A Food and Craft Market, a Sale of Seasonal Plants, A Victorian Christmas Dining Exhibition (bring indigestion tablets – Continue reading
Tag Archives: Mount Stuart
visitBute starts again
An audience of 80 at a meeting on 16th August 2011, were introduced to plans in the making for a full scale Continue reading
More vision for Bute 2020
Bute has held a follow-up session, building on the Bute 2020 event held in January, Continue reading
Trilogy of Sounds: fabulously innovative experience for Mount Stuart
Things are really looking up. The Mount Stuart Contemporary Visual Arts Programme Continue reading
Walking Theatre’s Wizard of Oz at Mount Stuart
The house and grounds of Bute’s magnificent Mount Stuart are opening on Easter Sunday afternoon for a special day – from 1.00pm – 4.00pm.
Cowal’s Walking Theatre Company is taking the Yellow Brick Road all the way to the location south of Rothesay
Wanted
Munchkins and Magical creatures to help Dorothy find her way through the Enchanted Forest at Mount Stuart.
Follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald city and discover the Easter treasure.
The Wicked Witch of the East need not apply.
Red sparkly shoes are optional and there will be a prize for the best dressed munchkin.
This is a family theatre walk through the grounds, lasting around 1.30 hours. It finishes at the Emerald City (in the crypt) for activities and tea. £3 per child, well behaved adults free.
Bute 2020 pace ratchets up
Bute 2020 is wasting no time – leading by example Continue reading
Bute 2020
They do a good line in ‘grand’ on Bute. Start with the essential elegance of the Victorian watering hole Continue reading
The other Rothesay
Argyll’s Rothesay on the Isle of Bute is, of course, ‘the other Rothesay’ if you’re living in the Rothesay in New Brunswick in Canada. But since we’re here in Argyll in Scotland and we’ve been galvanised by the This Is Who We Are exhibition which we may see in Argyll, , it seems fun to take a look at our ‘other Rothesay’.
The New Brunswick town is culturally rich. Its gene pool encompasses its earliest inhabitants, the First Nation Maliseet and Mi`kmaq, French colonists and English settlers.
Rothesay in New Brunswick was so named by a whim of the then Prince of Wales,who later became King Edward VII, because it reminded him of Rothesay in Bute. The current Prince of Wales of course goes undet the title of Duke of Rothesay when he crosses the border from England into Scotland. The affection for Rothesay on Bute is clearly a family legacy enshrined in this title.
New Brunswick’s Rothesay developed as a centre for shipbuilding and later became a summer watering hole for the wealthy elite of the nearby city of St John’s, supported by the launch of the European and North American Railway in 1853. (The track is visible in this photograph.) There is a sort of a parallel here wiht Rothesay in Bute – but with a class difference. Day trips to Rothesay in Bute and summer holidays there became the tribal holiday pastime for the working class in the city of Glasgow to whom Rothesay was ‘doon the watter’. Rothesay’s seaside resort history is recorded in many of the films in the Scottish Screen Archive.
The history of Rothesay, New Brunswick, shows in the pre-Canadian Confederation nature of some of its houses. The Victorian and Edwardian past of Rothesay on Bute is also evident in many of its buildings from the Victorian neo-gothic glories of Mount Stuart House to the delights of the Victorian lavatories on Rothesay Harbour.
The New Brunswick town is home to a notable private school, Rothesay Netherwood School. The school on Rothesay is Rothesay Academy, part of a new joint campus created by Argyll and Bute Council’s education department.
Rothesay Netherwood School has the distinction of having been home to John Peters Humphrey. Humphrey was educated at Rothesay Collegiate School, later Rothesay Netherwood School. He went on to study law at Canada’s renowned McGill University and then became a member of its law faculty.
He was appointed as the first Director of the Human Rights Division in the United Nations Secretariat after the second World War in 1946 and was a principal drafter of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights published in 1948.
While Rothesay in New Brunswick is almost twice the size of Rothesay in Bute – with a population of around 11,600 as opposed to 6,000 and, as an equally easy going town, is only ten minutes away from the city of St John, the two Rothesays share some similarities.
Both are attractive waterfront towns – Rothesay in Bute on the great Clyde waterway and Rothesay New Brunswick on the majestic and evocatively named Kennebecasis River. Rothesay in Bute is almost a single community with neighbouring Port Bannatyne. And in 1998 the township of Rothesay in New Brunswick became the town of Rothesay, meged with its neighbouring communities of East Riverside-Kingshurst, Fairvale, Renforth and Wells.
There is a lovely piece of public sculpture in Rothesay New Brunswick, commemorating their rowing victory at the 1867 World Exposition in Paris, defeating England’s famed Tyne Crew on the Kennebecasis River.
One phemenomenon the two towns do not share – yet – is economic growth. Rothesay New Brunswick. The Canadian town has see almost 15,000 square metres of commercial development over the last two years and in planning are developments that will add a further 10,000+ square metres. The area describes is work force as highly educated and rapidly growing.
There is, of course, another link for both the Scottish and Canadian Rothesay’s to explore. New Zealand’s North Island has Rothesay Bay, another waterfront community and part of North Shore in Auckland on its east coast. The This Is Who We Are exhibition’s organisers might well be interested in a tripartite exchange, opening all three sets of doors.
Some additional links are:
Photographs
The photographs accompanying this article are reproduced by permission and have been given to For Argyll to use by Mary Jane Banks, Director of Administrative Services at Rothesay, New Brunswick.
