PerthshireCrieffStrathearn Local History

2022-11-09T07:30:00.004-08:00

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

1.Athol Davaar Lamont

Birth Date: 1 Dec 1891 Death Date: 15 Oct 1918

Memorial: Portsmouth Naval Memorial

Fauther: John Lamont ; Mother: Isabella Nairn

Regiment: Royal Navy ; Regimental Number: M/14927

Ship Name: HM SM J6

Name: LAMONT ; Engine Room Artificer 3rd Class ; M/14927

-Age at death : 26

2. James Gemmell Plowman

Death Date: 12 Jul 1915 ; Death Place: Gallipoli

Enlistment Place: Glasgow ; Rank: Private ; Regiment: Highland Light Infantry; Battalion:6th (City of Glasgow) Battn. (Territorial)

Regimental Number:2329 ; -Type of Casualty: Killed in action ;Theatre of War: Balkan Theatre

Age 24 ;HELLES MEMORIAL; Panel 174 to 178.

3.Silas John Whiteman

Birth Place: Ashbrooke, Cirencester, Glos.

Death Date: 2 Jun 1915 ;Death Place: France and Flanders

Enlistment Place: Cirencester ; Rank: Private; Regiment: Household Cavalry and Cavalry of the Line

Battalion: Corps of Dragoons. 1st Kings Dragoon Guards

Regimental Number: 7477; Type of Casualty: Killed in action

Theatre of War: Western European Theatre

02 June 1915

Age 24

Buried :SANCTUARY WOOD CEMETERY ; V. B. 28.

United Kingdom

4.Athol Davaar Lamont

Age:21; Death Date: 18 Feb 1940

Cemetery: Naval Memorials In The United Kingdom Portsmouth Part Vi

Regimental Number :P/JX 143595; Able Seaman; P/JX 143595

PORTSMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL; Panel 39, Column 1.

5. Captain David Anthony Stewardson

Age 29

474864, Royal Army Ordnance Corps

Killed in action, age 29, on 9 September 1971

Killed defusing a bomb, Castlerobin, Antrim.

Laid to rest at BARNHILL CEMETERY, BROUGHTY FERRY,

DUNDEE.

REMEMBERED WITH HONOUR

2022-11-03T04:11:00.000-07:00

2022-11-02T09:35:00.002-07:00

Mayall Family Story

October 2022

Introduction

I have been digging and delving into my family roots for some considerable time . My dear wife Liz passed away on the 4 April 2020 leaving a dreadful void in my life . One blessing has been the closeness of our family – God bless them all . I gave son Nic a copy of my Sharp Family History and he enjoyed it so much asked if I would do a similar one for our Mayall side of the family . Well- here goes !

The name is clouded in mists from the past but I have here utilised the opinions of previous researchers as published on the net – the truth behind these facts cannot be guaranteed ! It came from France “ in the wake of the Norman Conquest of 1066 “ . One theory is that it is derived from the Middle English personal name of “ Mihel “a vernacular form of Michael meaning “ who is the Lord ?” Variants of Mayall that have turned up over the generations include Mayell, Mayhall, Miall and Myall in my research the variant occurred with my three times great grand father who was generally referred to as Edward Meal !

The earliest recording of the name occurs in Norfolk although it appeared in the Subsidy Rolls of Suffolk in 1524 as John Mihell . An interesting observation is that “ the family has a long history in Oldham Lancashire . “ This is comparatively close to where our own Mayalls were domiciled in the West Riding of Yorkshire and in particular Marsden in Almondbury south and west of Huddersfield . Areas of Mayall emigration Include in particular Australia and USA . As will be revealed later in this tale my grandfather , Lewis Mayall’s brother Jack ( John Edward ) moved with family to Australia and is buried in Cumberland New South Wales as are his family .

In family history it is the general procedure to start with say yourself and work back in time . For this saga I will start with the furthest back ancestor ( as at July 2020) and work my way to the present age !

Generation One

Labourer and wadman – Edward Meal

My comparatively recent research turned up an interesting revelation pertaining to my 3 x great grandfather Edward Mayall . Early documentation{Baptismal Cert /opposite } told us he lived in Marsden a town to the west of Huddersfield in the district known as Almondbury . His wife as shown on the baptismal record of son David was referred to as “ Mary “ with no maiden name or indeed surname stated .Edward’s occupation was given as “ wadman “ or wood man . This was in 1815 . This blank in my genealogical trail was not sorted out until the last few months .

The baptismal record obtained from the archives service of West Yorkshire gives Edward’s surname “Mayale” Later my research turned up the name spelt “ meal”. The Parish of /Almondbury has /numerous possible ancestors with the surname “ Meal “ ! Lingards Wood was the birth place of Edward (also recorded as "Lingarths") is a former township and formed part of the chapelry of Slaithwaite in the Parish of Almondbury. It mostly comprised moorland and included Deer Hill Reservoir. ( see pics below )

Lingards Wood

Edward Mayall or Meal was born there in 1791. At the time of writing , his baptismal certificate could not be traced and his parents are not known . What was interesting was locating his entry in the 1851 National Census . The Census started in detail in 1841 for the whole of the UK . Prior to then census information was statistical and did not give details on individual households . 1841 was limited in detail . Town or village of birth was not given merely the county of birth Relationships were not stated nor was the actual age of the individual . Ages were rounded up or down ! Ten years later things had changed This was the first detailed Census . This is the transcription copied from the original . Kitchen was the village adjoining Slaithwaite .Somewhat appropriate the Meals were in Kitchen !

Census for 1851

Slaithwaite Almondbury West Riding Yorkshire

Entry no 16

Kitchen

Edward Meal head married age 60 ( born 1791 ) labourer born Lingards Yorkshire

Mary Ann Meal wife married age 57 ( born 1794 ) born Halifax

John Tomkins ( visitor )plate layer

Edward Meal grandson ** unmarried age unknown ( was in fact 7 born in 1844 ) born Bradford

Martin Barlow ( visitor )plate layer

John Kelfit ( visitor ) plate layer !

William Sykes ( lodger )

I assume that the plate layers recorded in the household were working on the railway being constructed at this time . Slaithwaite Railway Station opened in 1849 so this seems to tie in historically. What the census tells us is that Edward “Meal” had his grandson was staying with him . He had been born in Bradford and his age is stated as “ unknown “. He was in fact my great grandfather and was seven year old. His father David was a dyer working in the in the woollen mills in Keighley a busy town to the north

and close to Bradford. Name confusion abounds! He and his family were down as May not Meal or Mayall! David Mayall/ May / Meal appears to have been the only child of Edward and Mary Ann and was born in Marsden in February 1815.

Edward Meal died in Huddersfield in January 1857 His wife Mary Ann died three years later in January 1860 and was buried in the Church yard of St Bartholomew’s, the Parish Church of Marsden , on the 29^th January 1860 . She was 67 years old.

A number of years ago ,when we were staying near Skipton with brother in law Nigel, I enjoyed visiting the various places where our Mayall family had lived . Marsden was indeed one and I recall how surprised I was to see numerous sheep grazing amidst the grave stones . Little did I know Mayalls had been baptised and buried in this hallowed spot !

St Bartholomew’s Marsden West Yorkshire

Marsden

Generation Two

David Mayall or Meal or May ( 1815- 1861 )

David was born in Marsden in 1815 , he must have realised that with the growth of the woollen industry in and around the Colne Valley , his future would in all probability lie in one of the many large mills that were sprouting up all around the area . This fact sheet paints the picture of why woollen mills became the life blood of this part of the West Riding of Yorkshire :

The West Yorkshire Archaeological Advisory Service have compiled a fact sheet on early Huddersfield

The textile industries

Due to the poverty of the hilly land, local people found it difficult to produce sufficient food to support the growing population, and from early days the conversion of wool to cloth supplemented their incomes. This was helped by a plentiful supply of wool and fast-running streams of soft water necessary for cloth production.

For centuries the industry was based in people’s homes or in small mills on upland streams. During the industrial revolution of the late 18th and 19th centuries, the industry increasingly moved to larger mills in the valley bottoms – especially the Colne Valley. Alongside the growth of textiles – which included cotton and linen as well as the dominant woollen industry – strong engineering and chemical industries developed to provide the necessary machinery and dyestuffs.

David became a dyer and found work in Keighley near Bradford . I am not sure in which actual Mill he worked in but it could well have been the Dalton Mill .

The historic Dalton Mills in Keighley was once the largest textile mill in Yorkshire, employing over 2000 workers. It was built by Joseph Craven in 1869, replacing the original mill from the 1780’s. In its heyday between 1869 and 1877 the mill provided jobs for workers all over Keighley and Worth Valley.

What transpired from my early search was that David appears as David May and not Meal or Mayall in the early records traced ( the 1851 Census and his marriage certificate ) Why is not clear and may have to do with accent but that is conjecture .

On the 30^th October 1843 David married Mary Greenwood in Keighley Parish Church . The marriage certificate is not as informative as one might have hoped . Formal registration in England and Wales had only started in 1837 ( in Scotland we had to wait until 1855 before it happened here ) Ages were not given it merely said “ of age “ . It confirmed that neither had been married before and that David was a dyer ( Rank or Profession ) . Both were living in Sun Street Keighley but no numbers given so we do not know if they were living together or not ! David’s father is given as Edward May – occupation “ dyer “ . Inconsistency prevails! Age is not given it merely states “of age “. The other deduction is that David could read and write whilst his spouse Mary Greenwood and both witnesses could not . It shows a cross and the remark “his/her mark “beside their entries.

What then of his spouse Mary? All we actually deduce from the marriage certificate is that her father was called Daniel Greenwood and he was a “ comber “- yet another occupation with in the woollen industry of the time ! Prior to 1837 in England and Wales there were no “ statutory certificates “ – official documents for birth marriage and death issued through a Government Department . Indeed the National Census – a detailed head count listing details of all the household occupants was not introduced to the four nations ( England Scotland Ireland and Wales ) until 1841 . When I am in doubt about the authenticity of and individual that I may be researching . I would often check on sites such as Ancestry to look at

Family Trees that have been lodged for Public examination .A number of the submissions for Mary Greenwood and Edward Mayall are wrong in detail according to my research .

In the 1861 Census Edward Mayall is head of the family and is found living at Walker’s Square in Rastrick West Riding of Yorkshire .We know it to be the right person as he was born in Marsden although his age is stated as 42 showing him to have been born in 1819 not 1815 . Mary his wife had been born in Wadsworth and her age is stated as 34 giving her a birth date of 1827.

I visited Wadsworth and the adjoining village of Heptonstall when in Yorkshire some 10 years or so ago ( c 2010 ) It is a most attractive small place lying within the civil borough of Calderdale . A visit the old burial ground beside the Heponstall Parish church revealed that the Greenwood name abounds ! The village is on the route of the Calderdale Way, a 50-mile (80 km) circular walk around the hills and valleys of Calderdale. Whilst the Yorkshire of my ancestors seems to be one of smoking stacks and woollen mills , places like Heptonstall retain a rural tranquillity . Situated right on the boundary between Lancashire and Yorkshire it featured unsurprisingly in the English Civil Wars . Heptonstall was the site of a battle during the early part of the English Civil War in 1643.

Historically a centre for hand-loom weaving, Heptonstall's cottages and terraced houses are characterised by large first-floor windows to maximise the light for weaving.

The older churchyard claims "King" David Hartley amongst notable graves there.Hartley was founder of the Cragg Coiners and lived as a rogue in the Calderdale area until he was hanged at Tyburn near York in 1770.

The foundation stone of its octagonal Methodist chapel, the oldest still in continued use,was laid following the visit of John Wesley in 1764.

Heptonstall's original church was dedicated to St Thomas a Becket. It was founded c.1260, and was altered and added to over several centuries. The church was damaged by a gale in 1847, and is now only a shell. A new church, St Thomas the Apostle, was built in the same churchyard. This suffered a lightning strike in 1875

Mary Greenwood was the great great grand mother of Colin Mayall and the 3 x great gran of Nic Elise and Jasmine .

The village lies some 12 miles from Keighley but light years away in reality .Mary in all probability found employment there and in doing so met her husband to be David.As noted above they married in 1843. It would appear that although working in Keighley they lived close by in Greater Horton – now a suburb of Bradford. The marriage saw the arrival of seven children :

1. Edward Mayall in 1844 ( Bradford)-the direct line and great grandfather of Colin Mayall

2. John Mayall in 1847 ( Bradford )

3. Mary Ann Alice Mayall in 1849 ( Bradford )

4. Samuel ( Sam ) Mayall in 1852 (Keighley )

5. Greenwood Mayall in 1853 ( Keighley )

6. Martha Mayall in 1857 ( Keighley )

7. James William Mayall in 1863 ( Halifax but probably Rastrick which lies with the Halifax Borough bounds )

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You will recall that I mentioned earlier in this chronicle that in the 1851 Census we found Edward staying in with his grandfather Edward Meal in Slaithwaite . Things were obviously tough in supporting the growing family . Nic and I investigated a note that James above was a professional cricketer . Nic brilliantly unearthed some newspaper cuttings via the Internet and show him as a pro player and groundsman Played for Leigh CC and seemed to have been more than a modest player . This club employed 3 pro/groundsmen at the time .Let us not digress somewhat and look at Mary’s father Daniel and his Irish wife Mary Abbot.

Heptonstall Yorkshire

The Irish Connection

The Abbotts

In compiling this story of our Yorkshire family it came as something of a surprise to find out that we had , unbeknown , to one and all some Irish ancestry . Mary Abbott was born circa 1810 in Ireland . Wherebouts we did not know. The name “ Abbott “ was according to historical records likely to have arrived in the Emerald Isle around the mid 17^th century. Examination of the 1821 Census of Ireland revealed the probable family living in Seirkeran County Offally in the Province of Leinster .

Details are somewhat limited but the following are listed :

Benjeman ( sic) Abbott age 36

Jane Abbott ( no maiden name given ) age 40

Mary Ann Abbott daughter age 13

Elizabeth Abbott daughter age 10

John Abbott son age 7

Phiby Abbott daughter age 4

Sarah Abbott daughter age 1

Samuel Abbott ( brother of Benjeman ) age 37

Thomas Macklin head age 20

No further details are available but one wonders why Mary Ann Abbott found her way across the seas to the comparatively remote part of Yorkshire .When one has a look at Irish history the reasoning she left for another life becomes clear. In 1921 on the 3rd of May, Northern Ireland was established. On the 6^th December, the Irish War of Independence flaired up . The War of Independence ends when negotiations between the British government and representatives of the de facto Irish Republic conclude with the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the creation of the Irish Free State on the 28^th June1922.

Mary met Daniel Greenwood, a wool comber , and they were married in Bradford and lived there raising four offspring – Mary , Joseph , William and Daniel . Mary died comparatively young in 1866 in Bradford aged 58 .

The Irish Connection (two)

Seir Kieran

The name Seir Kieran derives from Saighir Chiaráin, meaning ‘the fountain of Ciarán’. The ancient church at Seir Kieran is associated with St Ciarán the elder, who is supposed to have spent 30 years in Rome studying the scriptures. In ancient times the church was a burial place of the kings of the ancient kingdom of Ossory.

Today pilgrims continue to carry out stations at St Kieran’s Well and St. Kieran’s Bush & Stone on his feastday (March 5th). Within the graveyard is the base of a 9th century high cross which features carvings of biblical scenes, such as ‘Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden’.

Sometime before 1170 Seirkieran became a house of Augustinian canons and shortly after this date the priory church of St. Ciarán was built. The walls of this church form the northern boundary of the graveyard. The foundations of an earlier round tower can be seen on the external northwest angle of the priory ruins. The priory was dissolved in 1552 and sometime later the church was fortified when a small circular gun-tower was added on to the southeast angle. In 1844 the Church of Ireland built the present church, in which are housed a stone cross and some early cross slabs that were found in the graveyard.

Generation Three

Edward Mayall and Sarah Chadwick

The Rastrick Mayalls

We have followed the family from their Marsden and Slaithwaite days through to my grand father in Rastrick . Rastrick is a place I first recall hearing a bout when the Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band used to play regularly on the radio / wireless in the pre TV era ! Edward my great grandfather followed tradition by entering the woollen mill and working as a slubber – someone who feeds the wool into the spinning machine .

Edward the oldest sibling in the family of David and Mary was only 16 years old when his father died in 1861 in Rastrick aged 46 leaving Mary his widow just 34. The family were living in a property adjoining the cricket ground in Walker Square and the Census gives us some idea of what they were all doing .Both Edward and his younger brother John were in the mill . Their younger siblings – Mary age 12– Sam age 9 – Greenwood age 7 and Martha aged 5 were all at school . As I write this I realise one is not accounted for ! I checked my records and discover that the youngest sibling John William was not born until 1863 - 2 years after his father’s death ! It must have been a real struggle to bring up the family in the years before social benefits were there to help things out .

