Tag: Issue #1

Community Affairs

Kippen Cross Bus Shelter

Rick Dekker

We believe there has been some amount of concern regarding what steps might be taken to make the bus shelter at Kippen Cross more accessible to those with wheelchairs, or otherwise handicapped. The following statement from Derek Parry in reply to a concerned resident’s query may help to inform as to current plans.

“There is no intention to remove the bus shelter in Kippen. To the contrary, we are hoping to make the bus shelter more accessible for everyone and to improve its appearance.

We intend to dismantle the existing bus shelter and relocate it a little further forward from its current location, at the same ground level as the pavement nearby. This will make the bus shelter more accessible for disabled and elderly residents and parents with prams or buggies, as the bus shelter can currently only be accessed by climbing steps. Installing ramp access to the existing location was considered, but discounted as a direct ramp would have been too steep and the only ramp design that would have complied would have been far too long and inconvenient. The existing stonework will be re-used and the flat roof will be replaced by a pitched one.

As this is a conservation area, the relocated bus shelter will be designed and constructed with this in mind and we are being advised in this regard by our Conservation Planning Officer.

Several site visits have taken place, attended by Stirling Council Officers and representatives from Kippen Community Council, First Midland Bluebird Ltd and the Stirling and Falkirk Area Disability Panels.

We hope to engage a contractor in the coming weeks with a view to the work being carried out early in the new year.

I trust that this information will allay your concerns and those of your fellow bus passengers, but please do not hesitate to come back to me if you require any further information.

Derek Parry
Public Transport Co-ordination Team Leader
Stirling & Clackmannanshire Councils Transport Coordination Centre

Community Affairs

Kippen Primary School

Rick Dekker

P3 and P4 Curling Trip

P3 and P4 went to see the Scotland Women’s Curling Team play in the European Curling Championships at Braehead, Glasgow. The classes had a great time supporting Scotland.

Issue #1 - School - Curling.JPGAt this session, table-topping Scotland faced Finland and earned a 10-4 win that kept the Scotland women’s team at the top of the table.

One of the Scotland men’s team, Hammy McMillan Jr, came to the school to tell the classes about curling and to answer questions about his sport. He brought some indoor curling equipment that classes could use on the carpet. They had a go at this at Braehead too.

“We had a go at curling but it wasn’t on the ice.” McKenzie M.

“It was fun watching because the Scotland team was right at the front.” Alicia J.

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P5, 6 and 7 Velodrome Trip

issue-1-school-velodrome-picP5, 6 and 7 supported Great Britain at the UCI Track Cycling World Cup and saw the GB Men and Women’s Team Pursuit qualifying races. Both teams went on to win gold medals in the later sessions.

“It was a great experience to be able to see all the different countries competing in our country.” Evie F

It was very warm inside the velodrome. That is because the optimum temperature for track cycling is 28ºC. A bit warmer than outside! Air density reduces as temperature increases. Therefore, raising the temperature inside the velodrome will reduce the drag force acting on the rider, allowing them to go faster. A constant temperature is needed to keep the wood from warping.Issue #1 - School - velodrome.JPG

One of the pupils’ favourite parts was when Mrs Stone had to compete for a goody bag by naming different parts of a bike. She did an amazing job against one of the cyclists so she got to keep the prize.

P1, 2 and 3 Nativity

Primary 1,2 and 3 performed the Nativity ‘Little Star’s Story’ to an audience of families and friends. They pulled off a very professional and confident performance on each occasion and the audience had lots of good things to say afterwards, including “Best Nativity yet!”

Issue #1 - School - Nativity P1-3.JPGWe are very proud of all of our little stars. There was a huge amount of hard work and effort put into the performance and we would like to say a big thank you to everyone involved. Thank you too to our audiences. P4-7 and some nursery visitors watched and enjoyed the dress rehearsal. We never fail to be amazed by the confident singing and acting by the pupils of Kippen Primary.

Parent Council Christmas Community Concert

The Christmas Concert raised a fantastic £1,107 for the school! The donations from the mulled wine stall raised £250 for the Over 60s Christmas Lunch. Thank you so much to everyone who helped, donated, organised, supported and a special big thank you to all the wonderful performers who made it such a special night.

All school pupils performed in a song from the P1-3 Nativity, a P4-7 rendition of Winter Wonderland or the choir’s performance of Let It Go, as well as individual pupils and groups demonstrating their musical talents.

P1-4 Christmas Party and P5-7 Christmas Party.

