ or rather ‘they’, were wooden cylinders suspended from a twowheeled railway car, tracking to and fro along a robust wire. He could differentiate different clickings that preceded the singing flight of the car and container above head height emanating from the sales counter and terminating at the cashier’s glass-panelled booth. He watched with undisguised fascination the lady in the booth, who without apparently looking, continuously removed or inserted cylinders from incoming and outgoing trolleys.

“She’s called the cashier”, his mother later explained. “The salesman or woman who makes up your order puts your receipt into the wooden cylinder together with your money, twists screw and locks it into the wheeled railway ‘car’, pulls the handle, which in turn pulls back the very thick elastic band – just like a giant catapult – which when fully extended hits a buffer, trips the release lever; thus whizzing the railway car automatically on its way to the cashier. When it arrives at her station she unscrews it, takes out the money, makes up the change, writes the sum total of your shopping into a ledger – a big long narrow book with my divvy number, 811. She then propels it back to the counter, where the sales assistant retrieves your change and receipt from the drum. Great fun isn’t it? I knew you’d like it. It’s an overhead railway. Its real name is a ‘Lamson Rapid Wire Railway Cash Carrier’. Wonderful name isn’t it? And quite a mouthful”.

He couldn’t have agreed more. He shopped for his mother in many different shops, coming to enjoy and appreciate the subtleties of the differences between each shop and shopkeeper.

Yet no shop, no other retailer of groceries offered the fairground

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Detail of mechanism attraction, the technical delight of the Lamson Rapid Wire Railway Cash Carrier device. To him, it just sang. He came to treasure the choreography of the whole palaver, the ‘performance’ of each sales assistant’s different technique for loading the drum, pulling the handle. Each action possessed its own metallic elastic signature voice; the soft click of the release lever dropping; the high-pitched ‘singing’ of the wheels on the tensioned track; the ‘click, bang and buffer bump’ of the trolleys docking. The humming and undulating of the wires after the high-speed wheeled passage; the sideways rolling of the car as it traversed the wire. Each day’s song of the Rapid Wire Railway traffic was the inherent music of the Co-op grocery; each trolley, wire, catapult and terminal, was likened to an individual instrument in the orchestra of retail. Waiting in the queue he discovered the world of statistics; how many miles had each car travelled, individually and together? The monetary value of the orders, the products bought. It was an entertaining mathematical quiz easy to calculate. And of the miles travelled? Thousands, for the length of the wires were easy to measure, as was the rough tally of daily journeys. He compared the journeys to real geographical distances.

But all things must pass, all things must fade away. Counter retail passed into history at his next-door Co-op at the end of the 1950s, surrendering to the inevitability of the American self-serve supermarket. The Co-op led the way in town, the others followed.

Each day he watched the shop fitters gutting the old store, tearing down the late Victorian shelves, levering apart the long patinated counters across which so many hundreds of thousands of hands and products, neatly and expertly wrapped brown paper bags had passed. The cashier’s timber and glass booth was demolished in an hour, the work of one man with a sledgehammer; with it, with equally efficient indifference and alacrity, the high tracery of wires and catapult-firing mechanisms. They too fell to earth in a dust-encrusted tangle, tramped upon by the march of progress.

Thus died in less than a day, his esteemed and treasured icon of interest – the St Andrews Co-op’s Lamson Rapid Wire Railway Cash Carrier.

Illustration and text, © Jurek Alexander Pütter

CENTRE SPREAD FEATURE

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SHOPS & SERVICES

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

Invite you to visit a hidden treasure in the heart of St Andrews OPEN DAILY ALL YEAR ROUND

WINTER LECTURE PROGRAMMME Tuesday 3rd March at 7.30pm Tuesday 17th April at 7.30pm Chemistry Dept. North Haugh Entry Free – All Welcome SPRING SALE IN THE GLASSHOUSE Saturday 14th March 10am-12noon Gatehouse & Plant Sales open daily from April TO JOIN THE FRIENDS AND SUPPORT THE GARDEN CONTACT MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY Tel: 01334 476452 Charity No. SC006432

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TOWN & GOWN Aleks Scholz, Observatory Director

The James Gregory Telescope: The Eye of St Andrews The German connection In the year 1930, Bernhard Schmidt changed the world of astronomy.

He did it with one hand. Schmidt, at the time 51 years old, was a German supernerd of Estonian descent, obsessively interested in optics, cameras, and engineering. When he was 15 years old, he lost his right hand while experimenting with gunpowder. Then he went on to build the first telescope that can observe large parts of the sky in one shot. Until that time telescopes had very small fields of view. Astronomers focused on tiny fractions of the sky, on individual stars and their surroundings.

Schmidt’s wide-field telescope made it possible, for the first time, to survey the entire sky. This is important, because some of the most interesting objects in the sky – young stars, dying stars, exploding stars, interacting galaxies – are rare compared with the vast number of ‘normal’ stars and galaxies. They can only be found by looking at everything.

The ‘Schmidt’ telescope combines a spherical mirror at the bottom with an aspheric lens at the top of the telescope tube. The design was brilliant, but it had one inconvenient flaw: the focal plane, the place where the observer, or the camera, needs to be is curved and inside the tube of the telescope. The so-called Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope solves this problem with another trick – by directing the light through a hole in the big mirror to the back end of the telescope where it can easily be recorded. In the 1940s, a group of engineers and astronomers in St Andrews led by another German, Prof Erwin Finlay-Freundlich, constructed the first-ever Schmidt-Cassegrain, and then, once this was finished, built another one twice as large, the largest telescope of this design ever built. The James Gregory Telescope, short JGT, our own eye to the Universe, was born.

Lens cap open! sees one instance. Take Vega, for example, one of the brightest stars in the sky, located only 25 light years from us. The JGT could easily see Vega if it were 80,000 light years away. That’s about two thirds of the diameter of the Milky Way. The JGT takes us to the edge of our home galaxy and beyond.