When the next Census came around in 1871 we discover that the three oldest - Edward ,John and Mary Ann Alice had all married and departed the nest . The census tells us Sam aged 19 was employed as a slubber , Greenwood as a woollen operative ,Martha as a woollen feeder and James William aged 7 still at school .

Life could not have been easy and perhaps it is not surprising that the young widow married local boy Joe Rayner who surprise, surprise was a also working in the mill His occupation is stated as a woollen over looker . The 1881 census tells us that the family had moved to Bradford , Interesting side note is that the late arrival John William went to be a professional cricketer in Lancashire thus avoiding the mill !

At this stage , let us return to Edward Mayall . He had married a Mary Hartley on July1869 at St John the Baptist Church in Halifax .Mary was 21 years old and Edward 25 years old . Sadly she died some 4 years later leaving Edward a widow .The young guy however did not hang around and within a year had remarried .This was to 21 year old Sarah Chadwick a woollen weaver who in all probability worked in the same mil as he did, Sarah was not from Rastrick but from Elland Her father was a “ stone delver “ a sort of quarryman .

The new family settled down in New Road Rastrick just across from where Edward had been brought up in Walker Square and virtually adjacent to the Cricket Ground at Round Hill .

The family grew up – four boys and four girls . Eliza was the oldest . Born in 1876 she married gamekeeper George Denham had 3 children and moved to Devon . Next came Jack or John Edward to be precise who was born in 1878 . He went to work in the mill , soon had enough and enlisted in the Duke of Wellingtons ( West Riding Regiment ) on short term . Left in 1906 to work as an engine fitter , married that year to Edith Rushton in Rastrick .In 1906 was best man in Glasgow to my grand father Lewis . In 1907 he left on his own to go to US ( Philadelphia ) but returned to Rastrick shortly after and his son George Edward was born in 1910 .In the 1911 Census was listed as a steam crane driver in a stone quarry . On his mother’s side , the Chadwicks were quarrymen might well have worked with them in nearby Elland. In 1912 Jack and family emigrated to Sydney New South Wales Australia . He died in 1969 and was buried in Rookwood Cemetery Cumberland New South Wales .His son George died in Sydney in 2002. Lewis, my grand father was next in line born in 1880. The following Chapter is devoted to him so will pass on to Mary Alice born in 1883.She married Wifred Dixon whose occupation was that of a wire drawer, on the 9^th June 1908 in Halifax Parish . There did not appear to be any children in this marriage Next in order was Lillian or Lilly Mayall born in Rastrick in 1880 and married Albert Walker , a stone merchant , in Rastrick in 1905. They had four children , Albert , George, Frank and Lillian May .

Next in line was Leonard . His story was hidden in the mists of time and not sure whether the rest of the family including my own father knew about . Leonard was born in 1888 and at the age of 13 was working as a woollen piecer in the local mill. Some 5 years later aged 18 was working as a labourer in a laundry . Once again military service came to the rescue and Leonard signed on in the 4^th West Yorks ( ie the 4^th Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment ). Shortly after he transferred to the 1^st Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers and in 1911the National census return shows him as a Private in the Regiment in Rawalpindi .

The 1^st Battalion was a regular army Battalion Division stationed in Portsmouth at the outbreak of World War 1 . It was assigned to the 9^th Brigade , 3^rd Infantry Division and remained with it throughout the War . It landed at Le Havre on 14^th August 1914 and remained on the Western Front until the Armistice with Germany .

It fought in the following major battles : Battle of Mons , First Battle of the Aisne , First Battle of Ypres, Battle of the Somme ( 1916 ) , Battle of Arras ( 1917 ) Third Battle of Ypres , First Battle of Somme ( 1918 ) ,Battle of Lys ( 1918 ) ,Second Battle of the Somme ( 1918 ) , Battles of the Hindenburg Line .

Leonard rose to the rank of Lance Corporal and was discharged from service on the 4 August 1917 due to “ sickness” . He obtained the Victory, British and Star Medals . His Service Number was 1970: 77763. Sadly the bulk of Army WW1 Service Records were destroyed in WW2 when their storage warehouse was destroyed by a German bomb !

It would appear that Leonard’s discharge from “ sickness “ was one of mental illness . The nature of his service shows his involvement in numerous battles resulting in a horrendous loss of life and permanent injury . More than 1 million serving personnel lost their life. After discharge , Leonard married in April 1919 to Mary Margaret Beswick . She was 36 years old and he was 30 years old . they married not in Rastrick but in Chorlton Lancashire . In the 1936 Electoral Register Leonard is residing at 18 Slade Lane Elland ( near Rastrick )

Leonard was committed to Storthes Hall Mental Hospital ( later in 1939 to be known as West Riding Mental Hospital ) It was mentioned in a book by Barbara Robb called “ Sans Everything “ . Accusations covered a 32 week period of serious violent assaults with fists or weapons against male patient of all ages – “it was a hell hole “.

No evidence that these occurred whilst Leonard was a patient . He worked in a mill whilst in residence He died in December 1939 and was buried on 20 December 1939 . Blessings on you Leonard.

The seventh sibling was Louisa Mayall born in Rastrick in 1891 .She married John Albert Hall on the 19 June 1915. They had one child Marie Hall born 1917 and died in 1987 . Louisa herself died 1954 at Upper Aggbrigg Yorkshire .Aggbrigg is a suburb of Wakefield .

The youngest of the family was Brook William Mayall born in Rastrick in 1894 . He signed up for a Short Service ( 2 years and 10 years in the Reserve ) as a driver with the Army Service Corps on the 1^st September 1913. When War broke out Brooke signed on as a Private in the Duke of Wellington’s ( West Riding ) Regiment serving as a driver in France and Belgium . He was a warded the 1914-15 Star . I remember my Aunt Margaret ( my father’s sister ) telling me he had served under McIntosh of Toffee fame and had saved him from an accident ( details am afraid lost in time ) Checked out and McIntosh’ s did work out of nearby Halifax so may be something in that ! Brook married a Lillian Happey in Halifax in 1919. They had two children Brian and Bessie . Brook died in 1981 a year after Lillian .

I visited Rastrick armed with some pics given to me by my cousin Alan Buchanan .

Rastrick

Round Hill Rastrick – the Cricket Ground

Mayall Family pictured outside their house at Round Hill Rastrick about 1898/1899

Back Row : John ( Jack ) Mayall B.1878 : Mary Louise Alice Mayall B 1884: Lillian ( Lilly ) Mayall ( B. 1886 Lewis Mayall B. 1880

Middle Row : Sarah (Chadwick ) Mayall B. 1852 Leonard Mayall B. 1889 Edward Mayall B.1845

Front Row : Louisa Mayall B. 1892 Brook W Mayall B . 1875

The Chadwick Connection , Elland and stone quarrying

My great grandmother who appears in that great family pic with her husband Edward and their 8 children was Sarah Chadwick . Sarah was born in Rastrick in 1852 She was one of eight children ( as she was to have with Edward Mayall and coincidently with 4 boys and 4 girls ! ). Her parents were William Chadwick , a stone delver , and Lydia Carter . The family roots were in the little town of Elland some 3 miles south west of Rastrick and many of her male ancestors were stone quarriers or delvers . Sarah’s sister Hannah worked in the mills as did so many of her forebearers . Sarah was registered as Blind and lived with sister Sarah and husband Edward in Rastrick . Sarah worked as one might expect in the mill .

William Chadwick was born on the 6 November 1818 in Elland West Yorkshire. He was my 2 x great grand father and was a stone delver and a stone quarry man. William married Lydia Carter ( my 2 x4 great grand mother }who was born in Elland to George Carter and Hannah Quarmby . George was a spinner by trade.

Disused Quarry Elland West Yorks

My Grandfather Lewis Mayall born Rastrick West Riding of Yorkshire

On the 4^th April 1880 and died in Glasgow on the 12^th November 1941.

Aged 61 years .

The above picture of my grandfather was taken from the group picture in the previous chapter showing all the siblings together in front of their home at Round Hill Rastrick . When was it taken ? Can only be supposition but he signed up for the military in October 1899 prior to leaving for South Africa to participate with the Lancers in the Boer War ,so I think it would have been early 1899 . I never knew my grandfather as he died some 5 months after I was born . Likewise he would not know either of my two cousins. Alan Buchanan son of Nancy Mayall , Lewis’s daughter , was born in January of that year and Ann Moffat ( maiden name Miller) daughter of Margaret Mayall , Lewis’s younger daughter ) was born in February 1941 .

We know from the 1891 census that Lewis was working in the Woollen Mill aged 11 ! Life indeed was not easy in those far off days !

Private Lewis Mayall , 4985 , 17th ( Duke of Cambridge's Own) Lancers

Lewis served in the Boer War having joined the 17th Lancers in 1899 serving in the Boer War in South Africa until 1902 .He was 19 years old and six months when he enlisted

Boer War

The 17th were to miss the big battles of the Boer War. They arrived just in time to see the Boers be technically defeated on the battlefield and yet failing to surrender to the British. The Boers dispersed their mounted commandos throughout the imposing African landscape in what was to become a precursor of twentieth century guerrilla warfare. In this campaign, mounted troops were to become essential in combing the vast distances and empty spaces. The 17th were quickly employed to track down one of the most notorious of the Boer commandos; De Wet. One lancer, Trooper Hayman, was to win the Victoria Cross when he and another trooper were surprised by a dozen Boers. The other trooper's horse was killed sending the rider to the ground with a dislocated shoulder. Hayman, scooped up his comrade on to his own horse and used both men's carbines to shoot his way to freedom. In many ways, this action is indicative of

the entirely new kind of warfare that was facing all of the British regiments in South Africa. The Boerswould hide until they decided to strike and fight on their own terms. The British were continually reactingto the initiative of the Boers. Another less auspicious example of the new style of warfare facing the 17th is provided at the battle of Modderfontein. Here, a small group of Boers were forced to find new mounts, food and ammunition or face certain capture. They came across a small outpost of the 17th Lancers who were resting in the grounds of a farm house. The British mistook the Khaki clad Boers for British until they started a withering fire on the unprepared Lancers. The Boers were then joined by another troop of Commandos who had heard the commotion from afar. These joined in from the rear of the Lancers and helped to inflict serious casualties on the troop of Lancers. In total, 36 Lancers were killed and many more were wounded. The worst aspect of this loss is that they themselves provided the Boers with further mounts and ammunition to continue fighting against the British for an even longer period of time. There was no room for complacency in fighting such a dedicated foe as the Boer. For the rest of the war, the 17th was involved in continuous small scale actions and sweeping operations against the ever elusive commandoes. As thankless a task as it was the Boer War did help to prepare the regiment, and

indeed the whole British action, for a much more auspicious performance during the First World War.

Between Wars

Lewis’s military career has been one of surprise and mystery . I do believe I have at last sussed out what he actually did and reveals a somewhat complex tale ! He had signed on for a short service in the Lancers and when he had completed this at the end of the Boer War he was on a ten year Reserve in which he would be liable for a recall when deemed necessary .

Lewis left the Lancers in 1902 . He had been awarded The Queens South Africa Medal( QSA) with three clasps ( Cape Colony , Orange Free State and Transvaal ). He was in receipt of an Army Pension and had been sent first to Edinburgh and the to Maryhill Barracks in Glasgow where he was discharged . He obtained a job as a “ commissionaire “ an employee of the Corps of Commissionaires . In 1906 he married Maggie Craig Plowman and lived in 439 St George’s Road Glasgow .

My father Edward Mayall was born in 1907 and his sister Annie ( Nancy ) the following year.

The family story is that he was at the cinema in Glasgow when a message was flashed on the screen saying that all reservists had to report to their regimental barracks immediately . This must have proven a practical problem for Lewis as his Regiment at that date were based in India ! War was imminent and Lewis whatever he did was back in uniform and posted to the Curragh Co Kildare near Dublin in Ireland . How do I know this ? My cousin Alan sent me a copy of Lewis’s Army Pay Book ( below ) . It tells us he had arrived there on the 8^th August 1914 some 3 days after war had been declared !

The Curragh Mutiny

His pay after deductions was 8 pence old or 3.5 p in modern currency !!

The complexity of Irish history is such that this posting to the Curragh may not appear to have been unusual . The truth is that the Emerald Isle was in a total state of confusion and veritable anarchy as the Home Rule movement gathered momentum and the split between the Protestant North or Ulster and the predominantly Catholic South was areal political “ hot potato “ . Asquith the British Prime Minister had proposed an all Ireland Parliament in Dublin which had been violently opposed by Dublin born Edward Carson . Carson rallied the Orangemen and Protestant opposition and went further by importing weapons to defend the Province . Churchill had been given a hard time when he went to Belfast to mediate and responded by sending in March 1914 , the Royal Navy’s Third Battle Squadron to “ exercise “ off the Ulster coast . In the South , one Erskine Robert Childers , an ex Clerk to the House of Commons smuggled arms in his private yacht and these were distributed by the Irish volunteers on the cross bars of bicycles !

The spotlight turns now on the Curragh. The majority of the Officers based there in in July 1914 rendered their resignations to the British Government rather than be forced to take action against Carson and the Protestants of Ulster . This has become known as the “ Curragh Incident “ or the “ Curragh Mutiny “ . The Curragh was now a political and military time bomb in a steadily deteriorating situation .

Did Lewis Mayall enlist prior to the 8^th August shown on his pay book ? It merely say “ Date and Station – 8.8.14- Curragh “ .Was he in Ireland when the mutiny occurred ? It is now unlikely we will ever know . When he left the army after the Boer War he was on 10 year Reservist status liable to be called up whenever deemmed necessary . Things were changing rapdly . Brirtin was declared to be at War on the 5^th August 1914 . The Home Rule Bill was frozen for its execution , until th end of th War . Churchill made the classic statement “ This unpleasant problem has been erased in the sound of guns of the large war , in which the whole World are participating “.

The Great War

At the outbreak of World War One , the 17^th Lancers were to find themselves stationed in India. They had been there sine 1905 and initially they thought that they might miss the entire War . However in November 1914 , they were sent to Marseiiles as part of the Indian Cavalry Corps . We know from Lewis Mayall’s Pay Book that he returned home for a week in late August 1914 and then is listed as “ being on active service “ whereabouts not listed “ By the 27^th May 1915 he is in France being paid in Francs . to some that the time By this stage of the War , the mobile opening moves of thre armies had come to an end . The cavalry had played a vital role in this stage of the War, but would find its role severely limited from this point on by machine guns , barbed wire and mud . In the next three years , the cavalry barely

moved 20 miles in any direction from its strating point in Amiens . They sat in the reserves forever hopinthat a breakthrough might be made that would require their assistance . They were generally used more to plug gaps and relieve infantry battalions that had taken beatings on the front line .tHe one opporunity that the regiment gad to braek thriugh the German lines was actually a sign of things to come for the Regiment .The 17^th Lancers were present at Cambrai when tanks were employed en masse for the first time .

A break through was so nearly achieved but for the weight of a British tank that destroyed a vital bridge at a critical point in the campaign , However, despite this set back , it was obvious to some that the time for horses on the battlefied were becoming numbered . The fate of cavalry regiments was not completely sewn up at this time and the 17^th soon had the opportunity to demomstrate their value . In 1918, the Germans made one last desperate attempt to win the War with their most success push since 1914. The Allied lines were in disarray and falling back as quickly as they could .The 17^th were used as a mobile infantry unit being sentto plug gaps wherever they appeared . At one instance , the 17^th Lancers charged 600 yards under fire to rescue units of the 9^th Australian Infantry Brigade . Their mobility could still have uses even on the nodern battlefield.. When the 17^th got to join the bRitish counter attack they were once agin to find themselves accompanying tanks . And they were to find find that it ws safer for them to be away behin the tanks rther than have thei horses exposed to machind gun fire .

Final Part of the saga

The Haig Connectionaig Connection

As I mentioned earlier , the individual military records for the First World War were destroyed When the warehouse containing them was bombed and destroyed by the Luftwaffe in WW2 !

My story was struggling as I did not know what or where he was . I contacted my cousin Alan Buchanan living at the tine near Cockburnspath in the south east of Scotland . Alan sent me a copy of a post card sent by Lewis to his wife , our grand mother .It was Forges les Eaux during the Battle of the Somme on the 2 July 1916. It merely said : “ Dear Meg-Here is another card . They are very handy to drop a line . Remember me to all . Hoping you are still keeping in the best of health . Miss you . L. Mayall “

I was somewhat confused by the receipt of this card . Why was he sending it from a I jkewith Alan . He had been brought up by his mother Nancy Buchanan ( Mayall ) and father George . The house was shared with my grand parents Lewis and Meg Mayall . When they died many of their artifacts were retained . Alan informed me this gem of information:

“ My understanding was that our grand father never actually fought in WW 1 . He was on the staff at Allied HQ at Forges Les Eaux which I visited in the 90’s It is a small town north of Rouen and south of the battlefields .The last time I met Aunt Margaret was at St Andrews about 15 years ago. ( Aunt Margaret was my father’s younger sister – daughter of Lewis and Meg ) ) . She told me , he played golf when it was not usual for the working man and that he was an artisan member of Cathcart Castle GC ( south of Glasgow ) . These members were on lower fees and helped on the course or clubhouse for his membership . She also said that the reason he would have taken up golf was caddying for Haig who was a past Captain of the Royal and Ancient GC . He was Haig’s batman which explained more than a little ! “

The jig saw was at last nearing completion . I recalled that my father had told me that Lewis had been more than an accomplished player having won the Cameron Corbett Trophy at the Club . It must be genetic but Lewis grand daughter Ann Moffat ( Miller ) was captain of Glasgow Universities Ladies Golf team when a student and her daughter Elaine Moffat won the Scottish Ladies Golf Championship

When the War ended Lewis worked with a Glasgow Auctioneers for a number of years . Sadly he died the year I was born .Meg his wife died some 2 years later . I rust this contribution to the Mayall saga is duly appreciated .

