THE SHANNOCH

return to home page


Shannoch Farm c1950

I now believe that the Reid family's move from West Rinmore in Glenkindie to the comparatively easier farming region and more comfortable house that was Shannoch and the Howe of Alford, was prompted in no small measure by the tragic death of Gordon's eldest daughter Mary Jane aged just 20 in 1894. As 1895 sees Gordon making this enormous move after generations of Reids had farmed in both Glenkindie and Glenbuchat for hundreds of years, bringing his remaining children (with the exception of 2nd son James) to settle on the Breda Estate. The Reids remained here for a further two generations until Gordon's  namesake grandson finally retired in the 1970s.

The Shannoch Farm  was a much larger house than West Rinmore with two big rooms either side of the front door and a small scullery behind. Upstairs were three bedrooms, all of good height, unlike that at Rinmore.  The land was approximately 95 acres, given over to a combination of arable and cattle.  Gordon declared 'no more sheep' after a lifetime of farming them at Rinmore. The front garden was given over to vegetables, but in addition, my grandmother Elizabeth Nicol managed to grow roses and flowers for the house. 

Down the brae about a 100 yards is Beech Cottage, where from 1913 till around 1960 the Reids and Nicols also lived.  Elizabeth Nicol's brother Harry died in 1913 and left a daughter Jean, it was decided that Jean would be better off living with her paternal grandmother Isabella Tough and aunt Maggie at the cottage. Isabella died in 1933, I am presuming that Maggie and Jean stayed on for a while, I believe that Jean was what my mother described as 'simple' and when Maggie grew too old and suffered from dementia, they were moved to suitable accommodation.  My grandparents William and Elizabeth finally retired here in the 1950s, Elizabeth died in 1958 and William  was looked after for the last two years of his life by his daughter Bunty until he too died in 1960.


Outside the Shannoch steadings summer 1911
left to right - Gordon Reid, maid (possibly a sister of Elizabeth, as the resemblance is striking, best bet, Maggie the eldest daughter), Helen Ann Reid, in trap - Gordon, James, Bessie, Margaret in Elizabeth's arms,
William and a unnamed farmhand

The Breda Estate (pronounced Briddar, with the emphasis on the 2nd syllable) covers the fertile Howe of Alford and is around 1600 acres in total.  The estate is owned by the McLean family, having bought the house and estate in 1892 from the Farquharson family.  The Laird's family lived at Breda House, built in 1773 for Major General Robert Farquharson and designed by the Aberdeen architect A. Marshall McKenzie in a fetching shade of pink.  The name Breda comes from the Gaelic, meaning 'wide open valley'.

I understand that the present Laird of Breda now lives at Auchintoul Farm and the main mansion house and most of the farms and cottages on the estate have been sold off.

In addition to the Shannoch Farm, the estate encompassed 140 acres belonging to the main Breda Mansion House and in grandfather's time the proprietor was Neil McLean. Flanking the driveway to the mansion were the East and West Lodges respectively inhabited by one Colin Campbell Thomson (butler) in the East Lodge and one Peter Stewart (gamekeeper) in the West Lodge. Listed below are some of the other properties on the Breda Estate in Gordon and William's time with their respective tenants -

Home Farm William Scott coachman 100 acres
  David Irons overseer  
Breda House
(nb not sure if this is the same as the mansion house in which Neil McLean lived)
Alexander Littlejohn gardener  
Woodlands Cottage John Sutherland joiner 6
Annfield Farm John Robertson   72
Annfield Meal Mill             "    
Auchintoul Farm George Moir grieve 105
Carriers Croft James Anderson   16
Cattens Farm William Stewart   15
Culfork Farm Alexander Murray   85
Fairlea Farm Peter Nicol   113
Marchmyres Croft William Brebner   8
Muir Farm Peter Murray   83
Newton Alexander Nicol * blacksmith 4
Smith's Croft Alexander Nicol  blacksmith 5
  Isabella Nicol ^ widow  
Smithy Alexander Nicol blacksmith  
Muir of Breda John Gilbert farm servant 4
Tibberchindy Farm Peter Laing   65
Woodside Croft William Duguid   9
Westgate Croft Annie MacKay widow 8
Wright's Croft ?    

                        * This is Sandy Nicol, Elizabeth's brother            ^ Isabella Nicol (Tough) Elizabeth's mother.

In addition to the above there must have been other properties as the acreage does not total 1600.
                  
Friday mornings would find Gordon, and after his death my grandfather William, sporting their best suits and walking up the drive to Breda House to pay their rent to the Laird.      

Great-grandfather Gordon remained at Shannoch from now onwards. He was a religious man and took the family services for his own family and servants at the farm.  After his son William married Elizabeth Nicol and started his own family, Gordon had the front left (facing the building) downstairs room as his own, and the services were conducted here.  My mother remembered  going to the first service with her siblings and her father, mother and the servants going to the second after they were in bed. Here snuggly tucked up, they would lie listening to the voices of the adults as they sung the well known hymns, with her mother's beautiful voice soaring over the others.

