|  | | | Your notes and information |
| | | I have found the information on your site about Stormontfield very interesting. I am wondering if you are able to tell me if I am likely to find any kind of information about a direct ancestor of mine, who was described as a 'miller' at Innerbuist Stormontfield.
John Gould was living in Scone certainly from 1790s to 1840s. (Almost certainly born there c 1758) He was buried at New Scone in 1848. In the 1841 Census New Scone he was still recorded as a miller aged 83. I believe that he must have been a miller at Innerbuist for many years, and would be very interested to find any information on flour mills in the area at the time, as regards working conditions etc. I hope that you don't mind me asking you. I just wondered if there are local records, although I suspect if there are any they will be held in the Perth Library Archives. Regards Isobel Jones |
| | | I am Peter, a Stewart-Sandeman descendant, my mother Anne S-S was brought up at Stanley and I am assembling a lot of material I have here on history of the Stanley and Luncarty mill activities since the earliest days. ..... According to Mr Lindsey of Stanley the Lade works from Cambusmichael was built at the same period as the Stanley Mills about 1800. That suggests the use of water-power at Stanley was even more widespread than hitherto suggested. I heard of plans to again return the lade to use to generate electric power at Stormontfield. The two E bank Mills and their original power arrangements seem worth further investigation. - Full article on the Lade page
Regards P. Wingfield-Stratford, Oxford |
| | | My name is joanne clements, my father is hamish fraser (james nicol) son of alexander and pauline, i have just visited your website as i was curious to find any information on my grandfather alexander fraser ferryman at waulkmill, i found your website very interesting and printed some pages off to show my dad, he remembers peter soutar very well and was in his element recalling past times with me, i intend continuing on researching my family history and intend visiting waulkmill in the near future i was so pleased to find your website |
| | | Hi my name is Nicky McIntyre, I am interested in finding out about Robert Mackenzie before he was a partner in the mill and also anything you could tell me after as well. I work at Earlshall Castle, Leuchars which he bought as a ruin and paid Robert Lorimer to design.. Thanks in advance |
| | | Hello, I purchased a copy of the book "Bleachfields of Perth" yesterday and found it fascinating. I decided to look up your web site as I knew that I was born at Stormontfield. I discovered that Mr Soutar was born in Hillhouse Cottages in 1936, imagine my amazement when I looked up my birth certificate and found that I was born there in 1956! Do you have any information on the cottages and are they still standing? My mumĀ says they were just behind the big house, butĀ IĀ know no more than that. Would be grateful if anyone has more information.
Many thanks Alexandra (Sandra) Aitken (nee Baxter) |
| | | Dear Pauline,
I visited your site with plenty of information on Stormontfield. I'd be interested to see a picture if any exists of the old corn mill featured in Millais' Flowing to the river (1871). As you can see from my set on Flickr.com I've photographed the spots where Millais painted his two landscapes, the Flowing to the river is harder to identify the exact place where his easel stood as the spot is overgrown, and the stream level appears lower these days now the mill is gone. Anyway if you want to link in with my site on the landscapes that'd be fine.
Yours sincerely Martin Beek
Flowing to the Sea and Flowing to the River by Millais
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| | | Dear Pauline
We learned only a few days ago that my husband's great-uncle was the last ferryman at Stormontfield. As I have been researching the family tree for some years, I couldn't resist the urge to find out more and came upon your wonderful website. It has given me such a lot of information and even some photos to add to our family history and I only wish that there were more sites like this as they would help to enrich the stories from the past.
On Peter Souter's page he mentions the ferryman and I can provide a little more information. His name was Alexander Fraser and he had been a gamekeeper on the Mansefield Estate before becoming ferryman. I didn't know of his son Hamish (James Nicol Fraser) until today though I knew his wife was Pauline and he had at least three other children, Sandy,Elizabeth and Florence.
My husband's 82 year old uncle will be delighted when I pass all this information on as he has lost touch with the family.
Thank you and keep up the good work! Kindest regards Marilyn MacDonald |
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| | | Hi Pauline, I intentionally avoided mentioning the specific farm/farmer just in case he happened to be a friend of yours but I will now take that risk. It was not in the immediate Stormontfield area but was at Loanfolds Farm. I had approached from the Berryhill direction with the intention of passing through Loanfolds farm yard to Druids' Seat Wood. In truth this farmer has right on his side in his objection. He is strictly correct that The Access Code does not give me the right to pass through his farm yard. Many farmers have allowed access in the past and continue to allow access now. Without local knowledge or indicative signage how is one to know that they disapprove? In this particular case, as you may know, he has a very noisy dog and a sign along the lines of "Don't worry about the dog. Worry about the owner." This sign is on the main access track side of the yard, i.e. the Druids Seat Wood side, so I only saw it on exiting the yard. I had rather taken the sign as an indication of a man with a sense of humour. My interpretation was incorrect. The bottom line is that this farmer is correct, and I will not attempt to pass through his farm yard. Regards, Iain Miller |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | 3/9/2008
Iain Miller | | | | Hi, I have visited your website several times since first visiting Stormontfield to reconnoitre a walk route along the River Tay and lade then a loop away from the river. I searched out information because I was intrigued by several aspects of the village andĀ its surroundings. village of mainly modern houses, but with that long, long lade, references to fishponds, mills, bleachfields etc. I just had to find out.
