The Peeblean Midweek Extra: Tuesday 20 May 2025
The Batch Lady is Tweed Togs new patron, Peebles Orchestra, Shakespeare at Traquair, Three Bridges is back, Make it to Munich (Euros 24) documentary.
It’s a brilliant concept and an essential service and I am immensely proud to now be a part of it.” Suzanne Mulholland confirmed as Tweed Togs patron - see below.
We’ve not done a midweek update in a while but we have a cheeky exclusive to share and we’re also giving a wee boost to some events happening towards the end of the week that would love your support.
On your marks, get set, it’s a GO for the County Sports this week as Peeblesshire primary pupils gather at Whitestone Park for the annual event on Wednesday 21 May. Races start at 18:00.
The Three Bridges Race will go ahead this year on the evening of Tuesday 10 June, thanks to some volunteers stepping forward. We’ll have the full details in Friday’s round-up.
This coming Saturday (24 May) Peebles Orchestra are performing a concert of Mozart, Haydn and Mendelssohn in the Burgh Hall at 19:30. Under the baton of Robert Dick they’ll be joined by the young virtuoso Pawel Szulc on piano - he is a student at the City of Edinburgh Music School and a remarkable talent.
This year’s Shakespeare at Traquair production of Macbeth, directed by Esmé Babineaux, opens next Wednesday (28 May) and tickets are selling fast. The sold out performances are 30th May, 31st May and 7th June. If you want to go on Friday 6 June then hurry as they are down to single figures. Tickets are still available (but selling well) for 28-29 May and 4-5 June.
Tickets are available through the Eastgate Theatre box office (01721 725777) or online. If you’re coming on Friday or Saturday you can also book to eat at the Traquair Walled Garden Café before the show.
Live theatre comes to the Eastgate Theatre next week with a performance of LIFE by Maria MacDonell on Thursday 29 May. The production received four and five star reviews at Edinburgh Fringe 2024 and is set in a life drawing class with the performers playing the artist and the model.
Maria says it is based on her experience as a portrait model: “LIFE is about all of us, sharing one difficult certainty. It deals with this through memory, humour, storytelling and art. LIFE is about abuse and how we hide it, female ageing, the male gaze; women as objects; humanity’s need to frame experience as folk tale and our faces and the stories they tell”.
THIS WEEKEND
Friday 23 May
Peebles Singers concert on Friday 23 at the MacFarlane Hall, 19:30, £6
Soundclash DJ night at the Vale Club, 20:00 - 12:00
Saturday 24 May
Fiona Henderson School of Dance Junior School Show - Saturday and Sunday
Traquair Medieval Fayre, 11:00 - 17:00 on Saturday and Sunday
The Blyth Bridge and District Tractor Run is leaving from Newlands Centre at 09:30, with an anticipated arrival time in Peebles of 13:00
Plant sale coffee mornings in Eddleston (10:00 - 12:00) and Innerleithen Memorial Hall (sale from 08:00, coffee morning from 09:00). The YM Dancers coffee morning is at Peebles Rugby Club club rooms from 10:00 - 12:00.
Peebles Orchestra Concert on Saturday 24 May at the Burgh Hall - Haydn and Mendelssohn
Sunday 25 May
On Sunday 25, Peebles CC 55m Road Race leaving from Broughton Village Hall
COMING UP
If you missed Sewing Bee judge Patrick Grant at Broughton Village Hall last month, he is returning to Scotland on 1 June for an evening event at Greenbank Parish Church in Morningside. Tickets are £14 and there’s a £1 booking fee.
Make it to Munich is a low-budget Scottish documentary about a courageous young footballer from Aberdeen who suffers life-changing injuries while on a college football scholarship in the US. With a knee rebuilt from scratch and a long rehab journey ahead of him, his surgeon suggests they mark his progress by cycling from Glasgow to Munich for Scotland’s opening game of the 2024 Euros. Entrusted with the match pennant, they have just 13 days to cycle the 1200km journey. The film of their endeavour was premiered at Glasgow Film Festival in March and is coming to the Eastgate on Wednesday 11 June at 13:30 and 19:30. Tickets available. Watch the trailer here.
EXCLUSIVE: Batch Lady is a Match for Tweed Togs
Suzanne Mulholland – or as she’s better known, The Batch Lady – has agreed to become a Patron of Tweed Togs. The Borders clothing service is a volunteer-led charity set up in 2017 to provide high-quality clothing to families in the Scottish Borders.
The family-cooking expert gathered an international online following for her make-ahead cooking videos, filmed in the kitchen of her family farm in the Scottish Borders. Now a best-selling author and TV presenter, she recently visited the charity’s hub in Peebles to meet with volunteers and thank them for their commitment. Suzanne will formalise her partnership with the charity over the summer.
Each Tweed Togs clothing parcel includes a week’s worth of seasonally appropriate clothing, including a coat, sets of new underwear and nightwear, to families who are experiencing difficulties because of financial hardship, social disadvantage, ill health, disability or as a result of being refugees. The charity has no paid staff and services are provided by 43 volunteers who supported 470 families in 2024. The charity has seen demand for its services increase year on year; referrals increased by 22% between 2023 and 2024.
During her visit, Suzanne paid tribute to the charity’s efforts: "I am absolutely delighted to have been asked to become a patron of this wonderful charity. I have watched it grow from strength to strength each year, thanks to the dedication and compassion of its incredible team of volunteers. Their work in providing children in need with clean, beautifully presented bundles of high-quality clothing—wrapped with care to make each child feel truly special—is both inspiring and deeply impactful. It’s a brilliant concept and an essential service, and I am immensely proud to now be a part of it.”
Tweed Togs trustee Susan Walker expressed the charity’s delight to have Suzanne on board: "We are over the moon to have Suzanne Mulholland as Patron of Tweed Togs. Suzanne not only has a huge social media and celebrity presence as The Batch Lady but also has wide experience of our charity's purposes as former Chair of the award-winning Borders Children's Charity. Volunteers were delighted to meet Suzanne on her introductory visit and chat about her supportive role."
Susan Walker and Tweed Togs volunteers were given the Tweeddale Citizen of the Year Award 2023 in recognition of their contribution. They recently had a National Lottery support grant confirmed and are an active participant in the community conversation initiated by Peeblesshire Foodbank on tackling financial disadvantage locally.
We’re back on Friday - tell us what’s going on!
The Peeblean