Lewis and Meg were only sixty one years of age when they died .

Lewis Mayall at Lochearnhead Station circa

late 1930s

Lewis Mayall ( 3rd from left) Daughter Nancy Buchanan and husband George , extreme right .

Meg Mayall ( Maggie Craig Plowman ) B. 6 May 1882 and D. 2 Dec. 1943

Family picture taken c 1890: Meg on left aged 8 , her mum Margaret Elizabeth Plowman ( ms Orr ) aged 38 ( she died aged 48 ) and Aunt Nan ( Annie Plowman ) aged 3 . Sister of Meg . She never married had a distinguished nursing career and is buried in Arlington Military Cemetery near to John F Kennedy .

Lewis Mayall’ s Brothers and Sisters

The large family of Edward and Sarah is shown in a splendid family group circa 1898.

2022-11-02T09:05:00.000-07:00

Mayall Family Story

October 2022

Introduction

Generation One

Labourer and wadman – Edward Meal

Mayall Family Story

October 2022

Introduction

Generation One

Labourer and wadman – Edward Meal

Lingards Wood

Census for 1851

Slaithwaite Almondbury West Riding Yorkshire

Entry no 16

Kitchen

Edward Meal head married age 60 ( born 1791 ) labourer born Lingards Yorkshire

Mary Ann Meal wife married age 57 ( born 1794 ) born Halifax

John Tomkins ( visitor )plate layer

Edward Meal grandson ** unmarried age unknown ( was in fact 7 born in 1844 ) born Bradford

Martin Barlow ( visitor )plate layer

John Kelfit ( visitor ) plate layer !

William Sykes ( lodger )

St Bartholomew’s Marsden West Yorkshire

Marsden

Generation Two

David Mayall or Meal or May ( 1815- 1861 )

The West Yorkshire Archaeological Advisory Service have compiled a fact sheet on early Huddersfield

The textile industries

David became a dyer and found work in Keighley near Bradford . I am not sure in which actual Mill he worked in but it could well have been the Dalton Mill .

Family Trees that have been lodged for Public examination .A number of the submissions for Mary Greenwood and Edward Mayall are wrong in detail according to my research .

Historically a centre for hand-loom weaving, Heptonstall's cottages and terraced houses are characterised by large first-floor windows to maximise the light for weaving.

The foundation stone of its octagonal Methodist chapel, the oldest still in continued use,was laid following the visit of John Wesley in 1764.

Mary Greenwood was the great great grand mother of Colin Mayall and the 3 x great gran of Nic Elise and Jasmine .

1. Edward Mayall in 1844 ( Bradford)-the direct line and great grandfather of Colin Mayall

2. John Mayall in 1847 ( Bradford )

3. Mary Ann Alice Mayall in 1849 ( Bradford )

4. Samuel ( Sam ) Mayall in 1852 (Keighley )

5. Greenwood Mayall in 1853 ( Keighley )

6. Martha Mayall in 1857 ( Keighley )

7. James William Mayall in 1863 ( Halifax but probably Rastrick which lies with the Halifax Borough bounds )

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Heptonstall Yorkshire

The Irish Connection

The Abbotts

Details are somewhat limited but the following are listed :

Benjeman ( sic) Abbott age 36

Jane Abbott ( no maiden name given ) age 40

Mary Ann Abbott daughter age 13

Elizabeth Abbott daughter age 10

John Abbott son age 7

Phiby Abbott daughter age 4

Sarah Abbott daughter age 1

Samuel Abbott ( brother of Benjeman ) age 37

Thomas Macklin head age 20

The Irish Connection (two)

Seir Kieran

Generation Three

Edward Mayall and Sarah Chadwick

The Rastrick Mayalls

The new family settled down in New Road Rastrick just across from where Edward had been brought up in Walker Square and virtually adjacent to the Cricket Ground at Round Hill .

No evidence that these occurred whilst Leonard was a patient . He worked in a mill whilst in residence He died in December 1939 and was buried on 20 December 1939 . Blessings on you Leonard.

I visited Rastrick armed with some pics given to me by my cousin Alan Buchanan .

Rastrick

Round Hill Rastrick – the Cricket Ground

Mayall Family pictured outside their house at Round Hill Rastrick about 1898/1899

Back Row : John ( Jack ) Mayall B.1878 : Mary Louise Alice Mayall B 1884: Lillian ( Lilly ) Mayall ( B. 1886 Lewis Mayall B. 1880

Middle Row : Sarah (Chadwick ) Mayall B. 1852 Leonard Mayall B. 1889 Edward Mayall B.1845

Front Row : Louisa Mayall B. 1892 Brook W Mayall B . 1875

The Chadwick Connection , Elland and stone quarrying

Disused Quarry Elland West Yorks

My Grandfather Lewis Mayall born Rastrick West Riding of Yorkshire

On the 4^th April 1880 and died in Glasgow on the 12^th November 1941.

Aged 61 years .

We know from the 1891 census that Lewis was working in the Woollen Mill aged 11 ! Life indeed was not easy in those far off days !

Private Lewis Mayall , 4985 , 17th ( Duke of Cambridge's Own) Lancers

Lewis served in the Boer War having joined the 17th Lancers in 1899 serving in the Boer War in South Africa until 1902 .He was 19 years old and six months when he enlisted

Boer War

indeed the whole British action, for a much more auspicious performance during the First World War.

Between Wars

My father Edward Mayall was born in 1907 and his sister Annie ( Nancy ) the following year.

The Curragh Mutiny

His pay after deductions was 8 pence old or 3.5 p in modern currency !!

The Great War

Final Part of the saga

The Haig Connectionaig Connection

As I mentioned earlier , the individual military records for the First World War were destroyed When the warehouse containing them was bombed and destroyed by the Luftwaffe in WW2 !

Lewis and Meg were only sixty one years of age when they died .

Lewis Mayall at Lochearnhead Station circa

late 1930s

Lewis Mayall ( 3rd from left) Daughter Nancy Buchanan and husband George , extreme right .

Lingards Wood

Census for 1851

Slaithwaite Almondbury West Riding Yorkshire

Entry no 16

Kitchen

Edward Meal head married age 60 ( born 1791 ) labourer born Lingards Yorkshire

Mary Ann Meal wife married age 57 ( born 1794 ) born Halifax

John Tomkins ( visitor )plate layer

Edward Meal grandson ** unmarried age unknown ( was in fact 7 born in 1844 ) born Bradford

Martin Barlow ( visitor )plate layer

John Kelfit ( visitor ) plate layer !

William Sykes ( lodger )

St Bartholomew’s Marsden West Yorkshire

Marsden

Generation Two

David Mayall or Meal or May ( 1815- 1861 )

The West Yorkshire Archaeological Advisory Service have compiled a fact sheet on early Huddersfield

The textile industries

David became a dyer and found work in Keighley near Bradford . I am not sure in which actual Mill he worked in but it could well have been the Dalton Mill .

Family Trees that have been lodged for Public examination .A number of the submissions for Mary Greenwood and Edward Mayall are wrong in detail according to my research .

Historically a centre for hand-loom weaving, Heptonstall's cottages and terraced houses are characterised by large first-floor windows to maximise the light for weaving.

The foundation stone of its octagonal Methodist chapel, the oldest still in continued use,was laid following the visit of John Wesley in 1764.

Mary Greenwood was the great great grand mother of Colin Mayall and the 3 x great gran of Nic Elise and Jasmine .

1. Edward Mayall in 1844 ( Bradford)-the direct line and great grandfather of Colin Mayall

2. John Mayall in 1847 ( Bradford )

3. Mary Ann Alice Mayall in 1849 ( Bradford )

4. Samuel ( Sam ) Mayall in 1852 (Keighley )

5. Greenwood Mayall in 1853 ( Keighley )

6. Martha Mayall in 1857 ( Keighley )

7. James William Mayall in 1863 ( Halifax but probably Rastrick which lies with the Halifax Borough bounds )

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Heptonstall Yorkshire

The Irish Connection

The Abbotts

Details are somewhat limited but the following are listed :

Benjeman ( sic) Abbott age 36

Jane Abbott ( no maiden name given ) age 40

Mary Ann Abbott daughter age 13

Elizabeth Abbott daughter age 10

John Abbott son age 7

Phiby Abbott daughter age 4

Sarah Abbott daughter age 1

Samuel Abbott ( brother of Benjeman ) age 37

Thomas Macklin head age 20

The Irish Connection (two)

Seir Kieran

Generation Three

Edward Mayall and Sarah Chadwick

The Rastrick Mayalls

The new family settled down in New Road Rastrick just across from where Edward had been brought up in Walker Square and virtually adjacent to the Cricket Ground at Round Hill .

No evidence that these occurred whilst Leonard was a patient . He worked in a mill whilst in residence He died in December 1939 and was buried on 20 December 1939 . Blessings on you Leonard.

I visited Rastrick armed with some pics given to me by my cousin Alan Buchanan .

Rastrick

Round Hill Rastrick – the Cricket Ground

Mayall Family pictured outside their house at Round Hill Rastrick about 1898/1899

Back Row : John ( Jack ) Mayall B.1878 : Mary Louise Alice Mayall B 1884: Lillian ( Lilly ) Mayall ( B. 1886 Lewis Mayall B. 1880

Middle Row : Sarah (Chadwick ) Mayall B. 1852 Leonard Mayall B. 1889 Edward Mayall B.1845

Front Row : Louisa Mayall B. 1892 Brook W Mayall B . 1875

The Chadwick Connection , Elland and stone quarrying

Disused Quarry Elland West Yorks

My Grandfather Lewis Mayall born Rastrick West Riding of Yorkshire

On the 4^th April 1880 and died in Glasgow on the 12^th November 1941.

Aged 61 years .

We know from the 1891 census that Lewis was working in the Woollen Mill aged 11 ! Life indeed was not easy in those far off days !

Private Lewis Mayall , 4985 , 17th ( Duke of Cambridge's Own) Lancers

Lewis served in the Boer War having joined the 17th Lancers in 1899 serving in the Boer War in South Africa until 1902 .He was 19 years old and six months when he enlisted

Boer War

indeed the whole British action, for a much more auspicious performance during the First World War.

Between Wars

My father Edward Mayall was born in 1907 and his sister Annie ( Nancy ) the following year.

The Curragh Mutiny

His pay after deductions was 8 pence old or 3.5 p in modern currency !!

The Great War

Final Part of the saga

The Haig Connectionaig Connection

As I mentioned earlier , the individual military records for the First World War were destroyed When the warehouse containing them was bombed and destroyed by the Luftwaffe in WW2 !

Lewis and Meg were only sixty one years of age when they died .

Lewis Mayall at Lochearnhead Station circa

late 1930s

Lewis Mayall ( 3rd from left) Daughter Nancy Buchanan and husband George , extreme right .

Coronation Memories

2022-06-02T02:30:00.000-07:00

Coronation Memories on Tuesday 2nd June 1953

I can remember  vividly that day . I was exactly one week short of my 12th birthday . I was an only  child  living  in the leafy  suburb of Clarkston south of Glasgow . Tramcars  still ran to their terminus at the “ Toll “ and rationing  had  just  all but ended in 1950 . Television in Scotland had only  just started the  year  before in1952. It was the BBC  and of  course, it was in black and white . It was another four years   before STV/ITV arrived on the Scottish scene! 

My parents were always believers in traditional education and learning  and as a result I had been sent  to “ Hutchie “  ( Hutchesons’  Boys’ Grammar School ) the year  before . Located in Crown Street in the heart of the Gorbals just  south of the River Clyde it was a  smoke ingrained building that had  seen  better days - open coal fires  for  heating and tiered classrooms with  benches  for  desks - decrepitude personified ! Fee paying was £2 per term ! It was no Eton or Glenalmond but a basic educational establishment . I learned later as I dived into my  genealogical research  that my McFarlane ancestors had ( according  to the 1881 Census) dwelt in  a small tenement  flat in Crown Street a  stone’s throw  from where  their great grandson  was attending school !  !  Evicted and forced  to leave  Kintyre in Argyll because of the 1848 “ Tattie Famine “ Archie and Mary raised five  children in their cramped “room and kitchen” . Gaelic was their first language and how they adapted to life in  the big smoke was  truly amazing .

One of the  highlights of the Coronation was the Children’s  Sports held on the  football field of my old Primary School - Netherlee . Prizes   for  everyone - egg and spoon and three legged races - bike races - flat races - great fun and great  to meet up with so many of my old class mates ! Having scampered down  the  length of the pitch I was  awarded with a  little medal in a  box  with a pic  of the Queen smiling 
out ! At the end  of the  day , all the  children were given  a plaque  with the Royal coat of  arms  on one side and the Queen on t’other ! This  hung in my parents sitting room  for many a long day ! 

I remember  vividly  my dad telling  mum that he had rented  a TV   so that  we  could watch the big event . My mother had never seen TV and was  somewhat  taken aback about  dad’s actions ! I recall about a year earlier travelling  to Victoria Road near Queens Park and  standing outside a  shop  called Fullatone who had  a “ live “ telly in the window . Must have been about 50 people eying up this latest attraction . “ Never catch on “ “ Prefer  the movies “ “ Just a  craze “ -  the comments abounded ! 

Our telly  arrived in a  large  van and  was  duly  installed . I remember it took about  2 or 3  minutes  to “ heat up “ before the picture  came on . Programs then were not  continuous  and between sessions  there was an  “ interlude “ which comprised a potter’s  wheel or fish swimming  about in a tank ! The  evening  session  finished  with a rendition of the National Anthem ! 

Mum was  a quick devotee and enjoyed  periods  between sessions trying  to solve the Radio Times  cross word ! News spread quickly around  the neighbours and the Mayall family were undoubtedly  top of the pops with lots of hints  being  dropped about watching the  “big  event “.  

Cannot  remember  how  many gathered  in our small living room munching sausage rolls and meat sandwiches  but must  have been about twenty !Tempus fugit . That was a life time away !

So endeth my   memories of yesteryear ! Incredible to see the Queen  still going  strong  . Must  be the genes !

2022-06-02T01:17:00.001-07:00

I can remember vividly that day . I was exactly one week short of my 12th birthday . I was an only child living in the leafy suburb of Clarkston south of Glasgow . Tramcars still ran to their terminus at the “ Toll “ and rationing had just all but ended in 1950 . Television in Scotland had only just started the year before in1952. It was the BBC and of course, it was in black and white . It was another four years before STV/ITV arrived on the Scottish scene!

My parents were always believers in traditional education and learning  and as a result I had been sent  to “ Hutchie “  ( Hutchesons’  Boys’ Grammar School ) the year  before . Located in Crown Street in the heart of the Gorbals just  south of the River Clyde it was a  smoke ingrained building that had  seen  better days - open coal fires  for  heating and tiered classrooms with  benches  for  desks - decrepitude personified ! Fee paying was £2 per term ! It was no Eton or Glenalmond but a basic educational establishment . I learned later as I dived into my  genealogical research  that my McFarlane ancestors had ( according  to the 1881 Census) dwelt in  a small tenement  flat in Crown Street a  stone’s throw  from where  their great grandson  was attending school !  !  Evicted and forced  to leave  Kintyre in Argyll because of the 1848 “ Tattie Famine “ Archie and Mary raised five  children in their cramped “room and kitchen” . Gaelic was their first language and how they adapted to life in  the big smoke was  truly amazing .

One of the  highlights of the Coronation was the Children’s  Sports held on the  football field of my old Primary School - Netherlee . Prizes   for  everyone - egg and spoon and three legged races - bike races - flat races - great fun and great  to meet up with so many of my old class mates ! Having scampered down  the  length of the pitch I was  awarded with a  little medal in a  box  with a pic  of the Queen smiling 
out ! At the end  of the  day , all the  children were given  a plaque  with the Royal coat of  arms  on one side and the Queen on t’other ! This  hung in my parents sitting room  for many a long day ! 