The JGT at work St Andrews may not seem like the most obvious place for observing the night sky. Scotland is plagued by water in various forms – fog, humidity, rain, snow, clouds. But in between all the water, St Andrews does have The other side of the Milky Way around 100 clear nights every year, and the JGT is in a perfect position The purpose of telescopes is to gather light. The larger the optics, the to exploit them – surrounded by sports fields which guarantee darkness more light they can collect. Size matters in astronomy. Ask astronomers and yet only a short walk away from the town centre, and therefore about a telescope, and the first number they will tell you is the diameter easily accessible. Almost every clear night, an astronomer from the of its mirror or lens. The James Gregory Telescope has a mirror with School of Physics & Astronomy can be found a diameter of almost one meter. At the time of its inauguration, in 1962, the JGT was just slightly bigger The James Gregory Telescope at the telescope, doing his or her job, collecting images of the night sky. than the 36-inch Grubb-Parsons reflector at the Royal takes us to the edge of our During its 52 years of existence, the JGT Observatory in Edinburgh, which is now old and home galaxy and beyond has observed galaxies, binary stars, asteroids, broken. Even today, the JGT is still the telescope with comets, star clusters, or, in other words, basically the largest mirror in Scotland. everything. Hundreds of students have learned the art of observing at How much exactly can we see with such machinery? The human this telescope. Dozens of publications have been written based on JGT pupil has a diameter of perhaps six or seven millimeters. The ‘eye’ of images. Today, the JGT is mostly used to monitor particular objects in the JGT is about 140 times larger in diameter. The light-collecting area the night sky. The telescope stares at a patch of sky and measures the scales with the square of the diameter, which means the JGT can collect brightness of stars as the night goes on. Stars seem, at first glance, to about 20,000 times more light than the human eye. If the observer be steady, reliable lights. But this is far from the truth. Stars eclipse each would just look through the JGT, he or she would see stars that emit other. Stars pulsate. Stars flare. Stars have spots, like the Sun, surface 20,000 times less light than the faintest stars visible to the naked eye. It imperfections that cause the brightness to change. Young stars erupt, gets better: since we use cameras to make images, we can collect light when a blob of material falls into the hot pool of plasma at its surface. for many minutes or hours, as opposed to the human eye, which only All these things can be seen with the JGT. And sometimes we see a characteristic dip in the brightness, which tells us that an exoplanet has eclipsed its host star. A very small effect on our screen, caused by a giant, hot, alien world hundreds of light years away.

The James Gregory Telescope is open for visitors every Wednesday between 7.00 and 9.00pm, from September to April. It can also be seen in action during the biannual Open Nights at the observatory. The next open night is 7 March 2015, 6.00-9.00pm. If you want to visit the observatory at any other time, if you want to support the observatory, or if you want to join our team, please get in touch. For more information, see the observatory website: http://observatory.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/ Parts of this article have been published in a similar form by the same author for Sci@StAnd ( scistand.com ) in February 2014.

In case you were wondering!

(Photos courtesy Jan Bölsche)

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TOWN & GOWN Michael Buchanan

A Brief History of Logarithms: Log-on for Brief on Logs University Press). The main text is in 7 chapters over 208 pages, while nine useful technical appendices cover a further 65 pages. The author is a retired maths teacher with over 30 years’ service to Winchester College behind him. This publication may well reinvigorate Napier’s standing and stimulate school memories in a certain age group. In the absence of a major memorial, Napier must still be in danger of skulking stiffly in public obscurity in two piles of dry bones.

Today, there is a plaque in St Cuthbert’s Church. Napier appears next to my kinsman, George Buchanan (1506-82), in the restored frieze in the National Portrait Gallery, for sale as an impressive postcard.

He names Napier University, built in and around his ancestral home, Merchiston Tower. His bust is centre-stage on a car-turning circle on their Craighouse Campus. Napier needs to be rescued from trafficmanagement duties! He was an ‘aristo’ descended from the House 4 2 4+2 6 e.g. 60K x 100 = 6 x 10 x 10 = 6 x 10 = 6 x 10 = 6 M of Lennox, which was served by Doers from the Buchanan Clan, the masterful, upwardly-mobile servant class. He is associated with I routinely used a slide-rule for speed of computation with sufficient Gartness, by Drymen and Killearn, east of Loch Lomond. accuracy. Log-linear and log-log graph paper were often used to obtain I feel close to Napier’s legacy and to his co-workers, such as linear plots from experimental data. Such aids are today all but museum Henry Briggs and William Oughtred. There is time enough before the pieces as electronic calculators became commonplace from the 1970s, 400th Anniversary of Napier’s death in 1617 to promote more fitting by design incorporating Napierisms undercover. memorials, perhaps echoing the shape of the exponential in an obelisk Commonly-used Log Scales still in use include the Richter Scale reaching as far into the sky as funds permit. Aesthetic designs for G7 (earthquakes), pH (acidity) and decibels (noise – students at 2.00am!) phone masts, electricity pylons, TV transmitter The complementary term, ‘exponential’ is often used, masts, and wind-turbines could be called ‘Napier albeit usually very loosely, for measures increasing Masts’. In St Andrews, Bishop Wardlaw and dynamically over time without limit. Napierian Logs Hamish McHamish (R.I.P.) have been bronzed.

(Ln, base ‘e’) are now called Natural Logs. For There is time enough Could Napier’s memorialisation be next? It is long pedants, the formal ‘exponential’ model is y(t)=yo • before the 400th overdue. exp(k.t.). By plotting the series, Lny v. t, yo and k can Napier and St Andrews overlap the spacebe estimated. Values of k translate to doubling times Anniversary of Napier’s time continuum. His birth year was the centenary or % increase per year easily. death in 1617 to promote of St Salvator’s College. Descriptio was published In July 1914, a major Congress in Edinburgh in 1614, 200 years after the 6 Papal Bulls from marked the tercentenary of the publication of more fitting memorials Anti-Pope Benedict XIII were promulgated in Napier’s definitive book, Mirifici Logarithmorum St Andrews Cathedral, completing the Foundation Canonis Descriptio in 1614. This was after the of the University. Angus Lennox was one of the Sarajevo Assassinations (28 June 1914) and first eleven students to graduate soon afterwards. Many logs will be days before the start of the Great War. A service was held in St Giles needed to fuel the proposed thermal plant at Guardbridge.

Cathedral, with coal-fired warships readying in the Forth.

Can it be only chance that, in Bruges, the oldest surviving church is In 2005-2006, a National Library of Scotland poll of favourite past the 12th Century St Salvator’s Cathedral, near the districts of St Andrios Scottish scientists ranked Napier 10th from a menu of 24 names. In and St Michiels?

2014, 400 years on from 1614, a short, readable book was published (John Napier: Life Logarithms and Legacy, by Julia Havil, Princeton For the sake of one day’s exposure each year, John Napier (15501617) is portrayed in the Kate Kennedy Procession, the colourful rite of the St Andrews Spring. The inventor of logarithms, Napier rates as Great Britain’s first mathematician of distinction, two generations before James Gregory (St Andrews meridian etc.). Napier attended St Salvator’s College somewhat briefly soon after the Scottish Reformation (1560) when all three Scottish Universities, especially the small Sanctandros, were in woeful decline, happily reversed in our times – and how!

About 55 years ago, at school, I was taught how to use Log Tables to morph complicated multiplication/division into simple addition/ subtraction of indices, in the wake of early 17th century astronomers and sea-captains:

Somebody loves me!

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TOWN & GOWN Louisa Inverarity on

Boarding School Life A couple of years ago, I was uprooted from my 16:00-18:00: Activities or Free Time (Such as treasured home in St Andrews. Taken away Art, Gym, Ceramics, or class workshops) from everything and everyone I’d ever known 18:00: Dinnertime in the dining hall – barbaric isn’t it? There was a lot of teasing 19:30-21:00: Homework time in house by the class; any of the stereotypical childish 21:00-22:00: Free time or Downtown (Only taunts you can think of, I’ve probably heard Sixth Form are allowed downtown from them. But, all in all it was the best decision my 9-10pm, as it is a privilege.) parents ever made, and, ‘they don’t love me’?