I think your website is probably the most informative of its kind that I have ever encountered. On the whole it is easy to navigate and use. I have had some problems fitting text onto printed pages, until I found the right click/this frame/show only this frame combination which fitted the text onto the printed page for me.
I am involved with the Historical Society in my local, history steeped, village and I only wish we had the motivation and capability to produce something along those lines for our village.
Congratulations. Iain Miller ( Kinghorn, Fife )
P.S. I was well pleased with the walk route I found, which I rewalked several times until just over a month ago I encountered a farmer who had very strong objections to my presence | | | |
| | | | 3/6/2008
Peter Soutar | | | | Dear Pauline, Many thanks for your e-mail, I'm afraid I don't have any photo's of the corn mill, only of the bleach works before and after the fire. Sent to me by John Black (2nd cousin). I only have two distinct memories of the place. One is that it was used by the home guard as an indoor firing range, and two--During a session of threshing at the mill my younger cousin Andrew Christie (aged four or five) fell from the upper floor of the storage barn and broke a leg. He was placed in a farm cart (not sure if it was horse or tractor drawn) and taken back to stormontfield (nearest telephone) where someone arranged for a car to take him to Perth infirmary, no ambulances in those days. p.S. I would like to add my thanks to you and all who set up this website, who would have thought that such a small place (it's not even on most maps) would spark so much world-wide interest. Regards Peter Soutar | | |
| | | | 20/6/08
David Niven | |
| | | Hello Pauline, Whilst doing some family research I came across your website. I found this very interesting particularly the bleaching works section. My great grandfather James Niven worked and resided in Stormontfield, as did several members of his family. I discovered numerous references to Stormontfield on census returns for the Niven and Bisset families. I noted that both a William and John Bisset are mentioned on your website and these could be family members. I also have census records for these individuals. As an example I can trace the life of James Niven on census returns from 1841 to 1901, as highlighted below :
1833 James Niven born Coupar Angus More of this article on Old Community page. |
| | | Dear Pauline, many thanks for passing on Peter Sowdens address I will contact him straight away, meanwhile I will search my long forgotten memory banks for any more information on Storries last ditch army. Did you know for instance that there is or was a small crater somewhere in the woods surrounding hill house? A bomb ditched by a fleeing German bomber narrowly missed taking out our very own "captain Mainwaring". That was Stormontfields' only actual experience of the war. |
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| | | | 28/11/07
Iain Elder
Suffolk | | | | Dear Pauline, My Dad was visiting the other week and I visited the site with him. We were looking through the school photos and he has identified a lot of the children in the (supposed) 1944 photo. Dad is the wee lad stood at the right hand end of the centre row. As he was born in 1928 he is absolutely positive that this picture is 1934 ish as he attended the village schoolfrom the age of 5 and he is certainly about 5 or 6 in this picture (picture and names on the School Photos page).
I don't know if this is useful or not, but I can assure you that my Dad - 80 years young next March - was really taken with the memories that the site evoked in him. With best wishes, Iain Elder, Suffolk | | |
| | | | 11/5/2007
Peter Soutar | | | | I have just re-visited the site and it has brought back quite a few memories. One in particular was, as a young lad along with others of my age (5 years old) we would follow and watch the Stormontfield home guard as they drilled and practised "manoeuvres" in preparation to defend "Storrie" in case of invasion. More of this story on Visitor Memories page. | | | |
| | | | 19/04/2007
Shelley Innes
Cambridge | | | | Hello, I am trying to get biographical information on Robert Buist who was Superintendent of the Stormontfield piscicultural experiments, 1853–66 and on Peter Marshall who was the keeper of Stormontfield pond at around the same time. The information I have is from a report written by Buist and from William Brown's 1862 book ‘The natural history of the salmon’, as ascertained by the recent experiments in the artificial spawning and hatching of the ova and rearing of the fry, at Stormontfield, on the Tay. If you have any further biographical details (birth and/or death dates, etc.) I would be grateful to have them. Buist has been confused with another person of the same name who emigrated to America and wrote on gardening, so I know that many sources give the wrong dates. Many thanks for your help. Yours sincerely Shelley Innes | | | |
| | | | 27/01/2007
Karen Alexander (Hutchison)
