Record-breaking salmon season on River Tweed

THE 2010 salmon season on the River Tweed has been described as the best for 60 years, in a newly released report.

Ahead of the Tweed Commission’s official figures to be released next month, Bill Stanworth of the FishTweed group - who cover 75 per cent of the beats on the river - said a “staggering” 18,000 salmon were caught.

And Mr Stanworth’s “conservative” estimate for the whole of the Tweed’s 97 miles of water is 22,500 salmon caught, a record breaking total.

Mr Stanworth, who wrote the report, told The Berwickshire News: “2010 was absolutely fantastic. “There were some good waters during the summer but by late July and August it took off big time.

“It is not uncommon to see over 1,000 salmon returned in a week in autumn but for five weeks in September and October it became the norm. We had a return of 1,400 in one of those weeks.

“There was even a day in September where 600 were caught.

“I have records going back to the 1940s and have never seen anything like it.”

The previous annual best recorded by FishTweed was 12,984 in 2007, while 2009 saw just over 10,000.

The huge numbers were despite a poor spring season, according to Mr Stanworth.

He wrote: “In the early spring months it appeared from the returns on gillieline that there was a slight improvement to those of the previous year, however, when all the FishTweed beats updated their figures at the year end, the spring figures were marginally lower.

“Knowing these early season returns, the Tweed Commission took the decision to impose a total catch and release policy for salmon from mid-April till the end of the spring fishing period - this ruling has subsequently been extended for the next five years.” Mr Stanworth also noted the high numbers of salmon weighing over 20lbs, with four tipping the scales at 30lbs.

He wrote: “All the beats that subscribe to FishTweed exceeded their five year average and set new records on a daily, weekly and monthly basis during the autumn.

In conversations with boatmen/ghillies and rods they all expressed the view that the size and quality of the fish caught was exceptional.”

Renovated Town Hall puts heart back into Greenlaw

AFTER years of falling into disrepair, new life has been breathed back into Greenlaw Town Hall and it has already welcomed the first tenant to one of its new office spaces.

The building has had numerous guises over the years including a World War II billet, court house and swimming pool but in recent years has been firmly closed to the public.

A group of Trustees formed the Greenlaw Town Hall Project Committee with the aim of firstly halting the building’s decline and latterly to explore the options for its long term future.

Once these possibilities were addressed the Committee, chaired by Peter Leggate set about gaining funding for the Town Hall’s restoration and one of their first ports of call was BBC Two’s ‘Restoration Village’.

Unfortunately the project didn’t progress further than its first TV heat despite gathering high praise from Duns Oscar winner Tilda Swinton who dubbed it a “beautiful and elegant” building.

But this setback didn’t set the tone for further funding applications and after the Scottish Historic Buildings Trust took hold of the project at the end of 2007, sizeable grants arrived from Historic Scotland (£500,000) and the European Regional Development Fund (£475,000).

 

Top movie stars heading for Duns

TOP British movie stars Dominic West and Rebecca Hall will be calling Berwickshire their home for the next few weeks, as the region provides the backdrop for 'The Awakening', an Edwardian ghost story which promises to be one of the most exciting and original films of its type since The Sixth Sense.

Dominic West shot to stardom in the hit television series The Wire, and Bafta-winning actress Rebecca Hall's work to date includes Vicky Christina Barcelona, Frost/Nixon, and the first of the Red Riding trilogy.

'The Awakening' also features Oscar-nominated Imelda Staunton, who played Dolores Umbridge, one of Harry Potter's teachers in the hit series, and won a Bafta best actress award for Vera Drake.

Filming was due to start this week at undisclosed locations in the region, and will move to Manderston in mid August.

Rosie Ellison, film liason manager with Edinburgh Film Focus, the council-funded office which promotes Edinburgh, Lothian and the Borders as film locations, helped producers find the perfect locations for the film to be shot.

She explained: "For the last couple of years we've been helping them look at potential locations. The brief has changed a lot over that time but we have got some fantastic properties in the Scottish Borders, and fortunately for us, even after all the changes to the brief, they still felt that the Borders had all they were looking for.

"This film has been a couple of years in planning but in the last four months it has really picked up pace and they start filming in the Lothians and Borders this week."

Rosie confirmed that the stars and crew of 'The Awakening' are staying locally, near Duns, and said that the filming would bring substantial economic benefits to the region.

"There's a lot of investment in accommodation in the area so we are really pleased," she said.

And With Scotand's economy reportedly raking in up to 1billion thanks to a roaring trade in 'set-jetting', Berwickshire could benefit hugely from the project.

Produced by David Thompson, whose Origin Pictures developed the project with BBC Films, 'The Awakening' will be the debut feature of Nick Murphy, who previously shot Edwardian Country House at Manderston House. "The director has filmed there before so he knew it already," Rosie explained.

"They're using the kitchens again, which were used in Edwardian Country House, and the basement area."

StudioCanal Features are the lead financier of the project, alongside BBC Films and public film agency Scottish Screen (now creative Scotland), who have put up 300,000, its maximum investment under current rules.

"We're so pleased that Scottish Screen was able to invest," Rosie commented. "They have to make sure they are investing in Scotland so they must have confidence in the project.

"You never know how things will go, but this is a really good story from the script we have read."

Written by Nick Murphy and Stephen Volk, 'The Awakening' is set in 1921 in a post-war world of loss, and tells the story of Florence, who has been devastated by the death of her fianc.

Many women who lost loved ones in the First World War turned to spiritualism, but Florence believes it is a con and uses scientific inquiry to expose the truth, establishing a name for herself as a psychic detective.

When a pupil is found dead at Rockwood, a remote boarding school rumoured to be haunted by the ghost of a dead boy, Florence accepts an invitation to investigate.

After uncovering various secrets, she concludes that the ghost was nothing more than a schoolboy prank. She is getting ready to leave when suddenly something happens to undermine her entire belief system.

The film has a total budget thought to be in the region of 3m, and has caused considerable excitement in the industry.

One insider said: "The Awakening is a sophisticated psychological-supernatural thriller in the tradition of The Others, but with a unique and thrilling twist and a heart-breaking climax."