ESSAY
The Steading was a house in which Tim Stead pioneered the use of locally sourced hardwoods rather than imported timber IT was in November 2020 that Nichola Fletcher decided it was all over. After five years of trying to raise money to save for the nation the remarkable home of craftsman and sculptor Tim Stead, the last funding application had been rejected. She and her colleagues on the Tim Stead Trust had reached the end of the line. Stead, who died in 2000 aged just 48, occupies a unique place in Scotland’s cultural landscape. Even those who are familiar with his most famous works – the North Sea Oil Industries Memorial Chapel in Aberdeen’s St Nicholas Kirk, the National Museum of Scotland’s Millennium Clock and the interior of Glasgow’s Cafe Gandolfi – may not know his masterpiece was actually the home he made for his family in the Borders village of Blainslie.
SCOTLAND could become top of the pops if plans for the world’s first sustainable soft drink bear fruit. It is hoped the project can also put the fizz back into Dunoon which was once home to a thriving soft drinks industry. From the late 1800s right through to the 1970s, the town was sparkling with the energy of the trade until it was hit by the rise of the supermarkets. Now it is the scene of what is hoped will be a soda revival after a new creative partnership secured funding to launch a soft drink brand called Dunoon Goes Pop.