Reports

November 2017: The Kirkcudbright Poor House

Following the AGM, of the Stewartry U3A on 28 November, Professor Don Cowell gave a fascinating insight into the history of the Kirkcudbright Poor House which opened in 1850 and only closed in 1953.

Prior to 1845 the Parish was responsible for providing poor relief for those who could not work mainly by voluntary funding from the Kirk and local heritors. However the Poor Laws of 1845 set up Parochial Boards to raise funds by way of taxes as a securer way of looking after the poor. In Kirkcudbright it was decided to establish a poor house for not only those from the town but also from Borgue, Twynholm and Tongland. But due to local pressure the poor house had to be built half a mile outside the town and the first governor, a former army Sargent, and matron were appointed in 1850 when the poor house opened.

In 1853 over 20 other parishes agreed to combine with the Kirkcudbright poor house, agreeing to contribute towards the costs and it became known as the Kirkcudbright Combination Poor House. The building had a side for males and another for females, meaning that even married couples were split up, and was originally designed for 250 but there was rarely more than 70 to 80 in the house. Food was based mainly on porridge and only those who were working were given any meat. There were strict rules and regulations and even a punishment room where people could be kept in solitary confinement.

The local Inspector of the Poor was an important local official and he was responsible for deciding whether someone was eligible to go into the Poor House. The Board of Supervision in Edinburgh gave guidance but became more controlling and was responsible for regular inspections of Poor Houses.

Don said that some of the Inspectors’ records survive and are a wonderful source of information about the operation of the Poor House. From these records, Poor House records and Census records he had found that in early years many children, orphans or abandoned, were in the Poor House, there were also elderly people and some women came in while having a baby. Some people were in for short periods of weeks or months but others were there for 30 to 40 years.

Don said that he had found that there had been a local scandal in 1869 when a woman in the Poor House complained to the Inspector about various matters in the house including that she had been assaulted by the Governor. The complaints were investigated and the Governor decided to resign.

In 1920 the building was renamed Burnside House and became the responsibility of the County Council in 1930. In 1946 the building was abandoned and the Poor Law was abolished in 1948.

Finally Don said that he had been pleased to get information about the Poor House from Raymond Finnie, son of the last Governor and that Raymond was in the audience at the meeting.

October 2017: Fairtrade in Peru

At the October meeting of the Stewartry U3A, Katherine Naylor who is Chairperson of Kirkcudbright Fairtrade Town Group, gave an inspiring talk about her visit in 2013 to Manos Amigas, a Fairtrade company in Peru. The company works with many different indigenous families of craft workers, many in isolated mountain areas of Peru.

The aim of Fairtrade is to fight poverty in underdeveloped areas of the world through the trade of goods made by people in the local communities and by ensuring that they receive a fair price for their goods. This enables the craft producers to expand production and encourage others to produce goods for sale In Peru she had found that as well as coping with working in remote areas some producers work had been affected by local terrorist activity.

Katherine showed examples of the different goods from Peru and told of the families who had made them. The goods ranged from embroidery to woven goods such as hats and shawls and tiny gloves and also wooden goods. She also explained how gourds grown locally in Peru could be made into different goods. This involved washing the gourds and then leaving them to dry naturally after which they were decorated with complicated patterns and coloured with natural dyes.

As an example of how Fairtrade funds could help local communities Katherine described how a church in Lima had used the funds to provide meals for children and had set up a numeracy and literacy project for children in slum areas.

The Fairtrade catalogue includes goods made in many underdeveloped areas of the world and Katherine said that the reach of Fairtrade would expand as more people bought their goods.

The speaker at the next meeting of the Stewartry U3A on Tuesday 28 November will be Professor Don Cowell who will tell us about Kirkcudbright Poor House. The talk will be proceeded by the AGM at 2.00pm but members are asked to come along from 1.15pm for registration and payment of an annual subscription of £20.

September 2017: Memories and reflections from a retired bishop

At the first of the autumn meetings of the Stewartry U3A held on 26 September, Gordon Mursell spoke on his life and his memories as a Bishop in the Church of England.

