NEWSLETTER No 33. October 2000

"Reassuring..."

Every year the Society tries to hold one meeting or event in the closed St. Serf's church, to make use of Dunning's historic centre.

This year's meeting, September 7, promised to be rather special. Five years ago, at a similar meeting, our Society members took a decisive step to block a secret deal by authorities which would take the Dupplin Cross away from Strathearn. Members demanded a hue and cry against the deal, and the result was a compromise which would return the Cross, to St. Serf's, after three years in the new museum in Edinburgh. But wondered some of us, would this compromise be honoured?

Chair Liz Fletcher began this year's meeting with an eloquent tribute to Ken Laing, a Dunningite who'd been key in working with Historic Scotland in opening up St. Serf's for visitors. Ken died in July.

Then she introduced Doreen Grove, the new Historic Scotland official responsible for St. Serf's and for the Dupplin Cross. Mrs. Grove quickly reassured us: the Cross is going to come to St. Serf's as scheduled. She then announced it has been decided the Cross is going to be exhibited in the old part of the church, beyond the Norman arch. It had been a difficult and controversial decision. But she reassured us that unlike the Cross the decision is not carved in stone: the location in St. Serf's can be re-thought.

More in: "The Cross in St. Serf's "

WHAT ELSE HAS BEEN HAPPENING?

The Vintage Bus Trip to Crieff

On the evening of 13th July members and friends of DPHS enjoyed an unusual and nostalgic trip to Crieff in Jim Docherty of Auchterarder's splendid 1939 vintage Leyland Tiger bus.

The vehicle was the one used to bring Haghill pupils here for the 1999 evacuees' reunion and Society members were delighted to have the chance to travel in such a beautifully maintained old vehicle. Inside it is surprisingly roomy with lovely inlaid wood on the ceiling and real art deco style.

It was a lovely evening and trundling along familiar roads at the pace of a bygone era was very pleasant. Our elevated position also allowed us to peer over walls and fences and enjoy a different perspective on our local countryside. We even spotted a bemused looking young deer, standing stock still in a field, staring at us in amazement!

We had an hour to enjoy the delights of Crieff before returning by a different route. All in all it was a very pleasant evening. Thanks again to Mr. Docherty of Midland Coaches --- I'm sure we'd all love to do it again some time! ---Marilyn Jamieson

The Auchterarder Quiz Night (See later)

Bats and a Castle

As we heard in his talk last November, DPHS committee member Brian Boag can weave a wonderful combination of history and natural history. He did the same again on August 17 as he and his daughter and friends led over 50 members on a memorable bat walk at Keltie Castle.

The weather was marvellous. After an introductory talk in the village we drove to Keltie. There owners Calum and Lindsay Rollo very graciously provided us with wine and savouries as we waited for the emergence of the pipistrelle bats which roost in the upper Castle.

In the dusk we saw over 100 of them drop at intervals from the eaves and zoom off through the trees...their clicking calls made audible to us by the bat detectors held by our guides. Then in the dark we trooped to Keltie Loch to observe another species of bat, the Daubenton's, hunting for insects low over the water. There were over 40 of them, Brian estimated.

What with the guiding, the hospitality, the weather, the camaraderie and the chance to see the bats and the castle, it was a great night.

A 1989 CHRISTMAS CARD SKETCHED BY KENNY LAING

TRIBUTES TO KENNY

Here's a transcript of some of the words spoken at Kenny Laing's funeral service in Dunning Parish Church July 7, 2000.
The Rev. Colin Williamson: Well might we say that Kenneth Laing's life was an ideal one---a life characterised by fulfilment. Coming full circle to a happy retirement in the village which saw his birth and childhood days, the intervening years were marked by travel, adventure and achievement and were blessed by the happiest of marriages. But we would be wrong to think that such experiences and success simply fell by accident to our friend. We know that his was a story of ability, application and faithfulness and it was these things which were rewarded.