22:30: Bed times In fact, they love me enough to share me with a Although I’d be the first to admit I wasn’t so whole new family. willing initially, I eventually embraced the new The question I always get asked now is, “Is journey ahead of me. It is a scary thought, to it just like Mallory Towers?!” Well yes it is… kind be leaving home after fourteen years of being of, but without the “bean feasts”, and we don’t so sheltered and loved, the thought of leaving have to go swimming outside! Although the 7 my Mum and brother behind was daunting. But o’clock walk to breakfast is just as brutal in the two years on, my Mum is happy to know I am winter. Yes, we play lacrosse, excited to go back to school. yes we have a lot of fun… But I will always be grateful Who would have thought! we do, however, work hard.

But why wouldn’t I love for the opportunity my And, if you’re still to go back, when I have parents have given me wondering, its nothing like dozens of friends on tap from Harry Potter either; we have to go to boarding school the moment I wake up until no sorting hat, play very little the second I fall asleep. The quidditch, and we rarely have lessons in the little bit of independence, which comes with dark arts. The routine can be quite tough, but living away from home, has helped me on the as the saying goes, “Work hard, play hard”. And slow road towards adulthood, maturing day that is exactly what Loretto is about. This allows by day. You learn to be tolerant of others and us the right balance of work, exercise, and of respect them no matter what. You learn to be course, time for socialising. responsible for your own actions. You learn to This is the typical daily routine of a girl or boy think for yourself and make your own decisions. in the Sixth Form: This is also my first year in the Sixth form, 7:10: Breakfast in the dining hall which has been more than amazing so far. It 8:20: Tutor Times really is the step to moving on to university, 8:35: “Double” (Which is basically assembly) although we still have some rules to obey!

8:55-16:00: Lessons/Sports The best thing has to be the privileges we

have waited oh-solong for. For example we are allowed out in the evening and much to our advantage, Luca’s is very close to the school. Luca’s is our equivalent of Janettas’, and anyone who has ever visited would understand why I am a regular! We also only have to share a dorm with one other person, rather than up to three others as it was before. And next year, I even get my own room! There’s a whole host of things we can do as a sixth former. I suppose in every school it is something to aspire to.

Although I have become a lot more independent through boarding, I also appreciate going home to my family. The little things, like Mum’s home cooking, or sleeping in my own bed, all add up. You don’t realise how special these little things are, and that’s another reason why I love boarding, I now understand their value rather than taking them for granted every day.

I will always be grateful for the opportunity my parents have given me to go to boarding school; knowing I’m at the school where both my father and grandfather attended, makes me very proud to be the third generation to attend. I can also now say I have met the most amazing people from all around the world. From Spain to Uganda, from Germany to Japan, and even as far as Australia. The friendships I’ve made are sure to last a lifetime, as I have not only gained thirty new friends, but thirty new sisters.

(Photo courtesy Louisa Inverarity)

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EVENTS Emma Seckel offers an

On the Rocks Festival, preview If there’s only one thing that’s special about For children: Magic Carpet Tales, Byre, St Andrews, it’s our incredible diversity.

Wednesday, 8 April 10.15-11.45am. Join Students come from different countries, Storyteller Sheila Kinninmonth and friends speak different languages, contribute entirely on the Magic Carpet for a feast of seasonal different perspectives. This diversity is really tales from around the world. Lots of joining-in all encompassing, and is particularly embodied fun with songs, rhymes, puppets, and a bit of by the annual On the Rocks Festival. Every dressing up. Fly off to France to find out who April, students put on a two-week long the French Hens met, then to China to find extravaganza devoted to all different types of out what Mr and Mrs Hahn Hahn found in the art—photography, theatre, music, dance, film, garden. Next off to Russia to meet the Wee and more. Spring is coming, Egg Man and back to and the Festival is just Scotland to find out what around the corner. happened to Chicken Not only does On the Not only does On Licken and his friends. the Rocks celebrate a Then, you can make Rocks celebrate a wide variety of art, it also something from one of the wide variety of art, it encompasses an amazing stories to take home. array of people. Over For some late-night also encompasses an the years, the Festival’s comedic entertainment: amazing array of people annual more-than-forty Mirthbusters, 9.00events have attracted the 10.00pm, Byre, attention of a number of Wednesday, 8 April. notable patrons, including Helen Mirren, Judi When there’s something strange in your Dench, Simon Pegg, Andy Serkis, and Sean neighbourhood, who you gonna call? Blind Connery. In previous years, events have Mirth of course! After losing their jobs at included the Sitara fashion show, screenings Columbia University, St Andrews’ first, best, of award-winning films, and a performance and only improv comedy group presents a of Shakespeare’s Macbeth in the St Andrews selection of sketches devised exclusively for Castle. Many events go on to perform at the On the Rocks. Proceeds from the show go Edinburgh Fringe Festival over the summer, towards sending Blind Mirth to the Fringe. Can illustrating the incredible platform the Festival the Mirthers defeat the Stay Puft Marshmallow provides for promoting and developing new man terrorising South Street without crossing work. the streams? Only time will tell.

Although the full programme has not For some hands-on crafts: Collaging yet been finalised, a few events have been Workshop, St Andrews Public Library, 1.00confirmed—though their times are subject 4.00pm, Saturday, 4 April. Inspired by the to change. Including everything from drama, works of a world-famous fine arts and graphic comedy, and crafts, the following selection of designer Rex Ray, this will be a modernist events represents the wide range of artistic approach to making collages using simple endeavour that On the Rocks promotes. There shapes, but totally original with its vivid colours really is something for everyone! and mind-blowing patterns. We will make For a relaxing afternoon combining music collages using colourful paper, paints, and and the outdoors: Music, Art, and the Earth, stencils, provided.

1.00-4.00pm, Wednesday, 8 April. Come To purchase any crafty delights: Little join us for a calming afternoon of music and Birds Market, The Vic, Sunday, 5 April, sustainability as The A Cappella Society joins 1.00pm-4.00pm: The Little Birds Market hosts Art Soc and Transition to have some fun in unique shopping events around Scotland and the University Community Gardens. Listen to is excited to return to St Andrews for the On some sweet tunes, be inspired to draw the the Rocks Festival. Entry is free and you can spring life in the garden and write down your have a wander round 15 unique stalls selling hopes for the future in our tree of dreams. quirky goods. All exhibitors are local small

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business owners. You can also grab a bite to eat or a refreshment in the adjoining bar after your shopping.

For something musical: St Salvator’s Chapel Choir CD Launch, St Salvator’s Chapel, 7.30pm, Sunday 12 April, the University’s flagship choir perform early baroque music with the world-renowned Fitzwilliam Quartet, promoting their new CD collaboration, the premier CD of the record label of the St Andrews University music centre. Under the direction of Tom Wilkinson, this will be a unique chance to hear music from the album live.