He grew up in Sussex, although both his parents came from Ayrshire, and while he initially studied music in Rome he went on to read history and theology at Oxford University. Following training for the Ministry he was ordained in 1973 and started work as a Curate in inner city Liverpool which exposed him to the issues of poverty and unemployment. His next position was as a Vicar in Peckham, South London after which in 1987 he went to teach at the Church of England training college attached to Salisbury Cathedral. While there he met his wife Anne and they were married in Salisbury Cathedral with both Church of England and Roman Catholic ceremonies.

His varied career then included being team Rector at Stafford and Dean of the cathedral at Birmingham before taking up the position of Bishop of Stafford from which position he retired early.

Throughout his talk Gordon told many anecdotes of his experiences, some amusing and others serious, as well as highlighting the challenges he faced within the Church. The position of Bishop was particularly lonely with considerable responsibilities but with opportunity to reward others.

He referred to his visits to other countries, in some of which Christianity is flourishing, and said that he felt that there was a need to inject spiritual dynamism here in the UK.

May 2017: Bessie MacNicol – The Glasgow Girl who painted a Glasgow Boy

Who was the Glasgow Girl who painted the Glasgow Boy, E.A. Hornel?

Bessie MacNicol was the subject of the talk by Sandra Walsh at the May meeting of the Stewartry U3A during which she gave a fascinating insight into her relationship with Hornel largely based on letters which Bessie MacNicol had written to Hornel and which were kept by him.

Bessie MacNicol was born in 1869 in the Anderston district of Glasgow at a time when Glasgow was not only flourishing as the second city of the Empire but was also a centre of cultural activities. She was from a solid working-class background; her father graduated from Glasgow University after she was born and became headmaster of Anderston School. She enrolled as one of the first women to do so at the Glasgow School of Art in 1887 when many famous Scottish artists were also there. After graduation in 1892 she went to study in Paris but did not enjoy her time there.

In 1895, she exhibited her painting entitled “Cottage Girl” but later cut in down and renamed it the “Green Hat”. In 1896, she met Hornel, possibly through George Henry, when she travelled to Kirkcudbright at the time when there were several other artists living in the town. In 1896, she painted her well known portrait of Hornel. By then Hornel was a very successful artist and could have selected any member of the Academy to paint his portrait. Sandra suggested that it was surely the idea of Bessie and an indication of her friendship with Hornel that she undertook the portrait. This was at the time when it was unusual for a woman artist to paint a man while unchaperoned. When the portrait was exhibited in Glasgow some said that it was a reasonable likeness but others were disparaging even commenting on the fact that it was by a woman artist!

After leaving Kirkcudbright Bessie MacNicol wrote to Hornel asking about his life in Kirkcudbright and requesting a photograph of him. She also commented in her letters about other artists. In later letters, she expressed concern about insinuations made by other artists about their relationship and it was possibly this which led to her feeling betrayed by Hornel.

In 1899, she married Alexander Frew and lived in Hillhead, Glasgow and continued to paint and exhibit. She died prematurely during childbirth in 1904. Frew remarried in 1907 but committed suicide a few months later. Soon afterwards Frew’s wife sold Bessie MacNicol’s paintings.

April 2017: The Archaeology of The Stewartry

At the April meeting of the Stewartry U3A, Andrew Nicholson, Archaeologist for Dumfries and Galloway gave a fascinating overview of the archaeology of the area spanning 9,000 years of human settlement. He said that we were fortunate to have so many sites of archaeological interest in the area and through his talk he described many that were often not recognised nor appreciated.

Andrew referred first to the Neolithic settlements and to the antler harpoon from that era which is in the Stewartry Museum. Moving on there are burial cairns such as Cairnholy Chambered Cairn, standing stones and cup marked stones. Even now the reason for these cup marks is not fully understood. By the Bronze Age there appeared to have been a denser population in the Stewartry and it is from the middle to later Bronze Age that bronze weapons and other artefacts are found.

There is evidence of a brief Roman influence in the area through Roman camps or marching camps. However, this was a transitory phase. Later there are traces of Pictish and Anglo Saxon remains and the Motte of Urr is considered to be the most complete example in Scotland.

Andrew described the Galloway Hoard which is currently the subject of a campaign to retain it in Galloway. He said that it was unclear whether it was buried by the Vikings or buried to keep it from the Viking invaders.