Kenneth Laing began his architectural studies in Dundee as war broke out. His service with the Royal Navy took him to action off Norway and later with the Mediterranean fleet. How difficult it must have been for so many young folk to return to their studies. Kenneth graduated in 1948.

His professional career begin in Perth and over the years took him to Dunfermline, Berkshire and Glasgow. Upon retirement he returned to Dunning, in 1986.

Central to Ken's life---the greatest of his loves--was his family: his dear wife and companion of a lifetime, Greta, and his son John and daughter Judith. They eclipsed all else for him.

We remember today an erudite man of wide interest and many gifts, whether it be ornithology, history, poetry, music, good conversation. A lively mind whose sparkle was undimmed even in recent days of illness.

There were a number of great loves in Kenneth's life. One of them was his native village of Dunning. Kirsty Doig can express something of this.

Mrs. Kirsty Doig: Hearing the news of Kenny's death, our first thought was "Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee for with every life that is extinguished, mine is diminished". Then we fell silent lest our voices should betray our deep emotion.

Next I found myself reciting snippets from a poem printed at the beginning of my old school copy of R. L. Mackie's History of Scotland. It was then I knew that Dunning would never be quite the same again.

We would miss Ken's infectious enthusiasm for Dunning, its surroundings, its history, its community life, its people.

For, from that moment fifteen years ago when Ken retired home to Dunning, took up his drawing board and designed the attractive Thimble Cottage with its winding garden full of surprise plants, its rockery of alpines, he lived all the grand experiences which life in Strathearn had to offer.

He donned his boots and walked the Ochils, packed his knapsack and climbed the Grampians. With his binoculars round his neck he set off for the Whitemoss or the Den, birdwatching. With his sketch pad he cast the architect's precise and knowledgeable eye over old farm buildings---Knowehead, Broadheadfold and Maid's Mill. Nor would he miss a feature or structural detail of his beloved St. Serf's Church.

Scottish history was a great love and, freed from professional duties, he studied deeply.

And all these experiences he shared. As a speaker at the Parish Historical Society he pinpointed Dunning's involvement in events of Scottish history, and he puzzled over the site of the Battle of Mons Graupius.

"The Grey Mare" above Boghall Farm.

In a slide show of old stones he took his audience on a delightful jaunt, pausing at each stone and there recounting canny tales of days gone by.

The Dupplin Cross and its proposed setting in St. Serf's Church were of great concern to him and in fact he has left a paper with the Historical Society for presentation to Historic Scotland after the meeting in St. Serf's.

He wrote and he drew for the Historical Society magazine.

He was a skilled artist, producing delightful personal Christmas cards--which sent the recipients off to find the exact location, for he had the eye for a fine composition.

A fine cameraman, he helped produce the Dunning Millenium calendar which sold many copies for the Historical Society.

With Greta and ten other enthusiasts he was involved in recording the stones in Dunning's historic graveyard for the Society.

He helped the many who come to Dunning trying to trace their forebears.

He guided visitors around the old church.

He wrote the leaflet promoted by the Community Council for visitors (and chaired the Community Council for several years).

Blessed indeed he was with the talents, the capacity and the energy to do all these things, and blessed too in relationships. Blessed with a loving and devoted wife who says of him "He was the best of husbands and oh! his integrity and sense of fairness!" A fine husband and wife team and marvellous companions, sharing a love of the great outdoors, a love of plants and gardens, a love of birds...and sharing together fully in the life of the community.

Involved in the life and activities and various functions of the Parish Church, patrons of the flower show, taking their turn at Meals on Wheels, involved in the Monday Club, present and supporting the many charitable functions held in the village hall, and latterly enthusiastic members of the bowling club.

Very given to hospitality, and immensely kind to the old neighbour over the way in her 90's.

It was a full life and like those little ships in the Bible story, we all had a share of their bounty.

Yes, we are the poorer for Ken's going. We all have our memories of him. I shall always remember this true gentleman with his deep love for our history. And I turn back to the poem in my old school history book:

Scotland

Here in the Uplands,
The soil is ungrateful;
The fields, red with sorrel,
Are stony and bare.
A few trees wind-twisted--
Or are they but bushes?--
Stand stubbornly guarding
A home here and there.

