Yetholm Village Shop
Community Buy-Out Project
 
The village shop is one of our most valuable community assets, and we should now be thinking of how best to secure its continuing existence as a going concern.

One way of doing so is through a community buy-out, and a group is now starting to form to see how this can be done.    Roy and Barbara Maltby are aware of this initiative, and welcome it.

The first stage is to establish some form of not-for-profit company or community enterprise vehicle, ideally with charitable status, to purchase the shop business and premises from Roy and Barbara, and then to operate the shop for the benefit of the community.

In order to meet the requirements of the legislation, and to tap into potential sources of grant funding, we will have to be able to show that the project has a broad measure of support from the village and the surrounding area served by the shop.

Please therefore would anyone who feels they might be interested in an active involvement in this first stage to get in touch (if they have not already done so) with Alastair Hirst, The Green, Kirk Yetholm  –  tel.  420214 or on alastair.hirst@yahoo.com  –  over the next couple of weeks.

We all can then meet towards the end of the month for an exchange of views, and a presentation of options and a road-map by one of the community empowerment professionals from The Bridge.     We then should be in position to form a working group to drive things forward.
 
 Alastair Hirst
3 July 2019

SBC will be doing more work patching the road between Town Yetholm and Morebattle (B6401), with the result that the road will be closed between the two villages from the 27th May for 3 days between the hours of 8:30 and 16:00 each day. The stretch on which the council will be working is between Primside Mill and the entrance to Town Yetholm.

We are pleased to announce that this year's Bari Gadgi and Bari Manushi.

Bari Gadgi - Stefan Cameron
For those of you that don’t know, I spent all my childhood growing up in Yetholm, first attending Yetholm Primary School before moving onto Kelso High School. Now 22 years old, I have spent my last four years studying Marketing & Business at Abertay University in Dundee and will be due to graduate this summer.
   Aside from the demands of university life most of my free time is taken up by sports. I play rugby for my university team and a local club team in Dundee, as well as competing in judo. I also really enjoy any water and snow sports whenever the weather allows for it.
   One of my fondest memories of the festival week growing up was building my boat for the boat race followed by the family day, so judging the boats this year is something I’m really looking forward to! Growing up I never spent too much time on a horse so learning from scratch now has been an interesting experience, although I’m sure I’ll be more than ready to lead the cavalcade by the time Stob Stanes comes around!
   Having spent so much of my life in Yetholm it was a dream come and an honour to be asked to be the Bari Gadgi for this year. Although I don’t plan on moving back to Yetholm just yet, it still is and always will be my home and I can’t wait to represent Yetholm along with Emma across the other Border towns. I hope we can make everyone proud and I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible over the summer and during the festival week.

Bari Manushi - Emma Wauchope
I’m very honoured to be able to represent Yetholm as this year’s Bari Manushi. I fondly remember Festival Weeks from when I was younger, especially the children’s games on the village green. Hopefully this year will bring some sunshine to enjoy the week’s activities.
   I’m currently 25 and I’ve been lucky to call Yetholm home ever since I was born. After I left school, I headed to Newcastle for university where I’m still living whilst I complete my last year of my degree in Medicine. I hope to graduate this year and I’ll be headed to Liverpool after the festival season to take up a position in Aintree hospital.
   In my spare time I love getting back to the countryside, to explore at home or around Northumberland. My main hobby is Lacrosse which I’m very passionate about, I’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy a fun career so far which has offered me many opportunities to play at home and abroad.
   Prior to this, I spent much of my time on top of a horse, hunting the College Valley in the winter and following rideouts in the summer. Having spent many years trying to hold my pony back from charging to the front, I’m very pleased to be able to lead the cavalcade up to Stobstanes this year.
   I’m really looking forward to being your Bari Manushi for 2019 along with Stefan as Bari Gadgi and I’d like to thankyou the Festival Committee for this opportunity. I hope you enjoy Festival Week and I’m looking forward to spending time with you all during the village activities.

A big thank you to all those who helped to make the village panto, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, such a success - both the actors and the many people who helped behind the scenes. As usual, the performance took place well after Christmas - 15th/16th February - and poked fun at a variety of village characters. This years panto was written by Margaret Rustad and concerned the efforts of three Kirk Yetholm goats to cross the Bowmont for the greener pastures of Town Yetholm. Donald Trump made a brief appearance with a plan to build a wall between the two villages, but in the end the Community Council decided to hire a Norwegain troll (played with gusto by a be-kilted Michael Rustad) to keep the goats out.  Fortunately it all ended happily (of course) with three goats (Megan McLaren, Zoe Keddie Dixon and Dan Alderson) dancing on the banks of Romany Loch.
   Money raised by this year's panto will go to the Wauchope Hall and to the Margaret Kerr unit in memory of Eddie Robertson ('Steady Eddy') who sadly died a few weeks ago and who was always a willing helper at this event.