Moving on to more recent times he showed examples of tower houses and mansion houses in the area, bridges on old roads and then from the 20th century, the Galloway Hydro-Electric power station and the ammunition factory at Dalbeattie.

Andrew explained that as County Archaeologist he has to review the many planning applications and groundworks such as pipeline routes over the Stewartry, an area which is rich in archaeological remains.

March 2017: James Clerk Maxwell – A Man o’ Galloway

At the March meeting of the Stewartry U3A members heard of one of the world’s greatest scientists, James Clerk Maxwell.

Captain Duncan Ferguson described the young Maxwell’s days at Glenlair. Maxwell was born in Edinburgh in 1831 but moved to Glenlair when it was built by his father in the same year. Even as a child at Glenlair it was clear from his interest in his surroundings and the world around him and the many questions which the adults found difficult to answer that he had a brilliant mind. He was taught by his mother until she died when he was eight years old and then at age ten he went to Edinburgh Academy. Because of his unconventional clothing his fellow pupils unkindly referred to him as “Daftie”. However at the age of 14 he read a paper to the Royal Society of Edinburgh and had by then developed a deep interest in physics. He set up his own laboratory at Glenlair where he conducted experiments including work on conduction. At the age of 16 he entered Edinburgh University and three years later went to Cambridge University to continue his studies in mathematics.

John Simpson told members of Maxwell’s deep faith and of his ability as a poet, reading excerpts from some of his poems. During his academic career he wrote over 100 papers covering a wide range of subjects writing most of them during his thirties. In one of his papers published in 1856 he acknowledged the significance of Farraday’s work. Many of his later papers related to magnetism, electricity and related sciences; John showed his equations known as the four “Beautiful Equations”.

In 1854 he graduated from Cambridge and was elected a Fellow of Trinity College. In 1856 he took up a Chair of Natural Philosophy at Marischal College Aberdeen and in 1860 moved to London when he was granted the Chair of Natural Philosophy at King’s College. In 1868 he was invested as the first Director of the Cavendish Laboratory.

Maxwell contracted smallpox but was fortunately nursed through it by his wife and died due to abdominal cancer at the relatively young age of 48 and is buried in Parton Kirkyard.

Much of Maxwell’s contribution to the advancement of knowledge and understanding in the fields of electricity and magnetism was only recognised and appreciated posthumously. Fortunately he is now acknowledged as one of the greatest physicists of all time. The 2015 International Year of Light had celebrated the 150th anniversary of his work. For the Festival the Maxwell Torch had been created. John illuminated the torch which he had collected specially from Glasgow for his talk.

February 2017: Wildlife and the art of printmaking

Lisa Hooper (Artist and Printmaker) with Howard Brown (Chairman)

Lisa Hooper, renowned local artist and printmaker, was the speaker at the meeting of the Stewartry U3A on 28 February.

Lisa’s interest and fascination with the local landscape, birds and wildlife is reflected in much of her work and she said that the attraction of the Galloway landscape was one of the reasons for moving to the area and establishing her home and studio in Port William. Inspiration for some of her work is taken from early lino cut artists and from Inuit prints

Her starting point for many of her prints is one of her wildlife photographs from which she then draws an image onto tracing paper and copies onto her printing block. She described the intricate work which she carries out in order to prepare the block for printing, either by hand pressure or in her flatbed press. For prints with more than two colours she makes a number of blocks or uses a reduction printing technique where a number of different colours can be printed.

Lisa said that as a solo artist not all her time could be spent creating her works but inevitably she had to do so much more such as framing and mounting, preparing for exhibitions, producing greeting cards, including for RSPB, community involvement to encourage young people to produce prints as well as running workshops and her gallery.

January 2017: Doing Porridge

Andy Hunstone, Acting Governor, HM Prison Dumfries gave a talk to the Stewartry U3A at the meeting on 24 January entitled “Doing Porridge” covering his experiences as an officer in the Prison Service Scotland. He had joined the prison service in 1991 and worked at various prisons including Shotts and Barlinnie, before coming to Dumfries, four years ago.

