Good luck with the web site.

Is there a desire among local business to consider having online purchasing of their goods and services delivered door to door. Could this be a co-operative venture utilizing delivery vehicles and drivers already employed by existing businesses (Quothquan Dairies? Brooks Shops? Damn Delicious?)Would lanark.co.uk be prepared to develop and host such a service?

Jim Ferguson

Good luck with the web site.

Is there a desire among local business to consider having online purchasing of their goods and services delivered door to door. Could this be a co-operative venture utilizing delivery vehicles and drivers already employed by existing businesses (Quothquan Dairies? Brooks Shops? Damn Delicious?)Would lanark.co.uk be prepared to develop and host such a service?

Jim Ferguson

Dear Sirs,

Your View from the Cross article has just been drawn to our attention and we are somewhat concerned about a number of material inaccuracies, obviously brought about by the author's lack of knowledge of Scotland's Festival of History, and his reliance on an inaccurate press report.

As a responsible site, and supported by a reputable Trust, we therefore would expect you to give equal prominence to the full facts, rather than local gossip.

These facts - the history of the event if you will - are given below and we trust you will correct the above mentioned article, giving equal prominence to the facts below.

Regards

Gail Whiteford,
Lanark Medieval Society

Whether Frank Gunning has any connections with the Historic Festival is not clear in Press reports. He was a prime mover in the Wallace Trust, set up to reinforce the historical link with the Scottish Patriot and the Royal Burgh of Lanark. This Trust appears to have been inactive for some time but still seems to have joined forces with another initiative formed by the now defunct Merchants Association. They decided to hold a Mediaeval Fayre in the town centre in a bid to attract shoppers and visitors to Lanark. Peter Cambell from McKellers the jewellers and George Topp from the Hamilton Advertiser were the pioneers in this. It was judged a success and later moved to Castlebank Park where it became a two day event. Further success of the event saw it move to the Racecourse and there it has remained ever since.

The festival was established and run, until its demise, by Lanark Business Group in collaboration with South Lanarkshire Council. No other organisation was involved.
The festival is now run by a not for profit ltd company, with directors, and a management committee. Frank Gunning has always been involved as a volunteer, firstly as a business group member, and on its demise, he joined the management committee. 
Your writer seems to be mixing the Festival up with the highly successful William Wallace funeral event in 2005, which was run by the William Wallace Trust, along with South Lanarkshire Council.

Just how successful it was in supporting local businesses is less clear, but the organisers claim of bringing £450,000 to South Lanarkshire could be no bad thing.

Just how successful it has been in supporting businesses in Lanark and Clydesdale has already been proven thanks to a number of studies carried out over the years by two specialist national companies on behalf of a range of backers, including South Lanarkshire Council and EventScotland.  The 2011 figure for economic value to S Lanarkshire was £416,000. The specific number of Clydesdale businesses who benefited was in excess of 41, most of which are in Lanark. 

It now looks as if the event will go to Hamilton which will more than suit South Lanarkshire Council.

A decision to cancel 2012 at the racecourse was taken unanimously, but reluctantly, by those attending a special meeting.
This was done after a small, but important part of the event funding was withdrawn, and with no chance of finding alternative funding before several essential contracts were due to be signed.

Loss of this funding had nothing to do with SLC, whose offer of support remained unchanged.

It was Leader funding, cash from the EU and Scottish Government and distributed locally via Hope Street, which kept the festival in Lanark. Grant funding from Leader was aimed at assisting events that helped the rural economy.
Loss of that funding meant the organisers had to find an alternative source of financial support, and unfortunately that has proved impossible in Clydesdale.
The festival was actually one of three in the Clydesdale area that lost Leader funding.

Encouraged by EventScotland the festival organisers elected to go ahead with a 2013 event.
The festival was set to leave Lanarkshire altogether, but VisitLanarkshire and SLC were concerned at this loss to the county’s tourism market, and asked the organisers to reconsider.
Lack of funding to keep the festival in Clydesdale meant the only other suitable county location was Chatelherault, with support from the surrounding area.
However the organisers have been in talks with several alternative venues outside of Lanarkshire, and a final decision depends on which venue offers support to keep the festival going.


George Topp the organiser complains about the lack of support from Lanark people to the event at the Racecourse, and cites this as a possible factor in considering a move. He seems to forget that the Racecource has never been an attractive venue for Lanarkians, being too far to walk to, and to close to drive to. Given that the event is to attract people into the town centre, not away from it, what is the motive for doing it in the first place?

The festival actually began as a small one-day craft street market 10 years ago.
The August date was an accident - the only available date the market stall hirer could supply stalls. It was only after the involvement of some local re-enactors that it took on a medieval theme.

