Anster Nicht: Reformers and Innovators, Stories from the Wardlaw Museum

Date: 21st March 2024
Time: 7:30 pm
Location: Dreel Halls
Anster Nichts

For more than 600 years, the University has drawn pioneering individuals to St Andrews to research and to learn. The stories of these people can be found in the collection of the University Museums. 

In this talk, Eilidh Lawrence, Head of Museum and Photographic Collections, University of St Andrews, will share some of the ground-breaking discoveries, inventions and ideas that were developed in Fife and have had a lasting impact on Scotland. Some of them even changed the world.

Anster Nicht: J.A. Millar, Boatbuilder on the Dreel

Date: 15th February 2024
Time: 7:30 pm
Location: Dreel Halls
Anster Nichts

The industrial landscape of the East Neuk has changed significantly in the last 150 years. All physical evidence seems to have gone of boatbuilder, John Alexander Millar's yards. He built at least 60 large fishing vessels in Cellardyke, before moving to Anstruther Esplanade.

Richard Wemyss will tell of his discovery of this highly regarded and innovative boatbuilder and some of the vessels he built during the largest period of growth in our fishing industry, the 1860s to 1903.

Anster Nicht: A Sixteenth Century East Neuk School of Carving

Date: 18th January 2024
Time: 7:30 pm
Location: Dreel Halls
Anster Nichts

The ‘Beggar’s Mantle Fring’d with Gold’ that is the East Neuk and its string of coastal burghs enjoyed a period of prosperity in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries – and this is reflected in what survives of its carved oak furniture.What does remain is very distinctive in its vocabulary of motifs and carving style.

This talk is a detective story, in which David Jones puts together evidence for a furniture-making workshop that flourished between 1590 and 1630, examining pieces that have been found in places as far apart as Anstruther and Anglesey.

Anster Nicht: Voyage to the Planets

Date: 19th October 2023
Time: 7:30 pm
Location: Dreel Halls
Anster Nichts

If you have ever walked from the Scottish Fisheries Museum along Shore Street, you will have been on a space walk, following the trail of the Anstruther Model Solar System. Starting at the Sun Tavern you quickly run into Mercury, Venus and Earth, but space is big: it’s a good 10-minute walk to the edge of the Solar System at High Street West. Along your way you will find the eight planets that make up our Solar System, as well as the asteroid, Ceres, and the dwarf planet, Pluto. 

What do the planets and other objects in our solar system look like, what do we know about them, and what do we not know yet? How do we collect information from these far-away worlds? And will we ever be able to visit? In this talk Dr Anne-Marie Weijmans, Reader in Astrophysics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of St Andrews, will take a voyage through the Solar System, and find out how astronomical research is shaping our understanding of the different worlds that make up our Solar System. Time permitting, we will also travel a bit further into space and will have a look at some of the other solar systems out there in the Universe.

Please note this event will start not before 7.30pm and follow on from the AIA's AGM, which will begin at 7pm.

Anster Nicht: Rooting for a Better Future

Date: 21st September 2023
Time: 7:30 pm
Location: Dreel Halls
Anster Nichts

The story of a family farm finding its place in the ever-changing landscape of food production. The Pollocks created Ardross Farm Shop to make a living from their small-scale, mixed family farm and secure a future for generations to come. Join Nikki and Claire Pollock as they tell the story of where the journey began, how dealing direct with the public has changed everything they do and where the journey will take them next.

You will also be able to enjoy samples from produce grown on their farm.

Anster Nicht: Plants on the move

Date: 16th March 2023
Time: 7:30 pm
Location: Dreel Halls
Anster Nichts

Our landscapes are at a point of change – climate change and sustainability issues are in the news every day, but what does this mean for the plants and habitats amongst which we live? In this talk, Harry Watkins, Director of St Andrews Botanic Garden, will talk about the projects at the Botanic Garden that conserve and celebrate the plants of Fife, and share examples of how our habitats and landscapes might change in the coming years. Harry will share the Garden’s research that identifies Fife’s most vulnerable plants – plants that we may see more of in the future – and steps that we can take to make our gardens and landscapes more resilient.

£3 entry or free for AIA members.

You can join the AIA here.

Anster Nicht: Microscopic World – the Biodiversity of Coastal Marine Ecosystems

Date: 16th February 2023
Time: 7:30 pm
Location: Dreel Halls
Anster Nichts

We welcome Dr Andrew Blight from The Sediment Ecology Research Group (SERG), known popularly as “The Mud Lab” of the Scottish Oceans Institute (University of St Andrews). Using advanced techniques, SERG investigates the ecology of aquatic systems, particularly marine and estuarine coasts, shallow marine systems and salt marshes, which provide internationally important ecology and ecosystem services. They are, however, often under significant industrial and demographic pressure and are continually responding to natural and anthropogenic changes. Working with the Scottish Fisheries Museum, SERG recently undertook similar research on the Dreel Burn intertidal zone.

£3 entry or free for AIA members.

You can join the AIA here.

Anster Nicht: Bring Back Woodland to the East Neuk

Date: 16th November 2023
Time: 7:30 pm
Location: Dreel Halls
Anster Nichts

When you step outside your home, do you appreciate the trees around you? From Rowan and Oak to Birch and Holly, here in East Neuk we are surrounded by a large variety of beautiful native trees. Trees are fascinating and pretty, but they offer our planet more than beauty. Trees are vital for the survival of many living creatures and play an important part in combatting the climate emergency. Team Footprint will talk about the importance of trees, their remarkable lifecycle and immense value to planet Earth. They hope it will inspire you to stand up for trees and help us bring back woodland to the East Neuk.  At the end of the interactive presentation, Team Footprint will give away free trees for your garden or balcony.

£3 entry or free for AIA members.

You can join the AIA here.

Anster Nicht: The RNLI, its lifesaving work and its army of volunteers

Date: 17th November 2022
Time: 7:30 pm
Location: Dreel Halls
Anster Nichts

Our local Lifeboat Coxswain, Michael Bruce, and Lifeboat Operations Manager, Roy Giles, will give us an insight into how the volunteers respond when an emergency call comes in and the operational resourcing that is involved in each incident. 

They will also give us an update of what is to come at Anstruther, with the building of a new station about to commence and the anticipated arrival of their new state-of-the-art Shannon class lifeboat.

£3 entry or free for AIA members.

You can join the AIA here.

Anster Nicht: Listen and you might see something interesting!

Date: 20th October 2022
Time: 7:30 pm
Location: Dreel Halls
Anster Nichts

Bill Bruce made the move from Stirling to Cellardyke in February 2020, where he set about getting to know small corners of the East Neuk during the pandemic. A professional graphic designer with a keen eye for filmmaking, in this talk he will introduce his business background before presenting some film highlights following his move to the East Neuk. He will explain what and who inspires him the most, and why sound ideas are more important than any visual imagery he produces.  Bill established his creative graphic design consultancy, Different Voice, in 1995. He has delivered a wide variety of projects on behalf of large government bodies, small start-up companies and multi-national corporates.  He believes that his role is about giving a different voice to people with interesting things to talk about, and he enjoys the creative challenge while not forgetting to have fun along the way.

£3 entry or free for AIA members.

You can join the AIA here.