They show, from the top:
- The Town Hall at Rothesay, New Brunswick
- The old Station House with the track of the European and North American railway in the foreground
- Rothesay Netherwood School and the School’s Chapel
- The annual Dragon Boat Festival at Renforth Wharf on the Kennebecasis River
- The sculpture commemorating the Paris rowing victory over England’s Tyne crew in 1867
- Dusk at Renforth Boat Club on the Kennebecasis River, underlinging the common waterfront lifestle of the two – the three – Rothesays.
Homecoming Highs for Helensburgh and Lomond
Helensburgh and Lomond’s Homecoming 2009 celebrations include some cracking events. They’re run by the Friends of Victorial Hall (FOVH, now a registered Scottish charity) and held in this much loved Helensburgh Hall.
These are all in the Events Calendar and we’ll remind you of them nearer their dates but for some – like the Helensburgh Homecoming Ball and the Food Fair, you’ll need to act soon to buy tickets or book a space.
- The JLB Sandwich
This is an inspired idea with a snappy title that grabs the imagination. Yes, its designed to replace the BLT but forget trying to work out the contents. It’s not Jam / Lettuce / Brie. It’s John Logie Baird, Helensburgh’s famous son and inventor of television.
You submit your recipe for a JLB sandwich. Entries will be judged by a panel of local ‘experts’ who have given up dieting for the duration. Five finalists will be shortlisted.
Then – on 30th May – the Head Chef of Helensburgh’s Logie Baird Pub will supervise the preparation of the competing JLB sandwiches. These will be put to the taste by a panel of judges chose by the event sponsors, Your Radio – and Your Radio will have and share the fun by providing live transmission of the chew out.
The winning JLB sandwich will go on the menu at the Logie Baird pub and its inventor will receive a commemorative trophy.
- The Helensburgh and Lomond Homecoming Ball
Designed to be a precursor to the resurrection of the famous Helensburgh Charity Ball of thirty years ago, this gala event – on Saturday the 30th May in the Victoria Hall – will feature Scotland’s ‘King of Swing’, Harry Margolis and his Glenn Miller style swing band.
This is planned as an elegant, black tie occasion with good cuisine and a chance for Homecoming Friends to remember the Helensburgh evenings of yesteryear.
Tickets for this stylish event are selling well so contact organiser Tony Dance (tony.dance@viton.org.uk) quickly if you want tickets or a table.
- The Franco Scottish Week
Around seventy official visitors - as well as lot more coming home for the event – will be in Helenburgh for this week. It’s programme of events is run in partnership with the Helensburgh / Thouars Twinning Association.
Between 27th July and 1st August a group of about 100 guests and hosts will visit Mount Stuart on Bute, probably on Thursday 30th July. The week will culminate with a Civic Reception – in the evening of 31st July – in the Victoria Hall, supported by FOVH and hosted jointly by Councillor William Petrie, Provost of Argyll and Bute Council and by Councillor Vivien Dance, Chair of the Friends of Victoria Hall.
FOVH are in negotiations with a local hotel to provide a buffet meal for this reception, created entirely from food and beverages produced in Argyll and Bute. This meal will be prepared and presented by their Head Chef in the Victoria Hall.
- The Argyll and Bute Food and Craft Fair
The programme for Helensburgh’s Franco Scottish Week is planned to include a Food and Craft Fair – on Friday the 31st July – restricted to food, drink and crafts produced or processed in Argyll and Bute. If the number of exhibitors and the level of interest suggests that it would be commercially worthwhile, this event may extend to a second day.
Helensburgh is already Argyll’s largest town by a formidable margin – it represents around a third of the population of the entire area. It also sits alongside Dumbarton sharing a local radio service. (Your Radio has studios and individualised services for both towns.) Traditionally, with its genteel Clydeside location and its heritage, Helenburgh attracts visitors from nearby Glasgow.
This ‘touch and taste’ event is potentially a powerful opportunity for food, drink and crafts businesses from all over Argyll and the Islands to get their products into the awareness of a much bigger audience – first hand. It can also reinforce the advantages in the Buy Local campaign. Helensburgh’s residents tend to look to Glasgow for their specialist products. This fair can turn their many eyes to the superior quality of food, drink and crafts produced in Argyll.
With enough participants this fair could be held in Colquhoun Square, Helensburgh’s open and attractive Town Centre. This would require road closures – which itself adds to the fun and the public attention. However, arranging this takes time – so if you’re planning to take your business to the fair, confirm it now through Tony Dance (tony.dance@viton.org.uk). Advance knowledge of numbers will let the organisers make all necessary arrangements in good time.
Local radio station – Your Radio – will be broadcasting live from this event to West Dunbartonshire, Clydebank and across the Clyde to Greenock and Port Glasgow. Fun side events are planned – such as cookery and food-preparation demonstrations, dancing and singing performances.
The photographs here are reproduced under the Creative Commons licence. They show, from the top, Helensburgh’s renowned Hill House (photograph by Jeremy Atherton) , designed by architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh and run by the National Trust for Scotland; and John Logie Baird, inventor of television.
eatBute 09
The second eatBute food festival runs from 11th – 13th September 2009. Last year’s festival was in May but there is a logic in eatBute 09 running in September alongside Scottish Food Fortnight (5th-20th September).
The main business of the event, at the magnificent Mount Stuart, is naturally a two-day farmers’ and craft market.
There are a range of ancillary activities, most linked to the edible heart of the matter – like cookery demonstrations, a series of ‘interactive lectures’ (does this mean you can talk to them?) by guest chefs and ‘Slow Food’ evangelists and a Sunday lunch banquet.
A ceilidh on the Sunday night will bring the 2009 festival to an end.
The Buteman has all the latest programme details, raising the question of why the event’s own website is still stick on 2008 and makes no reference to 2009.
The satellite image of Bute, above, looks like the invitation to ‘eat Bute’ is actually in progress. The image is reproduced here under the Creative Commons licence.