To try something new: Latin Dance Workshop, Byre Studio, 5.00pm-6.30pm, Monday, 6 April. Looking for a fun way to de-stress? Always wanted to try your hand at Latin dance, but haven’t had the right opportunity? The Hispanic Society has you covered! Come along to our free dance workshop, with a guarantee of friendly atmosphere and fun music. All levels welcome, no partner required.

For something theatrical: Ouroboros, Barron Theatre, Friday, 3-4 April, 7.30pm. The first time they meet, he swears he’s seen her before. Ouroboros follows the story of two characters, Jack and Rachel—or Richard and Julie—or Remy and Julian—through three centuries and one simple question—do you trust me? A small story on a grand scale, Ouroboros is a student-written piece about love and making connections, with original music by Katie Brennan.

Although these events represent only a small selection of what On the Rocks has to offer this year, they truly epitomise the wide range of interests to which the Festival appeals. Whether your interest lies in music, art, or theatre, the festival has an event which is sure to catch your interest.

For more information, visit the Festival’s website at ontherocksfestival.com Or, find the Festival on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

EVENTS Charlie Trzeciak, Curatorial Trainee (Learning and Access)

Of Science and Fun: MUSA does British Science Week Is it possible to power a lightbulb using only a lemon? Do you know what potatoes, celery, and black pepper look like under a microscope? What are the scientific processes behind the brewing of beer? And how is a Giant African Land Snail adapted to eat its food?

Between 13 and 22 March staff at the Museum of the University of St Andrews (MUSA) will be donning their lab coats to answer these questions in a series of fun-packed activities, as part of British Science Week, a ten-day programme of science, technology, engineering, and maths activities across the UK for people of all ages. The event is organised by the British Science Association with the aim of showcasing how science plays a key role in our everyday lives.

In the spirit of British Science Week, the events organised by the Museum have a common theme dear to everyone’s hearts: food and drink. We have put together an eclectic mix of activities for a variety of age groups, which will approach the topic from a variety of exciting angles. As a taster of the fun to come here is an investigation you can attempt at home.

METALLIC FOOD EXPERIMENT Your challenge is to assess how much iron there is in breakfast cereals.

Iron plays an important role in our bodies. It is found in a part of our blood called haemoglobin, which helps our blood to carry oxygen molecules from our lungs to the rest of the body. Our bodies cannot produce iron, but it is naturally present in many different foods, such as beef, spinach, and walnuts, and is also often added to breakfast cereals.

You will need: • Breakfast cereal that contains iron (check the label to see how much iron each serving contains) • Bowl and spoon • Magnet • White piece of paper Procedure: • Pour out one serving of cereal into your bowl. Try passing the magnet over the flakes. Are they attracted to the magnet?

• Crush the cereal with the back of your spoon. Keep crushing it until it becomes a fine powder.

• Run the magnet closely over the top of the cereal powder. Is the magnet picking up any black particles? If so, those are bits of iron!

• How much iron did you manage to get out of the cereal?

• You can try this activity with different types of cereals in order to see whether you collect more or less iron.

Amazing Eaters

Science Busking

Observation and results: No particles of iron will have been attracted to your magnet as you passed it over the whole cereal flakes. This is because, in the cereal, the iron is attached to other substances around it. However, when you crush the cereal down, it helps free up the iron particles, so that they can be picked up by the magnet.

The above experiment is part of just one of the exciting events we will be holding during British Science Week. For example, families will be able to follow in the footsteps of famous St Andrews scientist Sir James Irvine by making their own sugary discoveries. In addition, they will be able to handle some fantastic beasts at the Bell Pettigrew Museum with the ZooLab team, and find out what it is like to be a medical professional at our ‘Doctor for a Day’ activity. In our adult programme, you will have the chance to take a close look at the food we eat at our hands-on microscope event. Also, the staff at Eden Brewery will be giving a talk about the science of beer, which will be followed by a tantalising taster session!

We hope that you will be able to join us during this week of scientific discovery. If you would like more information about the events we are running, or would like to book yourself a place, please contact museumlearning@st-andrews.ac.uk or call 01334 461 660/1663. You can also look for our events and others in the nearby area by going to the British Science Week Website at www.britishscienceweek.org (Photos courtesy MUSA)

“You haven’t a clue what you’ve let yourselves in for, have you?”

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EVENTS Lorna Weir and Tylar Napolitano, students on the University’s Museum & Gallery Studies Course

From Balloons to Typhoons: RAF Leuchars – Life on Base

Postgraduate students from the MLitt Museum and Gallery Studies course at the University of St Andrews are preparing an exhibition From Balloons to Typhoons: RAF Leuchars – Life on Base, running at the Gateway Gallery from 14 March to 17 May 2015.

Working closely with personnel at RAF Leuchars, we have been given the unique opportunity to celebrate the hundred-year history of the airbase, as the Squadrons have departed to RAF Lossiemouth. Using a variety of objects, photographs, and service memorabilia from RAF Leuchars, and donations from other museums, the exhibition will focus on the people of RAF Leuchars, their stories, providing a more personal representation of life behind the wire. We feel that this is a once-in-alifetime opportunity to view a side of RAF Leuchars seldom seen before, as we take a look beyond the planes and technology to the lives of those living on the base. Visitors will get a glimpse of the more social side of the base, with memorabilia from special visits, community groups, sports (Photo courtesy the RAF) teams, dances and dinners, as well as the Base during the wars that defined the twentieth century.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a wide range of educational remember. It will be held at the Gateway Galleries on Sunday, 17 May events for both children and adults. We will be hosting an object2015, a 1940s themed day to commemorate the Battle of Britain. We handling event for visitors to engage physically hope to provide a fun-filled family day that will be The exhibition will be accompanied an exciting finale to our exhibition. There will be a with RAF memorabilia, as well as a ‘Behind the Wire’ talk where adults can discover what life travelling tearoom, music and dancing, a vintage by a wide range of educational was really like on Base. Children of all ages stylist, face painting, and much more! events for both children and adults can learn about the RAF mascots and planes We hope that this exhibition will appeal to through a variety of creative sessions, even taking part in some drill and all members of the community, to learn about and celebrate life at RAF marching demonstrations. More information about these events can be Leuchars as it transitions to army control. found in MUSA’s What’s On guide; booking can be via the MUSA email: museumlearning@st-andrews.ac.uk, or Tel: 01334 461 663/660.

As a part of the exhibition we will also hold an event in conjunction For more information about the exhibition and to follow our with Museums Galleries Scotland’s Festival of Museums entitled ‘RAF progress, you can find us on Facebook, Twitter, or at our website Leuchars: Big Day Out’. We have received funding from Museums www.leuchars-expo.co.uk Galleries Scotland, ensuring that we can make this event one to

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EVENTS

Selected Events Till 31 March – DUNDEE, Springfest.

Many different concerts by varied groups at different venues (including the Caird Hall). The final concert on 28 March is by the Dundee Symphony Orchestra, with a pre-concert talk by Prof Andrew Cameron on Holst’s The Planets: New Frontiers. Contact: agrasham@gmail.com

Wednesday, 4 March – 7.00pm. New Picture House, North Street. Live from the RSC, Love’s Labours Won. Contact: 01334 474 902.

