From our Photographic Collection... St Andrews Railway Station

By Museum Volunteer Pat Harvey

 

Sometimes people ask –

“Where was the Railway Station in St Andrews?”

 

                                                                                 © GM Cowie St Andrews from the Links c1960s

In 1850 the St Andrews Railway Company was formed and a railway line was laid from the Leuchars Junction to Junction to St Andrews. In 1852 the Goods Station was built outside St Andrews near where the Old Course Hotel is now. All kinds of goods, including coal, came in at this station and were delivered to various locations in the town, in the early days at home and cart. The Station Master’s house was nearby, now the Jigger Inn. There was an iron bridge over the railway lines and I remember when we were pupils at Madras College we could use this bridge to cross over the lines when going to the playing fields at Station Park.

The Passenger Station was built in 1887. It was situated in the hollow between Kinburn Park and the Bus Station (see above photograph). This area is now a carpark which leads down to the Petheram Bridge Car Park. It was a great step forward when the passenger station was built. The tourist industry flourished. People could reach St Andrews more easily and hotels, restaurants, shops etc. all benefited. In the 1920s/30s Johnston’s house drawn cabs met incoming trains. The station would always be busy with students, golfers, holiday makers, St Leonard’s girls, folk going to Dundee etc., or group to Leuchars Junction to catch a train to travel further afield.

When coming back from Dundee, I remember getting off the train at Leuchars and the St Andrews train would be sitting in a siding waiting to take passengers to St Andrews.

 1887 was also the year when the railway line was laid from St Andrews round the coast to Anstruther, with stations at Mount Melville, Stravithie, Boarhills, Kingsbarns and Crail. It was in use until the Beeching cuts in 1965. I was never on this line, but I believe it was quite picturesque.

 The last train left St Andrews at 10.30pm on Saturday 4^th January 1969. It returned from Leuchars to St Andrews at 11.07pm. The driver was Jock Speed. I understand that the communication cord was pulled several times! The passengers sang ‘Auld Lang Syne’ and the gates were closed for the last time.

 However this was not the end for the old railway station. In July 1969 St Andrews Town Council bought the station and tracks from British Rail. The St Andrews Youth Development Committee, who would open The Cosmos Youth Centre in 1971, managed to get a lease on the station from the Town Council, rent fee, for use by the Ichthus Youth Club. It then became home to the youth club for the next two years. This was a very successful time for the club. As well as all the usual activities of a youth club- discos, darts, snooker, table-tennis etc., - they made maximum use of the station. A summer fete was held which included pony rides on the platform and clock golf on the tracks. This is another story in itself, and was one of the tops in the Research Groups exhibition held recently in the museum.

 

It’ll be alright on the night!

Many people (quite rightly!) were sceptical about our wee Museum playing host to five nights of performances; arguably, there is barely enough room to swing a cat, but it was felt that a bit of drama could really bring the exhibition on the Byre Theatre to life. So, undeterred, Red Wine Productions and The St Andrews Play Club not only worked around the lack of space, they used it to their advantage during their performances of "It'll be alright on the night!" - a play within a play set in the original Byre Theatre. Rather than performing the entire play on the stage, the cast performed the first act in the downstairs area of the Museum.

Some of the cast downstairs during the first act

The first act, written by Carole Tricker, took the audience behind the scenes in the old Byre Theatre of the 1960s. Missing actors and costumes threaten to cancel the show, but the players and fretting Director come up with a plan – the show must go on!

The audience were called to their seats, and the show was underway. The second and third acts were edited versions of the local classic, “The Open” written by Byre Theatre founder Alex. B. Paterson. This play was performed at the Byre Theatre every year the Open Golf Tournament came to St Andrews and so most of the audience were familiar with the play. As the cast were short of a few players, 'Sandy', played by Sandra Skeldon, excitedly steps in during the first act and volunteers to play the part of feisty sixteen year old, Mary the Maid, much to the amusement of the audience.

With a maximum audience capacity of 20, there were concerns that the audience would be too small. Yet, it turns out that this intimate venue was perfect – the cast enjoyed having the audience so close to them, and the audience felt like they were part of the action. One member of the audience even commented, “it was like being back in the first Theatre again”.

4 out of the 5 nights sold out and the plays raised over £700. The funds raised have been split between the Museum and the Friends of the Byre Theatre. This, coupled with the fantastic response we had from attendees have made this venture so worthwhile and we hope to have more performances in the Museum in the near future.

 

Photographs by Hannah Burt.

A Blog of Biblical Proportions

A few years ago we published the following article on the John Brown Bible in the St Andrews In Focus  magazine. The article has been resurrected (terrible pun!) as we have been photographing pages of a John Brown Family Bible in the collection, so we thought we would share them with you.

