Issue No 16 NEWSLETTER Friends of Perth & Kinross Council Archive Honorary Presidents: Bob Scott, Provost of Perth & Kinross Council and Sir William Macpherson of Cluny and Blairgowrie Welcome to the summer edition of the Friends newsletter. You will notice the difference in style and content, which is down to our new associate edi- tors, David Wilson and Morag Sweet. I’m sure you will agree that their hard work and en- thusiasm has handsomely paid off. At this year’s AGM, members were treated to the Abernyte Heritage Group’s oral history presentation (reported inside). Thanks were expressed for the Friends’ volunteers’ hard work and that of the committee. Our particular thanks go to Christine Wood who is retiring as treasurer and who has done an excellent job during her term of office. We welcome Mr Pe- ter Stroyan who was appointed treasurer at the AGM and are pleased that Mr John Howat has been re-appointed as secretary. The minutes of the AGM and other committee and gen- eral meetings are available in the Archive searchroom. CONTENTS Page Historical Societies in Perth and Kinross 2 ‘Mind ye Betty, Ministers are just Men’. 4 Launching the Maritime Collection 6 Exploring Chosen Themes and Topics; — Poverty in Perthshire 9 Hard Times on the Farm; an Oral History Project dramatised 10 On First Meeting Secretary Hand 11 The Diddledan 13 Scottish Castles, Palaces and Mansions 15 Diary of Events Insert Perth & Kinross Council Archive, AK Bell Library, York Place, Perth PH2 8EP, Tel: 01738 444949 Email: [email protected] Historical Societies in Perth & Kinross In the past twenty years, there has been an explosion of interest in local history, archaeology and genealogy in our area, to judge by the number of local groups that have been formed, and their sometimes impressive range of activities. The following are known to exist, but there may well be others; if you know of any that are missing, we would be glad to know (and if any reader would like more information about a listed group, please contact us.) Abernyte Heritage Group Abertay Historical Society Auchterarder & District Local History Association Auld Abernethy Association Blairgowrie, Rattray and District Local History Trust Blackford Historical Society Breadalbane Heritage Society Carse Association for Continuing Education Coupar Angus Heritage Association Dunkeld and Birnam Historical Society Dunning Parish Historical Society Kinross-shire Historical Society Moulin and Pitlochry History Circle Muthill History Society Rannoch History Society Scone Local History Society Strathearn Local History Society West Stormont Historical Society Meigle History Society North Perthshire Family History Group Perthshire Society of Natural Science (Archaeology & History Section) From time to time we intend to spotlight individual societies, to give a picture of the kind of things they do, material they have published or information they can provide. In this issue, we are introducing the Scone and the Dunning groups - one very young, the other long- established. SCONE AND DISTRICT HISTORICAL SOCIETY 2005 marks the bicentenary of the move of the village of Old Scone to New Scone, and as a result of a public meeting, a committee made up of representatives of the various groups, clubs and societies within Scone was formed. One of the earliest ideas put forward was that Scone should have a local historical society, es- pecially given the bicentenary and the lack of any current book on the history of Scone. So a further public meeting was held and it was decided to form a Scone and District Historical So- ciety, with the agreement of the forty five people who attended. A committee was elected and a programme of speakers was drawn up for the first year. These included Morag Norris, Archi- vist from Scone Palace, Dr David Breeze from Historic Scotland (who gave a talk on the Stone of Scone), Steve Connelly, Archivist of Perth and Kinross Council and Fiona Slattery from Perth Museum. The other main item on the society’s agenda has been an exhibition on the history of New Scone, which has resulted in a large collection of mainly photographic material being put to- gether. It’s open from Saturday 21st May at the Robert Douglas Institute and will run until the end of August. The first AGM of the society was on Thursday 19th May, and we hope that, given our success- ful first year, we may go from strength to strength. Mike Moir, Chairman 2 DUNNING PARISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY Dunning has one of the largest and liveliest groups in the county. Founded in 1992, it now has over three hundred members in half a dozen countries - not bad for a village of less than a thousand in- habitants! It was the brainchild of a Scots-Canadian incomer, Mr Lorne