Thursday, 12 March – 7.30pm Younger Hall, North Street.

St Andrews Concert Series. Chloë Hanslip, violin, and Danny Driver, piano. Music by James MacMillan, Beethoven, Messiaen, Poulenc.

Tickets £12, concessions £11, students £3, children £1.

Contact: 01334 462 226, email: music@st-andrews.ac.uk – 7.00pm. New Picture House, North Street. Live from the National Theatre. Behind the Beautiful Forevers. Contact: 01334 474 902.

– 8.00pm. School 1, St Salvators Quad, North Street. Dig Dunfermline: a community excavation. A talk by Peter Kleeman for the Archaeology Society.

Contact: classics@st-andrews.ac.uk

Friday, 6 March – 10.30pm. Forgan’s, 110 Market Street. Forgan’s Hoolie Club. A modern twist to traditional ceilidh with the Orwell Ceilidh Band. Contact: 01334 466 973, events@forgansstandrews.co.uk

Friday, 13 March – 7.00pm. The Old Cheese Shop, Burghers Close, 141 South Street. Spring is almost here. Cheese & wine tasting.

Contact: 01334 477 355, info@oldcheeseshop.co.uk

Saturday, 7 March – 9.00am-1.00pm. Argyle Street car park. Farmers’ market.

– 1.00pm-3.00pm. Bell Pettigrew Museum, Bute Medical Buildings.

Nature detectives – creative collectors. Look at some of the creative collections in the University.

Drop in – all ages. Contact: 01334 461 660, email: museumenquiries@st-andrews.ac.uk

Sunday, 15 March – 1.00pm-3.00pm.

MUSA, The Scores. Out of the Box – to Infinity and Beyond. Look to the stars like the people of he past. Drop in: all ages. Contact: 01334 461 660, email: museumenquiries@st-andrews.ac.uk

Wednesday, 4 to Sunday 8 March – Various venues and times, StAnza 2015. Full programme & booking details: www.stanzapoetry.org

Sunday, 8 March – 10.30am-4.30pm. Cosmos Centre, Abbey Walk. Skill share extravaganza, learn a new skill.

Contact: 01334 464 000, ajr20@st-andrews.ac.uk – 3.00pm. New Picture House, North Street. The Bolshoi Ballet Live, Romeo & Juliet. Contact: 01334 474 902.

Tuesday, 10 March – 5.30pm. MUSA, The Scores, St Andrews. DNA and beyond: will we be any healthier in the age of big data? A talk by Professor David Harrison, Chair of Pathology & Director of Research in the School of Medicine. Free, but booking required. Contact: 01334 461 660, email: museumenquiries@st-andrews.ac.uk Wednesday, 11 March – 7.30pm.

Town Hall, Queen’s Gardens.

Dippers: a much-loved bird at risk? A talk by Peter Mawby for the Scottish Ornithologists Club, Fife.

Contact: 01334 657 188, email: pauldtaylor43@aol.com

Tuesday, 17 March – 10.00am. Library, Church Square, St Andrews. Bookbug, for toddlers, babies, pre-schoolers and their families. Contact: 01334 659 378.

– 7.15pm. New Picture House, North Street. Live from the Royal Ballet. Swan Lake. Contact: 01334 474 902.

Saturdays, 21 to 28 March – 12 noon-4.00pm. The Old Cheese Shop, Burghers Close, 141 South Street. Spring markets in the courtyard. Contact: 01334 477 355, info@oldcheeseshop.co.uk Thursday, 26 March – 5.30pm.Gateway Galleries, North Haugh. RAF Leuchars – behind the Wire.

A talk about the life and times of RAF Leuchars over the past century.

Free, but booking required.

Contact: 01334 461 660. Email: museumenquiries@st-andrews.ac.uk Monday, 30 March – 8.00pm. Byre Theatre, St Andrews. Colin Steele Quintet. Jazz Scotland in Fife.

Tickets £12 from 01334 475 000.

*****

Wednesday, 1 April – 1.15pm. MUSA, The Scores. Objects unpacked series – buildings of the future. Curator Jessica Burdge looks at student accommodation in St Andrews in the 19th and 20th centuries. Free, but booking required.

Contact: 01334 461 660, email: museumenquiries@st-andrews.ac.uk – 7.15pm New Picture House, North Street. Live from the Royal Opera.

Rise & Fall of the City of Mahagonny.

Contact: 01334 474 90.

Saturday, 4 April – 9.00am-1.00pm. Argyle Street car park. Farmers’ Market.

Thursday, 9 April – 7.30pm. Younger Hall, North Street. The Fitzwilliam String Quartet. Music by Purcell, Liz Johnson, Nielsen, Beethoven. Tickets £12, concessions £11, students £3, children £1. Contact: 01334 462 226, email: music@st-andrews.ac.uk Saturday, 11 April – 2.00pm. St Salvator’s Chapel, North Street. Start of the annual Kate Kennedy Procession celebrating town/gown history and the beginning of spring. Contact: katekennedyprocession@gmail.com Wednesday, 15 April – 7.30pm Younger Hall, North Street. Mozart and the Horn SCO concert. Music by Mozart, Weber, Beethoven. Pre-concert talk at 6.30pm. Contact: 0131 557 6800, email: info@sco.org.uk Thursday, 16 April – 7.00pm New Picture House, North Street. Live from the National Theatre. The Hard Problem.

Contact: 01334 474 902.

Friday, 17 April – 7.00pm. The Old Cheese Shop, Burghers Close, 141 South Street. Easter Cheese & Wine Tasting. Contact: 01334 477 355, info@oldcheeseshop.co.uk Sunday, 19 April – 4.00pm. New Picture House, North Street. Bolshoi Ballet Live. Ivan the Terrible.

Contact: 01334 474 902.

Sunday, 26 April – 7.30pm. Younger Hall, North Street. The Apostles: Elgar. The St Andrews Chorus.

Tickets £10, concessions £8, students £2. Contact: 01334 462 226, email: music@st-andrews.ac.uk Thursday, 30 April – 8.00pm. Venue TBA. The Pavlopetri Underwater Archaeology Project. A talk by Dr Jon Henderson, Dept of Archaeology Nottingham, on new research at the oldest submerged town in the world, for the ScottishHellenic Society and Archaeology Society.

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ORGANISATIONS Beverley Hart, Head of Communications

Worldwide Cancer Research: A St Andrews charity making a global impact day worth over £570,000. We have been fortunate and have made some Worldwide Cancer Research is a leading charity funding exciting and exciting findings. Without the Charity’s funding my lab would not be innovative cancer research all round the world. where it is today.”

Over the years it has funded research to the tune of £186 million Since its foundation in 1979, Worldwide Cancer Research has into any cancer type, helping scientists find new ways to knock down awarded over £186 million in grants, investing in thousands of research prostate cancer, improve the diagnosis of rare childhood cancers. It projects from top scientists in world-renowned institutions all over the has contributed to some of the latest understanding into the prevention, world. Over the years there have been 256 grants given in Scotland, as diagnosis, and treatment of many different cancers. well as grants awarded in countries as far away as New Australia, Hong But from its name you might think it was based in Chicago or Kong and the United States.

