Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting one of the icons of my youth, Mr John Craven of Newsround fame. My dry stone walling course partner Colin Purvis of Border Stonecraft had been approached by the BBC’s Countryfile team to do a TV program on dry stane dyking and Colin’s dry stone walling courses in the Scottish Borders and Colin asked me if I’d give him a hand.
I had no hesitation and agreed to Colin’s request not only for a chance to meet one of the great broadcasters of recent years but for another opportunity to wall in one of the most beautiful parts of Scotland and to meet up again with past students, namely Grant and Ron.
I drove up on the Tuesday night through some of the most torrential rain I’ve experienced, although when I crossed the border it had turned into a lovely evening. I checked in at my usual haunt when in Hawick, Lynwood Cottage where it was great to see proprietors Maggie and David again.
After a great nights sleep in the fantastic surroundings of Lynwood Cottage it was off to meet Colin. We had some time to kill as the other members of the walling gang weren’t due to meet us until 11:00 so we went to Chey Blythe's house to look at a cairn which Colin had built for the famous round the world yachtsman. I think you’ll agree that it’s a fantastic piece of art and dry stone walling. Colin has been commissioned to do another two cairns for Chey Blythe.
We met up with the lads at the walling site and did some preparation before myself, Colin and his good lady Jacqui went to meet the BBC Countryfile team and led them to the walling site.
After brief introductions it was straight into filming. It was easy to see why John is such a great broadcaster. His professionalism was so evident as he introduced the program and super star of
the moment, Colin. As the afternoon progressed everyone relaxed and it turned into a very enjoyable afternoon; good company, good fun and good weather which wasn’t forecast! I thought
Colin and Ron did very well on their first TV appearance being amateurs to stage and screen and I think it’ll be a very good program when it is broadcast in the autumn.
All too soon it was over and after a team photograph it was time to depart. My lasting moment of the day was John Craven taking time to look into Jack (Colin’s son) and Aaron’s (Grants grandson) bucket and discuss the contents with them – frogs and toads – which the young lads, being bored and under awed with the proceedings, had collected from the surrounding fields. There’s not many ‘stars’ who would have had time for those lads, never mind the contents of their bucket!
So thanks to one and all for a great day and Mr Craven it was a pleasure to meet you and well worth the 400 mile round trip!
John Craven’s Country File is broadcast on Sunday mornings at 11:00 on BBC1. I’ll let you know when this particular episode is due for broadcasting.
For more information on our dry stone walling and dry stone walling courses go to
www.hadriansdrystonewalls.co.uk
