Fearnan Village Association

A Happy New Year to one and all, and may it be a good one for you!

This little website has been running for almost 2 years now.  In the last year, we have posted 31 articles and 135 photos, and have regular readers in the US, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and Australia as well as in other parts of the UK.

The site was viewed more than 4,000 times – twice as many times as last year – and Fearnan Weather Station was the most viewed post.

The coming year looks like it will be a busy one as well, and here are some early dates for your diary:

Sat 9^th Feb – FVA Pudding Night for members and their guests.  It starts at 6pm, and costs £7.00 for as much as you can eat of the 20+ puddings on offer.

Sat 2^nd March – FVA Annual General Meeting at 4.30pm.

Tuesday 5^th March – first Coffee Morning of the year at 10.30am.

Hope to see you at one or all of these events, and don’t forget to let me know if you have any ideas for articles or have some interesting photos to share.  And if you are one of our regular readers from outside the village, we love hearing from you as well!

What with recent snowfalls, and mulled wine and mince pies being served in the village hall last Saturday, Christmas suddenly seems to be just around the corner.

Saturday’s event in the Hall was well attended, and raised a fantastic £145.90 for Aberfeldy Cottage Hospital.

Thanks to everyone for their generosity – many donated over and above the charge for the mulled wine and goodies – and many thanks as well to those who baked and donated the food.

There was a lot of interest in the latest batch of photos of Fearnan in years gone by that Ian McGregor has assembled, and in identifying some of the people in the pictures.

Copies of Ian’s book on the history of Fearnan (see website article on 12th November Fearnan: the story of a village of northern Perthshire), along with Keith Brockie’s latest book “Return to One Man’s Island” and, of course, the FVA Christmas card were all on sale.

Everyone seemed to have a good time and we’d like to know if you think this should be a regular event and if so, do you have any suggestions for improving the next one?

You can use the ‘Comment’ link at the end of this article to give feedback and make suggestions for next time.

The first event in the new year will be Fearnan’s World Famous (well, almost!) Pudding Night on Saturday 9^th February when the Glitter Ball will once again be spinning in the Hall.

Several people asked for the mulled wine recipe. It involves making a thick, blended syrup with the sugar and spices, which is then added to the wine. This means that the wine only needs to be heated gently at the end of the process, rather than boiled, as the sugar has already dissolved.

Mulling the Wine

 Ingredients: 2 clementines (juice and strips of peel); the peel from one lemon and one lime, cut in broad strips; 150g caster sugar; 6 cloves; 1 cinnamon stick; 3 bay leaves; 1 whole nutmeg; 1 whole vanilla pod, halved; 2 star anise; 2 bottles of Chianti or similar.

Put sugar in a large pan over a medium heat and add the strips of peel and the clementine juice.  Add cloves, cinnamon stick, bay leaves, about 10 gratings of nutmeg, the halved vanilla pod and enough wine to cover the sugar. Simmer until the sugar has dissolved and then bring to the boil.  Keep on a rolling boil for 4-5 mins until you have a thick syrup. Turn heat down to low and add the star anise and the rest of the wine and heat gently. Pour into glass and enjoy!

Please join the FVA and the Village Hall Committees

for Mince Pies and Mulled Wine  on Sat 8^th December

from 3.30pm – 5.30 at Fearnan Village Hall.

Cost: £3.00

All proceeds to Aberfeldy Cottage Hospital

Two interesting snapshots of Fearnan’s past have come to light in the last week or so, and both have come from overseas.

The first came via Valarie McDonald from New Zealand.  Valarie’s great, great uncle, Peter McEwan, lived in Fearnan in Lawers View (now Andy Burt’s house and Pottery) early in the last century.

Valarie’s branch of the family came from Brechin and her grandfather (Neil McDonald) emigrated to New Zealand in 1909 where he worked as a gardener.

The family kept in touch by post and Valarie has an old postcard sent to her grandfather by his sister, following a visit to Fearnan.

The postcard reads:

“Just a pc of Uncle Peter’s house.  It is bigger than it looks there. I was there for the last weekend. I thought I would like to see him once again for he is over 70 now. But he does not look it, he is as straight in the Back as a young man, the only thing he is very deaf.

I hope you folks are all well.  I got the papers all right. You will be missing the stir of the Exhibition. The place will be very quiet without the hurry of it. You will be quite delighted with the account of the Brechin C. Club for the last 50 years. You will know a few of the later names. It Brought Back memories when you read of them.

With love to you all from your loving sister Kate.

The second contact was, in fact, an overseas order for Ian McGregor’s book from Jim Barnett in the USA, sent along with some thoughts on Fearnan. (Jim’s brother Alistair sent the website some memories of his childhood in Fearnan in July of this year).

Jim wrote:

“I have been following the goings on at the FVA (through the web site) for some time now. I enjoyed the article on the golden eagle ‘Fearnan’.

I was a wartime evacuee from Glasgow who adopted Perthshire as my home. We lived at Thistle Cottage from 1940-46 then at Balnearn. We were there over the blizzard of 1947. In the summers, I worked at Drumglass with Callum McDiarmid, went on to Lawers School of Agriculture at Comrie, then worked at Culdaremore with Jack Fisher. Sandy Butters was my mentor and surrogate father, mine being off to Dunkirk and subsequently killed in Greece.

I have a very strong attachment for Fearnan in spite of Miss Purves*; stayed at Tigh-an-Loan on one of my return trips, then later at Letterellen.

One of my companies is Crannog Holdings LLC, and you can guess where that came from! Duncan MacLaren was one of my close boyhood friends.

Best wishes on your project.

