Museum staff who are hosting an exhibition about a trailblazing football team are appealing for memorabilia linked to the women’s game in Fife.

Curators are keen to capture how women’s football has grown locally in recent years and build a clearer picture of its earliest development in Fife.

Exhibition organisers hope that the display – which spotlights 1920s star May Watson of Cardenden – will inspire visitors to donate items and stories to a women’s football archive.

The tribute to Rutherglen Ladies FC, who drew big crowds during the interwar years, is at Kirkcaldy Galleries from 8-30 March, before transferring to Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries in April.

Archivists with cultural charity OnFife, which runs both venues, say the display can be a catalyst that helps fill knowledge gaps in the history of women’s football in Fife.

During the 1920s and 30s, Rutherglen Ladies had to battle against the odds just to play matches, as the English Football Association banned the game, deeming it “quite unsuitable for females”. A Scottish FA ban would follow 20 years later.

Despite that, the women in Fife flourished, with teams in Lochore, Kirkcaldy, Newburgh and Freuchie.

Before joining Rutherglen, May Watson (later Wyse) played for Bowhill Ladies. A newspaper article at the time reported: “Bowhill is one of the few villages that can boast of having a progressive female community not afraid of emulating the men … it has a go-ahead ladies’ football team.”

May was later described, in a newspaper obituary of 1951, as “probably one of the best lady footballers in Britain”. The tribute stated: “She did much in her football years to raise money for charity, and often played against men’s teams with outstanding ability.”

May toured Scotland and Ireland with Rutherglen in 1925-26 and played in the Scottish Ladies’ team that defeated Dick Kerr’s revered English side, who at the time were unofficial world champions.

The opening at Kirkcaldy Galleries will be a proud moment for venue supervisor Carolyn Johnston, who is May’s great-granddaughter.

Says Carolyn, also of Cardenden: “I am so pleased the story of Rutherglen Ladies is being widely told in Fife and very proud of my great granny’s role in it – she was, by all accounts, a remarkable woman.”

May is not the only illustrious footballer in Carolyn’s family – her uncle, Willie Johnston, starred for Scotland, Rangers, West Bromwich Albion and Hearts, winning a European Cup Winners’ Cup medal in 1972.

The exhibition is based on research carried out by Dr Fiona Skillen, senior lecturer in history at Glasgow Caledonian University, and women’s football historian Steve Bolton.

Led by superstar captain Sadie Smith, the grandmother of singer-songwriter Eddi Reader, Rutherglen Ladies toured Ireland, played in exhibition games in front of thousands and raised money for charity.

Dr Skillen said: “There’s a perception that women’s football didn’t happen in Scotland between the Victorian period and the mid-1950s. This research shows that it did. We are rewriting the history books with our discoveries.

“Rutherglen Ladies showed incredible resolve and resilience and had to overcome significant barriers just to play the game. They deserve recognition for their unique place in history.”

The exhibition traces the development of the team from its foundation in 1921 through to its disbanding in 1939. It explores the lives of the manager James H Kelly and the players themselves, whilst also telling the story of their groundbreaking tours in Scotland, England and Ireland.

Anyone with information should email localstudies.kirkcaldy@onfife.com

Carolyn Johnston, Venue Supervisor at Kirkcaldy Galleries, points out her footballing ‘superstar’ great-grandmother in one of the photographs in the exhibition.

Fife Festival of Music is excited to open its doors and welcome musicians and audience members of all ages.  The 42nd Festival opens on 30th January in The Vine Conference, Dunfermline until Friday 2nd February.

Meanwhile in Kirkcaldy, music making starts on 2nd February and lasts until Friday 9th of February.  The Festival returns to St Bryce and the newly refurbished Adam Smith Theatre for solo, duet, ensemble, school and community classes.

All sessions are open to audiences, and parents, carers, friends and music lovers are all welcome to attend.  A small admission charge applies.

The Festival concludes on Friday 9th February with the Young Musician 2024, 21 and under, in the Adam Smith Theatre.

enquiries@ffom.org.uk
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A much-loved film that catapulted a Dunfermline-born ballerina to international fame is making a big-screen comeback in her hometown.

The Red Shoes, which made Moira Shearer an overnight sensation in 1948, will be screened at Carnegie Hall on 28 February 2024 at 7pm.