London. However, since its Worldwide Cancer Research first beginnings, 35 years ago, doesn’t run charity shops nor Worldwide Cancer Research’s does it have a household home has been in St Andrews; name. It nevertheless still relies for the last 18 years it has had almost solely on the generous its head office at Madras House donations of loyal supporters on South Street. An unassuming and amazing fundraisers who building dominated by the bustle climb mountains, run marathons, of Madras College and the historic and bake cakes to raise muchFriar’s Kirk, locals, as well as needed funds. This year the tourists pass by every day mostly University of St Andrews’ high unaware of the charity it houses profile Fashion Show raised and the mission the charity is £28,000 for the Charity. The striving to achieve. pupils of Madras College held a Madras House is home to “Blue Day” raising over £1,000 around 30 dedicated staff whose and Garry Ovenstone & Michael work is focused on funding the Reilly of The Tailend Restaurant most innovative and potentially in Market Street put their running ground-breaking cancer research shoes on raising vital funds by from some of the world’s most taking part in the BUPA Great eminent and talented cancer since its first beginnings, 35 years ago, North Run and the Edinburgh research specialists.

Worldwide Cancer Research’s home has Half-Marathon.

Cancer is more complex than Norman Barrett, “Cancer anyone ever really understood, but been in St Andrews is a big challenge, but the one thanks to research, scientists have thing that is certain, is that research is the only thing that can make begun to understand the disease better. Now, more than ever before, a difference in the fight against it. Without funding there can be no we have insights into our DNA, into genomes, and how healthy cells and research. So from taking on a challenge of a lifetime, to donating your cancer cells differ. We also have the technology and statistical data we spare change, anyone and everyone can play a part in helping us one could never have previously imagined. day realise our vision of no life cut short by cancer.

Worldwide Cancer Research’s Head of Research, Helen Rippon, explained more, “Modern research has shown that cancer is not one disease – it’s actually more than 200, all different, unique diseases requiring different approaches for treatment. Whilst scientists have made great strides in developments for early detection and improved treatment efficacy, our new understanding of cancer has revealed the magnitude of the fight. Despite today’s progress, cancer remains one of the world’s major killers for which we still do not have all the answers.”

What makes Worldwide Cancer Research unique?

Worldwide Cancer Research is quite different from other, often bigger UK cancer charities.

Chief Executive, Norman Barrett, “Since our inception we have held the same simple, yet fundamental belief that the fight against cancer requires a worldwide effort. Research doesn’t happen in isolation. The answers will not come from one scientist, in one lab, in one country.

There are 300 research institutions in the UK, but over 15,0000 research institutions across the globe, supporting the world’s experts in cancer research. These scientists and researchers collaborate, publish their findings, build on knowledge and insights. A discovery in one lab may lead to advancement in another. For us, it’s obvious; we need to fund worldwide cancer research not just in the UK – although we do support research here too. That’s really what makes us quite unique. We have an important, global perspective.”

The need for this global perspective can be noted when we see some of the breakthroughs in cancer treatments coming from labs all over the world.

The University of Dundee is one of the world’s leading scientific institutes. Professor Paul Clarke, who leads a cancer research team from all over the world based at the University commented, “I have received four Worldwide Cancer Research grants between 2005 and the present

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Professor Paul Clarke (Photos courtesy Worldwide Cancer Research) For further information, please contact Beverley Hart, Head of Communications: beverleyh@worldwidecancerresearch.org Tel: 07803 151 933.

ORGANISATIONS Angus Ross extols

Street Pastors – Listening, Caring, Helping What on earth are Street Pastors, and what is their relevance to St Andrews?

The best first response to this question is perhaps a statement of what they are not.

They are NOT a bunch of Bible Bashers going out onto the street and attempting to proselytise. What they are, is a group of dedicated and highly-trained volunteers, who are out on the streets of our towns and cities the length and breadth of the UK in all weathers at the weekends caring for and helping people of all ages, who are out having a good time at the weekend; and ensuring they come to no harm. They act as support for the police, working closely with them, and their presence on the streets until 3.00 or 4.00 in the morning has had a powerful effect in helping to reduce anti-social behaviour, crime, and the number of young people ending up in A and E. The Street Pastor organisation, Ascension Trust, was started in London in 2003. There are now over 270 towns and cities served

by Street Pastors, including Cowdenbeath, Lochgelly, Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy, and Levenmouth; and stretching from Orkney in the North to Penzance in the South. Street Pastors also function in Australia, Gibraltar, Nigeria, USA, and the West Indies.

The writer has for the past 2 years operated as part of a team in a Scottish town. A team of 4 trained volunteers went out every Saturday night from about 11.00pm until 3.30am. Before going out, we communicated with the local police, and informed them that we were on our way. We carried a couple of rucksacks containing a First Aid kit, some space blankets, a couple of bottles of water, and a stock of flip flops to give out to young women, who had abandoned their high heels and were walking around in their bare feet. Previously many had ended up in A and E, having stepped on broken glass. We also carried a plentiful supply of sweetie lollipops which were handed out to young people; they proved a powerful tool in diffusing situations of potential aggression.

Our presence on the street was very much appreciated, not only by the police, but also by the young people, who soon got to know us and would often engage in conversation with us, sometimes sharing their problems, or fears, and always assured of a sympathetic ear. A typical night would involve the handing out of numerous pairs of flip flops, picking up bottles, glasses and broken glass from the street, organising a taxi or two to get young people home safely, and perhaps calling an ambulance to take someone to the hospital.

At the end of the ‘shift,’ a quick cup of coffee together, a sense of a job well done, and a real sense that what we had been doing was appreciated by all involved.

And what about St Andrews? The Street Pastors were a big part of the team, which enabled the Commonwealth Games to run smoothly, so watch out for Street Pastors at this year’s Open Golf here in St Andrews, and who knows, thereafter also?

Seonaid McAinsh is looking for memories, celebrating

The 150th Anniversary of the Ladies’ Putting Club in 2017 In 2017 The St Andrews Ladies’ Putting Club will celebrate its 150-year Anniversary. Formerly known as St Andrews Ladies’ Golf Club, then The Ladies’ Putting Club of St Andrews, it is the oldest ladies’ golf club in the world. It was started by D L Burn in 1867 to keep his daughters and her friends amused.

I would be delighted if any readers could contact me with reminiscences, or any memorabilia that they may have. I can be contacted by telephone on 01334 477 324 or by e-mail smcainsh191@btinternet.com Thank you.

Izzy Corbin introduces the

St Andrews & District Horticultural Association & Gardeners’ Club The St Andrews & District Horticultural Association was instituted on 16 September, 1833, and was originally named the St Andrews & District Horticultural and Floricultural Association. Whilst there is a little uncertainty about who the founders were the officials came from varied backgrounds. The Association’s archived minutes show that this was a very active body of people, so much so that Mrs Betty Willsher in her book St Andrews Citizens: Their Societies Past and Present, listed the names of the officials, praising all the hard work maintained by the members. A suggestion was made effectively to plant shrubs and bushes in vacant areas within the city, the first of which was planted at the West Port, sadly no longer there, having been dug up to make room for the new flats. The Association continued to thrive for many years. There is a break in the minutes in Spring 1893.