Gordon had many theological discussions with the minister of the village church in Alford, Peter Adam, my mother also remembers Gordon being called upon to take the services some Sunday mornings when, according to rumour, Peter Adam had imbibed too much the night before. But Gordon wasn't really a farmer, grandfather William had to stop him on many occasions from virtually giving away a beast, just because the purchaser was an elder of the church.

Gordon died in 1923 aged 81 at Shannoch.  The funeral was apparently attended by most of the great and good of the parish and the funeral cortege stretched some way. He is buried in Alford Cemetery with his granddaughter Williamina, son William and daughter-in-law Elizabeth.

return to home page

 

WILLIAM REID AND ELIZABETH NICOL

William Reid married Elizabeth Nicol on 8th June 1904 in Alford. He describes himself as aged 29 (he should have been 31) bachelor and ploughman of Shannoch Alford. Elizabeth describes herself as aged 24 domestic servant, table maid, spinster of Muir of Breda, Alford.  The witnesses at this wedding were James Gauld (William's mother's father's mother being a Gauld) and Helen A Reid, William's sister, Peter Adam, Minister of the village church in Alford, officiated.

William and Elizabeth had 9 children – Gordon b 1905, Williamina b 1907, James Grant b 1908, Bessie Cameron b 1909, MARGARET GRANT b 1911, John Grant b 1912, Ronald Grant b 1914, Isabella Grant b 1915, Ellen Ann b 1919  

v v v v v v v v

 

Elizabeth Nicole in her 70s

ELIZABETH NICOL - daughter of Harry Nicol and Isabella Tough born in 1880. Elizabeth had a ready smile and a happy disposition, she sang around the house as she undertook the daily chores of a successful farmer's wife and mother of nine. Bessie, as she was known, made her own butter hard cheese and crowdie, all much valued by the local shopkeepers.  She loved flowers and managed to grow many in between the myriad vegetables planted in the large sheltered front garden of the Shannoch. 
There were always large vases of them around the well polished and cared for furniture and effects. Unfortunately Elizabeth suffered greatly with rheumatism during her latter years and my mother remembers gently rubbing her mother's swollen hands to try and give some relief from the chronic pain.  


 

William and Elizabeth's children


Margaret, Ronald and Bunty Reid with their parents William and Elizabeth
The two children are Cressida Judd and Rona Reid c1952

v v v v v v v v

Gordon Alexander b 1905.  (Eldest and first born child). Gordon farmed Shannoch after his father's retirement to Beech Cottage, a but and ben cottage down the brae. He was an accomplished bagpipe player. Gordon married Catherine 'Kate' Cocker and had three daughters, Catherine, Isabelle and Edith. He died in 1996 aged 90, one year after his wife Kate.

v v v v v v v v

Williamina b 1907. (Eldest daughter and 2nd child). Poor Williamina died 12th July 1909 aged 2 at Beech Cottage, the cause of death was cerebral convulsions (2 years) i.e. epilepsy.  She is buried with her grandfather Gordon and parents William and Elizabeth in the same grave in Alford Cemetery.

v v v v v v v v

James Grant b 1908. (2nd son and third child). James worked at Shannoch on the farm with his brother Gordon.  My mother reckoned that James, if he had been given the education, could have gone on to achieve a great deal, unfortunately it wasn't to be.  James died in 1987 aged 79.

v v v v v v v v

 

 

Bessie Cameron b 1909 (2nd daughter and fourth child) Bessie's unusual second name comes from the name of a minister in Alford at the time.  Bessie and her younger sister Margaret (my mother) learned to play the piano at Shannoch.  My mother remembers that she and Bessie were each given a doll probably as either a birthday or Christmas present, but unfortunately they were only allowed to play with them on Sundays, the rest of the time they were put away. Bessie became a nurse after doing her training in Aberdeen, later becoming a district nurse and later a visiting school nurse.  She married twice, late in life and died in 1996.  She is buried in the cemetery in Aberdeen in the same grave as her aunt Margaret (Peggy).