I remember  vividly  my dad telling  mum that he had rented  a TV   so that  we  could watch the big event . My mother had never seen TV and was  somewhat  taken aback about  dad’s actions ! I recall about a year earlier travelling  to Victoria Road near Queens Park and  standing outside a  shop  called Fullatone who had  a “ live “ telly in the window . Must have been about 50 people eying up this latest attraction . “ Never catch on “ “ Prefer  the movies “ “ Just a  craze “ -  the comments abounded ! 

Our telly  arrived in a  large  van and  was  duly  installed . I remember it took about  2 or 3  minutes  to “ heat up “ before the picture  came on . Programs then were not  continuous  and between sessions  there was an  “ interlude “ which comprised a potter’s  wheel or fish swimming  about in a tank ! The  evening  session  finished  with a rendition of the National Anthem ! 

Mum was  a quick devotee and enjoyed  periods  between sessions trying  to solve the Radio Times  cross word ! News spread quickly around  the neighbours and the Mayall family were undoubtedly  top of the pops with lots of hints  being  dropped about watching the  “big  event “.  

Cannot  remember  how  many gathered  in our small living room munching sausage rolls and meat sandwiches  but must  have been about twenty !Tempus fugit . That was a life time away !

So endeth my   memories of yesteryear ! Incredible to see the Queen  still going  strong  . Must  be the genes !

Malcolm Cannon, Alastair Kinnear and 1 other

2022-06-02T01:12:00.002-07:00

I can remember  vividly that day . I was exactly one week short of my 12th birthday . I was an only  child  living  in the leafy  suburb of Clarkston south of Glasgow . Tramcars  still ran to their terminus at the “ Toll “ and rationing  had  just  all but ended in 1950 . Television in Scotland had only  just started the  year  before in1952. It was the BBC  and of  course, it was in black and white . It was another four years   before STV/ITV arrived on the Scottish scene! 

My parents were always believers in traditional education and learning  and as a result I had been sent  to “ Hutchie “  ( Hutchesons’  Boys’ Grammar School ) the year  before . Located in Crown Street in the heart of the Gorbals just  south of the River Clyde it was a  smoke ingrained building that had  seen  better days - open coal fires  for  heating and tiered classrooms with  benches  for  desks - decrepitude personified ! Fee paying was £2 per term ! It was no Eton or Glenalmond but a basic educational establishment . I learned later as I dived into my  genealogical research  that my McFarlane ancestors had ( according  to the 1881 Census) dwelt in  a small tenement  flat in Crown Street a  stone’s throw  from where  their great grandson  was attending school !  !  Evicted and forced  to leave  Kintyre in Argyll because of the 1848 “ Tattie Famine “ Archie and Mary raised five  children in their cramped “room and kitchen” . Gaelic was their first language and how they adapted to life in  the big smoke was  truly amazing .

One of the  highlights of the Coronation was the Children’s  Sports held on the  football field of my old Primary School - Netherlee . Prizes   for  everyone - egg and spoon and three legged races - bike races - flat races - great fun and great  to meet up with so many of my old class mates ! Having scampered down  the  length of the pitch I was  awarded with a  little medal in a  box  with a pic  of the Queen smiling 
out ! At the end  of the  day , all the  children were given  a plaque  with the Royal coat of  arms  on one side and the Queen on t’other ! This  hung in my parents sitting room  for many a long day ! 

I remember  vividly  my dad telling  mum that he had rented  a TV   so that  we  could watch the big event . My mother had never seen TV and was  somewhat  taken aback about  dad’s actions ! I recall about a year earlier travelling  to Victoria Road near Queens Park and  standing outside a  shop  called Fullatone who had  a “ live “ telly in the window . Must have been about 50 people eying up this latest attraction . “ Never catch on “ “ Prefer  the movies “ “ Just a  craze “ -  the comments abounded ! 

Our telly  arrived in a  large  van and  was  duly  installed . I remember it took about  2 or 3  minutes  to “ heat up “ before the picture  came on . Programs then were not  continuous  and between sessions  there was an  “ interlude “ which comprised a potter’s  wheel or fish swimming  about in a tank ! The  evening  session  finished  with a rendition of the National Anthem ! 

Mum was  a quick devotee and enjoyed  periods  between sessions trying  to solve the Radio Times  cross word ! News spread quickly around  the neighbours and the Mayall family were undoubtedly  top of the pops with lots of hints  being  dropped about watching the  “big  event “.  

Cannot  remember  how  many gathered  in our small living room munching sausage rolls and meat sandwiches  but must  have been about twenty !Tempus fugit . That was a life time away !

So endeth my   memories of yesteryear ! Incredible to see the Queen  still going  strong  . Must  be the genes !

2022-06-02T01:05:00.000-07:00

2022-06-02T00:52:00.000-07:00

2022-02-19T08:49:00.008-08:00

A Crime Against Our Gaelic Heritage

A genealogical trip to Kintyre with an incredible outcome .

It is quite amazing how many of us are unaware of our past. Most do not realise that many of our ancestors experienced more than a few attacks on their own heritage . Both my parents died at a comparatively young age and being an only child , I found that I was largely ignorant of my own “ roots “.

My maternal grandmother Annabella Lamont ( maiden name McFarlane )was born in Glasgow . She died some ten years before I was born and I knew very little about her or her back ground . A little digging and delving in the records gradually allowed me to build up a picture of the family I did not know .Annabella’s parents were Mary and Archibald McFarlane ,who were in fact cousins ! Archibald had married an Anne McLean . They were both from the Parish of Kilcalmonell in Kintyre , Argyll . Archie was described in the Census returns as a “ spirit dealer “ and moved with Ann to Glasgow around 1845. Both were Gaelic speakers and although described in the Census as being unable to read or write one has to remember that that statement refers to one’s ability in the English language . Ann died in her early forties without having borne any children. Archie appears to have returned to his native soil to the small village of Clachan in Kintyre on the west coast of Argyll. His cousin Mary was in service in Campbeltown and the two married in 1864 . She was 31 years old and some 11 years younger than Archie . They settled back in Glasgow and in the 1881 Census were living in the Gorbals district of the City at 179 Crown Street . Surprisingly this is only a very short distance from where I attended school at Hutchesons’ Grammar in the 1950s ! Little did I know this at the time . The Gorbals had a somewhat tarnished reputation as a violent , overcrowded area troubled with the notorious razor gangs of the mid Wars period . When Archie and Mary were bringing up their family in the 1860s.70s and 80s it was a somewhat overcrowded area populated by a cosmopolitan mix of Irish , Highland Scots and interestingly the first influx of Jewish people from Germany , Poland and Russia . I can recall my mother telling me when I had just started “ Hutchie “ about the Gorbal’s grocer’s shop where Archie McFarlane Jr worked and how they stood outside to watch the arrival of these dark and strangely dressed Jewish immigrants . A somewhat parallel passage of history to that of 1970s and ‘80s !

Gorbals Main Street 1860

Archie and Mary had five children living with them in Crown Street in 1881 . Annabella aged 15 and working as a milliner ( hat maker ) , Archibald aged 14 – a grocer’s shop keeper , Elizabeth aged 12 - at school ,Mary aged 10 – at school and Duncan , the youngest at 8 and at school . Annabella was bi lingual in Gaelic and English . Perhaps not surprising as both parents had Gaelic as their first language .I recall my mother telling me that Annabella as a young girl used to help an elderly neighbour in an adjoining flat . That lady from a Highland village spoke only Gaelic and no English ! Hardly credible in this day and age |.

Things must have been tough in this small flat/apartment with so many .Archie , the father was now no longer working as a “ spirit merchant “ but as a general labourer in the docks that lined the shores of the Clyde in those far of days ! Sadly Archie a few years later of “ apoplexy “ aged 56. Apoplexy was a Victorian term used to indicate a sudden loss of consciousness and a bleeding of the internal organs .

This a brief synopsis of my McFarlanes and their life in Glasgow . I would now like to determine more about their home in far off Argyll and examine what life there would have been like in the mid 19th Century .

The McFarlanes were a big family and worked and lived mainly in the north of the Parish of Kilcalmonell . Archibald McFarlane , my great grand father had been born at Duppin , south of the town of Tarbert. The family were describes as cottars – small farmers – and had been there for many generations . His uncle Duncan McFarlane had also been a cottar and lived initially in the attractive small village of Whitehouse . This was mentioned by my mother when I was quite young . The picture shown here clearly illustrates the layout – a village green with small stone cottages on either side . These would originally have been heather clad but this had given way to the characterless slate or clad in the somewhat unattractive corrugated iron sheeting if used as storage accommodation . Duncan and family moved down the road to the aptly named village of Clachan – an attractive little place facing onto the Atlantic and giving spectacular views across to the Paps of Jura and a superb example of nature at its best as the grey seals play in their hundreds off the close by Ronnachan Point .Duncan became the tenant Landlord of the local inn/ pub in a property still standing there called Shanakill . The date, as far as I can ascertain would have been circa 1826 as his son Dugald had been born in Whitehouse in October 1825 and his son Archibald in Shenakill in August 1827 This was unfortunately not the best time to establish a business in the Scottish Highlands and in particular on the West Coast where the cottars / crofters were highly dependent on the fickle herring plus a staple diet of potatoes . Nature was not on their side as the fish moved to places new a fungus attacked the tatties in the ground . Duncan and his rapidly expanding family were , to put it mildly , in a somewhat insecure position . My great grandmother Mary McFarlane was their seventh child , born in Shenakill in 1833. It would have been fascinating to have chatted to her about life in this Highland village and have found out just how many trials and tribulations were so close to hand . James Hunter’s excellent book “ Insurrection- Scotland’s Famine Winter “ gives a graphic account of Highland Scotland in 1846 .The potato crop had been wiped out by blight and a huge relief effort came o late to prevent starvation and death Protests escalated throughout the Highlands in protest at the cost of the oatmeal That had replaced potatoes as people’s basic food stuff .

The Statistical Accounts are a somewhat unique record of economic and social conditions in the whole of Scotland prepared , it should be said , at the instigation of the Established Church of Scotland . It does not include the other member states of the United Kingdom . This synopsis is taken from the Wikipedia and is a fair analysis of the two Accounts that were taken in the 1790s and the 1840s:

Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster had studied German state surveys and wished to use what he called for the first time these “statistical” methods to measure the quantum of happiness that existed in the nation and find ways of improving this. In this he was a remarkable example of Enlightenment idealism at work. He stressed the empirical ideal of that age by lauding its anxious attention to the facts and he set about completing the work left unachieved by the previous attempt mentioned above. The results are crucial to an understanding of Scotland on the eve of both the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution.r

In 1790, Sir John sent structured questionnaires to over 900 parish ministers, covering the whole country. This contained 160 questions in 4 sections, namely

Geography and topography

Population

Agricultural and Industrial production

Miscellaneous questions

There were follow up questions in Appendices – six new questions in 1790 and four more in 1791. The general response was excellent, though the length and quality of submissions varied greatly, as can be seen by comparing those for two East Lothian parishes , Whittingehame (9 pages with detailed tables) and Stenton (2 pages of minimal information). Since the survey was not complete, Sir John sent out Statistical Missionaries in 1796 . The project was finished by June 1799, though much had already been published, and Sir John was able to lay before the General Assembly a detailed portrait of the nation. Taken as a whole, the reports are of inestimable historical value. Some are excellently written by ministers who were themselves meticulous Enlightenment scholars (see for example the response by the Rev Dr James Meek for the Parish of Cambuslang in Lanarkshire).

What then is the relevance of this to my McFarlanes and the other Gaelic speaking people of Clachan and Kintyre ? Finance or rather lack of it had seen education , particularly in Highland areas .The attitude held by the vast majority of Presbyterian ministers and indeed many members of their flock especially in the Lowland regions was quite narrow and very parochial in the extreme , showing little of Christian good will and understanding towards their Gaelic speaking countrymen.

Funding for Highland schools came mainly through a body known as the SSPCK - the Scottish Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge . This was in reality a bunch of middle class Edinburgh based do gooders who in reflection totally misrepresented themselves in a total denigration of Gaelic Society. In Clachan where my great grandmother Mary McFarland attended school with her siblings the only person who spoke English was the head teacher ! English was a language at that time was not spoken or understood by his pupils ! The Second Statistical Account published in the 1840s was quite blunt “ The Gaelic is the language of the Parishioners but the English is displacing it- and the sooner it overmasters it ,the better “ In Clachan , pupils were beaten if caught speaking Gaelic at school , something which seemed to prevail in more than few Highland places of education .

The fall in the population in Kintyre , or specifically the Parish of Kilcalmonell and Kilberry , was a fundamental reason for the decline in Gaelic heritage .It had not increased since 1821 owing particularly to the high level of emigration to the Americas ( the US and Canada ) .This forced emigration had been subsidised by the Government . The inability of the indigenous Gaelic Scots to meet higher rent requirements from falling resources saw the inevitable movement either overseas or to the “ Low Country “ that was the rapidly expanding Central Belt and Glasgow city . The situation had been exacerbated prior to this by the new landlord - the Dukes of Argyll who as reward for their services to the anti Jacobite powers had received rewards including that of the lands of Kintyre where their dreaded foes - The MacDonalds - Lords of the Isles- had been unceremoniously removed .

The Clachan Kirks

It is clear why my ancestors left this lovely land . It was not for any other reason than necessity with perhaps a bit of opportunism thrown in ! The family were split Duncan and Annabella were evicted from Shenakill for non payment of rent and returned to the family croft up the road in Whitehouse . Dugald McFarlane the second oldest sibling sailed from Liverpool to Australia and participated in the 1851 Ballarat Gold Rush - married a lass from Northern Ireland raised a big family and never returned .Elizabeth my great gran’s older sister married an Archibald McBeath, a gamekeeper from Athol in Perthshire . A descendant became head keeper to the Colquhoun’s of Luss . Duncan , his brother, moved to the Edinburgh area as a gardener , moved to Peebles , became a coal merchant , lived and died in Peebles .His brother Colin became a gardener and moved to East Lothian . His great grandson Tom Middlemass farms Mid Markle near Haddington and has become a friend of mine over the years. Peter McFarlane was a wood sawyer, married and raised a large family and settled in Glasgow . Duncan the Innkeeper died in Campbelltown in 1863 aged 72 and his wife Annabella died in Peebles in 1874 aged 84 .

One can see from the above tale that the family was not destroyed but adapted and moved elsewhere from their native soil .. What happened to their Gaelic roots and culture is another story. I am afraid much must have been assimilated into to the prevailing lifestyle of their new domicile . Let me however add a brief addendum to this tale .

I visited Kintyre together with faithful companion “ Murphy “ my Jack Russell terrier We took in Whitehouse , Clachan and Killean . A memorable if too short a trip . But a trip which allowed me to take in the beauty and charm of this quiet part of our Highlands ,

In researching my McFarlane ancestry some twenty years ago I made contact with Ian MacDonald , a local historian and expert in all that is Kintyre . Where abouts did Ian live ? Shanakill in Clachan - the old inn where Duncan had been landlord ! Ian had in his possession a lot of old papers concerning the eviction of the family from the dwelling ! The other bit of information was quite unbelievable !

You will recall that Mary McFarlane my great grandmother had married her cousin Archibald McFarlane who had been born at Duppin in the north of the Parish . Mary and Archibald shared a common grandfather , Duncan McFarlane born at Duppin about 1750 . Duppin has long been abandoned and is in reality now a mere pile of stones where the old steadings stood .Ian was quite slow to expand . “ Popular place Duppin these days with all those visitors from across the Pond “, he quietly spoke to me . I hesitated not quite sure what he was getting at . Ian continued : “ You know that President Ronald Reagan has been checking out his roots and that although his Reagan side came from Northern Ireland , he had a strong Scottish connection on the other side . His great grandmother was a Jane Blue . Blue may not sound it - but it is pure Scottish coming from the small island of Colonsay and also Kintyre . Jane Blue’s mother was Catherine McFarlane from Duppin who married Donald Blue . Catherine was in probability the daughter of Duncan McFarlane born in Duppin about 1750 “ . The penny dropped . Ronald Reagan -

Aka “ The Gipper “- was my long lost cousin !

2022-02-19T06:05:00.000-08:00

2021-02-25T06:35:00.001-08:00

Leonard Mayall – a war time tragedy

Colin Mayall

I never met my grandfather Lewis Mayall. He died months after I was born . He was one of eight children born to Edward Mayall and Sarah Chadwick . t

There were four boys and four girls. The boys all served in the Army and fought in the First World War. This story is a bout Leonard born in Rastrick West Riding of Yorkshire on the 27 June 1888 . Rastrick was a small town famed for its brass band shared with neighbouring Brighouse . There were some six mills in the town and in the 1901 Census we find out just how important to the economy they were .

Edward Mayall my great grandfather aged 55 was working as a woollen card cleaner, Sarah his wife aged 49 is not listed as working and with a big family was in probability looking after the house . Mary the oldest daughter was 17 and listed as a cloth inker , her sister Lily aged 16 as a silk spinster and then Leonard , the oldest boy at home was a woollen piecer . Their house was situated at 7 New Hey Road near Round Hill , home of Rastrick Cricket Club and was comparatively rural .

