Old farm photo's in Aberdeen & the Shire

[Leakeyvale]

Thanks Sue currently keeping warm in a built in warddrobe ;)

Ah bless. Possibly the best place to keep them.

My cousin recently retrieved a stack of photos from the loft where they had been for around 30 years.  We hummed and hahhed and finally we decided to get them out of the frames and it was amazing the detail once the soot/dust and insect droppings were removed.  The plus of removing them was that on one or two had writing on the back which identified some of the subjects and a couple had writing on the front but hidden behind the frame!

Unfortunately some were badly damaged although being in the dark meant they had not faded too badly. 

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The other week something came up about the last Clydesdale horse my grandad had when he faramed at Drumligair Newmachar. I as a kid remember her being loaded on to the float and off to the Clydesdale Horse sanctuary since she could no longer lie down to sleep. According to mum Kate was the first foal to be born at Drumligaie when grandad and the family moved from a croft at the Hill of Dudwick just outside Ellon. Grandad kept Katie as long as he could despite the fact she no longer earned her keep ;)

Today mum brought a couple of photos accross of her

The first one is of her being worked by my uncle Sandy and on the back its says July 1963. I suspect the job in hand was "shimming the neeps"

And a view of Katie from the rear end taken on 16th April 1961 when she was 16 years old

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Scans were rather small so I decided to photo

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Today I was sorting a box of bits and bobs I got from my uncle when we moved him into a sheltered cottage 15 months ago.

I was over the moon when I found a black and white photo of Drumligair Farm Newmachar where my grandfather farmed. I have spent many happy time there as a kid but now although the farmhouse remains the Steading and Courts are now turned into Mews,

[Big A]

interesting to see the last pic Bill. a big change from what it is now.

[BC]

At a guess I would say that would have been taken in the late 50's Andy. Yes quite a change only the farm house looks a bit the same now really. Things move on but I was really pleased to have found this old photo. That's the Nuffield shed to the extreme left near the back.

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Yesterday We cleared my uncles cottage with furniture going to Magpie, some to the tip and some antique stuff to Drumoak for selling at a later date. When at the tip there was a chest of drawers and luckily we removed the drawers and found mum had missed emptying on and included within were two photos of the farm of Drumligair of Newmachar. There is a black and white one which mum recons is late 1950's and also a colour one which could have been taken in the early 1960's. I'll try and get a better outdoor photo of the coloured one.

[BC]

Well rather rainy when I got home today and I don't have my daylight lamp now since it failed in less than 8 hours and still awaiting my replacement one...anyway I took a couple inside my garage instead. I think I will remove them from the frames and get them photocopied for the rest of the family.

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At the DMR weekend at Freuchie last weekend there were quite a few sidles of old black and white photos being shown in addition to the one I took down with the two International's near a signal box in circa 1958 somewhere in the Angus area and also on of the Grey Case Model C from Newmachar rolling at Laverick Braes Farm near Danestone in the Bridge of Don Aberdeen.. On the Sunday I was chatting to Henry Pirie a vintage tractor enthausast  like myself from Pittmedden in Aberdeenshire. I was telling him about the 1913 photograph of 4 pairs of Clydesdale and all the Farm works at Couille Undy in Aberdeenshire which is only a few miles from where Henry stays. He was saying he had a scan of a photos of teh workers and 3 Massey Ferguson tractors in. We have duly swapped copies of photos but I must get the horse one scanned. In addition since this year is 100 years on from 1913 I think I need to get with Henry and go to the farm and get photographs of the current fleet which well could be one man and a large tractor  

 

 

 

[BC]

Be careful, Bill.  Damp and or constant changes of temperature can really damage old photos especially in frames as condensation can form behind the glass. 

Personally I would take them out of the frames and scan them to ensure a good copy to keep as insurance. That also gives an opportunity to clean the glass thoroughly before resealing them.  You will be amazed the dirt that accumulates as I have been doing just that with photos from the 1880's that used to hang on the wall in my grandmother's house.  Decades of soot on the inside of the glass AND on the photos.

Better to keep them in a more constant environment than your tractor shed regardless of how well you have insulated it.

 

Almost two years on Sue but I have got around to removing them...well actually spurned on by two folk at last weekend DMR show who wanted to see the scans. What a sod of a job to remove they were held in with steel triangles as thick as stanley knife blades and not like the one in modern day farmes. Anyway removed without any damage. I haven't cleaned the glass and replace the photos yest since I may take to work and see if I can get better scan on that machine.

 

 

Can't quite yet work out what all the writing is about

 

 

The byre at Laverick Braes farm Danestone where George Cruickshank took tenancy after being grieve at Coulie Farm Udny.

 

 

I think the date on the back is 1948

 

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I decided I better do the for the farm of Drumligair in the parish of Newmachar where my granddad farmed. Mum thinks the black and white is 1960 and the colour one is a few years later.

 

 

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Yesterday after noon Henry Pirie had a run over to Coullie and took some photos of how it is today in comparison to the 1913 and 1960 photos.