The market only ran for 2 years, with crafters complaining of poor sales and low numbers of public turning up. The market was, at that point, run by Lanark Business Group, and they took the decision to move it to Castlebank and turn it into a proper medieval fayre.
That proved very successful, attracting thousands of visitors as opposed to the previous hundreds.

However the event was forced to move from the park for a number of reasons, including:
a- complaints from locals about congestion in the area and noise, and from visitors about the lack of car parking.
b- there was no income from the public because the festival could not charge admission, and donations and sale of programmes did not raise enough, so the event relied on limited and temporary grant funding.
c- it did not meet H&S requirements: no space for participants to camp; no participants parking and no drinking water on site.
d- parts of the show come within the firearms and black powder laws and it was becoming more difficult to enforce the required security in an open park;
e- the park became too small for the increasing numbers wanting to take part, and to accommodate insurance requirements. SLC also announced restoration plans for the park, plans which would have reduced the available performance space, and take the park out of use for at least 15 months.

At the same time the Business Group folded, and, as a result, both the fayre and the Christmas Market were to be cancelled.

However South Lanarkshire Council stepped in, making it clear they wanted to see these two important local events continue in Clydesdale.
Under pressure from SLC Peter Campbell and George Topp agreed to personally run the Xmas market, and try to save the medieval fayre.

Two well advertised public meetings were then held in Lanark to establish a group to run both the festival and the market. The only people who turned up were those volunteers already involved.

Despite that, the small numbers who did turn up - almost all from outwith Lanark - agreed to establish Lanark Medieval Society to run the festival. Since then the festival has continued to be run by that small group of volunteers.

The society then looked at alternative venues to Castlebank - amongst them Lanark Racecourse and Chatelherault.
SLC put pressure on the society to stay in the Lanark area, and offered support.
However the only possible location large enough was Lanark Racecourse.

The event moved there, and, to meet the needs of the changing history market, it became Scotland’s Festival of History, to more accurately reflect how the event had evolved.

It was always recognised that Lanarkians did not support Racecourse events, but that was the only possible location if the festival were to remain in Clydesdale.
Several independent visitor studies have shown that the vast majority of festival visitors come from outside of Lanarkshire, with most saying this was their first time in Lanark.

In a bid to make it easy for locals to attend the festival a free shuttle bus has always been operated from the town centre to the racecourse. Unfortunately its main use has been by people arriving in town by public transport, or by those at the festival to visit Lanark town centre.


I will not miss the event at the Racecourse, though I did support it at Castlebank and in the Town Centre. It was honourable of Topp to put so much time and effort into helping the Community. Why go to all that effort for Hamilton? The whole thing doesn’t stack up! We gave away the Silver Bell to Hamilton for little return, and now a Community inspired event seems set to do the same! Lanark 0, Hamilton 2.

As should be now obvious, SLC have not tried to move the event to Hamilton – quite the opposite, they have tried to keep it in Lanark. It was only when faced with losing it to neighbouring authorities that SLC and VisitLanarkshire offered the only other alternate site in Lanarkshire.

It's a pity that whoever writes View from the Cross doesn't take the trouble to check facts. I have not been a Councillor for 23 years although the past week it's felt longer than that. Nor did I say what was printed in the Gazette. Rev Bryan Kerr for reasons best known to himslef decided to respond to an inaccurate statement. Anyone interest - I don't expect too many are- can read an accurate account of my views on PR in the Hamilton Advertiser of 13th Oct 2011. Or can discuss the issue when they meet me in the street. If the writer of View from the Cross wishes a copy he/she can have one in return for their name which I will ensure everyone knows.In my view it is cowardly to print gossip anonymously. I really don't know what it does for the Community of Lanark except allow people in other towns in Clydesdale to laugh at us.

Mary McNeill

Way back in the day readers eagerly anticipated the “View from the Cross” column in the Lanark Gazette.  The column wasn’t always right, not always particularly ‘PC’, wasn’t always agreed with, but always interesting, usually well written and frequently quite humorous.  The drivel presented as the April VFTC on the web site is an insult to the quality of the “brand” developed by the Gazette.  This is a rambling incoherent litany of slander, misinformation, supposition, assumption and conjecture and character assassination.

There is a lesson here that any would-be councillors (local authority or community) or any other community volunteers would do well to take on board prior to ‘throwing their hat in the ring’.  That is the capacity of a few in our community (as epitomised by “The Styg”) to bear a grudge.  The fact that such grudges are usually more imagined than real in no way dilutes the venom that oozes from them at every opportunity.  It’s sad, but it’s Lanark, and it’s “Aye Been!”