MAYALL Family c 1900

Back Row: John ( Jack ) Mayall Eliza Mayall Mary Alice Mayall Lewis Mayall

Middle Row : Sarah Chadwick Leonard Mayall Edward Mayall

Front Row : Louisa Mayall Brook William Mayall

The Mayall Family outside New Hey Road Rastrick c 1900

Some four years later he had transferred to the 1^st Battalion the Northumberland Fusiliers and was on his way to India . The Regiment were based were based at West Ridge Rawalpindi. In 1914 as war loomed the Regiment were based at Portsmouth and when War eventually broke out It was assigned to the 9^th Brigade, 3^rd Infantry Division and remained with it throughout the war. It landed at Le Havre on 14 August 1914 and remained on the Western Front until the Armistice with Germany. It fought in the following major battles:

Battle of Mons

First Battle of the Aisne

First Battle of Ypres

Battle of the Somme (1916)

Battle of Arras (1917)

Third Battle of Ypres

First Battle of the Somme (1918)

Battle of the Lys (1918)

Second Battle of the Somme (1918)

Battles of the Hindenburg Line

The Northumberland Fusiliers earned 67 battle honours and was awarded five Victoria Crosses, but at the cost of over 16,000 soldiers killed in action, and many thousands wounded. The Northumberland Fusiliers mostly saw action in the main theatre of war, engaged in static trench warfare on the Western Front in Belgium and France, but also participated in fighting on the Macedonian front, the Gallipoli Campaign, the Sinai and Palestine Campaign and the Italian Front.

When Leonard first contracted “ shell shock “ or “ sickness “ I could not ascertain but am of the opinion it was during one of the early battles in 1915. . I do know that his service record tells us that he was discharged on the 4 August1917. He had been awarded the Victory Medal. The British Medal and Star Medal as well as being promoted to Lance Corporal . He had been transferred to the 3^rd Battalion. The 3^rd Battalion were a special reserve battalion who were based at Newcastle at the outbreak of War and moved to East Boldon ( near Sunderland ) where it remained throughout the War as part of the Tyne Garrison . This fact enhances the probability that he was retained in the Regiment after suffering the shell shock but was transferred from France/ Belgium back to the UK . He was also attached to the Manchester Regiment for a short period but no details can be found

After his discharge Leonard became a resident at Storthes Hall Mental Hospital in Huddersfield . It had been built and operated for many year as the West Riding Pauper and Lunatic Asylum before changing the name to something not quite so shameful .He had married a local lass in 1919 but there did not appear to have been any children . He obtained a job doing manual work in a local mill .His wife lived in Bradford as a kitchen maid in a hotel. Leonard died in October 1939 in Storthes.

Having researched Leonard’s sad War experience and having spent the last 22 years of his life in a mental hospital, I wanted to find out more about the circumstances and how extensive it was amongst the British Forces.

Following is from the Study aforementioned

By the end of World War One , the British Army had dealt with 80 000 cases of shell shock , including Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen . Professor Joanna Bourke of Birbeck ,University of London researched how the Army tackled the extreme trauma this in some detail and I highlight the various sections which I consider pertinent to our study of Leonard Mayall .

Battlefield breaking points

On 7 July 1916, Arthur Hubbard painfully set pen to paper in an attempt to explain to his mother why he was no longer in France. He had been taken from the battlefields and deposited in the East Suffolk and Ipswich Hospital suffering from 'shell shock'. In his words, his breakdown was related to witnessing 'a terrible sight that I shall never forget as long as I live'. He told his mother:

'We had strict orders not to take prisoners, no matter if wounded my first job was when I had finished cutting some of their wire away, to empty my magazine on 3 Germans that came out of one of their deep dugouts. bleeding badly, and put them out of misery. They cried for mercy, but I had my orders, they had no feeling whatever for us poor chaps... it makes my head jump to think about it.' [Punctuation and syntax as originally written]

He was buried, dug himself out, and during the subsequent retreat was almost killed by machine gun fire.

Hubbard had 'gone over the top' at the Battle of the Somme. While he managed to fight as far as the fourth line of trenches, by 3.30pm practically his whole battalion had been wiped out by German artillery. He was buried, dug himself out, and during the subsequent retreat was almost killed by machine gun fire. Within this landscape of horror, he collapsed.

Medical symptoms

Aerial Photo of a World War One battlefield Aerial shot of a battlefield on the Western Front .Arthur Hubbard was one of millions of men who suffered psychological trauma as a result of their war experiences. Symptoms ranged from uncontrollable diarrhoea to unrelenting anxiety. Soldiers who had bayoneted men in the face developed hysterical tics of their own facial muscles. Stomach cramps seized men who knifed their foes in the abdomen. Snipers lost their sight. Terrifying nightmares of being unable to withdraw bayonets from the enemies' bodies persisted long after the slaughter.

The dreams might occur 'right in the middle of an ordinary conversation' when 'the face of a Boche that I have bayoneted, with its horrible gurgle and grimace, comes sharply into view', an infantry captain complained. An inability to eat or sleep after the slaughter was common. Nightmares did not always occur during the war. World War

One soldiers like Rowland Luther did not suffer until after the armistice when (he admitted) he 'cracked up' and found himself unable to eat, deliriously re-living his experiences of combat.

...everyone had a 'breaking point': weak or strong, courageous or cowardly - war frightened everyone witless...

These were not exceptional cases. It was clear to everyone that large numbers of combatants could not cope with the strain of warfare. By the end of World War One, the army had dealt with 80,000 cases of 'shell shock'. As early as 1917, it was recognised that war neuroses accounted for one-seventh of all personnel discharged for disabilities from the British Army. Once wounds were excluded, emotional disorders were responsible for one-third of all discharges. Even more worrying was the fact that a higher proportion of officers were suffering in this way. According to one survey published in 1917, while the ratio of officers to men at the front was 1:30, among patients in hospitals specialising in war neuroses, the ratio of officers to men was 1:6. What medical officers quickly realised was that everyone had a 'breaking point': weak or strong, courageous or cowardly - war frightened everyone witless.

Defining trauma

Photo of a shell shocked victim undergoing a medical examination A medical officer examining a recruit More difficult, however, was understanding what caused some panic-stricken men to suffer extremes of trauma. In the early years of World War One, shell shock was believed to be the result of a physical injury to the nerves. In other words, shell shock was the result of being buried alive or exposed to heavy bombardment. The term itself had been coined, in 1917, by a medical officer called Charles Myers. But Myers rapidly became unhappy with the term, recognising that many men suffered the symptoms of shell shock without having even been in the front lines. As a consequence, medical officers increasingly began emphasising psychological factors as providing sufficient cause for breakdown. As the president of the British Psycho-Analytic Association, Ernest Jones, explained: war constituted 'an official abrogation of civilised standards' in which men were not only allowed, but encouraged:

'...to indulge in behaviour of a kind that is throughout abhorrent to the civilised mind.... All sorts of previously forbidden and hidden impulses, cruel, sadistic, murderous and so on, are stirred to greater activity, and the old intrapsychical conflicts which, according to Freud, are the essential cause of all neurotic disorders, and which had been dealt with before by means of 'repression' of one side of the conflict are now reinforced, and the person is compelled to deal with them afresh under totally different circumstances.'

...a soldier who suffered a neurosis had not lost his reason but was labouring under the weight of too much reason...

Consequently, the 'return to the mental attitude of civilian life' could spark off severe psychological trauma. The authors of one of the standard books on shell shock went so far as to point out that a soldier who suffered a neurosis had not lost his reason but was labouring under the weight of too much reason: his senses were 'functioning with painful efficiency'.

Possible Cures

Photo of a shell shocked veteran : Four-fifths of shell shock cases were never able to return to military duty ©Nevertheless, how were these men to be cured of their painful afflictions? From the start, the purpose of treatment was to restore the maximum number of men to duty as quickly as possible. During World War One, four-fifths of men who had entered hospital suffering shell shock were never able to return to military duty: it was imperative that such high levels of 'permanent infectives' were reduced. However, the shift from regarding breakdown as 'organic' (that is, an injury to the nerves) to viewing it as psychological had inevitable consequences in terms of treatment. If breakdown was a 'paralysis of the nerves', then massage, rest, dietary regimes and electric shock treatment were invoked. If a psychological source was indicated, the 'talking cure', hypnosis, and rest would speed recovery. In all instances, occupational training and the inculcation of 'masculinity' were highly recommended. As the medical superintendent at one military hospital in York put it, although the medical officer must show sympathy, the patient 'must be induced to face his illness in a manly way'.

...their reputations as soldiers and men had been dealt a severe blow.

Sympathy was only rarely forthcoming. Sufferers had no choice but to acknowledge that their reputations as soldiers and men had been dealt a severe blow. After a major bombardment or particularly bloody attack, if the combatant had acquitted himself adequately, signs of emotional 'weakness' could be overlooked, but in the midst of the fray, the attitude was much less sympathetic. 'Go 'ide yerself, you bloody little coward!', cursed one Tommy at a frightened soldier. When the shell shocked men returned home, things were not much better. Men arriving at Netley Hospital (for servicemen suffering shell shock) were greeted with silence: people were described as hanging their heads in 'inexplicable shame'. No-one better described the mix of shame and anger experienced by the war-damaged than the poet, Siegfried Sassoon. In October 1917, while he was at Craiglockhart, one of the most famous hospitals for curing officers with war neuroses, he wrote a poem, simply called 'Survivors':

No doubt they'll soon get well; the shock and strain / Have caused their stammering, disconnected talk. / Of course they're 'longing to go out again', - / These boys with old, scared faces, learning to walk. / They'll soon forget their haunted nights; their cowed / Subjection to the ghosts of friends who died, - / Their dreams that drip with murder; and they'll be proud / Of glorious war that shatter'd their pride... / Men who went out to battle, grim and glad; / Children, with eyes that hate you, broken and mad.

Books and articles

Shell Shock: A History of the Changing Attitudes to War Neuroses by Anthony Babington (Leo Cooper, 1997)

From Shell Shock to Combat Stress by JMW Binneveld (Amsterdam University Press, 1997)

War Neurosis and Cultural Change in England, 1914-22 by Ted Bogacz (Journal of Contemporary History, volume 24, 1989)

Dismembering the Male: Men's Bodies, Britain and the Great War by Joanna Bourke (Reaktion Books, 1996)

No Man's Land: Combat and Identity in World War One by Eric J Leed (Cambridge University Press, 1979)

Problems Returning Home: The British Psychological Casualties of the Great War by Peter Leese (The Historical Journal, volume 40, 1997)

Female Malady: Women, Madness and English Culture 1830-1980 by Elaine Showalter (Virago, 1987)

The Regeneration Trilogy by Pat Barker (Viking, 1996 )

Links

Archive of primary documents from World War One Established and maintained by the World War One Military History discussion group, the site focuses on 1890-1920, discussing topics from military, diplomatic, social, and economic issues to the arts.

The Great War The PBS site for 'The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century' series goes beyond the military and political history of World War One to explore its ongoing social, cultural and personal impact.

_________________________________________________________

The Wilfred Owen Multimedia Digital Archive

[41]

2021-01-16T08:56:00.000-08:00

Leonard Mayall – a war time tragedy

Colin Mayall

I never met my grandfather Lewis Mayall. He died months after I was born . He was one of eight children born to Edward Mayall and Sarah Chadwick . t

It is probable that an army life offered much more prospects for a young lad . His brother Lewis had joined the 17^th Lancers and moved with them to South Africa where they participated in the Boer War. Brother Jack had joined the Duke of Wellington’s – the West Riding Regiment and Leonard too signed up – to the 4^th West Yorkshire Corps . The Certificate of Attestation was dated 29thMay 1906 and he was only 17 years old. Some four years later he had transferred to the 1^st Battalion the Northumberland Fusiliers and was on his way to India . The Regiment were based were based at West Ridge Rawalpindi. In 1914 as war loomed the Regiment were based at Portsmouth and when War eventually broke out It was assigned to the 9^th Brigade, 3^rd Infantry Division and remained with it throughout the war. It landed at Le Havre on 14 August 1914 and remained on the Western Front until the Armistice with Germany. It fought in the following major battles:

MAYALL Family c 1900

Back Row: John ( Jack ) Mayall Eliza Mayall Mary Alice Mayall Lewis Mayall

Middle Row : Sarah Chadwick Leonard Mayall Edward Mayall

Front Row : Louisa Mayall Brook William Mayall

The Mayall Family outside New Hey Road Rastrick c 1900

Battle of Mons

First Battle of the Aisne

First Battle of Ypres

Battle of the Somme (1916)

Battle of Arras (1917)

Third Battle of Ypres

First Battle of the Somme (1918)

Battle of the Lys (1918)

Second Battle of the Somme (1918)

Battles of the Hindenburg Line

Following is from the Study aforementioned

Battlefield breaking points[41]

He was buried, dug himself out, and during the subsequent retreat was almost killed by machine gun fire.

Medical symptoms

One soldiers like Rowland Luther did not suffer until after the armistice when (he admitted) he 'cracked up' and found himself unable to eat, deliriously re-living his experiences of combat.

...everyone had a 'breaking point': weak or strong, courageous or cowardly - war frightened everyone witless...

Defining trauma

Photo of a shell shocked victim undergoing a medical examinationA medical officer examining a recruit More difficult, however, was understanding what caused some panic-stricken men to suffer extremes of trauma. In the early years of World War One, shell shock was believed to be the result of a physical injury to the nerves. In other words, shell shock was the result of being buried alive or exposed to heavy bombardment. The term itself had been coined, in 1917, by a medical officer called Charles Myers. But Myers rapidly became unhappy with the term, recognising that many men suffered the symptoms of shell shock without having even been in the front lines. As a consequence, medical officers increasingly began emphasising psychological factors as providing sufficient cause for breakdown. As the president of the British Psycho-Analytic Association, Ernest Jones, explained: war constituted 'an official abrogation of civilised standards' in which men were not only allowed, but encouraged:

...a soldier who suffered a neurosis had not lost his reason but was labouring under the weight of too much reason...

Possible Cures

Photo of a shell shocked veteran : Four-fifths of shell shock cases were never able to return to military duty ©Nevertheless, how were these men to be cured of their painful afflictions? From the start, the purpose of treatment was to restore the maximum number of men to duty as quickly as possible. During World War One, four-fifths of men who had entered hospital suffering shell shock were never able to return to military duty: it was imperative that such high levels of 'permanent ineffectives' were reduced. However, the shift from regarding breakdown as 'organic' (that is, an injury to the nerves) to viewing it as psychological had inevitable consequences in terms of treatment. If breakdown was a 'paralysis of the nerves', then massage, rest, dietary regimes and electric shock treatment were invoked. If a psychological source was indicated, the 'talking cure', hypnosis, and rest would speed recovery. In all instances, occupational training and the inculcation of 'masculinity' were highly recommended. As the medical superintendent at one military hospital in York put it, although the medical officer must show sympathy, the patient 'must be induced to face his illness in a manly way'.

...their reputations as soldiers and men had been dealt a severe blow.

Books and articles

Shell Shock: A History of the Changing Attitudes to War Neuroses by Anthony Babington (Leo Cooper, 1997)

From Shell Shock to Combat Stress by JMW Binneveld (Amsterdam University Press, 1997)

War Neurosis and Cultural Change in England, 1914-22 by Ted Bogacz (Journal of Contemporary History, volume 24, 1989)

Dismembering the Male: Men's Bodies, Britain and the Great War by Joanna Bourke (Reaktion Books, 1996)

No Man's Land: Combat and Identity in World War One by Eric J Leed (Cambridge University Press, 1979)

Problems Returning Home: The British Psychological Casualties of the Great War by Peter Leese (The Historical Journal, volume 40, 1997)

Female Malady: Women, Madness and English Culture 1830-1980 by Elaine Showalter (Virago, 1987)

The Regeneration Trilogy by Pat Barker (Viking, 1996 )

Links

_________________________________________________________

The Wilfred Owen Multimedia Digital Archive

[41]

2020-12-28T05:52:00.001-08:00

2020-07-26T09:28:00.000-07:00

Lady Mary's Walk : Who was Lady Mary ?

2020-06-04T05:09:00.003-07:00

Lady Mary's Walk : Who Was Lady Mary ?

It is one of Strathearn's most popular walks . Lady Mary's Walk runs from near MacRosty Park along the Turret Burn and then eastwards along the banks of the Earn . Choices abound and you can cross over what was the old Crieff - Comrie railway line and back towards Crieff. Beautiful and spectacular changing by the season and renowned for its variety of wild life .

The following is extracted from Porteous “ The History of Crieff “ published in 1912.