Scooped out like a saucer,
The land lies before me;
The waters, once scattered,
Flow orderedly now
Through fields where the ghosts
Of the marsh and the moorland
Still ride the old marches
Despising the plough

The marsh and the moorland
Are not to be banished;
The bracken and heather,
The glory of broom,
Usurp all the balks
And the fields' broken fringes,
And claim from the sower
Their portion of room.

This is my country,
The land that begat me.
These windy spaces
Are surely my own.
And those who here toil
In the sweat of their faces
Are flesh of my flesh
And bone of my bone.

Hard is the day's task--
Scotland, stern mother--
Wherewith at all times
Thy sons have been faced:
Labour by day
And scant rest in the gloaming
With Want an attendant,
Not lightly out-paced.

Yet do thy children
Honour and love thee.
Harsh is thy schooling,
Yet great is the gain:
True hearts and strong limbs,
The beauty of faces,
Kissed by the wind
And caressed by the rain.

----by Alexander Gray , as printed in Mackie's History of Scotland

i.m. Ken Laing

The kirk is stone nor beam nor pew
but Will and Want, geometry
of emptiness and appetite
architecture of community. --W.P.

Poet Walter Perrie, who lives in Croft Place, Dunning, last year wrote "A Dunning Handsel", a sheaf of poems several of which were inspired by a visit he made one afternoon to St. Serf's church and tower in the company of Ken Laing. Here is one of those poems.

BUILDING ST. SERF'S

A sure foundation - not on earth - but soil
scraped clean from bedrock and the rock itself
chipped level. But this is premature: turmoil
is where building really begins, when Self
is recognised as a caricature
of someone we once wanted to become
decades of identity wiped clean in sheer
exuberance. A death can do it or some
triviality - or God! You need strong
nerves, a root in bedrock when the sound-quake
strikes straight from the Blue, a willingness for long
perspectives, building Otherness from wreck.

A man's depth down! It seemed immense
the quantity of soil and rubble
carted out. Then stone by stone, presence
by presence, abutting syllable
to mortared syllable we made
one great sense of stonework, three men wide
nailed to its bedrock more certainly than man
to woman. Our foundation laid
we knelt, not in the muck we started from
but on the clean, bright, level stone.

----Walter Perrie, Dunning, 1999

OLD MILLS OF DUNNING BURN

An article written for the newsletter by Ken Laing. The piece was completed with Greta's help just days before he died.

---Millhouse and the Ochils, sketch by Kenny Laing

Ripplin' oot frae Gatherleys,
Tumblin' through Pitcairn Den
Rinnin' quieter doon the Haughs,
Till it tims intae th' Earn.
The free but priceless
Water of the Dunning Burn.

From a study of Stobie's map of 1873 it is apparent there were quite a number of mills, for various usages, on Dunning Burn---stretching from Willie Bunn's waulkmill above the Tory Brig, a sawmill, farina mills, a woollen mill and others down to Baldinnies just before the burn tims into the Earn.

What a sparkling and bubbling of that clear water there would have been as it rushed down the lades and tumbled over the wheel blades or down the sluices back into the burn--from one to another, not a drop wasted and all for free. Accompanied by the creakings and grindings of the wheels and machinery, the burn would have presented a noisy and industrious scene in those days beyond present memories. Only the wheel at Baldinnies still remains, but has probably not seen use for many years.

Recently, having the privilege and time to browse through Johnnie Crow's comprehensive album of old Dunning postcards, I came across two cards looking north along the burn and the Quarry Green. They immediately brought to mind the lovely watercolour sketch, by some unknown artist around the latter part of the 19th century, of that same location (pages 10-11)

Sketched from the lower Haugh, where now there are gardens, what a peaceful idyllic scene is presented, with the Findony Mills and the burn in the foreground and, in the background, a few hundred yards down stream, the old woollen mill.