I had thought originally that the use of the pseudonym “Styg” was simply an indication of some mid-life crisis, with your correspondent perhaps eager to give Paul di Resta a run for his money.  However, on reading the wild, defamatory and highly inaccurate content of the column, I realised that the use of a fibreglass burkha to cover the features was more likely aimed at concealing the fact the writer was “tired and emotional” when it was written rather than an attempt to conceal his identity.  Without doubt this rambling column might have been easier to read if I too had been “tired and emotional” when I read it!  Why the nom-de-plume “Styg” anyway?  Perhaps English is not his first language and that is why I’m having difficulty understanding him.  Perhaps he is simply a fan of Jeremy Clarkston and Top Gear (which makes it easier to understand his arrogance).  Perhaps it is a mid-life thing and it’s the appeal of the macho image?

There are so many erroneous (that’s me being nice) and downright stupid (that’s me not being nice) statements in it that I may not succeed in correcting them all, but I’ll give it a go!  Allow me to comment firstly on what has become my very own personal “Groundhog Day” experience!  It seems that every time there is a week with a Monday in it I get to explain to the doted and the daft (and the Styg) that the Lanark Silver Bell has never – in a thousand years - be given away to anybody!  When it was first granted to the Royal Burgh, the Silver Bell was given unto the care of the then local authority, the Burgesses of the town.  Over the centuries the nature, style and title of our local authority has changed many times.  We’ve had local Sheriffs, we’ve had Merchant Guilds, it has been our Toon Cooncil, it was Clydesdale District Council and it is currently South Lanark Council.  But one thing in a millennium has NOT changed!  The Lanark Silver Bell has remained in the possession of whatever local authority governed the Royal Burgh.  (And is probably one of the few things that the various local authorities over the years have managed to avoid losing!).

So how come I can hear you ask (Styg is not the only one who hears voices) the race is run at Hamilton Park then?  Well, it is the oldest annual horse race in Europe but had not been run at Lanark for decades, mainly because we don’t have a racecourse anymore (not that many in Lanark are prepared to accept that).  So it lay unseen and unloved in its wee vault (the vault is in Hamilton jings!) until, as the Styg has noted, Provost Alan Dick, lamenting the loss of such a world-famous race from the racing calendar, tentatively asked if the race might be reinstated at Hamilton Park (Well, he was the Provost of South Lanarkshire and Hamilton Park is the only racecourse in Lanarkshire, north or south).  That’s when all Hell broke loose!  A relatively small but group of Lanark stalwarts (Lanark’s answer to Black September) decided this was akin to the ethnic cleansing of Lanark and threatened to stop paying council tax until the bad Provost went away – and he did!  Provost Dick might have got away with by suggesting something less odious, like the reintroduction of slavery, or moving our March stones to include Carluke, or appointing a female Guildry member, but he went for the throat!  He wanted our Bell (which he actually already had in his wee vault anyway!).

The Styg then complains bitterly of details of a “secret” meeting (perhaps an early ‘town group’ meeting?) being leaked by the council.  Is he complaining that it was a secret, or that the council told everybody about it?  If the council ‘leaked’ the info, to whom did they leak it?  Folk – apparently - only complained after the Community Council discussed it!  CC meetings are open to the press and are diligently attended by our local newshounds (in Ron Harris’ case, given his nicotine intake, perhaps that should be news-beagle!) and are invariably reported in the Gazette if the items are deemed to be newsworthy or in the interests of the public.  Surely, Lanark’s answer to Robocop is not complaining – at one and the same time - that CC meetings are open to the press while town group meetings are held in secret?

Frank Gunning (that would be moi!) did NOT “reintroduce the idea three years ago”!  Some five years ago Alistair Warwick, then CEO of Hamilton Park, approached the Community Council to request that the CC support the aspiration of Hamilton Park to gain the right to run the Lanark Silver Bell Race at Hamilton Park.  It was their ambition to have this race as the feature race of their “Cash for Kids” Race Night.  Given the level of local insurrection previously when this had been mentioned by Provost Dick, the Community Council (not “Frank Gunning”, I’m just the Chair) undertook to hold a referendum that would allow as many residents of Lanark as possible to express their views.

Thirty or so ballot boxes as used at general elections were borrowed from SLC and strategically located in the town, complete with voting papers.  These were left in place for a fortnight to provide as much opportunity as possible for folk to vote.  This included ballot boxes installed at Lanark Grammar School to allow the opinions of our younger (and greatly underestimated) citizens to be heard.  Additional voting coupons were provided in issues of the Lanark Gazette and Lanark Advertiser who also gave much welcome publicity to the electorate on how, where and when to vote, even to the extent of allowing customers to return completed votes via the Gazette office in Wellgate!

Three choices were offered from which voters could choose any or none or add their own (some of which were even printable).  A - Allow Hamilton Park the right to run the race. B – Allow Ayr Racecourse the right to run the race. C – Keep the Bell in its wee vault in Hamilton until Hell freezes over!