"In September of this year (1859) the tenants of the ground beside the Turret below the Bridge of Turret made an endeavour to close the road leading by the banks of the river to Lady Mary’s Walk. Happily this selfish attempt was frustrated. Lady Mary’s Walk runs for about a mile westwards from “ Ling a wing ” along the banks of the Earn. It was formed about the year 1815 by Sir Peter or Patrick Murray of Ochtertyre and being a favourite walk of his daughter Lady Mary Murray became known by her name. Miss Margaret Wright in her journal mentions that, on the 12th May 1815, she went “ a little way on the new walk by the waterside. Made by Sir Peter. It must be delightful ” Miss Wright in these last words expresses feelings confirmed by every native of Crieff, and every visitor to Crieff during well – nigh the last hundred years. It is however to be regretted that the peaceful amenity of the walk has been somewhat spoilt by the close proximity of the Comrie Railway which runs parallel to it, and the jarring rattle of the occasional train detracts from the true enjoyment of the peaceful surroundings, erstwhile broken only by the gentle murmur of the river. In 1859 Sir William Keith Murray erected a number seats along the walk, and the present baronet has also endeavoured to render it still more attractive. "

Feddal Castle, Braco

2020-05-18T03:26:00.000-07:00

Feddal Castle, Braco

Introduction : The PerthshireCrieffStrathearn Blogs have been posting now on local history and places of interest in the area for over 10 years with well over 200 tales of varying styles and types . This new blog on Feddal Castle at Braco is of special interest to me . It is the first blog by my son Nic and his family . A team effort if there ever was one ! The buildings have a fascinating history and have been comparatively neglected by other local historians despite its proximity to Braco and ease of access . The standard of pictures throughout is high and the script informative ;

Blog Team : Nic Mayall ,Caroline Mayall and Callum Mayall

As a relative newcomer to Braco & Greenloaning, I am keen to explore some of the local history and learn more about the area.

Braco is rich in history, being home to one of the best preserved Roman camps at Ardoch and also Braco Castle. My curiosity has been piqued more about the history we can’t see and, in particular, the two local mansions that have now been demolished – Ardoch House and Feddal Castle.

There has been quite a lot written about Ardoch House already so my initial research has focussed on learning more about the curious Feddal Castle.

The site of the former Feddal Castle is about 1 mile west of the village of Braco, just off the Feddal Road (B8033). There are a number of houses/cottages at the foot of the old drive including the former lodge house.

Ordnance Survey Map 1863

Ordnance Survey Map 1901

Some confusion exists between Feddal House and Feddal Castle. The Ordnance survey map of 1863 shows the original Feddal House. The 1901 Ordnance survey map shows the location of the new, grander baronial style Feddal Castle, built in 1900.

Feddal House

The former, the original Feddal House, still exists, albeit now as a rather sad ruin. Feddal House was built in 1683 as the ancestral seat of the Burden family.

The Burdens were a sept of the Clan Lamont, which, somewhat coincidentally, is also my own clan on my father’s side.

The Burdens first established themselves in the Barony of Easter Feddal in 1623 and by 1683 had a finely built baronial great house – Feddal House. There is a stone dating the badly ruined house from that time with interlocking mirror image B’s.

The 1683 inscription with the Burden Bs.

One of the earlier inhabitants of Feddal House was James Burden, Laird of Feddal, who enaged in a famous duel with the Laird of Balhaldie in the early 1700’s. After an hour of hacking and slashing, neither had gained an advantage until the sword of James broke off at the hilt. Instead of pressing his advantage, the Laird of Balhaldie (also the clan chief of the MacGregors) nobly threw down his sword and the two became firm friends.

This is an extract of these events as cited in “Dunblane Traditions” published in 1835:

“In the Laird’s younger years a feud existed between himself and a neighbouring proprietor—the Laird of Feddal . This Feddal was reported the ne plus ultra of the district in the management of the Highland broad sword, so dexterously adept that he could measure his distance -point in a manner so very exact as to cut the button from the shirt neck of an antagonist without injuring his person. Baldhaldie could ill brook the idea being entertained that a better man existed than himself at the broadsword . It was his favourite weapon of war—he practised it from childhood, and never had in bloody strife met his equal . In order, as he said, to settle differences for ever, then existing between himself and the Laird of Feddal, he challenged the Laird to single combat—sword and targe . The challenge being accepted , the parties met on the banks of the Allan , below Greenloaning , when a desperate combat ensued, which continued upwards of an hour. The combatants by this time were both slightly wounded, but neither seemed to have the least advantage of his antagonist—only Balhaldie, being the stronger man, was expected to hold longest out. At this critical moment the false blade of Feddal gave way at the hilt, and he, expecting to be instantly stabbed to the heart, sprang back, and bared his breast to the foe. But Balhaldie was as generous as he was brave ; and respecting, to a high degree of enthusiasm, all whom he found adepts in the use of his favourite weapon, instantly checked himself, and casting his sword and targe to the ground, threw his arms around the man with whom he had just been engaged in deadly strife, and, warmly embracing him, begged that henceforth they might be friends . He at the same time declared that all he had heard of his opponent’s prowess must be true , since his own life was never till that moment in danger. Feddal returned a similar compliment to the dexterity of Balhaldie ’ s sword - arm, and from that moment the rival sword players, instead of being jealous and inveterate enemies, became united in the bonds of indissoluble friendship.”

Feddal House’s other significant claim to fame is that the young pretender, Bonnie Prince Charlie, stayed there. Below are a number of photos I took on a walk through the Feddal estate in April 2020. The original Feddal House, whilst long since deserted, is in a reasonable state of preservation. The stone entrance gate appears to be a later edition to the main house and may have been added as a grand entrance to the new Feddal Castle.

Feddal Castle ; In 1900 the new Feddal Castle was built in the Gothic revival style popular at the time . The Castle was built by George Boyd -Thornton who had made his money from rubber .

This aerial shot of the Castle shown below was taken in 1846 and you can see the scale and grandeur of the Castle . The original Feddal House is also visible as are the fine glasshouses and the walled garden.

The glasshouses at Feddal were said to be the finest of their kind . Very little remains of them now , but two of the buildings have been left , although in an advanced state of decay .

Major Falconer - Stewart was something of a local worthy being President of Greenloaning Burns Club as well as Chieftain of Crieff Highland Games . Newspaper extracts of the time also show both he and his wife attending numerous charitable functions , opening fetes at Braco Village Hall and gracing the Stirling Ball , a popular county event for the local gentry .

In March 1929 there was a catastrophic fire which caused over £10 000 of damage , completely destroying the roof and rendering the castle uninhabitable .

In June 1953 the house was demolished allegedly for tax purposes. Virtually no trace remains of the former castle now aside from a pile of rubble and much of the original site is now wooded over .

Nic Mayall

April 2020

VE Day and a Fishy Tale !

2020-05-08T06:02:00.002-07:00

VE Day and a Fishy Tale !

Being incredibly old and decrepit, I can probably outdo most of my fellow Facebookers in that I can actually remember VE Day! I was admittedly a mere 1 month and 1 day off my fourth birthday and the following encounter in all probability has relied on parental recall more than a little bit. This of course was the era before the mobile phone replaced the ear transplant and we were all rather naïve . My father worked during the War with Scottish steel makers Colvilles in their Glasgow Office. As steel manufacturing was an essential ingredient to the War effort his job made him exempt from military service. Well not quite as he was a fully paid up member of Dad’s Army aka The Home Guard , As I was an only child and of pre-school age my father used to opt for a May holiday in a the years when that month was regularly blessed with warm sunny weather ( or so it seemed ! ) . We headed off “ doon the water “ to Millport on the Isle of Cumbrae in the County of Bute .

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On reflection this was somewhat strange as my mother’s family , the Lamonts had lived as farmers and fishers on the Isle of Bute a short distance across the firth from Cumbrae .The tattie famine and herring decline in the mid 19^th century had seen them depart the bucolic bliss and head up stream to the expanding industrial metropolis that was Glasgow . Cumbrae at that time was part of Ayrshire and the population was almost all located within the small town of Millport and apart from a few fishing boats. The feudal superiorities were split between the Marquis of Bute and the Earl of Glasgow . It was the latter who built the small church nestling amongst some woodland adjacent to the Garrison . It is the Cathedral of the Isles – the smallest Cathedral in the British Isles and a fascinating little structure . The Garrison House just mentioned lies in the centre of town and was constructed in 1745 It was formerly the barracks/Captain's mansion, then the home of the Earl of Glasgow, and is now in community ownership .During the development of the River Clyde as a main thoroughfare for goods, shipbuilding and smuggling, Millport was a strategic base for Customs and Excise. Several of the streets in Millport are named after crew members of the Revenue cutter Royal George.

The Mayall family rented as mall single bedroomed flat on Cardiff Street – a steep road leading down to the Old Pier and harbour. Why Cardiff Street ? It fell within the curtilage of the area of the town feued from the Marquis of Bute . The Butes owned a vast number of coal mines in South Wales including those close by Cardiff – hence the name !

Enough of my historical asides , let us get to the reasoning for this epistle ! In the early part of 1945 the war was still raging in Europe . I late April , Hitler realising his game was up committed suicide and that was the beginning of the end for the Nazi regime . We happened to have just started our annual holiday . The hamper had been packed and sent off “ advanced luggage “ to be awaiting our arrival in “ Shangri-La “ . Although the distance between our home in Clarkston , south of Glasgow and Millport was less than 40 miles , the complications of travel was quite unbelievable when looked at with hindsight from the present era .Armed with a large suitcase , we got a taxi from our home in Clarkston to the railway station - a distance of about a mile . We then got the steam train to Glasgow Central and connected with the Wemyss Bay holiday special . Wemyss Bay was near Slelmorlie on the Firth of Clyde and had a long pier . It always seemed like a mile long as we walked down from the station to the pier itself . Here both the Rothesay steamer and the Millport boat , the “ Duchess of Fife “ , departed . Once aboard we settled in the below decks tea room and after a glass of lemonade and a buttered scone , Dad would take into the bowels of the vessel to look at the “engines “ . Being a paddle steamer it was an incredibly complex arrangement of machinery and oh so noisy ! From Wemyss Bay we sailed to Largs and thence across to Cumbrae First stop at Keppel Pier and thence to the climax the arrival at Millport Old Pier – disembark – up the hill and into our holiday home !

Why then do I recall 1945 ? Not for what you might expect as you read of the curtailed celebrations of the 75^th anniversary of the end of WW2 but something that for a pre school wee laddie was far more exciting - my first fishing trip ! Armed with a reel of orange coloured fishing twine in its wooden holder , Dad and I were off to the end of the pier in search of saithe , rock cod and who knows what else . Down the steep decline of Cardiff Street , ;little more than a 100 yards or so – nearly there ! Suddenly a wee guy with a fiery red face came rushing up towards We stopped “ The War’s over , the Wars over “ he kept bellowing . My attention was far away- away in the blue waters of the adjacent harbour . To my astonishment Dad grabbed my hand and turning sharply round began our ascent back in the direction from whence we came ! “ The fishing , the fishing Dad “ I stammered . The reply was brief and to the point “ The War’s over son , we gotta tell mum righty away “

We did eventually get to seek piscatorial satisfaction but it was not in May 1945 !

Blog List Draft

2020-04-29T11:48:00.000-07:00

PART ONE

My Lamont Heritage 20/09/2019

Is treading the “ Boards “a family tradition ?10/09/2019

A Walk Around Old Crieff in the Steps of the Drovers 27/08/2019

Ochtertyre in 1860 13/04/2019

TheCampus , The Cursus and The Stayt Colin Mayall CrieffNovember 2009 (Updated February 2010 , May 2014)

Crieff’s Cursus - TheSymbolic River ( written 2006 ) Perhaps you had noticed that they were digging ditches and doing all sorts of things in the field where the new Crieff High school is scheduled to be built? . This was a sortof preamble to the building work commenced 12/04/2019

Weavers of Strathearn 10/04/2019

The Third World Rover Scout Moot held at Monzie near Crieff in July 1939 20/03/2019

A written record of Comrie in 1791 21/02/2019

LADY MARY'S WALK AND LAGGAN HILL WALKS AROUND STRATHEARN NO. 1 07/02/2019

St Fillan HistoricScenes of Perthshire Published Originally in 1880 by a Perthshire Minister (Marshall, 1880) 03/02/2019

The Union of Parliaments 1707 16/01/2019

Who were the Picts ? ( Revised ) 01/01/2019

Who were the Picts ? 01/01/2019

Scotland’s Historical Back Bone - The Weavers of Yesteryear 27/12/2018

The Story of Weaving and Textiles in Crieff 27/12/2018

Hidden below the Waves 07/11/2018

World War One - our family story 01/11/2018

A Highland Family Saga 20/10/2018

Who were the Culdees and why were they in Muthill ? 09/09/2018

Strageath Mill and Churchyard 09/09/2018

Comrie of Old 08/09/2018

Colin's Latest Book An ideal gift for young or old ! More Tales of Crieff & Strathearn People Places and Stories 05/09/2018

Sketches of Perthshire ( The Rev P Graham (1812 ) From The North By Dunblane 26/08/2018

"Dead " good way to improve sales ! 24/07/2018

Weaving in Auchterarder 15/07/2018

Now and Then A Trip Around Strathearn Comrie 1840s 15/06/2018

A Possible Roman Road Cutting at Innerpeffray Library 23/05/2018

More on Strathearn Standing Stones 22/05/2018

Strathearn Fairs 20/05/2018

The Dargill Standing Stone 02/05/2018

Two Hundred Thousand Hits - Our Story To Date ! 22/04/2018

Strageath - a Roman camp- a holy well- St Patrick's Church and an old Mill 20/04/2018

The March from Callum’s Hill in Crieff to Tibbermore 02/04/2018

AGRICOLA AND STRATHEARN 25/03/2018

The McEwan Family – Woollen Manufacturers in Crieff 25/03/2018

Tom na Chastille 23/03/2018

Voters Roll for 1832 covering Crieff Auchterarder Comrie, Blackford and Fowlis Wester 22/03/2018

St Dominic and the Crieff connection 13/03/2018

Industry in Crieff in the 18th &19th Centuries 13/03/2018

The Terrible Parish : St Beans Church Kinkell and about that airt . 28/02/2018

St Beans Kirk in Fowlis Wester Strathearn 25/02/2018

Samhain or Halloween ?? A Look Into Our Past traditions 29/10/2017

Crieff Past and Present : The Cross of Crieff and Drummond Cross 14 January 1888 27/08/2017

St Fillan Historic Scenes of Perthshire 16/08/2017College House Crieff ( A letter written to the Strathearn Herald by Frederika ConstanceCummings on September 6th 1918 ) 15/08/20

William SmeatonA Crieff Worthy of Yesteryear ( Macara 1881) 07/08/2017

A Highland Family -Famine - Migration - War – Death 12/07/2017

Col's New Blog Now On line ! 04/07/2017

More Tales of Inchaffray Abbey in Madderty 21/05/2017

Crieff in the Victorian Eraby " Dixon "Printed by HK Brown, 15 King Street 1897CRIEFFLIFE IN SEPTEMBER 1896 26/11/2016

Queen Victoria's Visit To Crieff in 1842 09/10/2016

Culloden Attrocities in the Aftermath 03/10/2016

Strathearn’s Involvement & Attitude to the 1745 Uprising : “Hey ! Johnnie Cope are you walking yet ??” 01/10/2016

The Ossian Stone or Clach Ossian in the Sma’ Glen near Crieff 22/09/2016

Viscount Melville his monument and the beauties of Dunira 04/09/2016

Thanks To You all ! The “ Blog “ passes the 100 000 “ hits “ goal post ! 29/08/2016

The Episcopal Church in Crieff - A Long Established Part of the Community 24/04/2016

A Look At Ochtertyre Its Tenants And Holdings In 1865. 25/03/2016

Where is Cultoquhey ? 12/03/2016

Methven : Some Historical Tales including a defeat for Robert the Bruce . 07/03/2016

PerthshireCrieffStrathearn Local History Blog : Index February 2016 of all Blogs 26/02/2016

Stanley Mills – Our Industrial Heritage 15/01/2016

Strowan Past and Present 10/01/2016

Castle Cluggy at Ochtertyre 28/11/2015

Ewan and Uncle Denis 22/11/2015

Crieff And Some Of Its Artefacts Action Now ! 09/11/2015

Fowlis Castle - A Forgotten Part of Strathearn’s Heritage 04/11/2015

Crieff Past and Present Published on the 7th JANUARY 1888 27/08/2015

Crieff Crimes of Yesteryear ! 25/08/2015

Start of Democracy in the Strath 30/07/2015

Crieff Old Parish Church And Graveyard in 1888 20/07/2015

Ardunie Watchtower -and walk the Roman Road ! 11/06/2015

Glen Artney and Auchnashelloch : A Royal Forest and Comrie’s Highland Heritage . 06/06/2015

Inchaffray Abbey 22/05/2015

A Place Called Balloch 16/05/2015

Dundurn - Ancient Pictish Fort 14/04/2015

Whisky –Uisge Beatha- the Water of Life and Crieff’s Distilling Heritage 08/04/2015