Pupils enjoyed Christmas parties towards the end of term. Pupils joined in with social dancing using traditional ceilidh dances as well as a bit of disco dancing and party games. There was even a very welcome visit from Santa who kindly gave every pupil a present.

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Dragon Open Afternoon

We had an Open Afternoon at the end of October to showcase the literacy and expressive arts work involving the theme of The Dragon that all classes were involved with. Each class presented a short performance in the hall, followed by all classrooms and areas being open to visitors. The dragon mosaic which was made by all pupils in memory of Matthew Gardner was newly installed on the area beside the ramp in the top corridor for our visitors to see. Thank you to Jaine Marriot Mosaics for supporting us to make the mosaic and to everyone who came to share in the Open Afternoon with us.

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Responsibility Groups

Did you know that every pupil contributes to our school by being in a responsibility group? There are 4 groups altogether and pupils are in the group for up to 2 years, then they get a choice to remain in the group for longer or can suggest 2 other groups that they would like to join.

Eco Group

Our Eco Group is in charge of keeping our Green Flag status by organising litter picking, checking energy use and promoting Reduce, Renew and Recycle. We have a Rag Bag in the school that we use to collect unwanted clothes which get collected regularly. We are looking to see if we could get an outdoor collection point so that all the community could use this. We also keep the school’s Eco code up to date.

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Pupil Council

The pupil council listen to ideas and make decisions about things to do with the school. This year they decided to have a Christmas panto in school rather than paying for the cost of buses to go to a performance. They have been fundraising towards the panto by having pop up tuck shops on special occasions. The pupil council have also been supporting Mary’s Meals Back Pack project by collecting back packs and items for inside them to send to children in Malawi. We also support charities such as Jeans for Genes day and Children in Need.

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The Tech Team

Our Website team is now named the Tech Team to reflect the different ways we use ICT. As well as the school laptops, we now have 12 iPad’s in the school. The Tech Team help look after the equipment and remind others about how to look after it properly. They also help to write articles for the school website http://www.kippenschool.org.uk. We also have a school twitter page which is an easy way to share news and photos. Visit us @kippenprimaryIssue #1 - School - Tech Team.JPG

The Grounds Team

The Grounds Team help look after our school grounds. We have been growing vegetables in the raised beds and made soup using these. We had a trip to Arnprior Pumpkins to see how the pumpkins and turnips were growing there. We are looking for donations of wood to build more raised beds. Please contact us if you have any unwanted wood, e.g. from on old fence.

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Community Affairs

Orchard Revival

Rick Dekker

A project is underway to map the location and determine the condition of all the orchards in Scotland; an important first step in the long term task of reviving Scotland’s traditional orchards.

If you have five or more fruit trees within 20 m of each other and would like them to form part National Orchard Inventory for Scotland, all you have to do is to fill in an on-line form at https://goo.gl/krhj8g

To find out more about the project see:
http://www.orchardrevival.org.uk/inventory-scotland/

or contact the Forth Valley Orchards’ Initiative:
http://www.forthenvironmentlink.org/projects/forth-valleys-orchards

Paula Watson

Community Affairs

Santa’s Grotto in Kippen

Rick Dekker

Santa’s Grotto was started last year by the Lamb family in the garden of their house in Kippen. The aim was to raise funds for Start-up Stirling. These funds were to help give people in need a happier Christmas.

With the help of their many volunteer elves they managed to raise £525 in the first year. This year, the hardworking elves saw the total rise to £725. This was split between Start-up Stirling and ‘The Uniform Bank’ in Stirlingshire, an organisation who try supply children with cosy jackets and school uniforms if needed.Issue #1 - Santa Grotto - IMG_0260.JPG

The Lamb’s transform their garden with a variety of floodlights and fairy lights. The addition of wooden reindeer, sleighs for photo opportunities for the children and a fairy light trail add to the atmosphere for the young and old alike. There is also an area, growing year by year, for a fairy village. There was also a model train for the children to play with allowing the adults to enjoy the social occasion. Young and not so young children also had the opportunity to have their faces painted by the elves.

The summerhouse was transformed into a colourful grotto where the children had the chance to talk with Santa, enjoy stories and receive gifts. Adults had the opportunity to photograph this visit to have some everlasting memories. The idea is for the children to have relaxed quality time with Santa.

Issue #1 - Santa Grotto - IMG_0301.JPGAll moneys raised were through the sale of baking and a raffle. Mulled wine both with or without alcohol and soup were also available and all were encouraged to donate. All items were donated by many generous businesses and friends of the Lamb’s from Kippen and surrounding areas.

