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A view of the site at Durness Village Hall just after opening in 2001 before it
was landscaped with the help of the BBC television
program Beechgrove Garden.
Beechgrove
Garden coming to Durness
8th
March 2002
Durness
Gardening Group learned this week that their bid to feature the
village in the next series of the BBC’s popular “Beechgrove
Garden” TV programme has been successful.
From the hundreds of applications submitted from all over
Scotland, Durness made it through to the last 12.
The programme producer and assistant visited all the finalists
last week and selected five to be included in the next series, to
be filmed in the summer.
The programme will focus on landscaping of the site around the new
village hall in Durness. The community will be responsible for
most of the work, but are allocated a budget by the programme
makers as well as the services of a landscape garden designer.
The programme will be filmed in August when the Beechgrove Garden
presenters will put the finishing touches to the planting.
The programme will also include visits to gardens around the
Durness area and a selection of gardening questions from local
residents
29th.
March 2002
Beechgrove
Garden – A television cameraman visited Durness this week to
film the are before any landscaping is started by the Beechgrove
Garden team. This will be the basis of a “before and after”
comparison when the TV programme is recorded in August.
The designer, Nick Dawson from Pitlochry, will be visiting Durness
this Easter weekend to discuss design proposals with some members
of the gardening group.
The Beechgrove Garden has been on the air since 1979 and is one of
BBC Scotland’s most successful programmes. The idea to invite
them to landscape the area around the new village hall came from
Connie Macarthur when she presented a garden seat in memory of her
late husband Angus, to be situated outside the new hall.
Connie contacted the programme for an application form and Graham
Bruce completed the questionnaire and submitted the proposals. It
is being predicted that this project could have excellent
repercussions for the area. Many people travel great distances to
visit public gardens and this could be the most northerly on the
British mainland.
June Update
The ground plans have arrived from
Nick Dawson the garden designer. They are ambitious and said to be one of the
biggest and impressive that the Beechgrove have tackled. This is the first
public garden to be created this far north on the mainland. The Beechgrove team
will be in Durness for the filming from the 14-16 August but are likely to be
arriving earlier. Jim Micol and Carolyn Baxter are visiting on the 4th. and 5th.
July to meet with the local committee and visit some of the gardens in the area.
The local group have had to come up with a selection of gardening questions and
people to ask them during recording, The problem corners are to be various
problems gardeners find in the locality and through the garden gate will be the
team visiting several established gardens in the community.
The Beechgrove have enlisted the
help of the coastguards fro their filming of the show and will be able to have
ariel shots from the helicopter. On the Friday night after the filming there
will be a Ceilidh in the hall to celebrate the event and one year of the opening
of the hall. Everybody will be welcome and further details will be announced
soon.
The local group are responsible
for sourcing most of the materials necessary that is required for the design and
they are looking for a selection of local materials that can be incorporated
into the garden.. A sculptress that has worked with the Beechgrove team in the
past has offered her services. She makes Geese from plough blades and if some
can be found she is willing to come to Durness to include her art. There is to
be a John Lennon memorial garden, A Lotte Glob water feature, children's play
area, sheltered sites and crazy paved areas with Cattiness slab.
Anyone wishing to help or is
able to assist with materials or any other input should contact ronnie@durness.org
initially. There will be an opportunity for any commercial enterprises that wish
to donate or contribute to have publicity through the programme. The plans are
flexible enough fro the local committee to work with any business or individual
that can offer assistance.
15th. July
2002
Beechgrove Garden – Jim McColl and Carole Baxter, presenters from the
BBC’s Beechgrove Garden TV programme, visited the community garden project and
landscaping scheme that will be televised next month. They were in Durness for
two days last week to meet members of the community and, as well as discussing
the project, were calling in on gardens in the village that could be included in
the programme.
Graham Bruce, chairman of the gardening group and local co-ordinator of the
scheme, escorted the presenters around the village. There has been a great deal
of local input into the project and this is being remarked upon as a genuinely
community effort. Carol and Jim are looking forward to visiting again next month
and it’s hoped they will join in the celebratory ceilidh on August 16 to mark
the first anniversary of the hall and the Beechgrove Garden’s Durness
programme.