SAAPT 2003.203 Brown Family Bible, c1840 

 

John Brown was “Minister of the gospel at Haddington” and is famous for his “Self Interpreting” Bible in which the bible text was accompanied by explanatory notes and observations.   He meant his bible to be used by ordinary people to aid them to understand and be inspired by the text.

John Brown was born at Carpow in the parish of Abernethy, in Perthshire, Scotland, and was the son of a weaver and fisherman.  While working as a shepherd boy, Brown saved his earnings and walked from Abernethy to St Andrews to buy his first Greek Testament from Alexander McCulloch’s bookshop in South Street.   While at the bookshop, Brown was challenged by a professor to read a passage in Greek, and when he correctly read from the bible, the professor bought the bible for the young boy.   Upon returning to Abernethy he taught himself Greek, Latin and Hebrew, all without formal teaching.   In a time when there was still a strong belief in witchcraft in Scotland, people in the town of Abernethy became suspicious of his knowledge, and he left the town never to return.  He travelled the country for some time, eventually becoming the schoolmaster at Gairney Bridge, near Kinross, in 1747.   It was around this time that he realized his calling and set his sights on the ministry of the Succession Church, and in 1751 Brown was called to be the Burgher minister of Haddington.  

Brown planned his self-interpreting bible for many years and he spent many years working on it.  It was first published in 1778, with Brown at first struggling to find a publisher for the book and being forced to advance the money himself.  This first publication cost a Georgian 22/-, and sold surprisingly well for being so expensive.   It was subsequently reprinted in at least 26 editions, with the last being published in 1909.   John Brown published a number of other books, including “A History of the Churches in Scotland and England from the Earliest Period” and “The Dictionary of The Bible”, though it is worth noting that none of his publication made him any money.

John Brown married twice and had four sons, three of which also became ministers.   He died in June 1787.

 

 

 

 

STANZA 2014

We were delighted to once again be a host venue for this year's STANZA International Poetry Festival. There was plenty to enjoy with three exhibitions, including The Lightfoot Letters, The Doctor Shop, and Spinning Poetry. In the temporary gallery, the Lightfoot Letters provided plenty of gasps from visitors. A collaboration between textile artists Maria Walker and poet Angela Topping, the exhibition takes inspiration from Angela's poetry based on a bundle of letters found in an antiques shop. The story of how this exhibition came to be is rather remarkable, and can be found on Maria's blog here.



The Lightfoot Letters by Maria Walker and Angela Topping

In our own Chemist Shop, community artist Andrea Sinclair and poet Jenny Elliott tell the story of Baldwin’s the Herbalist in London. Jars of herbs, oral histories, poetry, art and photographs came together to replicate the atmosphere of this much-loved London shop which has been around since 1844.

Outside, visitors were invited to make their own poems with Martine Pugh's Spinning Poetry installation. Here is an example of two poems left by visitors:

Face the Light
Ever sailing to the mist
I watched
They waited
Until the rainbow lost sight
                               - Bea N

Skeleton ship upon the sleeping boat,
Full yet usual.
Men hope upon webbed net,
Dark, scary, scarlet.
                              - SB

Thank you to everyone who came along to the Museum during the festival.

Electric Shock Therapy Machine

On Monday mornings the Curator, with the assistance of two volunteers, audit the Museum store, and take objects out and put them away again. It's fairly arduous, but it keeps the store in good order and we very occasionally find objects we had no idea we had!

This Monday passed we stumbled upon this Victorian electric shock therapy machine from around c1870s. In the late 19th century these machines (and adaptations of them!) were very popular due to the scientific discoveries being made at the time. In late-Victorian newspapers it is not uncommon to see advertisements for "electric corsets", "electric hairbrushes", and "electric belts" - mad-cap inventions in hindsight, but important nonetheless to the developments made in using electricity to enhance our daily lives.

 

The label on the Machine reads:

Connect two metallic cords or wires with the sockets in the ends of the Box, and apply handles connected with the other ends of the metallic cords or wires to any part of the person through which is desirable to pass the current of Electricity. Then turn the crank, regulating the strength of the current by the speed, and by the knob at the end of the box : it being desirable to increase the strength to that degree most agreeable to the patient. It is less unpleasant to the patient if wet sponges are placed in the ends of the handles and these applied to the skin, as they prevent the prickling sensation. The sponges should never be put inside the Box while wet as they rust the machinery. In applying it for the Toothache, Tic-Doloreaux or Neuralgia, the operator takes one Handle and places fingers or sponge over the part affected, while the patient hold the other Handle. In applying it to the foot place one of the Handles in the Water with the foot, and hold the other in the hand, or apply it to any other part of the person. The Bearings and Spring must be oiled occasionally".

 

The machine is now on display in our Chemist Shop.