Who ever knew the Findony mill was a double wheeled mill, although the upper one may have been a flywheel. But there it is, with its upper and lower wheels and the sluice with the diverter section discharging unwanted water back into the burn.

The placid duckpond belies the present running burn, but this could be artistic licence. In my young days, I saw water-hen, dipper, pied wagtail, grey wagtail and an occasional heron there, but I have no recollection of ducks.

The water power for the Findony Mills came from a weir at Sawmill Park via a manmade lade cut into the embankment at high level on the west side of the burn, crossing the Marcassie Burn by a small viaduct above the waterfall, and discharging into a largish mill dam. Water, when required, would be directed via sluices over the wheels and surplus water would go back into the burn.

The Findony Mills were probably farina and grain mills, but towards the end of the 19th century, an excellent source of the much sought after Fuller's Earth was found at Kelty. It was carted along the old Cat's Walk road to Findony Mills where it could be processed, packaged and sent off to the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries in London. However, Lord Rollo was not thought to be enthusiastic about industry in the village and Johnstone Wright, a local businessman, writing in 1893, states "The Fuller's Earth works are begun and great success is expected. The writer has no confidence in the undertaking and fears it will not continue"---and such was the case. The mill continued in use for many years until the 1930s, then latterly as a source of elctricity for the house and farm until its larchwood axle broke in the 1940s. It was dismantled in the early 1950s.

The old woollen millwheel was served by a lade which started at the Findony Mills and ran along the embankment of the burn. In my recollections it was usually reedy and weedy, and with few stones, never much use for guddling. There were, however, always tadpoles and minnows.

By the turn of the 20th century the premises were occupied by Peter Stevens for use as a blacksmith's shop and garage. Work benches were fitted with lathes and other machines, linked by wide looped black belts to a series of overhead revolving shafts driven by the old water wheel. The swishing of the belts and the clanking of the machines and pulleys are still in memory.

Into the 1930s the wheel was still a summer source of some pleasure and not a little devilment for youngsters. If the wheel was still, we met at the top, grabbed a blade so that our weights started the wheel moving and rotated down, dropping off at the bottom. Bolder spirits wrapped themselves round the wheel and made the full circuit with only inches to spare at the bottom! This fairly inoffensive activity usually resulted in a mild reprimand and a warning about hurting ourselves.

A more boisterous ploy was to scull over the sluice so that the wheel revolved at speed and set the shafts and belts moving inside the workshop, which could be quite dramatic if equipment was still connected up. This activity resulted in a much more vigorous reprimand and the advice to b----- off and find something better to do with ourselves!

The only remaining millwheel that can be seen now is at Baldinnies Farm, a long past reminder of the industry the burn once generated.

--Ken Laing, June 2000

Watercolour of the old Findony Mill, Dunning.
The original of this painting is in the possession of Calum and Yvonne Davie and is printed here with their kind permission.

NEW WEBSITE ADDRESS

Your Society has registered the internet domain name dunning.uk.net We believe we were very lucky to obtain a domain name as simple and suitable as this one. We have already set up the web site: http://www.dunning.uk.net as a single page which re-directs users to our main site. However, the main site will transfer to this address sometime soon. When it does so we'll leave a re-direction page at the old address as long as we can. --- Simon Warren

THE NEW AND THE OLD THORNTREE

---The Old Thorntree, a sketch by Kenny Laing

In our spring newsletter, we told you that the thorntree in Thorntree Square, one of Dunning's most famous memorials, had been replaced on January 25 this year.

The tree planted after 1716 had lasted until 1936, perhaps 220 years. But its four replacements starting with one planted in Coronation year, 1937, had either died or failed to grow. DPHS member David Morris was one of the people who tried valiantly to see another successful thorntree established, but the latest tree, perhaps because it was a cultivated tree rather than a wild one, had failed to develop as hoped, though it was planted in 1983.