The family would like to take this opportunity to thank all who gave their time and services to help and support this event. We intend making this an annual event and hope next year it can grow further and we can raise our total again.

Shirley Lamb

Did You Know

Cardross-Masai Mara connection

Rick Dekker

Some of you will have been on a safari holiday, maybe to Kenya and its famous Masai Mara National Reserve. But you will perhaps be surprised to learn that the maps and guides currently used in the “Mara” originate in Scotland, and specifically with David and Rosemary Watson, who last June moved into a flat at Cardross House. The story is unusual. Both are Geography graduates, who met as postgraduate students in Uganda, over 50 years ago. On their return to Scotland, David became an orienteer, in the Scottish team, and during his 20s and 30s an avid orienteering-map-maker.

Fast-forward 30 or 40 years to 1999, and the Watsons were in Kenya’s Masai Mara, where, despite David’s “super-navigator” orienteering experience, they managed to get lost. And naturally, David blamed the inadequate maps. On returning to Nairobi, the following week, David visited the Kenya Wildlife Service, offering to help upgrade the survey of their reserves, and to his great surprise, was offered 5 national parks to map. Undaunted, and with virtually no resources, he set to, starting with nearby Nairobi National Park and the rest, as they say, is history.

Issue #1 - Little Governors 7.jpg17 years on, and David has mapped numerous national parks, in Kenya and Tanzania, and has written a range of travel books and guides. For some years, he was the East African writer for Thomas Cook. Now he concentrates on the Masai Mara, one of the world’s most iconic wildlife areas, especially famous for its annual migrations of wildebeest. He and Rosemary combine as a team, David – the map-surveys, the writing and much of the photography, with Rosemary – graphics and design, and some photography, especially of birds. In the Masai Mara, their publishing company, Photoprint Scotland, produces an atlas of the ecosystem, conventional maps and an official guide. Currently they are working on a new official guide to the Masai Mara National Reserve, to be published at the end of 2017.

Which goes to show, getting lost can turn out to be one of life’s most positive experiences.

David Watson

Did You Know

Kippen Heritage

Rick Dekker

I hope we all know that Kippen is a special place to live. We are surrounded by breathtaking scenery and wrapped in a blanket of “community” not always found elsewhere. Kippen is however more than pretty houses and scenery, its special identity also comes from the legacy of those who lived here before us – we are temporary residents only. That legacy must be preserved and remain available to the generations who come after us and that is Kippen Heritage’s prime objective.

Kippen Heritage has developed from an original idea by Winnie Dunlop, not born and bred in Kippen but the next best thing – she married a “Kippenite”.

Over many years, from her keen interest in Kippen past and present, and her hard work, she has gathered a huge archive of materials charting the history of those who lived and those who still live in Kippen.

As Honorary President, she leads Kippen Heritage in its endeavour to preserve and disseminate that knowledge. To date, much of that archive has been successfully digitalised and in future this will be enlarged to be incorporated into a Kippen Heritage website available to all.

In addition, in the last year Kippen Heritage has worked successfully with the National Trust for Scotland to restore and reopen the unique Kippen Smiddy. The Smiddy is opening in 2017 on the following dates: Street Fayre day 10 June, Flower Show Weekend 19/ 20 August, Stirling Doors Open Weekend 16/ 17 September

We have a new Kippen postcard and a new mug designed by Margaret Oswald available for sale in local shops plus a Heritage Trail is being developed for 2017.

Margaret Diamond, Chairman Kippen Herritage

Did You Know

Kippen Smiddy

Rick Dekker

After many years of lying derelict, the 200-year-old Kippen Smiddy will open again to the public this summer.

Due to the efforts of Kippen Heritage, the National Trust for Scotland (who own it) were persuaded to carry out some repairs and maintenance to improve the conditions to allow access to visitors.

In the centre of the village near the Cross, the Smiddy sits at the top of Rennie’s Loan. This narrow-cobbled street was once Kippen’ s main road between Stirling and Dumbarton, which makes perfect sense for the site of a blacksmith’s workshop. The Smiddy was at the heart of village life and was owned by the Rennie family for at least six generations. Andrew Rennie, the last of that long line of smiths, was apprenticed to his father at the age of fourteen and he worked there until he donated it to the National Trust for Scotland in 1985, when he was in his 90’s.

