Ceremony for Tom Allan 27 May
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Tom Allan's niece Marion Hughes has completed carving a stone replica of the wooden plaque carved by Tom Allen in 1965 -6 and placed in the bar at Stonington. There will be an unveiling ceremony at 2.00pm on Sunday 27 May at St Ronan’s Well, Innerliethen, Peebleshire. If anyone would like to go they should contact Marion directly marionhughes@live.co.uk. Invitation.
Tom died of exposure with {cms_selflink page='89' text='John Noel '}in June 1966 whilst {cms_selflink page='90' text='sitting out a storm in a snow hole'}.
Marion says that the sculpture has taken her about 55 hours to create. She has been spending a morning a week working in a studio in Rachan but recently took it home to spend more time completing it. You can see pictures of Marion's progress on her Facebook page.
As we reported earlier, Marion says that the man on the sledge, a FID or FIDDE, has an uncanny resemblance to a local image of the 'De'il' which is burnt at the end of St Ronans Border annual games. She wonders if Tom styled the FID's features “on oor De'il.” Tom, in his younger years, was a Dux Boy of St Ronan’s school and therefore would have enacted the role of St Ronan, a seventh century monk who reputedly came to the Leithen Valley and “cleiked the de’il” by the hind leg, thus driving out evil.
The original wood carving has not been seen for many years, so if anyone is aware of its location please contact Marion.
