Is this photo taken in Fetterangus

[Forfarian]

thought that the turreted windows on this modern photo were very much like the single turret and window on the photo with Robert. Not the same building you would think, we are looking at a single storey originally versus the two storey building described as the 'Old Post Office'. Just thought the turreted area was very similar really.

Yes, but one-and-a-half storey or two-and-a-half storey houses with dormer windows like that are pretty common - neither photo struck me as showing anything in any way remarkable or different.

[fifer1947]

Could it be a school?  If not, where did he go to school, was it possibly in Mintlaw?

[flst]

I don't think it's a school. There was, & still is, a school in Fetterangus, so Robert would most likely have gone to it and not Mintlaw. I now think that that photo may not be of Fetterangus, as the church looks different to the one in the photo. On google maps, if you use the street view, search for 8 Ferguson Street & you'll see the church.
flst

[Forfarian]

I now think that that photo may not be of Fetterangus, as the church looks different to the one in the photo. On google maps, if you use the street view, search for 8 Ferguson Street & you'll see the church.

There are several photographs of the kirk in the web site I mentioned above. It doesn't look anything like the building in the photographs.

[MonicaL]

A little light relief on buildings....

Can't see his return journey to the Uk, but thought this might be his arrival to Australia:

Robert Hard aged 36 (born c. 1848). Arrived from Glasgow on the 'Otago' into Brisbane on 24 May 1884.

Indexed entry, no more details.

Monica

[BruceS]

Hi Have had the photo brought to my attention and yes this is Fetterangus. Duke Street now but was South street previously. I stay here and the mystery iof the church I can settle. There were 2 churches. The 1 you see in photo has been demolished, location is where the road is to North place.
That is why it doesn't look like the remaining one.
Thanks. Bruce

[Forfarian]

Well, I had many more important things but nothing more urgent to do today, and the forecast was for sunshine, so I collected a few errands to do in north-eastern Aberdeenshire, and paid a visit to Fetterangus among others.

Your photograph is indeed taken in Fetterangus. It is from the foot of Duke Street looking north towards the Square. The first of the two photographs attached is of the house outside which Robert Hard is standing in your photo. The next cottage in your photo is a ruin, and the one after that is the second photo attached. I could not replicate the view in your photo because there is now a thick high hedge on the spot where your photo was taken that completely obscures the cottages between Robert Herd and the kirk.

The kirk was a United Presbyterian kirk, formally opened on 9 November 1882. It stood right in the middle of the north side of the Square, at the intersection of North Place, Gaval Street, Duke Street and Ferguson Street. There are various reports of the opening in the Aberdeen Journal. In 1929 most of the United Presbyterian congregations were reunited with the Church of Scotland, which had the other, probably older, kirk on the main street, and the UP kirk became redundant. It was demolished in the 1930s. I think the difference in the windows in your photo and the other one found online (which is also printed, in much better quality, in a booklet called Old Mintlaw and Strichen on sale at the Lighthouse Museum in Fraserburgh) is that the online one is actually looking down North Place, so it shows the other gable of the UP kirk.

This UP kirk is marked, inconspicuously, on the second edition of the Ordnance Survey six-inch map. See http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=18&lat=57.54753&lon=-2.02148&layers=6

I've put some more views of Fetterangus online at http://www.geograph.org.uk/gridref/NJ9850 but it may be a day or two before they are moderated and available to view.

[Flattybasher9]

So that's why the two different pictures have different structures to the church. They are the two individual gable ends with different windows etc. The original is looking North up Duke Street, and the one from "Tour Scotland" posted by Monica is looking South down North Place, and that explains the downwards slope on the second one. Well done.

Regards

Malky

[Forfarian]

So that's why the two different pictures have different structures to the church.

Yes, that's right. Though if you asked me I'd have said that the road in the Robert Herd pic sloped downwards, whereas in fact it slopes slightly upwards.