BLACK MOUNT BUGLE

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN

So much for the mild winter we were promised! I would just like to say, on behalf of all Members of the Black Mount Community Council (BMCC), how sorry we were to learn of so many of you having suffered burst pipes, collapsed guttering and internal flooding, caused by the heavy snow, the freezing temperatures and then the thaw. We are especially sorry for those in the farming community who suffered collapsed roofs of barns and other outbuildings. I am reliably informed that the lowest temperature recorded in the Black Mount Community area was -18 Centigrade (0 degrees Fahrenheit!). This is certainly the worst winter weather I can recall since moving into Dolphinton some 49 years ago, although January 1963 was memorable for being on my way home and being stuck in a train for 6 hours in a massive snow drift just north of Newcastle. A vivid memory I would rather forget!

Since the last edition of The Bugle in November, we have been pleased to warmly welcome onto the Black Mount Community Council, Denis Critchley-Salmonson from Dunsyre, as an Associate Member, which brings us up to 9 Members in total.

I am also delighted to announce that our Community Website and Forum is now in operation at www.blackmount.org but do be very precise when you type this out so as not to get similar sounding websites from the USA and elsewhere! I strongly encourage you all to have a look at our website. There you will find local information, useful telephone numbers and the Forum for your own use. Further details with regards to the website are given later in this edition of The Bugle. I would like to record our thanks to David Darling, Donald Stewart and Barry Rosindale for all their hard work in bringing this to fruition.

I am also pleased to report that new notice boards have been erected at both Dolphinton and Elsrickle Village Halls with the primary purpose of displaying Minutes of BMCC Meetings and Agendas for future Meetings, as well as giving the locations and timings. It also the intention to have a notice board erected at Newbigging Village Hall as well.

I am in danger of becoming a ‘registered bore’ regarding the state of our roads, but I can honestly say I have never seen them in a worse, and in places, dangerous condition, that some of our roads are now in. The Council remain very aware of our concerns and remedial action will hopefully be taken, in order of priority, as soon as is practical.

The next date for your diary is the Social Group’s Annual Sports Evening to be held on Friday the 21st of May. Further details appear in this edition of The Bugle. Let us hope we have good weather for the evening for you all to come along and participate or support in this highly enjoyable annual event.

I hesitate to wish you all a warm dry Spring in case by saying so, we will have more snow!

Charles Ritchie

BMCC MEETINGS

Members of the public are invited to attend any of our Community Council meetings, held on the first Monday of every month, held in Elsrickle Hall. Everyone will be made most welcome.

Please note: no meetings are held on Holiday Mondays

Black Mount Community Council
Membership List
(January 2010)

Chairman:
Charles Ritchie (elected)
01968 682639 chairman@blackmount.org

Vice-Chairman:
Sam Cassels (elected)
01968 682674, 07710778642

Secretary:
Barry Rosindale (elected)
01899 810207 secretary@blackmount.org

Treasurer:
Alison Morton-Nicholls (elected)
01968 682676 treasurer@blackmount.org

Councillor:
Hamish Stewart
07748 114 582 hamish.stewart@southlanarkshire.gov.uk

Lance Armstrong (nominated)
01899 810251

William Coulter (nominated)
01899 810339

David Darling (nominated)
01968 682387 webadmin@blackmount.org

Donald Stewart (co-opted)
01968 682339

Denis Critchley-Salmonson (associate)
01899 810310

SUNDAY WORSHIP

Church of Scotland, Dolphinton
Morning Service – Sundays 12 noon

St Isadore's Roman Catholic Church, Biggar
Holy Mass Sundays 12 noon
Weekdays (Mon, Tues-Thurs, Fri) 9.30 am

St Mungo's Scottish Episcopal Church, West Linton
Sung Communion Sundays 10.00 am
Said Communion Wednesdays 10.30 am

JESSIE GROSSART

Jessie Grossart of Elsrickle (1913 – 2009) died recently in Biggar.

COUNCILLOR HAMISH STEWART

Since the last Bugle we have experienced the worst spell of weather for many years with fresh snowfalls almost every day for over three weeks along with extremely low temperatures. In common with all other councils South Lanarkshire’s supplies of road grit and salt reached perilously low levels but unlike some authorities we never actually ran out and were always able to grit 60% of the network at least twice a day. There were glitches such as the stretch of Crawcraigs Road in front of Walston Primary not being included for priority gritting but I am hopeful that that situation has now been remedied and we will avoid the situation where the school had to close because of that.

All pavement gritting and the filling of grit bins was suspended from Christmas day until 20th January but it is apparent that the Black Mount area needs more bins for when we have more normal snow and frost and I am working towards that, particularly for Dunsyre.

Refuse collections were disrupted by the low temperatures and road conditions but the Council’s Community Resources staff worked wonders by coming out on the Saturday and Sunday when conditions improved to get the backlog cleared up.