The oldest part of HMP Dumfries was built in 1883 and was known then as the Jessiefield prison. There are now 175 prisoners in the prison comprising local and remand prisoners and national high risk prisoners with just over 100 officers. Andy pointed out that within Scotland there are on average 7,800 prisoners, the highest percentage of population in Western Europe. HMP Barlinnie is one of the biggest in the UK, built for 900 prisoners but currently housing an average of 1,400 prisoners.

Throughout his talk, he emphasised the efforts made by the prison service to try to prevent prisoners re-offending, the re-offending rate currently stands at around 42%. Within the prison training is provided so that the men will have some skills which they can employ when they are released. Other activities are designed to develop the prisoner’s self-esteem. Other agencies and community organisations are involved in providing support for prisoner’s families and the prisoners themselves when they are released. Facilities are available for families to visit the prisoners in more comfortable surroundings than previously.

Prisoners now have TVs in their cells which Andy said was controversial when first provided. However, being able to watch TV has resulted in a large reduction in prisoners self-harming and improvement in general behaviour.

The principal reasons for re-offending are addiction to drugs, alcohol misuse and gambling. In addition, most of the prisoners come from deprived areas and many have mental health problems. The Scottish Government is now making moves to try to reduce the level of re-offending by addressing the underlying issues.

November 2016: Life and Death on Little Ross Island

A large and attentive audience came to hear David Collin share his knowledge of some aspects of life and death on Little Ross Island based on his extensive research over many years; his talk followed the Stewartry U3A AGM held on Tuesday 22 November.

Ross Island LighthouseThe island’s benign aspect facing into Kirkcudbright Bay provides a safe anchorage, but gives no clue to the forbidding and dangerous southern side which has cost the lives of many sailors over the centuries. A long campaign was waged beginning in 1792, when Robert Muter proposed a lighthouse be built at public expense as Little Ross provided the best harbour in the area, provided the narrow entrance could be navigated safely. A further call was made by Nicholas Carlisle in 1813, again to no avail.

James Skelly took a more proactive approach, living on the island in 1819 to supervise the building of two beacon towers to guide ships through the narrow channel. The beacons were unlit so only of use in daylight and good visibility. Shipwrecks continued at a steady pace as it was a busy seaway and navigation methods basic. In 1822 five ships were wrecked in one storm with a great loss of life.

Following Skelly’s death, his nephew John C Mackenzie took up the cause, which had a lot of prominent backers. However, it was opposed by Joseph Hume MP, who wanted to cut spending and felt lighthouses were a waste of money, and the leading lighthouse engineer Robert Stevenson doubted the value of the site believing the channel was dry at low tide, and that another site would provide a better anchorage. In time it was proved that Hume was wrong, the Northern Lighthouse Board was well run and effective, and in 1838 the Admiralty commissioned a survey which proved the anchorage had a depth of 3.5 fathoms and was therefore viable.

The Stevenson family, Robert and son Alan, were asked to design a lighthouse. They were responsible for 10 others in Scotland between 1821 and 1833 and used basically the same design for the tower; it is an elegant building. They also designed two small houses for the keeper and the assistant keeper and their families and a range of byers, a pig sty and a forge for their use. They each had a garden too. Following a tender process, Robert Hume of Gatehouse secured the contract to do the work which began in 1841. Thomas Stevenson, a young man of 23, was to supervise the work but he received little guidance from his father and there were a number of disputes. It is clear from his letters that he had a difficult time living on the island, but the work was completed on time.

The lighthouse went into service on 1 January 1843, with an experience keeper, Thomas Ritson in charge. 61 keepers, plus reliefs, minded the light between then and 1960. Some of their families were, as was the norm at the time, large and at one time there were 14 people living in these two tiny cottages. It was a life of isolation and they needed to be resilient and self sufficient; the keepers’ diaries were surprisingly uneventful! Highlights included a visit by the Minister to baptize a baby, and of a doctor to take out a tooth.

Some of the children themselves became lighthouse keepers. Joseph Dick went to Japan with Richard Brunton in the 1860s to set up a lighthouse there, and died there in 1914. Whereas Robert Burnett emigrated to America and became a very successful farmer.

In the 1920s Margaret Stitt often visited the island when her father brought supplies, in due course romance bloomed with the keeper Peter Gow, they married and made Little Ross their first home.

