• 5 Jun 2014 - Traditional meets Modern in Pathhead, Midlothian: visit to two contrasting houses in Midlothian.
• Another word from the webmaster about missing eMails.

Prestonhall

Hope House - image © Douglas Gibb

This is an opportunity to see two delightful houses, less than five miles apart, which are totally different from each other and are not open to the public.

Prestonhall was purchased by Alexander Callander in 1789. He proceeded to demolish the existing house and in 1791 the foundation stone was laid for the mansion that we now see. He died the next year and the house was completed by his brother in 1800. It is considered to be the most important work of the Aberdeen born architect Robert Mitchell. The two pavilions may have been part of the original William Adam building but remodelled by Mitchell. There were additional alterations in the early 19th century and the porch was added in 1850. The walled garden is in the exciting stages of being restored. The house has remained in the family and Mrs Henry Callander will welcome us in June.

Hope House, the brainchild of Richard and Pru Irvine, has been built within the last ten years. They took much time working out their ideas for a contemporary home, environmentally friendly and sitting harmoniously and comfortably within the landscape. It is located next to two 18th century lime kilns and the locally sourced materials used for the external walls complement the old kiln structures. Hope House has received Saltire Society and Edinburgh Architectural Association commendations and has appeared on the Channel Four Grand Designs programme. It is an exciting building created by two imaginative and resourceful people with the help of an excellent Edinburgh architect who was able to bring their ideas to fruition.

Members will meet at one of the two houses at 11.00 (detailed maps will be sent with the tickets), where they will be shown around the houses by Pru Irvine and Richard Callander. Weather permitting, it will be possible to see the walled garden at Prestonhall. At 12.30 both groups will join for a light lunch at Prestonhall after which the groups will switch venues for the afternoon visits. Tickets are priced at £25 a head. Numbers will be limited for this event. Members wishing to apply for tickets should return the form below with a cheque and SAE to Filly Nicol.

Click here for the flyer

Members have asked about missing EDFAS events eMails, and what we, or they, can do about this. Frequently, a friend has received the events eMail, but they have not. As I mentioned in the previous mailing, there are many possible explanations, a few within EDFAS' control, most completely outside it.

The most common cause of non-delivery is that our message is wrongly flagged as "unsolicited commercial eMail" or spam. Apparently, nearly 70% of all global eMail traffic is spam. We send out the eMails using a bulk mailing program, in such a way that the various mail servers should not wrongly assess our mails as spam. Nevertheless, this does happen, and there is almost nothing that EDFAS can do about this. In some cases, you, our members, may have control over your own spam filter, and, if you do (and know what this means), you may have the opportunity to "Whitelist" the mail address from which we send our mails. Nevertheless, our messages may still be trapped by other spam filters over which you, and we, have no control.

We are trialling a new means of distributing our flyers, Mail Chimp, which comes recommended by the IT professionals at NADFAS House. This may stand a better chance of not having our message flagged as spam. The "look-and-feel" of our message will be slightly different, and it will not come from EDFASmail@gmail.com, but, otherwise, it should be just the same. As ever, I should be interested in feedback, favourable or otherwise, to webmaster@edfas.co.uk.

Again ,repeating what i wrote in a previous mailing, human factors may also play a part. We have heard of members themselves deleting our mails without thinking, or, worse still (yes, we have heard this!), their spouses may have done so without consulting them. In such cases, EDFAS can do something to help. Henceforth, we shall post a link to any bulk eMails on the "Members' page" of the website. Should you wish to recover the mailing, you should find it there, and be able to link to the flyers for the various events, just as you would have done from the mailing itself. We shall leave the links there until well after the event has passed, and shall then purge the page of old mailings at intervals. We shall be glad to have feedback on whether this is of any help.

Many members are already familiar with the website and use it regularly, but we encourage those who are not to have a look. We are always available to help - up to a point.