Screening as part of Cinema Unbound: The Creative Worlds of Powell + Pressburger, a UK-wide film season supported by National Lottery and BFI Film Audience Network. Local film fans can enjoy a lovingly restored print of a film that was widely acclaimed on its re-release in 2009. It will be the first cinema screening in Dunfermline of this remastered version.

Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairy tale, The Red Shoes tells the story of young woman Victoria Page, played by Shearer, who realises her dreams of becoming a leading dancer yet pays a terrible price.

One of the most influential movies of all time, it inspired artists, including film director Martin Scorsese, singer Kate Bush and choreographer Matthew Bourne.

Moira Shearer King was born on 17 January 1926 at Morton Lodge, Dunfermline. She spent her first few years with her grandfather while her parents were in Sierra Leone. Shearer’s father was a civil engineer in the Colonial Service. In 1931, Moria moved to Africa with her parents, where she attended her first dance lesson.

On their return to Scotland, 10-year-old Moira joined Flora Fairbairn’s School of Theatrical Dance. Shearer was then invited to London to attend Monsieur Nicolas Legat’s ballet classes before joining Sadler’s Wells Ballet.

In 1948, aged 22, Moira achieved worldwide celebrity as the ballerina heroine of The Red Shoes, a film that brought huge new audiences to the world of dance.

As a principal dancer with Sadler’s Wells, Shearer danced leading roles at the Royal Opera House, second only to Margot Fonteyn. After marrying writer and broadcaster Ludovic

Kennedy in 1950, the couple went on to have four children together – Alastair, Ailsa, Rachel and Fiona.

Moira Shearer retired from ballet in 1953 but continued to act and write. She died on 31 January 2006. The Red Shoes is at 7pm on Wednesday February 28 – see onfife.com for tickets.

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Tantalising glimpses of a rural world that vanished with the advent of the motor car are to be displayed at a refurbished heritage hub.

Evocative pictures of north-east Fife spanning five decades – taken by a country postman with a passion for photography – will go on show at Cupar Library.

A selection of George Normand’s arresting images, dating from the late Victorian era, are being exhibited to mark the relaunch of the Institute’s local studies space.

Cupar-born Normand, whose extensive daily rounds provided endless inspiration, photographed all that he saw around him, including people, places, animals and events.

Normand started taking pictures in the 1890s when he was covering 18 miles a day on foot, delivering letters in Cupar and to neighbouring villages.

What distinguishes Normand’s photography from that of many of his contemporaries is its scope – not just its 50-year timespan, but the breadth of its subject matter.

Pictures of castles and churches, shops and streets – all of them traffic-free – sit side by side with scenes of the Fife countryside that seem otherworldly now, almost eerie at times.

Also captured on camera are fascinating insights into the working lives of farm labourers, fishermen and traders.

So too are landmark events such as the announcement at Cupar Cross of the Relief of Mafeking on 17 May 1900, and Cupar’s first military funeral of the 1914-18 war.

There are less formal moments as well – skaters and curlers on frozen ponds, Sunday school children on summer picnics and farmhands seeking work at Cupar’s biannual hiring fair.

Often an artist’s sensibility is at play. Piece Time at Larennie Farm with its corn stooks and white-capped farm girls is a Van Gogh landscape waiting to happen while the Crail fisherman mending creels evokes Vincent’s self-portrait with a black hat and pipe.

Normand also had an eye for the unusual – a circus elephant and rider on Cupar’s Crossgate, a bizarrely shaped egg and a turnip growing through a pair of scissors.

Portraits of people abound and not just the great and the good. There with the Provosts and Reverends, are two Cupar ‘worthies’ – Jimmy Dickie and ‘General’ Gordon – popping up time and again, sometimes with refreshments in hand, larking about with carefree abandon.

Such informality underlines one of Normand’s great strengths – a knack for putting his subjects at ease when most would have been unused to posing for the camera.

And underpinning it all is a sense that these are photographs taken so that they can be enjoyed by as wide an audience as possible.

For Normand not only took photographs but shared them with local people, using his Magic Lantern – bought for £22 15s in 1898 – to project his glass slides on to a linen screen.