David Doig, who is one of Dunning's top gardeners and the primary developer of paths and bridges in Dunning Den, started pruning one of the wild trees growing in the Den. He trimmed it in the traditional double mushroom shape of Dunning's original memorial tree. Then four years ago he succeeded in transplanting another wild hawthorn from the Den to his back garden, and there he grew it on the pallette on which it had been moved.

It was this tree which in January 2000 was transplanted to the walled circle in Thorntree Square, the tree planted in 1983 being removed first. Dunning community Councillors Tony Keene and Andrew Dickson joined with Ian Philip, Arthur Wright and David Doig in the work of moving and planting the tree.

Those of us who never saw the famous thorntree in its original shape hopefully will see it replicated one day. Meantime, member Jessie Lester has passed us an old clipping, undated (but obviously before 1936 when the tree blew down) from an unnamed newspaper. As reprinted below.it will give you some idea of the thorntree's significance.

A Relic of the Jacobite Rising

The Thorn Tree of Dunning

Commemorates Terrible Night When Six Perthshire Villages were Destroyed by Fire

Six towns burnt to the ground! Inhabitants homeless! Think what commotion that would cause if it happened anywhere in all the world today!

Yet there are singularly few records in existence of that dread night when the inhabitants of six Perthshire towns found themselves with their homes burnt about their ears, and the best of their belongings gone--carried away by a marauding Jacobite army.

But in the town of Dunning, one of the six to suffer thus, there is a souvenir of the event which cannot be transferred to any exhibition for view as a relic. If anyone wants to see it they must journey to Dunning.

This memorial is the famous old thorn tree which was planted by the inhabitants to commemorate the burning down of the village in 1715, the year of the Jacobite revolution.(Editor's note: according to the Annals of Auchterarder, republished by Perth and Kinross Libraries, the date of the burning of Dunning was actually January, 1716).

On a grassy mound, built up by a strong dyke, it stands in the centre of the village, having seen more than two centuries of spring bloom and winter decay. It now shows distinct signs of age. Its twisted trunk is encased in metal, chains keep its branches together, while an iron pole props up one side of it.

For many years the caring of it was in the hands of the servants of Lord Rollo. Nowadays it is looked after by the Parish Council.

The old thorn tree has become the symbol of Dunning. When Dunning folks wander from their native heath, it is of the thorn tree they think when dreams take them back home.

Of the six villages burnt on the same northward retreat, Crieff, Auchterarder, Muthill, Aberuthven, Blackford and Dunning, the latter seems to be the only one to have commemorated the event in any way. Almost before they commenced building their homesteads, the inhabitants planted the thorn tree, bringing it from the Den of Pitcairns. Beside it on its grassy perch stands a metal plate with the inscription, now dented and blackened with the years "Planted to Commemorate the Burning of Dunning, 1715".

It was while Mar's army was in retreat from Sheriffmuir that the burning of the towns took place. That fervent Jacobite, Lord George Murray, was at the head of the party who came on to Dunning.

The object of the wholesale fire-razing, ordered by the Earl of Mar, was that the towns, whatever their leanings might be, were to be in no condition to be able to supply the royalist troops with food and shelter.

Stories are still told in the district of the doings of that dread day. It is said that the Highlanders actually helped the villagers to carry their belongings to the door before the houses were set fire to. Afterwards they made off with the best of the goods and chattels as booty.

There was nothing left standing of Dunning except the old Church of St. Serf's and one house which still exists. Although they were left with a Church, however, they had no heart left to worship in it. The Kirk Session register reports that no services were held for many weeks.

Subscriptions were received from many quarters to rebuild the houses, and gradually the town grew again on the ashes of the old, around the thorn tree then in its youth.