After the Second World War the Association reformed, with many old faces, but also some welcome new ones. Lectures were part of this new grouping, with varied and interesting subjects. Dr McKerrow, (my old Doctor as a child) gave a talk on ‘Culture of the Rose’ and Mrs Uprichard on ‘Modern Cut Flowers’. There was the revival of the municipal garden competition, quizzes, lectures, and vast amounts of enthusiasm The Association reverted back to its original name in 2014. It meets monthly, their last meeting being held on 21 January, 2015 at 6.30pm in the Cosmos Centre. The AGM for 2014 saw the elections of office bearers, notably the election of Mr Hamish Matheson as President,

whose guidance is invaluable, and Mr John Ryan as chair, two of the Association’s stalwarts. The Association very much appreciates the number of long-standing members who all work tirelessly, helping with the Spring Show – to be held on 10 April, 2015 – Coffee Morning and Plant Sale to be held in May, and the Annual Show in September. These shows take place every year, made possible by our members.

It is with sadness that we see our Treasurer, Mike Dominack, leave the Club, after so many years keeping a balance on our finances. We have around 40 members, some honorary and some life members. We are always hoping that more people will take an interest in our work and hopefully keep the continuity of the Association which has been in existence for so long.

Please feel free to come along and join us, to exchange gardening tips and news, and hopefully engage as new members. The Association will always be delighted to welcome new members, young and old. I finish this article with a massive ‘Thank You’ to all our members, for their invaluable help, suggestions and tireless hard work, without whom the Association could not exist. The continuing good work of members is a tribute to our predecessors, and this journey has been truly an enlightening experience.

I have become totally engrossed with the archives left as a legacy for future generations, and I hope that this small insight will activate others to delve into this interesting Association.

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ORGANISATIONS From Charmaine Duthie, Explorer Scout Leader in St Andrews

Explorer Scouts survive Cold War bunker experience

Brynja Duthie with Explorer Leader Scott Sneddon

In an effort to continue finding unusual places to sleep, and to challenge themselves whilst undertaking the Zodiac Challenge Award, on the 24 January 2015 at 19:00 hours 24 trepidatious Explorer Scouts and their Leaders embarked on a mission to sleep tour in the Operations Room, still in its original state, in what was once Scotland’s best kept secret, the six new Explorer Scouts (Robbie Knight, Ali Primmer, Secret Bunker hidden deep beneath North East Fife’s Jack McGregor, Michael Geddes, Callum Aird and countryside.

Isla Bonnell) were invested and welcomed into 8th On arrival, the Explorers descended into the Fife (St Andrews) Explorer Scouts. Brynja Duthie, was depths of Fife’s Cold War secret installation, through awarded the Community activity Badge in recognition the blast doors down into the 450-foot tunnel through of her outstanding Movember (the Movember which they hoped to discover the secrets from 40 Foundation for men’s health) voluntary work over the years ago, to experience at first hand what life past 3 years. would have been like for the intended 300 personnel The stay at the Secret Bunker was a resounding stationed there during a nuclear attack. success: Explorer Scout, Rosa Guild, age 14 said, “I The Scouts, met by the Manager, Martyn thought it was very educational. I learned a lot about Dawson, were escorted to their accommodation for the Cold War. I never really knew it existed before”. the evening, the ‘Men’s Dormitory’.

The experience ended at 09:30 hours The Explorers were thrilled to find that on 25 January when all Explorers and The stay at the life today in the dorm still very much their Leaders marched out of the exit Secret Bunker was a represented the time period in which re-entering the free world to discover resounding success it was originally built. Each Explorer a glorious frosty sunny morning. They was given a bunk bed beside which had a quick inspection of the military they were excited to find their own original locker with hardware that guards the entrance to the bunker, then many original artefacts from that era. Meanwhile the embarked on an 11km hike through Fife’s countryside, Leaders were escorted to their accommodation, the a training walk in preparation for their Duke of floor of the cinema complex.

Edinburgh expeditions.

The stay included an informative, fun behind-thescenes look and tour of the installation. Whilst on the (Photos courtesy 8th Fife (St Andrews) Scouts)

From Izzy Robertson-Corbin

The Senior Citizens’ Tea Party Whilst Christmas and New Year pose a challenge, January is probably This annual event is becoming increasingly popular. I have been one of the busiest of the year. The Town Hall was our venue for ‘The asked why there are two parties, one run by the Community Council just Senior Citizens’ Tea Party’ which went off with a bang with over 160 before Christmas, and this one, the second week in January. The answer Senior Citizens taking part, relaxing and enjoying chatting with friends, is simple, the Christmas one is eagerly looked forward to by St Andrews some of whom I was informed see one another only once a year. Old Citizens leading up to the Christmas festivities, the other is a welcome and newcomers enjoyed one another’s company, listened to their old extra chance to meet up with friends and chat after the hectic Christmas favourite band, Bruce Lindsay and friends, some of whom arrived from festivities, giving the resident senior citizens something to look forward to Ireland. The music was without a doubt very entertaining, proving once in the New Year with an opportunity to reflect on the last year’s events. again extremely popular. A highlight was provided by the ten A toast is always made to absent friends and family, and enthusiastic young volunteers from Madras College, who as January can sometimes be a lonely time of year it is This annual event helped – of course not forgetting my son Callum – to whom hoped that this event will continue to grow, providing an is becoming I am extremely grateful for all their help, serving our Senior opportunity for folk to come together when they might feel increasingly popular Citizens with tea, coffee, sandwiches, all with fantastic vulnerable and lonely. If anyone has been inadvertently beaming smiles, nothing being too much bother for them. missed off the invitation list please do contact me and Hopefully, this will help to engage and encourage our younger generation ensure a place for next year. If you know of any friends who might like to in a way which can benefit all, especially the senior citizens of the Town, attend please do not hesitate to put forward their names and addresses. who sometimes face a lot of loneliness.

Huge Thanks to all those who were able to help, including the lovely This event was originally started by St Andrews Events, run by Ken teacher from Madras, who helped out unexpectedly, Mr Paul Jones, Crichton, but sadly failing eye sight has left Ken with the need to pass and the Rector for allowing the pupils to take part in this really important responsibility on. The event is sponsored by many of the businesses event. within the Town. It is to these that I owe a grateful and very special ‘Thank Hopefully January 2016 will provide another opportunity for the You’ for their really welcome, much-needed sponsorship, without which Senior Citizens of St Andrews to enjoy a carefree afternoon tea with this event could not possibly go ahead. Unsung heroes in ventures like those they care about, friends, relatives, and our musically talented this are there in the background working away like beavers; for instance, friends, with the monetary help from our sponsors, together with our the Arthritis Club ladies and the Town Hall caretakers, who as ever helped raffle prize donators. All the best, Health and Happiness for 2015.Take out in my hour of need.