St Michael's Church Yard 1972 Survey of Gravestones 26/03/2015

The Rise and Fall of Inchbrakie – The Story of the Graemes and Why A Great House Was Demolished and A Family Heritage Threatened 23/03/2015

Crieff at the time of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1897 08/03/2015

Beer was brewed in the Strath before whisky was distilled. 27/02/2015

It's Been Three Years of Crieff & Strathearn Local History Blogs ! 23/02/2015

The Railways of Strathearn 20/02/2015

Tullibardine Castle and the Pride of the Scots Navy ! 29/01/2015

Fowlis Castle - A Forgotten Part of Strathearn’s Heritage 09/01/2015

The Ancient Church of Strowan Near Crieff 06/01/2015

A Happy New Year from Crieff & Strathearn ! 01/01/2015

The Earn- the heron and a precious stone 31/12/2014

The Coal Mines that would have changed the Strath – a fortunate escape ! 14/12/2014

Lady Mary’s Walk 03/12/2014

Hogmanay and Handsel Monday Two Time Honoured Crieff Festivals 17/11/2014

PART TWO

Crieff’s “ Dad’s Army “ – the Home Guard of World War 2 20/10/2014

Castle Cluggy and Loch Monzievaird , Ochtertyre 06/10/2014

Perthshire CrieffStrathearn Local History Blogs A Current Index The Blog has been running since February 2012 06/10/2014

Who do we think we are ? Scots , Brits or “Anglais “ ??? 21/09/2014

Pictish Strathearn and a lost or misplaced Kingdom ! 11/09/2014

A Battle of Kings Fought On Our Doorstep 22/08/2014

Some Important Buildings of Strathearn 17/08/2014

The Sad Demise Of An Historic Part of Crieff : PART FOUR 26/07/2014

The Sad Demise Of An Historic Part of Crieff : PART THREE 22/07/2014

The Sad Demise Of An Historic Part of Crieff : Part Two 12/07/2014

The Sad Demise Of An Historic Part of Crieff : Part One 11/07/2014

A look into some interesting Crieff archives 09/06/2014

Royal MacRosty : The Visit of William and Kate , Earl and Countess of Strathearn 01/06/2014

Ancient History and Heritage of Strathearn Begins to Be Recognised 14/05/2014

New Blog Site For Perthshire Crieff and Strathearn Pictures Old and New 14/05/2014

The Strathearn Heritage of Prince William and Kate Middleton and more about Kinkell -the "Terrible Parish " ! 11/05/2014

The Last Hanging In Crieff ; Kangaroo Court ? 07/05/2014

Daniel Robertson -a "Lad o' Pairts "** - the local ploughboy who became a millionaire 21/04/2014

History of the Parishes of Monzievaird And Strowan 14/04/2014

The Poorhouse and Poverty in Crieff in the late Victorian Period 28/03/2014

Pestilence and Arson in 17th Century Strathearn 09/03/2014

The Rev McAllister And A Religious "Punch Up" In Crieff 25/02/2014

Strathearn Perthshire Past and Present In Pictures 20/02/2014

Saint Fillan And His Cures For Sundry Ailments 16/02/2014

Two Years of Our PerthshireCrieffStrathearn Blog 13/02/2014

Drummond Arms Hotel Crieff And Our Neglected Heritage 11/02/2014

Cultoquhey - " at the back of a snowdrift " 06/02/2014

Huntingtower Castle 05/02/2014

Strange Roman Apparitions in Strathearn 02/02/2014

The Meaning of Many Local Place Names Around Crieff 30/01/2014

Jacobites in Strathearn ( Part Two )15/12/2013

Crieff Shops and businesses 100 years ago ( names & places ) - Part Two 28/11/2013

The Strathearn Village of Dunning and its fascinating heritage 18/11/2013

Pre Christmas Special Offer on Crieff & Strathearn Local History Books 12/11/2013

Heritage Restored - The Wild Beauty of Rannoch 04/11/2013

Our lost heritage 28/10/2013

The Ancient Secrets of Glenlednock above Comrie – a look at this Highland glen in the 18th and 19th centuries 09/10/2013

Toshach Castle - Strathearn Stronghold of the Clan Macintosh 23/09/2013

The Murder of the “ Red Fox “ - a mystery unsolved for over 250 years 05/09/2013

Crieff’s High Street Before World War 1 ( 1913/1914 ) Part One 29/08/2013

Innerpeffray 16/08/2013

Crieff at the time of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1897 11/08/2013

The Sad Demise of The Crieff and Strathearn Hand Loom Weavers c 1860 06/08/2013

Crieff in the early Victorian Days 05/08/2013

Auchterarder in the 1790s - home to the Ryder Cup in 2014 at its Gleneagles Golf Club ! 24/07/2013

A Roman Fort on the Edge of Their World 14/07/2013

A Soldier's Tale -The Grandfather I Never Knew 30/06/2013

The Drummonds of Strathearn - their Castle , Rob Roy and a King's mistress ! 28/06/2013

The History of the Broich Cursus Gradually Unravels ! 18/06/2013

The Carpow Logboat a late Bronze Age gem plucked from mud banks of the River Tay 07/06/2013

Strathearn and Perthshire's Role in the Wars of Independence : Wallace and Bruce . 27/05/2013

A look at the historic village of Methven and its Castle 10/05/2013

Crannogs – the amazing artificial islands that abound in Perthshire’s many Lochs 29/04/2013

The Stayt of Crieff - Site of the Court of the Earls of Strathearn 02/04/2013

Jacobites of Strathearn - the'45 Put Into Perspective 24/03/2013

Yes – These Are Really Strathearn Names ! 21/03/2013

Bridgend and Crieff in the Early 19th Century 11/03/2013

Cock Fighting In Crieff -Big Crowds and Big Money In The 19th Century ! 08/03/2013

What a " Relief " - a tale about our religious past and a forgotten Kirk that still stands! 06/03/2013

Ruberslaw House - a relic of Crieff's Georgian past 05/03/2013

Crieff to Perth Road Building in the 18th Century 04/03/2013

Crieff Community Action Plan 2013 / 2018 - History Repeats Itself ! 21/02/2013

Comrie Floods of 1898 & 1928 19/02/2013

Thanks for looking ! 12/02/2013

The Crieff Burgh Band /Crieff Silver Band 11/01/2013

New Year : Hogmanay in the Strath and the Comrie Flambeaux 31/12/2012

The Perthshire Clearances and Glen Beich 13/12/2012

Where was that ? The Crieff of yester year ! 13/12/2012

The Last Thatched House In Crieff 22/11/2012

Trades and Industries That Have long Gone 21/11/2012

William McGregor ( 1846 –1911 ), football pioneer 04/11/2012

The Witches Maze At Tullibole Castle Crook of Devon 28/10/2012

St Fillans Perthshire - a look into it's past 07/10/2012

Churches of the Strath - a Way of Life 23/09/2012

Religion is an intensely personal thing 23/09/2012

Lewis Miller - farm boy - religious rebel - entrepreneur - lad o' pairts 14/09/2012

Bonnie Strathearn 07/09/2012

Well,well, well – yet more wells ! Once Crieff’s only source of fresh water . 05/09/2012

Celebrate Crieff- A Festival of History 05/09/2012

Six Months Of My Local History Blog 25/08/2012

The Wells of Strathearn - magical , mystical , Holy and ordinary ! 23/08/2012

Tullibardine Chapel – A Pre Reformation Gem Well Worth A Visit 12/08/2012

The Village and Parish of Blackford 10/08/2012

Peter Crerar (1882 –1961 ) “ A pioneer of many interests “ 06/08/201

Alexander “ Snacks ” Taylor (1862 –1954) : Crieff Soldier's Incredible Military Record 22/07/2012

General Sir David Baird ( 1757 to 1829 ) 18/07/2012

The Story of Ferntower House 17/07/2012

The Burning of The Strathearn Towns & Villages : PART TWO 15/07/2012

THE BURNING OF THE STRATHEARN TOWNS AND VILLAGES : Part One 14/07/2012

The Crieff Riot of 1780 13/07/2012

The Rise and Demise of the Leather Tanning Industry in Crieff & Strathearn in the 18th and 19th Centuries 09/07/2012

The Pow - Strathearn's Historical Drain ! 03/07/2012

The Rev. Dr David Malcom LL.D , academic, minister , teacher and forgotten poet of Madderty and Crieff ( 1763 – 1833 ) 27/06/2012

David Mallet , Crieff poet and con man . 20/06/2012

The Story of Highland Toffee 18/06/2012

Witchcraft in Strathearn - Part Two of Two 11/06/2012

Witchcraft in Strathearn - Part One of Two 06/06/2012

The Story of Transport in the Strath 02/06/2012

Fancy A Trip On The Crieff Canal ?? 26/05/2012

The Story of Weaving in Crieff & Strathearn ( Part Three ) 22/05/2012

PART THREE

The Story of Weaving in Crieff & Strathearn ( Part Two) 10/05/2012

The Story of Weaving in Crieff & Strathearn ( Part One ) 05/05/2012

The MacRosty Bandstand -Crieff's Edwardian GemThe MacRosty Bandstand - Crieff's Edwardian Gem 15/04/2012

The Breadalbane Campbells , The Campbell Brothers of Crieff and The American Civil War Part Two 11/04/2012

The Breadalbane Campbells, The Campbell Brothers of Crieff and the American Civil War The Campbell Brothers of Crieff and the American Civil War Part One 06/04/2012

Tom a Chastel - The Royal Castle of StrathearnTom a Chastel - The Royal Castle of Strathearn 05/04/2012

THE CELTIC EARLS OF STRATHEARN - MEDIEVAL ROBBER BARONS ?Earls of Strathearn - medieval robber barons ? 04/04/2012

Intrigue In Pictish StrathearnIntrigue in Pictish Strathearn 01/04/2012

Strathearn's Pictish TrailStrathearn's Pictish Trail 01/04/2012

A Bloody Battle in the Heart of Strathearn 30/03/2012

Pictish Strathearn – the Kingdom of Fortren - birthplace of modern Scotland Pictish Strathearn 29/03/2012

THE CRIEFF TRYST 22/03/2012

The Oldest Roman FrontierThe Oldest Roman Frontier 20/03/2012

The Cursus of Crieff 18/03/2012

CRIEFF SOME 6000 YEARS AGO 11/03/2012

The Crieff Coat of ArmsThe Old Burgh of Crieff Coat of Arms 05/03/2012

SOME STRATHEARN SURNAMES AND THEIR ORIGINS 01/03/2012

Our Shame Over Inchaffray AbbeyThe Shame Of Ignoring Our Heritage 28/02/2012

Ferntower House 27/02/2012

Gone ! Gone ! Gone! Lost houses of Strathearn 27/02/2012

The Lost Castle of Fowlis !The " Lost " castle of Fowlis 27/02/2012

Colin's Books on Perthshire - Crieff & Strathearn26/02/2012

Welcome !Strathearn 26/02/2012

Family Pictures

2020-03-26T10:23:00.001-07:00

St Fillan - a village and a Saint

2020-03-25T03:44:00.000-07:00

Saint Fillan And His Cures For Sundry Ailments

Let me commence this blog by an extract from a superbly informative book written by a Presbyterian Minister , one William Marshall DD from Coupar Angus . The book " Historic Scenes of Perthshire" was written in 1880 and although perhaps tainted by a somewhat myopic view of other Christian faiths , it does contain some real gems and is superbly researched .

St Fillans in yester year

Dunfillan - the hill of Saint Fillan

The ruins if the pre Reformation church of Dundurn

"As we approach Loch Earn, we come to a scene consecrated by its connection with the famous St Fillan, who evangelised the country here and in the wilds of Breadalbane, and whose arm did such wonders on the field of Bannockburn. The beautiful hill covered with verdure to the top, and the green of which contrasts so strikingly with the brown and the grey of the adjacent heights, is Dunfillan, the hill of St Fillan. The rock on the top of it was the Saint’s Chair. The spring, now days at the foot of the it, was the Saint’s Well. It was originally on the top of the hill; but, disgusted with the Reformation from Popery, which, like Archbishop Laud, it regarded as rather the “ Deformation “, it removed to the foot of the hill. St Fillan drank of the waters of this Well, and blessed them. The consequence was that they were endowed with miraculous healing powers; and, till even a late date, crowds resorted to them for cures, more especially on the first day of May and the first day of August. They walked, or, if unable to walk, they were carried around the well three times from east to west, in the direction of the sun; and they drank of it and were bathed in it. Then, as now, rheumatism was a peculiarly obstinate malady; and for a cure, rheumatic patients had to a ascend the hill, sit in the Saint’s Chair, lie down on their backs, and be pulled by the legs down to the foot of the hill. The Well was an infallible remedy for most of the diseases, which flesh, is heir to. It was especially efficacious for barrenness, for which it was most frequented. When it was at the hilltop, the Saint most considerately and kindly spared certain patients the labour of climbing to it. He made a basin, which he placed at the foot of the hill, inn that there was generally some water even in the driest weather; and those afflicted with sore eyes had only to wash them three times in the basin, and they were made whole.

The erection of three chapels in the parish is ascribed to St Fillan. One of the three was at Dundurn, in the immediate neighbourhood of the pretty modern village of St Fillans; another was in Strathfillan; and a third was at Killin. The Saint died at Dundurn in 649. His worshippers about it would fain have buried him there; but the people of the other two places claimed his remains. They transported them through Glen Ogle, till they arrived at appoint within two miles of Killin, where the road branches of to Strathfillan. There the funeral train stopped, and a violent dispute ensued as to which road to take. Swords were drawn, and blood began to flow freely, when, low! – Instead of one coffin with which they had started from Dundurn, two coffins, exactly alike, were seen before them! Each party seized one of the coffins, and took its own way with it; and hence it is to his day a question whether Killin or Strathfillan has the relics of the Saint, or whether he is divided between them.

The Saint’s chapel at Strathfillan had a wonderful bell, for which the Strathfillanites had a great regard. It usually lay, untouched and deeply reverenced, on a gravestone in the churchyard. It possessed preternatural healing virtue. It cured patients by being placed, in crown fashion, on their heads. The bell had likewise this marvellous property, or prerogative, or whatever it may be called. It could not be stolen! If an attempt was made to steal it, it jumped out of the thief’s hands, and returned home, ringing his shame, and its own triumph!

St Fillan owed a little of his repute to Robert the Bruce. The MacDougalls of Lorn were perhaps the most relentless and formidable of Bruce’s enemies. In the Battle of Dalree with the Lord of Lorn, Bruce made a very narrow escape. The preservation of his life he ascribed to St Fillan, whose aid he invoked in his extremity, and who therefore became his favourite saint.”

Parish of Killin

Strathfillan took its name from the famous St Fillan. The Strath was the scene of his residence and his labours in the latter part of his life .We wrote of him when at Comrie, and told of his wonderful Well at Dunfillan. Here was a pool, called the Holy Pool, which the Saint had endowed with like miraculous healing powers. Among other wonders ascribed to it, it cured madness. The insane were dipped in it.

The proper season for dipping was the first day of the quarter year, old Style, after sunset, and before sunrise next morning. The patients were directed to bring up three stones from the bottom of the Pool.

On the bank of the Pool were three Cairns. Around each of these the patients walked three times, and put a stone on each cairn . They were then taken to the ruins of St Fillan’s Chapel , and in a corner of it , called St Fillan’s Bed they were laid on their back , and left tied for the residue of the night . If they were found loose in the morning, the cure was perfect , and thanks were duly returned to the Saint . We read in New Statistical Account , written as lately as 1843 : - “The Pool is still visited , not by parishioners , for they have no faith in its virtue , but by people from other and distant localities .We have not heard of any being cured ; but the prospect of the ceremony , especially in a cold winter evening , might be a good test for persons pretending insanity “ .

Of the wonderful bell belonging to St Fillan’s Chapel , this statist says that it was stolen by an English antiquarian about the beginning of this century , and carried to England ; and that it has not come back , either because it has lost its marvellous power of returning home , ringing all the way , or because it preferred England as a more congenial home to the wilds of Breadalbane . He adds :- “At the Mill of Killin there was along kept a stone called Fillan’s Chair , and several small round stones that had been consecrated by the Saint , and endowed with the power of curing diseases. Each of them had its peculiar merit . They got a fresh bed every Christmas Eve from the straw and the weeds cast ashore by the river . Five of hem are still preserved at the mill , where they may be examined by the curious “ .