Normand’s glass slides have now been preserved as digital images, making them accessible not just to the local community but to anyone with an interest in history and photography.

The collection of more than 200 images is in the care of the cultural charity OnFife, which runs the Duncan Institute – home to Cupar’s library. Normand’s photographs will be displayed at a local studies open day, to be held in the library on 18 January.

The Duncan Institute’s local studies room has recently been refurbished to make OnFife’s extensive collections more readily accessible. Included in the collections are photographs, books, newspapers, census records, valuation rolls and old parish registers.

George Normand’s passion for photography was matched by his dedication to work. Born in 1875, he left school, aged 14, to join the Post Office as a telegraph messenger.

He became a rural postman at 18, delivering first on foot and later by pony and trap, and then by bicycle. He started work at 6 am, did four deliveries a day, returning home at 9pm.

Normand battled through the great blizzards of 1916 when he was nearly overcome by snow and, during the floods of the following summer, he waded waist-deep to reach the Post Office at Pitscottie. On his arrival, the water was within half an inch of the counter top.

Both these extreme weather events are, unsurprisingly, caught on camera.

Normand joined the army in 1917 and served overseas in the Army Veterinary Corps, who liked to recruit men who had worked with horses.

He returned home in 1919 and was promoted to the position of supervising postman in Cupar. He remained in this job until his retiral in 1935, having completed 46 years’ service.

George died in his 102nd year, on 25 December 1976, Cupar’s oldest citizen.

OnFife’s Local Studies Supervisor Andrea McMillan says: “George Normand’s photographs offer us a rare glimpse into the lives of ordinary people over 50 years as they go about their daily business.

“As we look into the eyes of his subjects, we feel a deep connection to those who lived here more than 100 years ago.”

Dr Tom Normand (no relation), of the School of Art History at the University of St Andrews, is also an admirer of his namesake’s work.

“That acute sense of the local, and of celebrating the everyday, is surely a triumph of photography,” reflects Dr Normand. “George Normand seems to have recognised this and become something of a champion of the art.”

Creative pupils have been praised for their eye-catching tributes to a local hero whose decorative flourishes transformed some of Scotland’s grandest houses.

Budding artists from two central Fife schools produced their work for a competition that marked the 100th anniversary of painter and illustrator William McLaren’s birth.

Pupils from McLaren’s former schools – Beath High and Cardenden Primary – were invited to create artworks inspired by the miner’s son from Dundonald.

Among McLaren’s many high-profile commissions were murals for Wemyss Castle in Fife, Hopetoun House in West Lothian and Tyninghame House in East Lothian.

The Edinburgh College of Art graduate was a successful illustrator, working for magazines and designing dust jackets for books that included work by Enid Blyton and Jules Verne.

Pupils were shown a selection of McLaren’s work – including murals, book illustrations and self-portraits – as inspiration.

Entries for the competition, organised by cultural charity OnFife, included paintings, drawings, mixed media, prints and collages.

Pupils from P4-7 at Cardenden and S1-3 at Beath took part. Artwork by the winners and runners-up in each class was displayed in Cardenden Library.

The four class winners from Cardenden Primary were Alex Clapon, Harris Buckingham, Elliot Walker and Rebeca Clapon. Susanna Inglis, Lucy Wilkinson and Hazel Adams won the three class prizes at Beath High.

The two overall school winners were Rebeca Clapon and Hazel Adams – their entries have been framed and are now on display in Kirkcaldy Galleries.

Judging the competition were Cardenden Library Assistant Heather Brown, OnFife’s Collections Leader Gavin Grant and Cardenden History Group member David Taylor.

Niamh Logie, of OnFife’s Young People and Families Team, said: “It’s been wonderful to share William McLaren’s work with young people from the community where he grew up and to take inspiration from his legacy. The standard of artwork submitted from all of the classes has been outstanding.”

Hazel Adams, of Beath High, one of two winners in the competition, with the winning entries now on display in Kirkcaldy Galleries.

Some of the McLaren-inspired artworks currently on show in Cardenden Library.

Audiences at the Adam Smith Theatre panto have been raising the roof with excitement over recent weeks but none more so than nearly 300 VIP guests at a performance last week.