Dear Friend,
As you are probably aware the Gardeners Group
are co-ordinating the construction of a Community Garden at the new village
hall. We were one of six gardens selected from hundreds of applications to the
BBC Beechgrove Garden Community Garden Scheme. We have been given a garden
designer, £2500 and a lot of hard work! In the past four weeks quite a team of
volunteers have come forward to help and good progress is being made towards the
completion date of 14 August when the BBC arrive for three days of filming. Most
work is being done in the evenings; Monday to Friday from 7.30pm and if you
would like to help a job will always be found for you! The garden is divided
into different areas and will reflect a different style of planting or theme.
One part will commemorate John Lennon, the famous singer/songwriter of “The
Beatles” who spent many holidays in Durness as a child and another will
commemorate Durness past and present. It is in this latter area you may be able
to help. Carved onto paving and upright stones will be the names of Durness
Township past and present. Many of the preclearance names are already virtually
unknown (could you place Shinins in the Braes of Durness?) and this would be a
good way of recording the place names of the parish. The problem is this will
not come cheaply. The existing budget will go almost entirely on materials and
plants and will not stretch to this part of the project. There are at least 80
place names past and present and at £5 a letter this will come to quite a sum.
For example: Sangomore = 9 letters x £5 = £45.If you would like to ensure your
township name is carved for posterity you can sponsor the entire name, for which you
will be acknowledge in the Beechgrove Garden Fact sheet and on their website.
Businesses may be interested in this form of publicity. Get together with
neighbours to raise the money as a group, acknowledgement as above. Donate £5
or more for your township name and get your name on a list of sponsors. Donate
£5 or more and put it into the collection box in Mace or Mathers.
On the back of this letter is a list of place
names past and present. It is based on the parish records on the early 19th
century. It is not an exhaustive list, so apologies if your name is not on it!
Many thanks for your anticipated support for the garden.
Garden
memorial marks John Lennon’s links with Durness
Northern
Times 16th. August 2002
A
memorial commemorating John Lennon’s links with Durness, which helped inspire
the Beatles song “In My Life”, was unveiled on Wednesday.
The new memorial marks the fact that Lennon spent childhood holidays in the
village, returning with Yoko and their respective children in 1969.
It has been erected as part of a Beechgrove Garden “community special”,
which will be transmitted on BBC 2 Scotland on Thursday, August 22 at 8.30pm.
The memorial is a set of three standing stones, created by local craftsman Neil
Fuller, which feature lyrics from the song In My Life (There are places I
remember …). They were erected this week as filming started for the Beechgrove
Garden programme, which will be devoted to the community project in Durness.
Attending was Stan Parkes, Lennon’s cousin who visited Durness with John on
numerous occasions. Said Mr Parkes, who now lives in Largs and will be featured
in the programme: “John was nine when he started coming up with us to the
croft in Durness.
“The croft belonged to my stepfather and John just loved the wildness and the
openness of the place. So much so that he took Yoko, his son Julian and her
daughter Kyoko specially to visit to see the place he had loved so much from his
childhood holidays.
“This memorial from the people of Durness, and of course Beechgrove Garden, is
great. John would be thrilled with this tribute and I know it would have meant
more to him than any fancy statue in a hotel or whatever in Liverpool. He really
loved Durness and he would love this tribute.”
Beechgrove presenter Lesley Watson said: “The work the local community has put
into creating the garden here is amazing. Durness is a special place and to have
this link with John Lennon commemorated in this way is lovely.”
Graham Bruce, chairman of the Durness Gardeners’ Group, said: “We’ve got a
sign up about the Beechgrove project and we’ve had visitors coming by and
helping out just from that. Once people know about the new garden and the John
Lennon memorial I’m anticipating a significant rise in visitors to Durness.
“Being so remote, we haven’t been able to call on outside agencies or
whatever. All the hard work has been down to the local people, who have mucked
in with whatever they could, but our thanks also go to the Beechgrove Garden
team for their support and expertise.”
The newly created garden at Durness, which includes the memorial, will also
feature a courtyard and sheltered areas. The designer is Edinburgh-based Nick
Dawson, the project manager of the new Pitlochry Theatre (Plant Collectors)
Garden.