The Styg meanders on (like any driver under the influence now that I come to think about it) to say that I have “never clearly defined” the details of the “Cash for Kids” deal.  Wrong!  The Cash for Kids deal at that time was clearly detailed to the CC.  Basically it was that 20% of the profit accrued by the Charity at the race meeting featuring the Lanark Silver Bell Race would be ‘ring-fenced’ specifically for Lanark applicants. (Seemple! As my pet meercat would say!).  Subsequently one of our CC members wanted to qualify this ‘deal’ by asking if any unclaimed funds from the 20% would accrue, year on year, for Lanark applications (none have ever been submitted). That is the only area that still awaits clarification from the Cash for Kids Charity (not from me, I’m not psychic).  In the meantime, Alistair Warwick had moved on from Hamilton to Ascot and was replaced by CEO Vivienne Kyle who so prioritised and enhanced the Silver Bell Race that Hamilton Park chose to upgrade and brand its final meeting of the season, in August, as the Lanark Silver Bell Race Meeting. 

Styg also whines that, “information was leaked to Hamilton on details of an opposing bid by Ayr Racecourse!”  (Please note my comments above about all CC meetings being open to, and reported extensively by, our local press).  It was an auction for goodness sake and we encouraged details of both bids to be reported, all the better to inform the electorate who would be making the choice between them.  Doh!

I am proud to admit that I do have ‘connections’ with the Festival of History and George Topp!  My involvement with both started with the Wallace Trust and the Wallace “Homecoming” event of 2005 and continued as that event morphed ever larger year by year into the Festival of History.  I was also heavily involved with Peter Campbell and George when the former created the Lanark Business Group.

Styg berates George Topp for complaining about “the lack of support from Lanark people”, suggesting that George is being unreasonable because,  - and the Styg’s next statement is so incredibly stupid it really deserves an introductory fanfare! - “The Racecourse has never been an attractive venue for Lanarkians, being too far to walk to and too close to drive to!  No we know why the Jockey Club closed it down!  Were there no Lanark folk at the Air Show or the first Scottish Motor Show? No wonder nobody turned up for the Lanimer Ball! How do all of the legions of dog-walkers get there, do they ride out on their mutts?  Thank goodness they didn’t build Lanark Grammar School there, our poor kids would have been knackered!  But at least, thanks to the Styg, we now know why the council went to the trouble of installing that cycle lane in Hyndford Road all the way out to the racecourse!  Is he really crass enough to suggest that the heart of Lanark consists of only that which can be seen from St. Nick’s steeple? 

Styg finishes his diatribe on the subject of Mary McNeill, and so will I.  Safely cloaked in the anonymity provided by his pseudonym and astronaut’s bunnet he condemns Mary for some comment attributed to her and which is so stupid that anyone capable of thought knows that no way did Mary McNeill make it and then, just in case Mary should find out who the Styg really is (she’ll be the only one who doesn’t know already!), he covers the rear of his flameproof (he hopes) drawers by praising Mary to the heavens.  Wise man!  Mary is more than capable of holding her own.  In a previous life she was a rottweiler (and still can be when the notion takes her!). 

Whatever Mary said or didn’t say, and I haven’t a clue but read the Gazette letters page this week so can probably guess, I think (and I would agree wholeheartedly with her) that she was simply bemoaning the fact that during her tenure we all changed from voting for two councillors for our beloved Royal Burgh to voting for three councillors to represent some faceless, colourless, mathematically created area euphemistically known as Lanark north, whatever that is!  It’s bad enough when a meenister has a go at you for a slip of the tongue, but when you are also criticised by someone crass enough to claim that Lanark Moor is, “Too far to walk to and too close to drive to”.  Ye Gods!

Frank Gunning

While I'm not absolutely sure Bendigo must refer to Bendigo, Victoria, which became a gold rush boom town after the discovery of gold in 1851. It would be interesting to know if any Lanarkians migrated there and returned with a fortune! Often streets and houses were named to commemorate such events. Congratulations on a highly professional, infromative and imaginative website!

Dear All,

Myself and wife have recentley moved into the town since relocating back from London, and since I am now looking for new employment we have been curious to what new businesses could enhance and serve the town better - Any ideas?

Thanks.

Can anyone remember why Bendigo Place was given that name?

Cross roads , cross person or cross issues?

I seem to loose the thread between the 'crazy' budget process of local authorities (authors view) and the perceived issues with road works and traffic lights that control them?

The later being highly topical as a local issue whilst the impact of the former to lanark issues is????

A response from the local authority on these two apparently separate issues would be useful.

Can anyone tell me about Wampherflat which was an estate and mansion located somewhere near site of new grammar school and who owned it?