OnFife’s annual VIP Panto Night welcomed 265 children and adults from The Cottage Family Centre in Kirkcaldy and Fife Young Carers as special guests to enjoy The Little Mermaid.

“It was a fantastic night with a very special vibe,” said Karen Taylor, OnFife’s Community Events & Programme Manager. “There were arts and crafts when they arrived, a buffet to get tucked into, Santa was on hand to give out selection boxes and all the children received a goody bag to take into the show and then an ice cream at half time.

“It’s always great to see our invited kids really enjoying themselves and the engagement and excitement during the show this year was through the roof.”

Kelly Rodgers, from The Cottage Family Centre, which supports children up to the age of 16 and their families, said: “On behalf of everyone at The Cottage Family Centre I would like to thank OnFife for providing 210 tickets for our children and families to attend the VIP night at The Little Mermaid. Our children and families had an absolute ball and what an experience it was.”

The Little Mermaid runs at the Adam Smith Theatre until Saturday 6 January. Tickets are available from £13. Family tickets offer savings of up to 15 per cent and there are also offers for group bookings. Shows include relaxed and BSL performances. Go to www.onfife.com for details.

Artistic gems from one of Scotland’s finest collections of paintings are to feature in a new exhibition at an award-winning museum.

Works by nationally renowned artists – part of the collection managed by cultural charity OnFife – are included in the Brushstrokes show at Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries.

A mark of Brushstrokes’ quality is that 13 of its featured artists have work in the new £38.6million exhibition space at the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh.

“People across the country – and beyond – will be familiar with most of the artists featured in Brushstrokes.,” says exhibition curator Lesley Lettice ahead of the opening on Saturday (9 December).

“So our audiences can enjoy a show that’s full of work that wouldn’t be out of place in Scotland’s national collections.”

Brushstrokes features 23 paintings by the ever-popular Scottish Colourists – Francis Cadell, J D Fergusson, George Leslie Hunter and Samuel Peploe – and three by renowned landscape artist William McTaggart.

Included in the blend of traditional and modern works are paintings by acclaimed artists such as Joan Eardley, Anne Redpath and Elizabeth Blackadder.

Among the other leading names from 20th century Scottish art are Glasgow Boys John Lavery, E A Hornel, George Henry and David Gauld.

Highlights from beyond Scotland include An Old Street by LS Lowry – one of only seven works by Lowry to be held in Scotland’s public collections.

Paintings by Harold Gilman and Spencer Gore of the Camden Town Group and Still Life by French painter and lithographer Henri Fantin-Latour also feature.

One of several Fife scenes on show is Pastorale, near Dunfermline by the eminent Scottish landscape and still life painter, William Gillies. Marian Leven’s Lomond Winter and Kate Downie’s dramatic take on the Forth Bridge, Span, are also part of the mix.

Fife-born artists featuring in the show include one of Scotland’s most esteemed living artists, Frances Walker, who has two paintings in the exhibition – Passing St Kilda and Low Tide at Brough.

Also on display is Irises by Bohemian craftsman Karl Nekola, the inspirational illustrator who created the iconic Wemyss Ware brand when he worked for Fife Pottery in Kirkcaldy.

Galleries staff have chosen more than 20 of the 60-plus exhibits and written labels to accompany their selections. QR codes let audiences learn more about many of the artists and their works.

Brushstrokes has a separate art-themed space for family-friendly activities, which include reading, colouring, crafts and games.

“It’s been an absolute joy putting this exhibition together,” says Lesley Lettice. “It’s an incredibly diverse show so we’re confident that there will be something to please each and every one of our visitors.”

To find out more about Brushstrokes, go to www.onfife.com/events/brushstrokes

Brushstrokes is at Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries from 9 December to 2 June2024. Admission is free.

Young people are picking up top filmmaking tips as part of a heritage project aimed at boosting mental health and wellbeing.

West Fife secondary pupils involved in the Sugarcoat initiative are learning skills including camera set-up, lighting techniques and sound recording.

The eight students from Inverkeithing, Queen Anne and Dunfermline High Schools are also finding out how to edit footage and conduct interviews.

Sugarcoat is part of a £383,000 project, Dunfermline & West Fife – Wellbeing Through Heritage, which has received £247,000 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The project is offering an innovative programme of activities that uses the area’s rich heritage to improve the health, happiness and wellbeing of local young people.