The first Chapel here was built by King Robert the Bruce in honour of St Fillan, to whose patronage and intercession he attributed the victory at Bannockburn ; and in the tenth year of his reign , he gave the Chapel to the Abbey of Inchaffray , on condition that one of the canons of Inchaffray should regularly officiate in it . It will be remembered that Maurice , Abbot of Inchaffray carried with him the arm of St Fillan to that battlefield , on which Bruce vindicated so gloriously the freedom and independence of Scotland . In after times the chapel rose to the dignity of a Priory . Its ruins are still to be seen, measuring 1230 feet long and 22 feet broad . At the dissolution of Religious Houses at the Reformation , this Priory with its revenues and superiorities , was given to Campbell of Glenorchy , ancestor of the Earl of Breadalbane , in whose possession it still remains . Near its ruins is the Presbyterian Chapel raised by the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge and which now forms the church of the quoad sacra parish of Strathfillan , erected in 1836 .

St Fillan's Cave

A cave in the cliff face at Pittenweem in the East Neuk of fife ('The place of the cave') associated with St Fillan, an early Christian missionary from Ireland whose bell and crozier are still preserved in the Royal Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. It was perhaps one of these relics that was carried by the Abbot of Inchaffray into the Battle of Bannockburn after which the Scots attributed their victory to the support of St Fillan. Many miracles of healing were attributed to the saint and to Holy wells associated with him. One of these wells is to be found within the cave which was rededicated as a shrine in 1935 by the Bishop of St Andrews and is still a place of worship .

Origins of Saint Fillan

St Fillan was born in Ireland, the son of Feriach and St Kentigerna. Early in the 8th C., Fillan arrived in Scotland with his uncle (later St. Comgan), mother and brothers. They settled at Loch Duich, just east of the Isle of Skye. Fillan later moved south to make his home in Strathfillan, at the head of Glen Dochart, where he built a church. Legend has it that, during the construction, a wolf killed an ox which was being used to carry materials. Fillan is said to have convinced the wolf of the error of its ways and it took the place of the dead ox. Next to the church, near Auchentyre in Strathfillan, was the Holy Pool, which is said to have been blessed by the Saint, and consequently developed healing powers, proving particularly curative for the mentally ill who were attracted in large numbers over succeeding centuries. St. Fillan is closely associated with Killin, where he is said to have built a mill and set up a market. His healing stones are now kept in the Breadalbane Folklore Centre in the village.

Fillan travelled around Scotland; he visited Islay, moved to Luncarty and then Struan (Perthshire). He later visited Forgan (near Pickletillem, Fife), proceeding to St. Andrew's Monastery, before spending time as a hermit in St Fillan's cave at Pittenweem. It is also likely that he travelled to Wigtownshire, because the villages of New Luce and Sorbie both had churches dedicated to St. Fillan.

He died at an old age and was buried in Strathfillan. Much later, his relics were taken to Bannockburn, where they are said to have helped Robert the Bruce win victory. Bruce later founded a Priory in Strathfillan - 2 miles (3 km) SE of Tyndrum - in Fillan's honour. Other relics, including Fillan's staff and bell, were originally kept at the church in Strathfillan. These items were both removed from Scotland, but returned in the late 19th C., when they were deposited in what is now the Museum of Scotland.

Miscellaneous Musings about St Fillan

Little is known of St. Fillan's ministry at Breadalbane but he has left behind him here an imperishable and gracious tradition. His memory has given a peculiar charm to every part of the long and romantic glen between Killin and Tyndrum. His mill and healing stones are at Killin; his seat where he meditated and taught, is at Suie; while the broad strath with its beautiful stream from Crianlarich to Carndroma bears his name, Strathfillan. Legend tells us that St. Fillan was born with a stone in his mouth and that his father threw the child into a lake but that angels watched over him until he was found by Bishop Ibar, who brought him up as his own child. He instructed St Fillan in the Christian faith.

Breadalbane, until the dawning of the 8th century, had been neglected by Christianity so it fell to St. Fillan to enlighten the people. He is said to have received the monastic habit from St. Mundu, who was one of St. Columba's companions and the founder of a monastery at Kilmun (in Argyllshire).

The quigrich or pastoral staff of St Fillan

St Fillan came originally from Ireland and arrived at Glendochart around 730 AD. He built a priory near Auchtertyre in Strathfillan. Little is known of his work in Glendochart though he was certainly held in great veneration and summer and winter feasts were held each year in Killin in his honour. When the saint died he left certain relics which, rather unusually, were entrusted not to the monks of his priory but to the custody of laymen living in Glendochart who were given a free grant of land by the king in virtue of their office.

Such men were called deoradh which is Gaelic for stranger. This referred to the fact that the relics were often carried as a ‘stranger’ to other areas as they were considered to possess special powers. The relics of St Fillan were handed down from father to son and in the course of time the families entrusted with the relics were given the surname deoradh or Dewar.

Perhaps the most important relic of all was the quigrich or the pastoral staff of St Fillan. This was often taken to distant places where it was considered to have magical properties in the recovery of stolen goods. The fact that the family having custody of the quigrich should possess such a potent relic was not popular with the Priors of Strathfillan and in 1549 there was an attempt to compel “Malise Doir of Quigrich to deliver and present to the kirkis of Strathphillan certain reliques, and nocht to be taken furth agane without the licence of the said prioure.” Failure to agree was to lead to excommunication. However the Lords of the Council threw out the decree and Malise Doir retained the relic.

The quigrich stayed with the same family in Glendochart for about 900 years, when, because they had fallen on bad times, they sold it to the McDonnells of Glengarry. This breach of trust brought them nothing but trouble and eventually with some difficulty they were able to buy it back. Though it was no longer used to locate stolen property it was believed that water in which the staff had been dipped was most efficacious in curing sick cattle.

No charges were made for this service but the realisation seems to have dawned on the Dewar family that possession of the quigrich did confer certain financial advantages. They found that tourists in Killin were prepared to reward them for a view of the relic. In 1808 Alexander Dewar even took it to Edinburgh where according to the Caledonian Mercury “there is to be seen at the first entry below Covenant Close a most curious antiquity, in the family of the proprietor since before the time of Robert the Bruce. Admittance two shillings.”

Eventually the quigrich passed to Archibald Dewar who in 1818 emigrated from Scotland to Canada taking the crosier with him. That might have been the end of the story had it not been for the efforts of the Rev Eneas McDonnell, a catholic priest in Canada and a descendent of the McDonnells of Glengarry who had possessed the quigrich for a short time. He wrote to Dr Wilson who was secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and between them efforts were made to secure the return of the staff to Scotland, but without success.

There was to be yet another twist to the story. Dr Wilson was appointed to a chair in the University of Toronto and was able to visit Alexander Dewar, son of Archibald, who now owned the quigrich. By this time Alexander was almost ninety years old and was worried that his own sons would not show the same interest as he had done in preserving St Fillan’s staff. He agreed to part with the staff and on December 30th, a deed was drawn up to surrender the quigrich to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland “there to remain in all time to come for the use, benefit and enjoyment of the Scottish Nation.”

The quigrich was placed and may still be seen in the National Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh.

Some Facts About Saint Fillan

He was also known as Fhaolain , Foellan, Foilan, Foelan , Foillan or Fulan . He was the son of Feriach and Saint Kentigerna, and related to Saint Comgan. Became a monk, taking the habit at Saint Fintan Munnu Monastery.

Accompanied Kentigerna and Comgan to Scotland in the 8th century. Became a hermit, living some of his life in prayer at Pittenweem near the Saint Andrew monastery. Became Abbot of Saint Andrews and his bell and staff survive to today. Hermit at Glendochart, Perthshire, where he built a church. Legends and large tales naturally grew up around Fillan. For example, a wolf is reported to have killed the ox Fillan employed to work at the church construction site at Glendochart; when the wolf realized whose ox it was, it took the ox's place. For centuries after his death, the mentally ill were reported miraculously cured by being dipped in a fountain in the church, tied up, and left overnight near Fillan's relics; those whose bonds were loosed in the night were cured of their disorders. The victory of Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn was attributed to the presence of Fillan's relics at the battlefield.

Saint Fillan is the patron saint of insanity, mental disorders, mental illnes and the mentally ill .

Pestilence and Arson in 17th Century Strathearn

2020-03-17T10:48:00.000-07:00

The Black Death Strikes Hard

One often assumes that the Great Plague which hit London in the 17^th Century did not reach into the hinterlands of Strathearn . There are however a number documented incidents which make it quite clear that the Plague or to give it it’s correct designation - Bubonic Plague - was indeed around in these parts of Perthshire at the same time .

The Bubonic Plague spread to Europe from China in the 14^th Century and remained a scourge for a some three centuries thereafter . It mainly attacks rodents but fleas can pass the disease to humans and it has devastating affect once contracted . The disease struck and killed people with terrible speed. The Italian writer Boccaccio said its victims often "ate lunch with their friends and dinner with their ancestors in paradise.". In the mid 1300s it’s affect in Europe was devastating . In winter the disease seemed to disappear, but only because fleas--which were now helping to carry it from person to person--are dormant then. Each spring, the plague attacked again, killing new victims. After five years 25 million people were dead--one-third of Europe's estimated population .

A solitary gable is a sad reminder of what was an iconic symbol of another age

The ancient Abbey of Inchaffray at Madderty to the east of Crieff was burned in the 17^th Century . Although it had ceased to be used for religious purposes after the Reformation , it was still occupied . It transpired that a young lady of means had arrived from London to escape the Plague and together with her servants had taken up residence in the old building . Shortly afterwards one of her retinue fell ill with what transpired to be the “ plague ”. Taking matters into their own hands the local populous set fire to the building and the terrified occupants duly perished in the all consuming conflagration . This however was not the tragic finale as two young local lassies Betsy Bell and Mary Gray became something of folk heroines after perishing from the plague . This account was published at the end of the 19^th century .

"Bessie Bell and Mary Gray were the daughters of two country gentlemen in the neighbourhood of Perth, and an intimate friendship subsisted between them. Bessie Bell, daughter of the Laird of Kinnaird, happening to be on a visit to Mary Gray at her father's house at Lyndoch, when the plague of 1666 broke out. To avoid the infection, the two young ladies built themselves a bower in a very retired and romantic spot, called the Burnbraes, about three quarters of a mile westward from Lyndoch House, where they resided for some time, supplied with food, it is said, by a young gentleman of Perth who was in love with them both. The disease was unfortunately communicated to them by their lover and proved fatal; when, according to custom in cases of plague, they were not buried in the ordinary parochial place of sepulture, but in a sequestered spot called the Dronach Haugh, at the foot of a brae of the same name, upon the banks of the River Almond."

Three and half centuries on -smoke marked

stone indicates the fire that was !

The tragedy is recalled in the following song that today is still sung by folk musicians .

Betsy Bell and Mary Gray

They were bonnie lasses

They built them a bower on yon burn-side

They theeked it all over wi' rashes (theeked - thatched)

They theeked it all over wi' rashes green

They theeked it all over wi' heather

The plague cam' from the borough town

And slew them both together

There is however a relic of these sad times not far from Crieff . At the extreme westerly point of Loch Monzievaird near where the old sluices were once located , there is an interesting note on the older ordnance survey maps which states “ Burial Place of Persons who died of the Plague / 17^th Century ”. Check it out on the digital map produced by the National Library of Scotland http://maps.nls.uk/view/74428174 Once you have opened the site click on the map which magnifies and navigate west of Crieff to Loch Monzievaird .

More details about this were covered in a fascinating book published in 1880 by Oliphant of Edinburgh . The book was entitled Historic Scenes in Perthshire and was written by William Marshall an erudite Minister of the Church of Scotland from Coupar Angus . I duly quote from the good Reverend’s text :

“At the west end of the Loch of Monzievaird is a large mound, to which a melancholy historic interest attaches .The victims of the Plague which ravaged the district in the reign of Charles I were buried there .The visitation was severe , and , of course , proportionally alarming . It is on record that the gentleman of the district caused many huts to be erected , and ordered all the infected , as soon as any symptom of the pest having touched them appeared , to repair to the huts . The family of Ochtertyre , in particular, were singularly active , vigilant , and beneficent in the season of trial .They sent provisions of all kinds to the sick in the huts ; but they caused observation to be made every morning , from which direction the wind blew .If it was from the east , their servants had strict orders to lay down the provisions they carried a good way to the east of the huts ; and, if it was from the west , they had like orders to lay them down a good way to the west of the huts .The ‘ cleansers’ took them up after the servants were gone , and carried them to the diseased .”

Virtually all has been forgotten of those far off days when the people of Strathearn suffered not a little in the devastations of the dreaded Plague of yesteryear .

The Shores of Loch Monzievaird Once a Refuge for Victims of the Plague

Saint Fillan And His Cures For Sundry Ailments

2020-03-17T10:45:00.001-07:00

Saint Fillan And His Cures For Sundry Ailments

St Fillans in yester year

Dunfillan - the hill of Saint Fillan

The ruins if the pre Reformation church of Dundurn

Miscellaneous Musings about St Fillan

The quigrich or pastoral staff of St Fillan

The quigrich was placed and may still be seen in the National Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh.

Some Facts About Saint Fillan

Saint Fillan is the patron saint of insanity, mental disorders, mental illnes and the mentally ill .

Ochtertyre Pics Then and Now

2020-01-08T04:24:00.000-08:00

This my first Blog of the new decade and my 231st in total. It is lovingly dedicated to my children with deep love and affection - Nic Mayall - Elise MacDonald - Jasmine Mayall and the late Richard Mayall . Doad x

Ochtertyre Pics Then and Now

Ochtertyre was built for the Murray family between 1785 and 1789 to the design of architect James McLeran . The present owner is Sir Brian Souter co-founder of the Stagecoach transport conglomerate and functions as his country retreat . Of particular interest are the developments in the mid 19^th century . The 7^th Baronet Sir William Keith Murray ( 1801 – 1861 ) was a bit of an astronomer and in his wisdom decided to build an observatory to the west of the family home . This fortunately corresponded with the growth and development of photography as the main source of recording people and places . We are indeed fortunate to have more than a few pics of Sir William’s handiwork .

The Murrays for generations retained a close affinity with the nearby town of Crieff and is recorded that there was an open invitation from him to any citizens with an interest or curiosity of the study of the stars . When he died the instruments were donated to the Hunterian Museum of Glasgow University . Amongst these were a 9 inch Cooke Refractor ( 13 ft Equatorial ) , its drive and the smaller tripod mounted refractors .

The Observatory building was not demolished but turned into workers cottages with little trace of their unusual past

The Ochtertyre Estate its hey day was a sizable entity . My earlier blog :

https://perthshirecrieffstrathearnlocalhistor.blogspot.com/2016/03/ochtertyre.html

was an extract from the actual Rental Roll Book of 1865 . Perusal shows a considerable number of farms and grass lands stretching from Monzievaird in the west to Fowlis Wester in the east .

The Observatory That Was

Sir Patrick Keith Murray 10th Baronet circa 1880

The Murrys owned Loch Turret and as a gesture to the town of Crieff and its citizens provided a free water supply . When you get your next Bill from Scottish Water just quote me and I am sure all will be well !!

The Murray Fountain

'ERECTED BY THE INHABITANTS OF THE BURGH OF CRIEFF' 'A RECOGNITION OF MANY BENEFITS RECEIVED FROM THE MURRAYS OF OCHTERTYRE' Designed by William Mossman and erected in 1893 This picture was taken that year and if you look carefully you will note the builder’s refuse all around it !

An interesting pic from 1899 showing the 21^st birthday celebrations for the son of the 10th Baronet, Patrick Keith Keith -Murray .The citizens of Crieff marched from the town to Ochtertyre led by the Town Band .

Our Lost Heritage

2020-01-03T11:15:00.001-08:00

This my first Blog of the new decade and my

231st in total. It is lovingly dedicated to my children with deep love and affection - Nic Mayall - Elise MacDonald - Jasmine Mayall and the late Richard Mayall . Doad x

Strathearn's Hidden Heritage

Part One

Despite coming from a long time Presbyterian back ground I have always had a strong fascination for the pomp and circumstance of the old Kirk be it “ Piscy“ or Catholic . Working in France some years back , I had the privilege of attending a church service in Chartres Cathedral. Chartres is renowned for its “ vitrage “ or stained glass windows and this coupled with a miscellany of church music stands out in my memory .

Here in the Strath there are more than a few buildings dating back in time well beyond that of the so called “ Glorious Revolution “ ! Sadly neglect and decay have taken there toll but I an afraid much of the responsibility for lies at the feet of our administrators past and present . Let us look at some of the decayed gems within the Strath . This is not a total encompassment of all the buildings but a sufficient list to allow you to peruse the past and perhaps pay a visit when in that particular airt . I Have where possible included an OS Reference to facilitate finding the location . Do remember the law in Scotland gives you “ right to ramble “ and the Law of Trespass exists south of the Border and not here in Scotland . That being said always respect the existence of the farmer or land owner and if you have a dog best keep it on a lead particularly with sheep about .

Kinkell : located near the bridge of that name over the River Earn and located adjacent to a modern house on the hill above the Bridge . Place to park your car beside the house .

Grid Ref is NN91 938163

The Church of St Bean

Dates back to about 1600 although believed to have been built on older medieval foundations . Roofless and clad in ivy with surrounding grave yard