Aikwood has been much enlivened during the last few weeks by its temporary residents.
They are two of the musicians working on The Lasses, O – Seylan Baxter and Rachel Newton – and its director, John Bett. Large instruments clutter the hall and from time to time the sweet sound of practice is heard.
Occasionally, the tower’s elasti
c walls have expanded to embrace the third musician, Lillias Kinsman Blake, actress Gerda Stevenson and Matthew Burgess, who has returned to stage management duties for Rowan Tree after his acting spell in Not About Heroes last autumn.
When I went to meet John Bett at Edinburgh airport, he reminded me that the first time we’d met had been 30 years ago, when he’d played Fletcher in a low-budget schools drama about Flodden. Memories came flooding back, both of the film and of its creation at Hutlerburn.
Some of the Fairholm ponies went down with their riders to be taken on as equine actors, and I sent our foster son down on our own faithful black, Hamlet. We were inordinately pleased when Hamlet triumphed in the audition to be not only Fletcher’s horse, but that of the king’s messenger who went out with the summonses to Flodden (All right, you needn’t tell me, Fletcher would have been on foot, not on horse).
The one part of the film I remember was Hamlet, ridden by a man called Hilton Middleton, galloping up the drive to what would be our future home, Aikwood Tower. Hilton Middleton had a kind of a dream job – he was rider to the BBC in historical dramas. He had very long legs and carried his own stirrup leathers around with him.
Ever since John Bett arrived, we’ve been trying to find a copy of the film.
It was done at the same time as a film about Stuart Coltherd, then at primary school, and his preparations for the Common Riding. I’ve managed to trace two copies of the film about Stuart, but not the one about Flodden.
Even the BBC archives and John Bett’s parents haven’t been able to yield a copy. I’m still trying – it would be terrific to have it in time for the Flodden 500 celebrations.
Last weekend John’s wife, the actress Sarah Collier, was due to arrive. He went out into our orchard to pick some daffodils for their room, and came in having had a déjà vu experience.
“Was that always an orchard?” he asked.
“Well, there were always apple trees,” I said.
“That’s where I brought the flag back to, when I was Fletcher!” he said. “I can remember the walls and the trees. I had to stagger through them, dripping with blood, to where my mother was waiting.”
John, having completed his job as director, returned south on Sunday. But I’m sure that as well as coming back for the final performances of The Lasses, O at the end of April, he’ll return to the Borders – certainly he will if he has the chance to make theatre again in the perfect conditions supplied at Bowhill.
As for me, I feel I’ve made a new friendship that has its roots firmly in the past.
And Sarah left me with a new recipe as well.