A key element of the three-year project, which is run by Carnegie Dunfermline Trust, is encouraging visits to parks, woodland, historic sites and cultural destinations.

Sugarcoat trainees attend skills workshops at Pittencrieff House, Fire Station Creative and two venues run by the cultural charity OnFife – Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries and Carnegie Hall.

Sessions are led by two creative industries professionals, Adam Stanley and Otto Cox, who are passionate about nurturing the next generation of storytellers.

The project focuses on creating films that shed light on challenging topics often seen as being ‘sugarcoated’ from the perspective of young people.

Trainees recently met local MSP Shirley-Anne Somerville and filmed the discussion they had about the Scottish Government’s approach to vaping.

Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries will showcase all of the group’s finished films and related materials at an exhibition due place to take next summer.

Sugarcoat is a collaboration involving OnFife, Police Scotland Youth Volunteers and Fife Council’s digital youth work service, YouthSpace Fife.

OnFife Creative Instigator Ross Christie says: “It’s been amazing watching this group of young people develop their skills and confidence.”

“They are weaving their own stories into the fabric of our local history – Sugarcoat is about tackling real issues, celebrating our heritage, and showing the world their unique perspectives.”

Image: The Sugarcoat students with MSP Shirley-Anne Somerville and, standing behind from left, filmmakers Otto Cox and Adam Stanley, who are creative leads for the project, and Police Officer Scott Morgan, who runs Police Scotland Youth Volunteers and is one of the project leads.

Star performer Kim Shepherd is used to making waves in pantomimes … but this year she is aiming to create something of a splash too.

Dunfermline-based Kim has starred in all the classics – Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin – and now The Little Mermaid is offering a chance to explore new territory.

A fresh take on the Hans Christian Andersen deep sea classic – and the hit Disney animation – marks the return of panto to Kirkcaldy’s Adam Smith Theatre and Kim cannot wait to take the plunge.

This year’s show, from 9 December to 6 January, will be Kim’s 12th panto and the nine-strong cast is promising a family show full of love, laughter – and, fish fingers crossed – happily ever after.

Says Kim, who plays the lead role of Azurial: “I can’t wait to be back at The Adam Smith! I love the theatre and am really chuffed to be a part of the first pantomime there since 2019.”

“It’s a brand-new script with loads of laughs – written with Kirkcaldy audiences in mind – and we’re so pleased to be airing it for the first time in the newly refurbished venue.”

Tickets are available from £13. Family tickets offer savings of up to 15 per cent and there are also offers for group bookings. Shows include relaxed and BSL performances.

A relaxed show is scheduled for Wednesday 3 January at 2pm – loud sounds will be reduced, lights will be left on a little brighter and people can leave their seats if they need a little break. A BSL performance, with an interpreter at the side of the stage, will take place on Wednesday 27 December at 7pm.

“I’m a huge fan of the original Disney animation and spent hours trying to copy Ariel’s voice when I was younger,” says Kim, who has starred in the past four OnFife pantos at the Adam Smith Theatre.

“I’ve never played a mermaid before so taking on the Azurial role is a challenge I’m really relishing. I’m sure audiences will love it – and be blown away by the dazzling new costumes and theatre set.”

Kim will be joined on stage by River City star Greg Powrie, who plays Crustina the Crab, and OnFife panto favourite Colin Little, who doubles up as Codswallop and Captain Blowhole.

Scott Watson plays Freddy the Flounder, Lorraine Graham is Aunty Augusta, Benjamin Kempton is Prince Eric and Michelle Donnelly will play Queen Oceana.

Also taking part will be ensemble cast members Charlotte Jean-Moore and Bradlee Wetherill – completing a line-up focused on providing an evening full of sparkle, spills and thrills galore.

“Our panto version may not stick rigidly to the original story,” says Kim, “but the key characters are all there – the dashing prince, evil octopus, fun flounder, wise crab and, of course, the mermaid.”

“The whole cast is really up for the show. It’s a panto with everything – catchy tunes, great gags, brilliant dance routines and high drama … to say nothing of one or two surprises along the way!”

The cast of The Little Mermaid

Kim Shepherd

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