Wallace, a retired journal- ist with old family ties with Dunning, who turned his fascination with his new home into an illus- trated book on the village's past. That book, Crossroads and Characters, created an awareness of the need to salvage knowledge that was in danger of being lost, and the Society was the result. It has been, and still is, an extremely active group, punching well above its weight in terms of publi- cations and events. For instance, every quarter it publishes a 24-page colour magazine, carrying well-researched articles on aspects of Dunning's past. It has a strong web site which carries a mass of information about the village, including complete lists of gravestone inscriptions useful to genea- logical researchers. It has amassed a huge library of old photographs and prints, and has transcribed all the handwritten census returns for the village from 1841 to 1901 and which are available on CDs. The Society has also published several books, pamphlets, CDs and videotapes of professional quality, including an in-depth study of the evacuation of Glasgow children to the village in the early 1940s, and its long-term effects. The Society's regular programme of activities - talks, exhibitions, field walks, re-creations, visits to sites of historical interest - are the mainstay of village social life, and help to create a strong sense of local identity. Its regular meetings can attract audiences of eighty or more. Finally, on a less parochial level, it played a major part in the campaign to prevent the Dupplin Cross from being abducted from Strathearn by an Edinburgh museum, before finding its permanent home in Dunning's St. Serfs Church. Alf Marshal, Chairman St. Serf’s Dunning; Home to the Dupplin Cross (Reproduced with kind permission of Alf Marshal ) 3 ‘Mind Ye, Betty, Ministers are just Men…’ In January 1889 a local worthy, probably a Mr RA Forrest, gave a lecture to the Dun- ning Self-improvement Society on the history of the village. It obviously left a deep im- pression, because over a hundred years later, different manuscript versions had sur- vived in the possession of village families. For his time, he showed an admirable lack of deference in dealing with aspects of his society. In this short extract, he deals with the foibles and eccentricities of Dunning ministers. ‘Now here are some of the sayings and doings of some of our more interesting ministers. The Hon. Andrew Rollo was made minister in 1652. Like the vicar of Bray, he had a boundless capacity for conforming. 'He was everything by turns and nothing long'. He was at first an Episcopalian, then a Covenanter, then a Resolutioner and then again an Episcopalian. Whatever turned up, he, sensible man, 'stuck firm to his chalders' [i.e. his income, paid in chalders of meal]. Some vague reports about his behaviour led to the Presbytery visiting him. Nothing could be proven; nevertheless they gravely and seri- ously exhorted him: ‘to be circumspect in his carriage for times to come, and especially that he and his elders were to keep out of alehouses and sic like places on the Lord's Day’ After him, one William Reid was minister. He was a fearless Covenanter. It was told of him that on one occasion the minister at Auchterarder was too afraid of his parishioners to preach, and Reid stood in for him; but he preached with a pair of loaded pistols hung around his neck! He took part in the Battle of Bothwell Bridge. On his retreat from the battle he took ref- uge in the roof of Hamilton Church, where he witnessed the slaughter of a number of refugees below him. There he hid for three days, till hunger forced him to leave and enter a cottage for aid. The guidwife refused him food; but seeing some bowls of porridge sit- ting by the fire, he seized one of them, emptied it into his hand and ran, swallowing the porridge in his flight. To the Jacobites, he was a marked man. When they were approaching Dunning in 1716 to destroy the village by fire, his wife was anxious to get him hidden; but he told her they would not be able to touch a hair of his body because, before they arrived, he would be 'where the weary are at rest’. Then he sent for the village carpenter and told him to measure him for his coffin as he would need it before night. He died as he foretold, and was hurriedly buried before the highlanders came. Then, as if by Providence, the snow fell to hide his grave and stop them wreaking their vengeance on his body. But in his fury their leader, Lord George Murray, would not spare the manse to his widow and family. He had it put to the torch. As it burned, he declared that 'he was only sorry not to have the old dog's bones to bristle in the flames of his own manse’ At the burning of the village the highlanders showed their usual cunning.