In 1944 Charles Gifford alerted the lifeboat when he saw a schooner adrift and apparently unmanned, the boat was wrecked but the crew saved thanks to his intervention.

The most infamous event in the history of the lighthouse station also marked the end of resident lighthouse keepers on the island. Our speaker visited the island with his father on 18th August 1960 to discover the relief keeper dead in his bed with a head injury. The assistant keeper Robert Dickson had shot him as he slept. Dickson had twice been certified insane, yet the judge at his trial condemned him to death; he was reprieved 5 days before the penalty was to be imposed only for him to take his own life two years later.

A representative of the Northern Lighthouse Board arrived at Little Ross on the same day as the murder, by coincidence he had come to inform the keepers that the light was to be automated. The light was then gas fired, with Norman Parker the last boatman to replace the cylinders until solar power was installed in 2005.

The houses and associated buildings fell into decay, the roofs were removed from the outbuildings for ‘safety reasons’, until the cottages were restored and modernised in recent years.

October 2016: What Hitler did for me!

This attention gripping title attracted a good attendance at the Stewartry U3A October meeting. Our speaker Peter Banks outlined the impact of the 1930’s refugees from Germany on his own life, and on the United Kingdom.

Peter read at Worcester College, Oxford, then headed by Prof Sirs Hans Krebs and was tutored by Prof Hans Kornburg, two eminent chemists and pharmacologists, who had to flee Germany in the 1930s. Hans Kornburg came to Britain as an unaccompanied 11 year old, unable to speak English and never to see his parents again; having parallels with current child refugees in Calais. As a trainee lab assistant his ability was spotted by Prof Krebs who encouraged him to read Chemistry at Sheffield University. Hans Kornburg subsequently had a glittering career, ultimately Master of Christ’s College, Cambridge and being knighted for services to science. Peter describes the three years that Hans Kornburg tutored him as a gift.

Hans Krebs had begun his career in Germany before he was dismissed by the Nazis. He came to Britain in 1933 under the auspices of colleagues at Cambridge and built an academic career which lead to a Nobel Prize in 1953 and a knighthood. He made a significant contribution to the war effort through his work at the Sorby Research Institute where he evaluated the nutritional value of the national loaf, the impacts of vitamin deficiencies and water deprivation. These studies were only possible with the volunteer conscientious objectors who underwent deprivations in the interest of science and for the war effort. Hans Krebs son, John, Baron Krebs is a prominent zoologist, and has chaired the Food Standards Agency.

Peter’s third gift was Prof Hugh Blaschko, whose family were at the heart of Germany’s establishment giving him access to many eminent people in the fields of science, publishing and arts; a background which was vibrant, liberal and international. His research in pharmacology was curtailed by the Nazis, but he was able to come to Britain and again had an illustrious career to Britain’s benefit.

hugh-blaschko Prof Blaschko was one of many scientists who were able to come because of the Academic Assistance Council which was formed in 1933 following the German law causing the dismissal of around 25% of academics as “undesirable people”. Leo Szilard and Lord Beveridge were the main initiators, but university Vice Chancellors and Nobel prize winners contributed. AV Hill, the Vice President gave grants to scholars who could find a host institution. Of these refugees 16 went on to win a Nobel prize, 18 were knighted and 74 became Fellows of the Royal Academy.

In other fields famous refugees include Ernst Gombrich, Nikolas Pevsner, Andre Deutsch, George Solti and Ludwig Gultman who founded the Paralympic Games in England.

On the outbreak of war 27,000 Germans were interred in the Hutchinson Internment Camp on the Isle of Man. Most of them were refugees who wanted to help the Allied war effort. The Refugee Council set up committees to prepare dossiers on 560 refugees who were receiving financial support from the Academic Assistance Council and secured their release, though this took up to a year.

The stories of these refugees, and the contributions they have made to British society as well as to science, provide a strong case for offering a home to asylum seekers to our mutual benefit.

The next meeting of the Stewartry U3A is the AGM which will be held on Tuesday 22 November in the Parish Church, Castle Douglas after which David Collin will give a talk on Life and Death on Little Ross Island. The AGM starts at 2.00pm but the Church will be open from 1.15pm for member registration.