Past Times 7th November 2017

Where? When?

Laurencekirk 1920 Laurencekirk. West End and Fountain A long straight town street lined with stone built houses. A group of children and a man stand by a cylindrical drinking fountain set on cobbles in the middle of a road junction or town square. The are several notice boards on the wall of the building in the left foreground and there is an inn on the street corner behind the drinking fountain. Two girls are running down the pavement on the left. The village of Conveth was developed and renamed Laurencekirk in the 1760s by Francis Garden, Lord Gardenston of Troup. Thomas Ruddiman (1672-1757) was the local school master.

Laurencekirk 1900s In the High Street, Laurencekirk with Daimler car parked and children on pavement watching. High Street in the village of Laurencekirk, Kincardineshire, was once the route north towards Stonehaven. Now the village is by-passed by the A94 dual carriage way. This item is part of the 'Robert Grieves Archive'. This extensive collection of images and documents of Scottish road transport has been accumulated over the past forty years and dates back as far as the turn of the 20th century. It has been purchased for conservation and preservation, with the help of Heritage Lottery Award, by the Scottish Motor Museum Trust.

Fettercairn Situated at the meeting of five roads in the Mearns of southern Aberdeenshire, Fettercairn is a quiet village of red sandstone houses with a central square. Within the square are the Mercat Cross (1670) with its old-style ell measurement and a fountain erected in 1869 to the memory of Sir John Hepburn Stuart Forbes, Baronet of Pitsligo and Fettercairn. The road to the north heads over Cairn o' Mount towards Banchory and Royal Deeside and 4 miles (7 km) to the east is Laurencekirk. Entering the village from the south, a great archway commemorates a visit to Fettercairn made by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert who stayed in the Ramsay Arms in September 1861.

North Water Bridge 1887 A view along a river with bare trees overhanging the banks and an elegant arched bridge at mid centre. A man stands on the left bank, possibly angling. The North Water Bridge crosses the North Esk at Bridgend, which is between Stracathro and Marykirk.

Ecclesgreig House, St Cyrus 1938 A large Scottish baronial house, with decorated gables and carvings set into the walls, many corner turrets with finials, and mullioned bay windows. The house is set in landscaped grounds with large lawns. There are spiral-shaped topiary bushes at the corners of a bed before the house and pointed finials are placed on the terrace wall round the house. A wide path with a bench separates the topiary from the lawn.

Fordoun Church 1894 A whitewashed house within a hedged garden sits on the steep foreground slope above a narrow wooded valley cutting into the glen floor. A church and graveyard with surrounding houses stand across the valley. The glen has fields and copses on its floor and lower slopes. There is a misty view of the far hills. The Gothic church has a broad body with buttresses and pinnacles along the sides and a tall narrow pinnacled west tower. The church was built in 1892 to replace a ruin in the churchyard. There is a Pictish symbol stone built into the walls. George Wishart (c1513-1546), the martyr, has a memorial here.

Glenbervie House 1890 Glenbervie House dates from the 17th century. Glenbervie is situated between Auchenblae and Drumlithie to the North of Laurencekirk. The Glenbervie estate was held by the Oliphants (originally Olifard or Oliphard) from the 11th century and eventually passed to the Melvilles via the female line. Robert Burns's family farmed at nearby Clochnahill, and several of his relatives are buried in the old Drumlithie churchyard, which was built on the site of an earlier church. In the early 19th century a new church was built in close proximity to Glenbervie House.