Throughout a period of three weeks all the snow plough staff worked 12 hour shifts 7 days a week to try to keep people moving and deserve recognition for that.

By the time this newsletter is published the Council budget for 2010-2011 will have been decided and published along with inevitable cuts in some areas of service. Some £18,000,000 of cuts have to be made this year with even more next year so I am afraid that it is almost certain you will see cuts in some of the things that we have all come to take for granted if not this year then next year. The additional cost of all the snow clearing and road damage have obviously added to the budget pressures.

As always my surgeries will take place on the first Monday of each month at Newbigging, Dolphinton and Elsrickle or I can be contacted on 07748 144 582 or by e-mail at Hamish.stewart@southlanarkshire.gov.uk
I have discovered that since moving into Biggar at the beginning of January that my mobile phone signal is poor but please leave a message on the voicemail if I do not respond and I will get back to you as soon as possible

Hamish Stewart

BMCC WEBSITE

The BMCC members are pleased to advise recipients of The Bugle that the new community website is now up and running at www.blackmount.org Within the website, as well as showing local businesses and community services, you will find a Forum area. This is for your own use to discuss any topics you want with other Black Mount Community members. You will also find an area for selling, exchanging or buying items – ideal for those many jumpers and socks you received at Christmas that you don’t really want! Perhaps, you could make a small donation to the BMCC if you are successful in selling (to help fund events during the year)? Membership to the Forum is arranged by applying online and approval should take less than 24 hours. See the link on the Black Mount website for further details

David Darling

SNOW

We had a couple of days off because the road up to the school was blocked.
However when we got back, the playground was amazing - it was like a duvet of snow.

We had great fun playing. We made a snowman and built an igloo.
Eventually it started to melt. We were sad to see it go.

By Coryn Tarbert P7.

REMINDER
Can we remind people to use the textile bank for recycling old
clothes. It is located at the front of Elsrickle Hall. For the months
of Sept/Oct/Nov we raised over £80.

By Louise Aitken P7.

THANK YOU

Thank you to everybody who donated money to the poppy collection. We
raised a total of £202.45.

By Rachel Brett P7.

BIGGAR SCHOOLS ROTARY QUIZ

Quiz contestants Eleanor Patterson, Sean Alexander, Louise Aitkin and Benjamin Bonk tested their intelligence against that of another seven schools. There were eight test papers.

The categories were People and Past, People and Place, Science, Mathematics, General Knowledge, Expressive Arts, English Language and Children's Books.

They managed to get forty-eight points so they were only four points away from the winning teams who each had fifty-two.

Claiming first place was Tinto Primary and coming close second was Biggar Primary.

Walston managed to come third. Each person got a certificate and a dictionary for their school.

By Eleanor Patterson P7.

ELSRICKLE WRI

The pre – Christmas meeting in December was led by Margaret Leiper and Phyllis Tweedie who ably demonstrated the making of Christmas decorations and on the 15th December we enjoyed Christmas lunch at Peebles Hydro.
Eight members who form part of the Lanarkshire WRI choir entertained Broughton and Carluke guilds.
We became victims of the spectacularly snowy weather in January however, when the January meeting and the annual Lanarkshire quiz had to be cancelled.

We now look forward to the following meetings:
10th February: Supper on a fork Mrs J Lowry
3rd March: Keep Fit Mrs T Mashford
31st March: Hat Making Mrs M Tennant

Pam Hunt

ELSRICKLE HALL

Elsrickle Hall has seen a busy year in 2009.

At the close of the year Walston Primary School Christmas Nativity play was a great success as was the senior citizens’ Christmas dinner, with record number of residents attending to enjoy a lovely meal.

Improvements to the hall continue in 2010 with a new notice board already attached to the outside of Elsrickle Hall, funded by monies to BMCC through grant aid.

Local councillors’ surgeries are held monthly with Cllr. Hamish Stewart and Cllr. Bev Gauld in attendance.

Regular community groups also continue this year and it is hoped to start an after school club once a fortnight for 5-10 year olds . If you wish to volunteer to help run this project or have any useful suggestions please contact the hall keeper.

The hall can also be hired for private parties.

Vivienne Shaw, Hallkeeper

SPEEDING THROUGH THE VILLAGES

Sgt McLeod of the Clydesdale East Policing Team, based in Biggar, has drawn my attention to the Clydesdale East CP Plan. You can read it on their website which can be found by selecting Contacts, Local Services, Police on our community website, www.blackmount.org . We were discussing speeding through Elsrickle and Newbigging at the time. You will note that speeding through the countryside was identified as a priority in the 2008 public survey and it is anticipated that it will remain so after the results of the just completed 2009 survey are analysed. He assured me that he and his Team have already deployed their “Falcon” speed gun to some effect already. It was disappointing to learn that an early offender was a local resident. I believe that I am correct in saying that over 40MPH in a 30MPH zone will attract an automatic fixed penalty fine; we have all been warned.