The Durness garden is being created by the community for the community, with a
little help from the Beechgrove team.
While the Beechgrove presenters Jim McColl, Carole Baxter, Lesley Watson and
Carolyn Spray are in Durness they will be helping to finish off the new garden
but they will also be out and about in the Durness area trying to solve a few
problems, answer a few questions, visit some local gardens and gardeners.
Said a BBC spokeswoman: “Durness is the most northerly community garden on
mainland UK and is the most exposed and challenging site the Beechgrove team
have ever tackled.”
 Beechgrove Garden – Over 200 people attended an informal ceilidh in the village hall
last Friday evening to celebrate the opening of the Beechgrove Garden
landscaping scheme. After a small ceremony to mark the end of a busy 12-week
period and the final week of intense activity for the filming of the TV
programme, screened on Thursday night, the hall resounded to a diverse selection
of music.
Local musicians Katy, Donny and Marty started off the evening with a selection
of Scottish dance music. Eleanor Leith held the audience spellbound while she
played and sang several songs from her repertoire. Local youth band Broken Chord
played a tribute to John Lennon with the song “In my Life”, the lyrics of
which were apparently inspired by his childhood memories of the Highlands.
Melvich Gaelic Choir finished off the first half with two songs, beautifully
sung.
The hall committee provided teas and sandwiches and a raffle raised funds
towards the future maintenance of the garden. The second half of the ceilidh was
opened with songs from Raymond Bremner. The dance continued with Jim McColl and
Bob the sound recorder from The Beechgrove Garden joining Katy and Donny on
stage for what was an excellent night to celebrate Durness Village Hall’s
first year and the most north-westerly public community garden on mainland
Britain.
This week has seen the final touches being added to the weeks of volunteer work
that has gone into the garden, a project initiated by Connie McArthur and co-ordinated
by Graham Bruce. The transformation has been amazing.
Along with filming at the community garden, the television crew have been in and
around Durness all week visiting individual gardens and supplying tips and
advice.
On Wednesday morning Stan Parkes, a cousin of the late John Lennon, and showing
some emotion, opened the memorial garden to the former Beatle. With a small
press presence Stan declared that he felt sure John would appreciate this small
memorial in the Highlands where he spent many happy childhood holidays. The
family of Stan Parkes has a long association with Durness and this memorial is
recognised as a tribute to John Lennon the family man, a much forgotten phase of
his life. It has been this connection that has attracted national and
international media interest.
An e-mail from America said the Durness garden project had even made
two-paragraphs in the Philadelphia Inquirer!
There has been considerable uptake on the sponsorship of township names but
there are plenty that could be included if people are still interested. Full
details of the scheme will be included on the fact sheet to accompany the
programme and can be seen on the Beechgrove website. This will also be
incorporated on the Durness website.
It will be a few years before the full benefit of the scheme is apparent. The
different areas of the garden are quite well defined but the plants will take
time to establish in the exposed situation. In his opening speech Graham Bruce,
chairman of the gardening group, promised that this garden would be well
maintained.
Community gardens are a relatively new feature for the Beechgrove Garden and
there is no clear policy about returning to visit their projects. An invitation
was made and this will be given serious consideration. Whether they come back to
film the garden or not, the whole team declared that this would certainly not be
their last visit. They have helped in moving forward a rather great challenge to
the community that has been met with co-operation and a lot hard work.
This week has given people an interesting look behind the scenes of one of the
longest running garden programmes on TV, and the community declared that they
felt honored and privileged to have been involved in created a lasting
memorial. Much of the filming involved a lot of waiting around while cameras
shots were arranged. Durness was chosen from hundreds of applications.
The final filming was completed on Friday afternoon and although there was a
decent crowd it was disappointing that many of the people who had given their
services to the garden were unable to attend. The crowd scene at the end of the
television programme may not therefore give a true reflection of the large
number of people who put in many hours of hard work.
Interest in the site is continues to grow and all week there has been a steady
flow of people visiting the garden, some coming from quite a distance on the
strength of the reports about the John Lennon memorial.
This
document is maintained on behalf of Durness Community Council, mail and
comments will be welcome to
ronnie@durness.org
or
Comment and Contact on
the submit form provided.
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