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“Up Fittie down with the Hun”: 1920s xenophobia and trade

On April 2nd as many as 3000 gathered at the fish market intent on stopping all landings. Fish was dumped, boats cast adrift and strike breakers intimidated. At one point police threw a cordon between Torry and the town in an attempt to stop fishermen moving en-masse to the centre. Baton charges were made. Not to be outdone the women of Torry gathered bowls, jars and stones to pelt the police.…

Tribute to a common man

Kemnay’s Carrier James Mitchell Entering the village of Kemnay from the west you pass a substantial granite monument topped by a modest-looking figure in working clothes. This is no glorified general eyeing up the enemy or a haughty royal staring over the heads of us little people but an unassuming-looking man contemplating – his next job? the journey home? what to make for his supper? He looks…

The day young Byron was nearly lost in a snowstorm

Engraving of Byron as a boy based on a painting by John Kay Into the midst of a great snowstorm and winds of unusual strength emerged a group of schoolboys. It was a wild wintry day during the late 1790s and the folk of Aberdeen had never before seen anything like the ferocious gusting blasts swirling hale and the driving snow that fell with such intensity that stepping out into it was fraught…

Alford Heritage Museum – Aberdeenshire’s Hidden Gem

The wee village of Alford in Aberdeenshire is very fortunate in having two great museums in its midst. Many know of the Transport Museum but fewer have heard of Alford Heritage Museum which gets very little attention from the outside world. When I googled museums +Aberdeenshire up popped Aberdeen City museums onto the screen. So then I googled Aberdeenshire Council’s website pages on leisure,…

‘Have you anything for me?’ the story of Ballater airman and the 1937 boat plane, Capricornus

  Boat plane Capricornus I am addicted to looking around graveyards. Some, I admit, are more interesting than others for many give only the name of the dead and tell nothing of a once active life of the corpse buried below. What I am looking for are the ones that will stop me in my tracks.  This is what happened one sunny and cold Sunday when I found myself staring at a tall grey granite…

The Transportation of Angus Gillies

Angus Gillies from Inverness-shire was convicted of simple larceny (theft) at the Old Bailey in London in February 1845 and sentenced to seven years transportation. I don’t know what attracted Angus Gillies to make the long journey south into England but he worked for a time in the household of a Dr Dowler, as a carer for a man described at the time as ‘a lunatic’. Dr Dowler’s cook and…

The Fate of the Embroiderer from Peterhead

It was in 1707 that fraudulent bankruptcy became a capital crime in England; what the penalty for personal sequestration in Scotland was then I have not been able to discover but I suppose an English hanging may have been preferable to the French punishment of strangulation.  Peterhead’s Alexander Thompson was about thirty years old when he found himself on trial at the Old Bailey in London in…

British-American Project – grooming leaders

You will all be familiar with the British-American Project. No? Here’s a clue – it is a British/American networking organisation sponsored by several well-known businesses including Monsanto, Philip Morris (tobacco), Apple, British Airways, BP Coca-Cola, Unilever. In the words of BAP: “The British-American Project is a transatlantic fellowship of over 1,200 leaders, rising stars and opinion…

STOP PRESS: Russian Revolution 1917

It was almost incredible that it could be true. We stood together in the darkened street, half delirious with joy, while tears mingled with our laughter. Guest post by Textor Emotionally charged, with an echo of Wordsworth’s response to news of the French Revolution, these are the words Aberdonian John Paton on hearing that the Tsar had been overthrown. It was March 1917. It was the Russian…

Less is More: the muse of Marischal Square

Many hundreds of Aberdonians turned out to show their disapproval of the hugely misconceived Muse development which has the enthusiastic backing of the Labour led Aberdeen City Council. Views ranged from outright anger to suspicion over how we were so misled by them. At one stage all talk was of a civic square being created to act as a focus for the city which would be used for cultural events as…

The Eagle Stone, the Brahan Seer, Nutwood and the Earl of Cromartie

  This Pictish stone currently sits on a brae at Strathpeffer in Ross and Cromarty. Allegedly this brae is called Nutwood Lane which sounds horribly twee straight out the pages of Enid Blyton so we’ll draw a suitably lacy curtain over that dubious name.  The area’s rich Pictish heritage includes many symbol stones  including this one with carvings of an eagle and a horse shoe arc. It is also…

Howe of Alford Wee Stone Circle:startling new discovery

A recently excavated stone circle of nine varied orthostats uncovered during scrub clearance throws into question what we know about Neolithic stone crowns. There is no recumbent stone included in this circle but one of the taller orthostats has the look of a flanker.   Were such miniature rings created as blueprints from which to work on larger constructions or did they initiate young men in the…

Old Midmar church and graveyard

Old Midmar Church The tiny graveyard and church ruin of Old Midmar or Migmar in Aberdeenshire lies below a narrow busy road west of Echt so if you go to take look be careful.   The roofless kirk is St Nidan’s, and you’ll battle with Google looking up that one as is the way with many things Scottish and Welsh, and its cemetery date from the 17th century. However this church is a replacement for an…

Pancho Villa murders Keig man

The Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs made a statement in the House of Commons on Wednesday April 22nd 1914 about the brutal murder of Keig man at the hands of Pancho Villa. A telegram from a citizen of El Paso was read out in the US Senate stating that Benton was murdered like a dog.      William S. Benton of Keig This was slap-bang in the middle of the Mexican Revolution and Pancho Villa…