In an interview, he recalled that there used to be a queue of horses outside the Smiddy every day waiting to be shod. Farming life relied on the Blacksmith also for ploughs and general agricultural tools. A few yards down the road sits the Black Bull House, originally the village inn built in 1729. Travellers would stop there for refreshment and have their horses shod at the Smiddy.

Stepping through the door of the Smiddy is like a step back in time. The old stone walls and floor still carry the traces of soot from the great double forge, while the large leather bellows sit either side of it, waiting to blow life into the fire. The double anvils in front of the hearth, tools still hanging around the walls and a turning lathe driven by a foot pedal all speak of days long gone.

Issue #1 - Smiddy - IMG_6396_2R.jpgA photograph of the hearth has kindly been supplied by Andrew Tweedie of National Trust for Scotland.

Kippen Heritage, acting as volunteers, hope to open the Smiddy again to the public next summer, so that people can once again step into this precious time capsule of a by-gone age.

Margaret Oswald, Kippen Heritage

Did You Know

Geese over Kippen

Rick Dekker

The ringing calls of geese have been a constant feature in Kippen this winter as large skeins fly over the village to feed in nearby fields. But would you be able to tell what type of geese they are?_

Truth be told, it can be quite difficult, unless you’re good at identifying calls. Often you only see them when they’re flying, or when they’re a bit of a distance away on the ground. Get too close, and they’ll rise up en mass in a whirl of dark wings._

But there are really only five species of geese that commonly winter in Scotland, and only four that you stand a chance of seeing in this area._

Overwhelmingly, the huge flocks on the Carse of Stirling are pink-footed geese. These are medium-sized geese that make a high-pitched ‘wink-wink’ call, and migrate here all the way from Iceland and Greenland._

Mixed in with them, you can sometimes see just one or two barnacle geese. These are smaller birds which are a distinctive black, white and grey, and have a rather yappy call. Much bigger flocks of barnacle geese can be found on the Solway and the Inner Hebrides._

Further to the west, you might also see some greylag geese, the largest wild goose in Scotland. These are lighter in colour than the pink-foots, with an orange bill and quite a harsh, squeaky call.

But over into the National Park, you might be lucky enough to see some of our rarer local geese, the Greenland white-front, so named because of a white patch around its beak. These have suffered a real fall in numbers in recent years, and in fact, they’re now a red-listed bird, which means they’re a species of conservation concern._

Jenny Tweedie

Did You Know

Going Fishing?

Rick Dekker

Walk, cycle or drive two miles up the Fintry Road and just before the Firs plantation you come face to face with one of the most idyllic sights in the district – Loch Laggan.

Nestling in a shallow basin and surrounded on three sides by established conifers, Loch Laggan, which formerly supplied water power to the Broich Mill, now has a purely recreational function, and is the base for Loch Laggan Fly Fishing Club.

Part of Garden Estate, the fishing’s were first leased from Martimas 1974 and stocked with 200 Rainbow trout in the spring of 1975, of which 150 had been accounted for when the first AGM was held in the Fintry Inn on 7th October 1975, and in the presence of 20 members, Mr. Ian Cooper was elected as the first President.

In subsequent years a mixture of Rainbow and Brown trout were stocked to join a resident population of perch; the latter being kept in check by intermittent trapping or fishing. The practice of mixing Rainbow and Brown Trout in the same loch was deemed to be disadvantageous and for a period only Brown Trout were stocked, 500 in 1978 plus 20,000 snails to provide feeding; an exercise not repeated since the loch was operated on a put and take basis and the residence time of the fish was relatively short.

In 1980 membership was increased to 50, and 1,000 Rainbow trout were stocked in a phased manner to even out catch records over the season.

During the 1980s, the club tended to be based in Kippen with a good number of Kippen residents as members and committee members. A new boathouse was commissioned and built, the number of boats increased to 4 and the membership to 60 and remains so.

Today some 1,800 Rainbow Trout at an average weight of 2lb. are introduced over the season which extends from 1st April to 31st October, with a catch limit of 3 fish per rod.

The number of members from the village has declined in recent years, and the membership is widespread including a good contingent from Helensburgh. A sign of the health of the club is the long waiting list for membership.

In addition the fishing, a visit to Loch Laggan can be rewarded by sightings of a variety of wildlife which includes duck, geese, swans and ospreys in season, plus roe deer, buzzards, heron and even an occasional otter and the inevitable cormorants.

As custodians of this facility the members of the club maintain high standards of conduct, and can introduce guests on a one for one basis, but there is no facility for the issue of day tickets to unaccompanied visitors.

Bob Mitchell