Members' Centres and
Friends' Groups
CAMBRIDGE FRIENDS of the NATIONAL TRUST FOR SCOTLAND
Newsletter September 2008
Dear Friend,
I am delighted to send you the Programme for our coming year's events. We believe that we have got together a varied and interesting programme, with excellent and expert speakers, and we hope that you will enjoy it. As always our prime aim is to entertain, educate and be sociable. We are also keen to raise money for NTS, and in particular to help Inverewe Gardens.
The BIG news this year is that we have reduced the prices of tickets for our evening events back to £6. Your committee hope that this will induce more of you to come more frequently. And if you apply for tickets quickly for all five events you can have them for the price of four, a saving of £6!
One of the highlights of our programme is the March talk about St. Kilda. This was featured recently in a television series and is one of the most remote parts of Britain. Far out into the Atlantic, it has hosted some interesting and strange communities in very recent past. That evening should be a sellout. If you would like to come I do suggest that you apply for tickets early.
Our first talk in October is about the Little Houses Improvement Scheme which is a pet favourite of your Chair. Most but not all of it's work is to provide high quality housing in desirable locations. These are not built from scratch but renovated from existing buildings which have for whatever reason become run down and uninhabitable. This is a unique part of the work of NTS. No other conservation charity in the world does this. Sometimes the scheme also improves larger buildings and these are converted to most frequently communal use of various sorts. Community development is the effect. This talk, on 7 October, will also see for the first time one of our events moving outside the centre of Cambridge. In this case, the village of Haslingfield. This is quite deliberate. Some of you do not like coming into to Cambridge at night and this is an opportunity of traveling simply to a village to the west of Cambridge where there is easy access and ample parking(????).
Our second event in November is about the Eagles of Scotland, both the Golden Eagle and the recently re-introduced White Tailed Eagle. Our speaker, Stuart Housdon CEO of RSPB Scotland, does not normally give talks in England. It is something of a coup that he has agreed to speak to us. To anyone who has seen an eagle there is no doubt that they are one of the most magnificent creatures on earth: grace and power combined.
On a February evening pictures of Crathes Gardens throughout the year should lift your spirits. Crathes is a huge garden which for visitors tends to revolve around the walled garden area. This looks remarkably English and is almost odd in a Scottish landscape. It is, however, very beautiful. The rest of the gardens are a little wilder but nevertheless well cultivated. Trees feature highly.
Our last event of the year, in May next year, is about Gladstones Land, a strange property which does not conform to other NTS sites in Edinburgh. We have managed to secure the services of the recently retired manager of the property and she will talk about the bizarre way in which the property was assembled over the years to the form in which it is now. Once again a fully illustrated talk.
Please write to Cambridge Friends of NTS c/o 15 LONG ROAD, CAMBRIDGE, CB2 8PP to buy your tickets in advance. Do use the enclosed sheet if it would help you to reserve the right number of tickets for each occasion. Advance reservation will ensure that you have a place for the talks you want to attend.
And if you are on email please let me know your address. It allows us to remind you of each talk and tell you of any last minute changes. Email me at cambridge@ntscentres.org.uk. Promise, no junk.
Yours sincerely,
Julian Landy
Chair
Your committee : Patsy Glazebrook (ticketing), Jim Stewart (treasurer), Richard Lyon (secretary), Donald Douglas (mountaineer), Tricia Ellis-Evans (database) and welcome to Christine McKie (printer).
TICKETS : WRITE TO Cambridge Friends of NTS, c/o 15 LONG ROAD, CAMBRIDGE, CB2 8PP with a cheque for £6 per ticket and a STAMPED ADDRESSED ENVELOPE for the dispatch of tickets.
Do please pay more than required if you would like to make a donation to NTS.
Applications for tickets for all five events received by 26th September 2008 will get five tickets for the price of four, a saving of £6 person.
Remember to include your contact details!