 

 

 

 

 

Bessie Cameron Reid (photo taken in London in 1940 at the wedding of her sister Margaret)

v v v v v v v v

Margaret Grant b 1st March 1911 (3rd daughter and fifth child). Margaret Reid was my mother and she spent most of her adult life in England.  After leaving Gallowhill School, Margaret and her older sister Bessie started nursing training in Aberdeen, Bessie finished her training and graduated as a nurse, but my mother did not feel that she was cut out for nursing.  She discussed this with her mother and eventually travelled to the south coast of England and the lovely regency seaside town of Eastbourne, where her mother Elizabeth had friends. She remained here during most of the 1930s eventually leaving and moving to London.  It was here that she met my father George Henry Judd (b 1909) who hailed originally from Wiltshire.  They married on 11th May 1940 at Caxton Hall Registry Office in Westminster, having their wedding breakfast at the Regent Palace Hotel before travelling back to Shannoch for their honeymoon. My father served in RAF Bomber Command during WWII and my mother worked for the American Red Cross in London. I was born in late September 1949 and we lived for the next 10 years in West Hampstead, moving to the City of London in 1960.  In 1974 George retired and they moved back to his home county of Wiltshire. After a few years my mother got her usual 'itchy feet' and they moved again, this time to Hove. Here they remained for a further 4 or so years, before my father was able to persuade Margaret to move back to Warminster in Wiltshire. George died in January 1992 and Margaret remained there until fading health persuaded me that she was going be be safer and happier close to me. She spent the last four years of her life at Lingfield Lodge, a warm and friendly retirement home just 1/4 mile from me in East Grinstead. Margaret died on 21st August 2004 at the grand old age of 93 and is buried with her husband George in the small churchyard of St John's Sutton Veny in Wiltshire close to the pathway to the church, where she can keep her eye on all the comings and goings!

 
Margaret Reid and George Judd on their wedding day at Caxton Hall, London 1940

v v v v v v v v

John Grant b 1912. (3rd son and 6th child).  John started work on the farm at Shannoch, but soon realised that farming wasn't for him. With the help of an uncle, a member of the Gordon family, he started work in the Gordon family grocery shop in Alford, later progressing to a sales rep. for James French & Co, a large Glasgow warehouse.  Here it was that he met and married a young girl from the same city in March 1946 with the unusual name of Melba McLeod and had one son John (Jack) McLeod Reid , born on Christmas Day 1946. The family moved to Aberdeen around 1952 when John became the Aberdeen and north rep for the company. John died in February 2004 aged 92 and is buried in Alford Cemetery.


John Reid and Melba McLeod on their wedding day 1946

v v v v v v v v

Ronald Grant b 26th April 1914. (4th son and 7th child).  Ronald worked at Shannoch after leaving school until he was called up during WWII.  (Although farming was considered a reserved occupation, there were already enough Reids working the farm to spare him). After the end of the war Ronald married Mabel Wilkie at Monymusk Church on 29th March 1947, soon after Ronald and Mabel moved to Myriedale Farm, Insch and farmed there for the next 35 years.  They had two children Rona born in 1948 and Elizabeth born in 1951.  Elizabeth remembers the summers as warm and sunny, but conversely during the winter months they could be blocked in for weeks at a time.  In the early 1980s Ronald retired and eventually they moved from Myriedale to Oldmeldrum.  Ronald still kept busy turning his hand to gardening and fencing and liked to keep active by walking.  Unfortunately Ronald died of prostate cancer on 3rd February 2001 aged 86.  Mabel stayed on for a few years and finally moved in 2004 into a residential home still in Oldmeldrum, here she celebrated her 84th birthday on 22nd August 2005 and finally followed Ronald in January 2007.

Ronald & Mabel's wedding, Ronald's brother Gordon is on the left

v v v v v v v v

Isabella Grant b 1915 (4th daughter and 8th child). Known as Bunty from a child, for her supposed resemblance to a bantam hen! Bunty married George Milne and had two children, a son Grant and a daughter Isobel. Bunty is still fit and well and now lives in a residential home in Aberdeen and the grand age of 91.


Bunty and Nan c1937 with their father's car

Ellen Ann b 1919. (5th daughter and 9th and last child).  Known by the pet name of 'Nan' in the family. Nan married John Smith a motor mechanic and garage owner from Alford they had one son John born on Boxing Day 1946.  Unfortunately poor Nan was to die very early aged only 34 in 1953 of ulcerative colitis. 

v v v v v v v v

 


Margaret Judd, Jimmy Cobb, William Reid and James Reid c1940s

return to home page


1901 CENSUS
(census taken night of 31st March)

SHANNOCH FARM

Gordon Reid (58) head, widower, farmer, born Strathdon
William G Reid (28) farmer's son, worker           "
Helen A Reid (22) farmer's daughter, at home     "
Isabella G Reid (20) farmer's daughter, at home  "
John G Reid (18) farmer's son, joiner,                 "
Margaret G Reid (17), daughter, scholar             "
Alexander G Reid (15), farmer's son, worker      "
Georgina G Reid (13) daughter, scholar              "

Alexander and Georgina emigrated in 1906 and John in 1905 to the USA
Gordon's eldest son James emigrated to Australia in 1908, he didn't move with the family from Rinmore to Shannoch, am still researching what happened to him before he emigrated. Unfortunately he was murdered in Melbourne, Australia as a result of a gambling debt.

 

Return to home page

 

 

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1