 

Henry always speaks (spiks) to me in Doric so I don't know if you will all understand what he is telling me..but at the end of the day there is some mileage in following up with some other people who have worked at Coullie Farm over the past 100 years,

 

 

Hi Bill,

Fair tricket ye like the pics, bit ‘ere is still mair wark tae be daen yet.

Jist up the road fae me bides an elderly wifie, ( nae much alder than me),

an’ she wis fee’d at Coullie as kitchie deem a’ her workin’ life. Also

Andy Stephen that sent the photo tae the papers, his brither an’ my big sister

has been pals for donkey’s years. Anither o’ the men in  the photo,

Sandy Isaac, his loon bides in Pitmedden so he micht hae some pics.

So we hiv ane or twa roadies tae ging doon yet

Cheers, Henry.

 

 

 

 

 

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Yesterday I took the folks out for a run in the country and we made our way to Coullie at Udny. I wanted to make contact with the farmer but no one was in at the farmhouse. Later in the afternoon when i got back home I was able to get the farmers telephone number of his main farm at Newburgh and gave hime a call. he was delighted to hear about the photo and he asked ne to email it to him which I duly did. He wants to meet up some Saturday and he is quite agreeable on a photo 100 years on showing the tractors and machinery he uses at Coullie his out place. His grandfather took tenancy of Coullie in 1913 and it is a 260 acre farm. Christo though that 6 pair of horse was maybe more than adequate for that size of far. He then emailed me back saying

 

Bill

 

Very many thanks for sending on the photos.They are indeed very interesting.My father, who was brought up at a farm near Tarves,told me that every year the men on the farms spruced up the horses in their ‘Sunday Best’ and went to a local village for a competition for the best turned out team of horses – I just wonder if this is a photo of the Coullie entry as they are about to set off to such a competition as they don’t look in work mode.

 

Thank you for calling and I would very much welcome the chance to meet up with you later in the year.

 

Meantime many thanks and best wishes

 

Christo.

 

After Udny we went to where my granddad farmed at Drumligair Newmachar to get photos of the farm house and the old steading.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Guest WiltsMF]

What a lovely recollection of photos love the old ones especially if its family I have one of my Grandad on his old Nuffield and drill must get it up on here someone, I recovered it from his place as he passed away found a nice tray as well with a picture of him again drilling with a John Deere.

[BC]

Thanks Oliver. I really like old photographs and then finding out about them. I look forward to the ones of your grand dad especially the Nuffield.

[MF-ROB]

Some really good pictures there Bill love looking back at theses old pictures to see how the done things back then

[BC]

Thanks Robert. I'm looking forward to meeting up with the farmer and he is keem to get pictures of the tractors and machinery used on the farm at Coullie 100 years on.

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I had an email from Pete Small saying he was coming up to Aberdeen on Monday 18th to give a talk to the Scottish County Club.We are hoping we can tie in a visit to Coullie and met the farmer Christo Shepherd so Pete can get a story about the farm over the past 100 years.

 

I was asking Henry Pire who stays close by and this is what he came back with.

 

Hi Bill,

Whit a strange coincidence, jist as I wis opening yer latest

e-mail we hid a visitor, Jenny Gray wi this 4 photos, maybe

Christo wid be interested in them.  Jenny wis fee’d  hame tae

Coullie as kitchie deem  an wis ‘ere for 36 years Re Pete’s visit

lookin’ forrit tae seein’ him,

Cheers, Henry. 

 

 

I'm not sure of the make of this car and it isnt a local registration.

 

 

 

And I assume this is Jenny Gray

 

[catkom3]

I would hazard a guess at that car being an early Vauxhall but no idea what,and according to this pdf file I found,it was registered in Durham,?? http://www.cvpg.co.uk/REG.pdf it appears to be correct as it shows SV as being the mark for Kinross,which it was until you guys in Aberdeen acquired it after the regional changes,

Regards

Joe.

[BC]

Yes it is a Vauxhall Joe....Henry confirmed it as did Stuart Walker and Jake Duncan who has finally picked up Stuart's Scania 111 after buying it 18 months ago.....Stuart had to phone him yesterday and say it was going to John Lawrie the scrappies....the bluff worked and it was collected and balance paid for today

 

Here is Henry's take on it when I said i did not know the make of the car ...since well I'm not into older cars...just older tractors..lorries and well classic cars like the Ford RS2000 from circa 1977

 

 

Oh Bill Oh Bill,

The innocence of youth!! I forgot ye wisna born fin ‘at car wis new.

It is a1954 Vauxhall, probably either a Wyvern or a Velox & registered in

Sunderland. The main difference is that the Wyvern has a 4 cyl. engine & the

Velox a  6 cyl. ane,

Cheers, Henry

[BC]

Yesterday Pete Small, Jim Harrow and Henry Pirie meet up with Christo Shepherd who farms Coullie as his out place. Pete is wanting to do an artilce on the farm machinery for Classid Massey magazine.

 

in 1960 we see the farm needed 3 tractors and 6 men to run it. Today 50 odd years on it can be run by one man and one tractor.

 

 

 

 

Modes of transport have changes over the same time period as well

 

 

 

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Whilst Pete was getting his story from Christo I had a chance to get some pictures of the machinery they use at this farm and the main one at Newburgh.

 

 

 

 

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