Thursday 10th April 2025

Alan Holmes – Deeside Field Club

This meeting was hosted by Cromar History Group at the McRobert Hall in Tarland

For the first time, the Society held a joint meeting with Cromar History Group. Alan Holmes gave a fascinating talk on the Deeside Field Club. This Club was formed in 1920 and only ended its activities in 2004. It’s aim was to learn about Desside through winter talks and summer outings. The Club had a wide interest in both the human history of Deeside and it’s geology and natural history. It’s membership included the notable local writer Nan Sheperd. The presentation saw examples of the journal of the Club which are now held in the University of Aberdeen library. We also learnt about the work of the Club in funding monuments to commemorate significant local historical events.

20th March 2025

The Society broke fresh ground at its March meeting with a Quiz night for members, family and friends. Our Chairman set the questions, which tested how well people knew their local Heritage. And a music round was held just before the interval, with the Ukele Group Dee Cantus playing introductory fragments of songs. They then entertained the room with revealing and playing the full songs. A final round of questions rounded off the evening. The general feeling was that this format was a good combination of Fun and Learning more about our rich Heritage.

John Henderson

20th February 2025

(This month’s talk was scheduled as “Thomas Glover and Japan” to be presentd by Stephen Thompson. Unfortunately Stephen was unwell and our President John Henderson stepped in at very short notice, to give the excellent talk as below.)

John Henderson gave a talk on the History of Men’s Clothing. He explained that much of what men wear is of relatively modern times, often dating back only to the end of the 19^th Century or the beginning of the 20^th century. He gave the shirt as an example. Although it has a long history, its modern form can be traced to 1871 when Brown and Davis registered the first shirt with buttons all the way down. Before then shirts had been regarded as underwear. As modern shirts became more popular, a distinction developed with office workers wearing white shirts and manual workers blue shirts, hence the way such workers are often described today. The colour of a shirt was at times used by political movements such as the red shirts of followers of Garibaldi in Italy; and today T shirts often have slogans on them. 

The role of Aberdeen was touched on. In particular the Grandholm Mills of the Crombie company which made the iconic Crombie woollen coat bearing that name. A key market which helped the company develop, was for clothes for the military and royalty, including Queen Victoria. Another Aberdeen based company was Harrott and Co., based in Rose Street, who up until 1977 made gloves and woollens, being at one time the largest glove maker in Britain. 

19th December 2024

James Davidson, a local photographer, gave a fascinating talk on the abandoned buildings of Aberdeenshire. Drawing on a range of studies on the subject, he explained the diverse reasons for why there are so many. The general view has been that unlike some other areas of Scotland, there have been no large-scale clearances. In the main, people left these buildings because of changing land use patterns, and the prospect of better social and economic opportunities in towns and cities and overseas. His talk was brought to life by a selection of his own photographs of the buildings. These were very evocative of the lives of the people who had lived in these houses.

Marcus Humphrey

16th January 2025

Marcus Humphrey, who has held high office in Freemasonry in Scotland, gave a fascinating talk on the history of Freemasons and their current activities and organisation. He explained that the historical roots lay with the guilds of stone masons. By the 18th Century the movement had widened to include a cross section of society, and a more formal national structure developed in Scotland. Then, as now, the aims were to give members a fellowship with each other, to support the members to lead ethical lives and through charitable funds help their communities. He mapped out the local lodges in Deeside,including in Aboyne, which were part of an extensive Scotland and global network.

22nd November 2024

Ewan Sargent, the Principal Teacher of Humanities at Aboyne Academy gave a fascinating talk on how History is currently taught, History being one of the Humanities. He explained the stages that young people pass through in their education, leading up to nationally approved qualifications at S4 to S6. At these later stages there is a range of topics that students taking History can cover, determined nationally. The school is free to choose from these categories – the choice to some extent depends on teacher specialisations. An example of a topic would be the Study of Queen Mary and the Reformation. We also learnt how on-line source material was being increasingly utilised. And, finally, we were invited to share information with the Academy for a project celebrating its opening 50 years ago. The school was officially opened in 1975, so the celebrations will be next year, 2025.

17th October 2024

Douglas Ledingham – A Journey Through Time

Douglas Ledingham gave a fascinating talk on using 3D photogrammetry to illustrate aspects of our physical heritage. He explained that he became interested in this technique after he came across a cupping stone in East Lothian. Cupping stones are a form of rock art dating from prehistoric times. They can be found throughout Scotland and the speaker has followed up his interest in helping to verify such stones, including in Aberdeenshire where he now lives. His expertise in 3D photogrammetry is being used to better understand Pictish stones and graveyard memorials. The technique produces 3D images that are able to enhance the artwork on a stone, and the software can be transferred to a 3D printer to produce accurate scale models. An excellent talk was enhanced by examples of his photography and several 3D models.

The first talk of the 2024/25 season on 19 September was a wonderful presentation by

Maureen Kelly on the Redcoats in Deeside. The talk focussed on the life of these

Hanoverian soldiers during the period after the last Jacobite uprising in 1745/46 and the

later period when the army was stationed in Deeside in the early nineteenth century to

counter illicit whisky distillation. The speaker explained how these soldiers came to be

named after their distinctive coloured broadcloth coats, and illustrated this and the kit

of the men. It was pointed out that Braemar Castle was used as the army’s local

quarters, housing around 70 soldiers, in fairly cramped surroundings. The speaker

brought the times alive by drawing from correspondence of a young officer posted to

Braemar in the eighteenth century.