Barry Rosindale
Elsrickle Neighbourhood Watch Co-ordinator

DOLPHINTON HALL

The snow severely restricted access to the Hall, as unfortunately the front door became ice-bound and was a low priority with Technical Services who were busy dealing with burst pipes etc. in other Council properties. However, we are once again fully operational.

Carpet bowling takes place on Thursdays, and if you are interested in joining call Ann Ross on 01968 682227 for more information.

Yoga continues on Tuesdays with Julie, who can be reached on 01968 661204.

The hall is as always available for hire at very reasonable rates, so contact Pam on 01968 682203 if you would like to book it.

Pam Taylor

DOLPHINTON WRI

The December meeting was the Children’s Party, where fun and games were had by all, with a visit from Santa to finish the day!

The January meeting was an evening meal at the Bakehouse, West Linton, which was excellent. Thanks go to South Lanarkshire Council for their contribution.

We also had our Charity Bowling Tournament on the 30th January, when we had fourteen rinks. Winners were as follows:
Winning Rink Runner Up
Janet Bryson (Skip) Molly Smith (Skip)
Alison Bryson Ann Brownlee
Margaret Brown Jean Russell
Janette Bruce Jessie Lennox

17th February is a Card Making Workshop.
March 10th is a Flower Workshop with Jean Paul.
April 21st is our AGM, when we are having a Taste and Try using potatoes.

Jean Campbell

WOMEN'S BADMINTON

If any other women in the area are interested in a weekly game of badminton in Dolphinton Village Hall, please contact Pam Taylor on 01968 682203. This could take place during the day and/or in the evening. Currently Monday, Wednesday (on those Wednesdays when the WRI doesn't take place) and Friday evenings are free and most weekdays now that Pilates has departed.

We're not talking about serious badminton, just a regular run-around.

Call me if you think you might be interested.

Pam Taylor

In Memory of Mary Ramsay
1916 – 2009

Mary lived all her life within the local farming community.

She was born at Kippit in Dolphinton and then her family moved to Parkhouse, Quothquan. From an early age she loved animals and all her life was to be found ‘up at the cows’.
She married Jim Ramsay, from Elsrickle and her three children, Elizabeth, Janet and Tom were born in the village. She moved from the bottom of the hill to the top to Townhead Croft.
In the last few years when she couldn’t move about so easily, she kept very busy crocheting and knitting, and keeping up to date with all that was going on in the local farms. She was a vital source of information to everyone, including delivery vans and lorries, whose drivers knew she would be able to direct them to any house or farm in the area, whilst they got a heat at her huge fire.

We all miss her a lot.

ACCOMMODATION PROVIDERS IN BLACKMOUNT AREA

Bed and Breakfast
Margaret Armstrong, Dunsyre Mains. 01899 810 251
Margaret Kirby, Walston Mansion 01899 810 338
www.walstonmansion.co.uk
Kirby-walstonmansion@talk21.com
Jane Gilchrist, Ingraston Farm, Dolphinton. 01968682219
www.ingraston.com
jane@westlinton.co.uk
Carol and Ian, Millburn House, Dolphinton 01968 682 252
www.millburnhousebandb.co.uk
info@millburnhousebandb.co.uk

Hotel
Nestlers Hotel and Country Inn, Newbigging.
01555 840 680
www.nestlershotel.co.uk
enquiries@nestlershotel.co.uk

Self Catering properties
Anne Hutchison, Roberton Mains, Dolphinton.
01968 682 256
www.annescottages.co.uk
anne@robertonmains.freeserve.co.uk
Pam Taylor, Meadowhead Barn, Dolphinton.
01968 682 203
www.unique-cottages.co.uk
Mary Christie, The Steading, Ferniehaugh, Dolphinton.
01968 682 257
www.ferniehaugh.com
Christies@ferniehaugh.plus.com
Hazel Edwards, Wester Walston Lodge, Walston.
01899 810 335
www.westerwalstonlodge.co.uk
hazeledwards007@msn.com
Sam Cassels, Whitehill Estate, Dolphinton.
01968 682 244
cottage@whitehillestate.com
www.whitehillestate.com
Braeside Cottage, Dunsyre.
01282 845 052
www.bookcottages.com

Last Date for Contributions to the next Bugle is 23rd April 2010.

Please send your articles, dates, reports, news and advertisements to: Norma Love : tel: 01899 810285
Email: norma.love@btinternet.com

The Bugle is published by the Black Mount Community Council, but the views expressed therein are not necessarily those of the committee.

The Community Council cannot accept responsibility for any errors for items printed in the Bugle.