(It's cheering to note that according to this writer the original tree came from Pitcairns or Dunning Den, just like the newly replanted year 2000 tree from David Doig)

This newsletter is published quarterly, January, April, July and September by the Dunning Parish Historical Society. Editor: Lorne Wallace. Contact us at the Old Schoolhouse, Newton of Pitcairns, Dunning PH2 0SL. Telephone (answer machine) 01764 684 448

DUNNING'S GREAT CATTLE SHOW

DPHS postal member David McLuckie of Balloch was born in Govan 90 years ago, on July 3, 1910. His grandmother Christina (Marshall) Jack lived in the Granco in Dunning and he spent much time visiting here "as a chiel" (DPHS newsletter No. 11, April, 1995). Recently David taped this reminiscence of a Dunning event he well remembers.

In the early twenties, when I was ten or so, I can remember Dunning had a great cattle show. People came from all the areas around, down the six roads to Dunning. Mostly they came in carts, with animals behind the carts...there were few motor cars. There were all kinds of animals: prize bulls, horses, mares and foals, sheep, goats, chickens, pheasants, sheep dogs. They had sheep dog trials.

They had dancing, not Highland dancing but a kind of dancing I had never seen before. The boys wore gaiters, the girls sticky-out clothes like crinolines. It was a dance they called the cakewalk. A young boy and a young girl, him dancing around her prancing like a horse, to the music of a single piper. I think it was like some kind of fertility rites.

I first remember it, I would be about ten or twelve. I used to come and spend the whole summer at my grandmother's. The cattle show would be in July, about the time of the Glasgow Fair, mid-July.

The cattle show was a great event. These events were important and looked forward to, happening only once a year.

The village took on a different feeling, so busy. The policeman standing at Tron Square, I always remember him directing traffic. These were carts he was directing, with maybe a horse or cow behind. What a spectacle.

Of course there were all sorts of cattle. The show was held on the private grounds of Duncrub, where the Park and the golf course are now. Those days, they were private grounds. That's where the cattle were displayed, and the cows and calves.

The horses were marvellous. Clydesdale stallions, mares and foals, beautiful horses. Of course at 10 or 12 I was just a spectator. I remember trying to hold the horses, the Clydesdale stallions, outside the Kirkstyle Hotel. I wanted a chance to hold one of these stallions, but there were a lot of bigger boys there. I had to be content with stroking and touching them. I can remember that in Kirkstyle Square there'd maybe be six of these stallions, all being held by boys, with the farmers close by.

Later I would come back to Dunning, in the thirties when I was a youth, on camping trips, camping up the Dunnock and in Milady's Wood. The Cattle Show I think was still going on, until the war if I'm not mistaken. Then it ended.

--Recorded by David McLuckie on a visit to Dunning, June 2000
Anyone else remember the Cattle Show?

THE CROSS IN ST. SERF'S

Mrs. Doreen Grove of Historic Scotland started her address to us at the September 7 meeting in St. Serf's by acknowledging she was new to the area, but she knew from her colleagues that she was speaking to the people who had helped bring the Dupplin Cross back to Strathearn.

Although we probably already knew much more about the Cross than she did, she said she hoped we would forgive her as an historian if she went over some of the details of this fine carved stone. She then showed us slides and explained several aspects of the Cross with which many of us were unfamiliar.

Her description of the finer details of the Cross and its probable relationship with the Pictish ruler Constantin mcFergus (789-820) added to our appreciation of the importance and the beauty of this Cross which is to be brought into our midst after November next year.

The decision to place the Cross in the oldest part of the Church had been a controversial one, said Mrs. Grove. There were good arguments for placing it elsewhere in the church, but she believed this was still the best solution in terms of disturbance and access. Careful lighting would enhance the location, and she indicated her willingness to consider advice from us as to the best lighting.

Mrs. Grove fielded many questions from the audience, and explained that some decisions such as when in the year the church would be open for visitors, whether there would be a paid steward to guide visitors, and what part we volunteer guides might play had still to be made.

With her straightforward no-fudging manner and her willingness to listen to the local views, Mrs. Grove seemed to impress most of the audience. "The decision on positioning the Cross is a first shot. If in your view it does not work, please let me know," she concluded.