Jim Barnett

*Miss Purves was a teacher at Fearnan primary school whose strictness is not-so-fondly recalled by a number of her former pupils who have been in touch with us!

Can anybody build on these connections?

Many of you will know that Ian McGregor has been researching the history of Fearnan.  We’re delighted to be able to tell you that his book, “Fearnan: the story of a village of northern Perthshire” has now been published.

Ian writes:

“This newly published book tells the story of the people who lived in the officiary of Fearnan from the earliest Neolithic times right up to the present day. The information available for the early years is sketchy but, nevertheless, it is suggested that the name Fearnan was first used when the crannogs were established.

The story gets under way when Robert Robertson of Struan was given Fearnan as a free barony by James II for his assistance in securing the killers of James I.

The Robertsons were later replaced in 1766 by the Campbells for the support they continued to give the Stewarts, and their tenure lasted right up until 1922, when the then Marquis of Breadalbane died with no heirs and no money.

The nineteenth century was the time of the Clearances and Fearnan was not exempt, although the building of the present crofting village reduced the number of families cleared. The book then deals with the fundamental changes in education, church and family life throughout that whole period.

These were difficult and challenging times for the residents of Fearnan, with the forced introduction of the English Feudal system and all that meant. However the period from the 1870’s until the Great War would have been the best time. The final section, from 1922 until the present day, records some of the significant opportunities, problems and disputes which the villagers faced with the change from a tenant to a property owning community; and over these last years to one mainly of retired people and holiday homes.”

The book is to be sold through retail outlets, but Ian has kindly made a number of copies available through the FVA at the reduced price of £5 each.  If you would like a copy, please contact Sue on sg1ardener@talktalk.net Sue can also provide information about postage costs and paying by PayPal.

Last week’s Coffee Morning was a lively affair, with nearly 30 people coming to enjoy a chat and to make serious in-roads into the delicious spread of freshly baked cakes, biscuits and savouries.

Chocolate and courgette cake, apple cake, cherry buns, sausage rolls, apple and cheese tartlets and much more were on offer.

That was the last coffee morning for this year, and they will start again in March 2013.

In the meantime, there’s a concert at The Big Shed on Saturday 27th at 7.30m, when the Scottish Clarinet Quartet will take the audience around the world in eighty minutes with music by Handel, Bach, Borodin, Sondheim, Goodman, and Gershwin.  Tickets are £10 and are available from Jane on 07766566935 or from News First, Killin.

In June last year, Hazel and Keith helped ring and satellite tag a golden eagle chick from Glen Lyon, and named him ‘Fearnan’. At the time, he was about eight weeks old and a single chick in a nest in a Scots pine north of Loch Tay.

Keith says that satellite tracking has been a brilliant development enabling the travels of young eagles to be followed – as well as, sadly, showing the demise of some at human hands!

 Fearnan fledged on 23rd July. Thanks to the satellite tag we know that, unusually, he spent the first eight months hardly venturing far from his natal eyrie.

He finally left home in March 2012, and has moved north looking for a vacant territory.

You can follow Fearnan’s wanderings by clicking on this link http://www.roydennis.org/animals/raptors/golden-eagle/satellite-tracking/fearnan-2011 and click on the link to see his latest movements.

If you’d like to find out more about Golden Eagles, click here http://www.roydennis.org/animals/raptors/golden-eagle

This year, we weren’t able to have our summer BBQ night in August as the village hall was being renovated, but we made up for it last Saturday with an autumn dinner that was free to FVA members.

Julia, Laurie and Sue had put in an enormous amount of work to prepare the delicious selection of food on offer. Main courses included curries, chilli con carne, lasagne and beef pie. For afters, there was a range of hot and cold sweets and live music was provided by Andy and Katy.

The next chance to get together is the Coffee Morning on Tuesday 16th Oct at 10.30am. The FVA Christmas Card will be available for purchase on the day and those who have already ordered cards will be able to collect them.

Here are some photos from the Members’ Dinner:

THE WASHER-UPERS WAVE THE WHITE FLAG!

This year, the FVA is publishing its own exclusive Christmas card!

This beautiful card is unique to Fearnan as the original has been designed, painted – and very kindly donated – by Keith Brockie.

The cards are printed on high-quality paper, individually wrapped in cellophane, and come with a very seasonal red envelope.  They cost £1.50 each, and if you would like to order some, please contact Sue on sg1ardener@talktalk.net or 830493. Stocks will be limited, so don’t miss out and let Sue know how many you would like as soon as possible.

Fearnan’s War Memorial was erected, along with many thousands of others throughout the country, to commemorate the casualties of World War 1.  The huge number of memorials created in the years following the war was a response to the unprecedented scale of the loss of life. Although only a small village, Fearnan lost 8 men in the war, more than any of the other villages in the Kenmore parish, including Kenmore itself.

We know little about these men, but Ian McGregor has managed to track down photographs of 4 of them, namely:

Pte Peter Mathieson         Black Watch

Cpl Duncan Mathieson     Highland Light Infantry

Pte Duncan Fraser             Scots Guards

Pte Malcolm Fraser           Scots Greys

We are hoping that, through this web page, we might be able to track down photos or information about the remaining men:

Pte James Dewar               Scots Greys

Pte Duncan McPhail          Scots Guards

Dvr John Fraser                   Royal Artillery

Pte Hugh Cowan                Royal Scots Fusiliers

Can anyone help?  Or, does anyone have information or stories about life in Fearnan during the 1^st World War?

In 2 years time, it will be the 100^th anniversary of the start of the Great War and we hope to commemorate this in an appropriate way and particularly to acknowledge those from the village who fell in the war. If you can help, please either respond to this article by clicking the Comment link below, or contact Ian on ison06@btinternet.com