Sketch of Cynicus by Alick P. F. Ritchie

Alick P. F. Ritchie was born in Dundee (1868-1938) and studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Antwerp before moving to London. He produced cartoons for many magazines, including Vanity Fair and The Sketch. In 1912, he published a book called Zoo-all-awry , and in the 1920s and 30s, he produced posters for the London Underground.

                                                    Sketch of Cynicus by Alick Ritchie

This sketch is on loan to the museum from a private collection for display during our summer exhibition 'Cynicus: The story of martin Anderson'. Martin was working as a staff artist for a Dundee newspaper in the 1880s, so we believe this was sketched during this time.

Alick P. F. Ritchie Profile and Collection

 

Recent Donation

A local resident recently gifted a sizable collection of artefacts relating to a Polish soldier who was dispatched to St Andrews during the Second World War to help defend the East coast. The collection includes his military papers, but more intriguingly, a Polish art book and St Johns Ambulance bandage.

The art book contains numerous examples of Polish art from the turn of the twentieth century, and there is a lengthy introduction at the beginning that needs translating. If anyone is willing, please get in touch! It is such a beautiful book that it is a shame to know so little about it.

 

 

The bandage is interesting as it shows the many different ways in which it can be used. It is quite curious that it belonged to a Polish WW2 soldier though, as the bandage dates from the First World War. The plot thickens! Unfortunately the donor couldn’t shed any light on this, so it can only be presumed that our Polish soldier came across this during his time in Scotland in the early 1940’s.

Research Group Display

Come One, Come All!

26th January - 3rd February 2013

Our volunteer research group have been busy putting their displays together for the weekend. Several topics have been thoroughly researched, including the main events in St Andrews in 1902. We have some fascinating objects for you to see, including this Rowantree Chocolate tin box made in celebration of King Edward VII’s Coronation on the 26^th of June 1902, marking the end of the Victorian period. The tin was handed out to local school children to mark the occasion.

 

 

The exhibition will open this Saturday (26th of January 2013) from 10am where we will be having our annual coffee morning, and we will be closing at 4pm. Thereafter, the museum will be open from 1pm - 4pm daily until the 3rd of February 2013.

Lights On Fife : Photography Competition

Lights on Fife : Help us illuminate the gems in the kingdom’s rich and diverse museum collections

Fife Museums Forum invite you to take part in a photography competition and make your own individual contribution to celebrating the fascinating, inspiring and varied heritage, art and culture of the area.  Over the course of September we hope you’ll visit as many of Fife Museums as you can (or at least the one closest to where you live or are holidaying!) and take photographs of the wonderful things you will see there.  We would ask that you stick to inanimate objects and don’t start snapping fellow visitors, no matter how wonderful they are! 

Why not make the most of Doors Open Days and visit participating museums over three Sundays (2^nd for East area, 9^th  for Central and 16^th  for West Fife) in September.  For more information see www.fifedirect.org

Send your best picture to the forum via fifemuseumsforum@yahoo.co.uk

Get ideas, keep up to date with the competition and eventually see the winning results on our ‘We Love Museums in Fife’ Flickr Page.

The winning entries will receive prizes and feature in an exhibition to be shown at several of Fife’s fantastic museums over the coming months.

This competition is open to all ages, is free to take part in and will close on the 30^th of September 2012.      

We look forward to seeing and sharing the results.

Fife Museums Forum

Participating Venues:

Scottish Vintage Bus Museum

Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Museum

Crail Museum

Fife Contemporary Arts andCrafts

Fife Folk Museum

British Golf Museum

Museum of Communication

Scottish Fisheries Museum

St Andrews Preservation TrustMuseum

MUSA (Museum of the Universityof St Andrews)

Fife Council Museums

Abbot House Heritage Centre

Cupar Heritage Centre

Terms and Conditions  

1.      The competition is open to anyone

2.      You must be the copyright owner of any works submitted

3.      All submitted images must have been taken in a museum in Fife

4.      Multiple entries are permitted.

5.      Some objects may not be suitable for photographing, please consult individual venues photography policies.

6.      The photographer must have permission from those featured in the submitted image.

7.      All submitted images must be accompanied by the photographer’s full name, date of birth and contact details.

8.      Although the competition runs throughout September 2012, photos taken prior to this date are permitted for submission.

9.      Submitted images remain copyright of the entrant, however the Fife Museums Forum reserves the right to publish the images in related print and online.

10.  All entrants agree to take part in publicity related to the competition.

11.  Submitted images that the Forum deems to be offensive in any way will be disqualified from the competition.

12.  Any entry found not to comply with the Terms and Conditions will be disqualified from the competition.

13.  All entries submitted after 30^th September 2012 will not be counted.

The rights shall be applied to all existing and future media including but not limited to: hard copies, CD Roms, DVD-Roms, computers, servers and the internet, and press and marketing networks.

By entering this competition you are agreeing to these terms and conditions.