Special Care.

Total

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OUT & ABOUT From Roma Roy, official Guide at St Athernase Church

We’re off to see . . .

During dark days, do you think of possible holidays, outings, adventures, their way to Guardbridge. educational tours? Just imagine what it would be like to have no transport, That was the site of unless you owned or could borrow a horse or a donkey. Could your feet the Statio or hostel for carry you for days – weeks even – on end? Who would go with you to pilgrims. In its shelter ensure as far as possible that you were safe from brigands? Where might was a resting place and food be found and a bed for the night? food. No doubt feet were In Medieval times all journeys were perilous, not to be undertaken washed and massaged. on a whim, but for a purpose. Perhaps a few folk visited the scene of a It stood on higher ground battlefield where many lives had been lost – just as people today visit the near the present-day graveyard where relatives are buried, or the site of a road accident. Yet roundabout. From there others travelled to see a close relative, bringing news of family, of births they gathered to walk in procession over Bishop Wardlaw’s stone bridge and deaths and changes of employment. When very few people could up to Strathkinness and on to St Andrews. read or write, when there was no universal In Leuchars Church you will find true stories, such as that of the postal system, the only way to get news was woman, distraught at the death of her child, who went on pilgrimage. from travellers, or by going on a journey in Passing an orphanage, she was able to adopt a small child. Surely that person. was an answer to her prayers! Courts could decree that a pilgrimage was Pilgrimage became popular, not with the necessary as a payment for crimes. William Bondolf, a cleric from Dunkirk masses, but with those who could afford to in 1333 was found guilty of homicide, but with mitigating circumstances. undertake the journey, with His punishment was to make a pilgrimage to those who felt the greatest St Andrews, travelling alone (no armed escort) and In Medieval times all need to get away to be healed there to pay for thirteen masses to be said for the soul journeys were perilous, of sorrows, wrongdoing, and of his victim. If you visit St Athernase Church you will not to be undertaken on serious quarrels. find out whether he succeeded. a whim, but for a purpose St Andrews was one The Church is undergoing regeneration, but may of the foremost centres of be visited by request. After the clocks change in March pilgrimage, having relics of Saint Andrew in the the Church will be open every day from 10.00am to 5.00pm with a café till Cathedral. Not that they worshipped the relics, 4.00pm on Tuesdays in the Coach House beside the Church. The website but rather were inspired by the symbolism of is: www.leucharsstathernase.org.uk the relics and had their faith strengthened.

So where will you go on pilgrimage? You may want to revisit the place In the Norman church of St Athernase of a great event such as your marriage, or immerse yourself in a culture in Leuchars, there is a display about the which is so different that you find it hard to understand, or just visit places pilgrims who came through. The Church, built near at hand which you have passed many times, but never ventured in the 1140s, must have seen many weary inside. Be adventurous! travellers from the north and west making (Photos courtesy Roma Roy)

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

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OUT & ABOUT Alistair Lawson of ScotWays, says

You can’t be serious!

Some months ago, our editor wrote of her love of colligations. Well, here is one of my own.

Strolling along the Low Causeway in Culross a few years ago, I was surprised to note that one of the houses was called “Bandar Abbas”. Having tucked that away in the back of my mind, I was “atlas browsing” some time later and, all of a sudden, the same words leapt out at me from the page depicting the Persian Gulf, and, sure enough, there was Bandar Abbas, a port town on the Iranian side of the Strait of Hormuz.

Twice is a common or garden, everyday coincidence, but thrice?

One of my 2014 Christmas presents was a Stanley Gibbons stamp catalogue covering India, the pre-1947 former native states, stamps used by Indian UN troops serving abroad in Korea, in the Congo, in Gaza, and in Indo-China and – and this is what is relevant to my theme – Indian post offices abroad. In the 19th century, when the Empire was still expanding and postal services were trying to keep up, post offices

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allied to the Indian Postal Service were set up in trading posts, useful ports, military outposts and places that did not have the capacity to organise their own postal services. Leafing through my new present, I again found words leaping out of the page at me – Bandar Abbas, again! It was never part of the British Empire, but Indian stamps, bearing the image of the Queen-Empress and later KingEmperors, were used there for a time.

Now my curiosity was really aroused, and I wanted to know more. Apparently, the British East India Company established a factory at Bandar Abbas in 1622 (transferred to Bushire in 1762). For “factory”, I imagine one should read “warehouse” or “trading post”.

Much later, in 1862, a postal service was established between Bombay and Basra, and Bandar Abbas was one of the ports of call.

An Indian post office was set up there just a few years later, in 1867, and continued in service until 1923.

Indian stamps of

Queen Victoria, King Edward VII, and King George V are known with various “Bandar Abbas” postmarks, and these are collectible.

Stanley Gibbons list them at between £5 and £40, whereas the common stamps of that period, if used in India itself, sell for just pennies.

By way of homework, I established from the internet that the house is ‘B’-listed by Historic Scotland and that the house next door is called “Algoa Bay” – equally intriguing!

I began to sniff a possible sea-faring connection. Could these exotically-named houses have been the homes of mariners who learned their trade on the waters of the Forth before travelling the wider world and eventually coming back to Culross to retire?

To try and complete the story, I asked my usual Culross informant whether anything is known as to why these local houses bear such tantalising names, but ... she doesn’t know! I shall continue to seek answers though, in the meantime, may I encourage readers to explore the many attractive walking routes in and around Culross – see accompanying map, which is an extract from a very useful walks booklet, available at various outlets in the village.

(Map courtesy Alistair Lawson)

OUT & ABOUT Arlen Pardoe

Hidden Gems in St Andrews (in plain view) Focussing on features that are in plain sight, but often overlooked Boot and Shoe Scrapers The streets of St Andrews in the 19th century were very different to those we see today.

The lines of the principal roads in the town centre were much the same, but their level and structure differed. The improvements made by Hugh Lyon Playfair in the 1840s resulted in the removal of forestairs and porches that stuck out into the street, and in some cases the level of the road was raised. Pavements were added that separated the pedestrians from road users.

Cast Iron Scrapers

The original road surfaces were unmetalled (i.e. dirt or cinder and perhaps cobbles rather than tarmac) and were not macadamised; it was also common practice for all kinds of rubbish to be deposited on the roadside, and horses added to the general mess on the road.

Middens and dunghills were common sights.

The old name for Union Street emphasises this – it was known as ‘Foul Waste’.

Unsurprisingly, much of the dirt would be collected on the boots and shoes of

pedestrians; when entering shops and houses it needed to be removed. Hence the need for scrapers at the front doors of buildings. Some scrapers are very simple straight iron bars or curved hoops, probably produced by local blacksmiths. A few are shaped bars, or have decoration such as round balls on each side.

Many are of decorative cast iron produced in a factory and would have been widely available.

(Photos courtesy Arlen Pardoe)

Simple Straight Scrapers

Shaped Iron Scrapers

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