We'll report fully to you on the arrival of this important monument in coming issues, and hope we meet soon again with Mrs Grove.
Up to "Reassuring"

HISTORICAL MASTERMINDS

As part of its millennial celebrations, our neighbouring community of Auchterarder held a July 24 quiz night, hosted by Magnus Magnusson, former quizmaster of the old TV show Mastermind. Among the amazing total of 44 teams entered was one from Dunning Parish Historical Society, made up of Ian Philip, Jeanette Peebles, David Wilson, Marilyn Jamieson, Fiona Kinross and Peter Proff Jr.

The teams, seated at tables which filled Aytoun Hall, were asked to write out answers to 100 multiple-choice questions in 10 different categories. Top score of 95 was made by a team from our sister organisation, the Auchterarder Local History Society (a team which included John Stanton, also a member of our Society). The Auchterarder team deserves great credit, especially since they had lost a key team member, chair Norman Herbert, who died just two days before the event.

Equal third place (with two other teams) was taken by our DPHS team, with a score of 92 points! Congratulations and deepest thanks to all concerned: we're proud of your excellent showing!

P.S. It was handy to have a poultry farmer as our team captain. One general knowledge question was "How long does it take a hen to hatch an egg?" It was even handier that Ian knew the answer: 21 days.

IMPORTANT REMINDER ABOUT YOUR SUB

We've received an extra month's grace this year, thanks to a decision at the agm, but our annual DPHS subscriptions are now due. There should be a reminder slip enclosed with this newletter. For out-of-parish members, the annual fee is £4 in Britain, £8 for overseas. For parish residents, the fee is £4 adult, £6 family and £2 for seniors and juniors.

To help keep your Society running smoothly, please mail your renewal today to treasurer Mike Barwick at Bogtonlea Cottage, Dunning PH2 9BZ (tel 01764 684 149 if you have a question), or hand your slip and money in to Dunning post-office or to a committee member.

...AND FOR NEAT CHRISTMAS GIFTS?

We offer you our much-praised hour video programme "Dunning Remembered" (wildlife/millennium night/evacuees/thorntree) and our fine book "Here Come the Glasgow Keelies!". To order your gift, please use the enclosed pamphlet.

THE DPHS 2000-1 AUTUMN/WINTER PROGRAMME

Thursday, October 5, 7:30 pm, Village Hall. "The Magic of Carpets". Alf Marshall, newly of Dunning and the DPHS committee, has spent his lifetime in the carpet industry. His illustrated talk will cover in lively fashion the history and designing of carpets, with, he says, "a hint of eastern promise".
Saturday, November 4, 10 am to 2 pm, Village Hall. Our annual themed coffee morning and exhibit... this year My Favourite Place In Dunning, with Dunning pupils and the public contributing art, articles, photos and poems. Contact David Halliday 684 026 or Liz Fletcher 684 061 if you have something to lend.
Thursday, December 7, 7:30 pm, Village Hall. Whisky! is the simple title of Iain Stothard's long-awaited talk. DPHS member Iain, who lives at Garvock in Dunning Parish, travels the world talking about whisky...we're lucky to have him speak to us.
Thursday, January 18, 7:00 pm, Village Hall. Modelled after last year's successful and informal Burns Night, we get together for supper and a celebration in honour of Scotland's great poet.
Wednesday, February 14, 7:30 pm, Village Hall. "From Dunning to Katmandu". February's meeting, on a Wednesday for those who can't make the usual Thursdays, is often our Members' Night. Tonight Dunning's Felicity Martin and Andrew Thompson describe a recent trip to Nepal to help rebuild a monastery, a journey they say took them from the year 2000 back several centuries in time. And Ted Dorsett tells of a trip to Wales to sort out his evacuation experience there.
Thursday, March 15, 7:30 pm Village Hall. "Video Images of Dunning". Bob Palmer and his camera have chronicled many village events and folk, and tonight he shares a few more of these video memories.
April: a field trip to Stanley Mills, date to be announced
Thursday, May 10 Our agm with speaker David Halliday (and five Siberian pals) giving us "A Husky History".

Details later on a May coach trip, plus summer field trips.