Australia | | | | Hi Pauline, Just a quick note to say a very big thank you to both you & your Husband in having us all into your home & taking the time out in showing us about Stormontfield as it certainly bought back lots of great memories and was one of the highlights of our recent Holiday. I am still going to arrange to do a sketch ( mud map ) of how both Mum & myself remember Stormontfield and will post this off to you in due course. I have also attached some pictures of both my family ( the Hutchison's ) & of the Husbands which I hope you can use on your web site. I had previously sent off School photo's from 1969 so please let me know if you need further copies of any of these or if I can assist with any questions that you might have. Again many thanks & I hope that we can talk again soon. Regards Karen Alexander,Sydney, Australia | | | |
| | | | 21/01/2007
Michael & Brenda Moore
East Sussex | | | | We have been coming up to Scotland for 50 years and love it, although we cannot walk as much as we used to we still enjoy the train journeys and seeing the many species of wildlife that you have. Many places we have visited but have never found the peacefulness of the little ruin in the middle of nowhere called Cambusmichael. Remainder on Visitor Memories Page | | | |
| | | | 16/01/2007
Anne Stewart Ball
New Zealand | | | | Pauline, The actual paper of James Stewart " Notes on the Introduction and Acclimatization of the Salmon can be read on the New Zealand National Library Site Royal Society New Zealand articles and proceedings as follows
http://rsnz.natlib.govt.nz/volume/rsnz_08/rsnz_08_00_001150.html
Have inserted photograph for you also. Great grandfather was about 67 years old when this photograph was taken. He was President of the Auckland Institute a number of terms, Governor of the New Zealand Institute and on a special science committee. I shall pass more information on the salmon farming to you once have sorted it. Okoroire in New Zealand where the salmon was introduced was more successful with trout also introduced by the same people - Firth, Nathan and Great Grandfather who oversaw design and construction Hamilton Rotorua Railway. I am writing his biography which is a hugh task. Cheers, Anne | | | |
| | | | 06/01/2007
Anne Stewart Ball
New Zealand | | | | My research for a bibliography on my great grandfather James Stewart, Civil Engineer shows he had involvement with the salmon breeding ponds in 1853. At the time he worked under Mr. P.D. Brown,M.Inst,Civil Engineer of Perth. Mr. Brown designed these. James Stewart was later in New Zealand to be part of the introduction by Mr. Firth of Salmon to the rivers here, along with trout. Great grandfather wrote a paper on this which he read to the Auckland Institute in 1875. Regards | | | |
| | | | 2/12/2006
Eddie Clark,
Houston | | | | My name is Eddie Clark and we lived at Colenden from 1953-55, when I was 8-10 years old. My sister, Margaret, started school there. We lived in the cottage second from the end, next to the Tates. | | | |
| | | | 10/09/2006
Karen Alexander (Hutchison)
Australia | | | | My name is Karen Alexander nee Hutchison. My family consisted of myself , my mother Margaret, father David and brothers Kevin and Scott. We lived in Stormontfield in the 60's before emigrating to Sydney Australia in Jan 1971. We were devastated when we heard of the fire 6 months later and to this day mum still has the newspaper clipping sent to us by a family member.
My parents both worked in the Bleach works and my brother Kevin and I attended the local one teacher school run by Mrs Bathgate with Mrs Walker the farmer's wife preparing our school dinners. Mr Bathgate from memory used to do all the odd jobs around the school and was always happy to stop for a chat when an inquisitive child would have a hundred questions that needed answered.
Mr Walker was the farmer and Miss Betty and Miss Jenny were the land ladies who had a canny knack of knowing when we were climbing trees when we weren't supposed to be. (remainder of article on Visitor Memories Page) | | | |
| | | | 31/3/2006
Peter Soutar | | | | While recently re-visiting the Stormontfield website I was pleasantly surprised to come across the article by Peter Sowden ... (remainder of article on Visitor Memories Page) | | | |
| | | | 31/3/2006
Bob & Phoebe Kempson
Scotland | | | | Hi Pauline, I thought I should write to say how interesting we found the Stormontfield website. Well done! L, B&P (Photos supplied added to River Tay & Colenhaugh pages) | | | |
| | | | 24/2/2006
Stuart Taylor
Oxon | | | | As promised, here is a trawl of my photos. Stuart (added to Colenden Page) | | | |
| | | | 11/11/2005
Peter Sowden
London | | | | My grandfather, William Soutar (1877-1968), was born in Field Cottages. He spoke very
fondly of Stormontfield as a lovely place to grow up. His father Walker Soutar
(1844-1907) was stoker of the boiler/"fireman" at the Mill.
More on the Visitor Memories page. | | |
| | | | 24/10/2005
George Watson
Canada | | | | Guest book entry. Visitor to Stormontfield Heritage. | | | |
| | | | 15/10/2005
Heather Wallace
Australia | | | | formally Shepherd of Hill House | | | |
| | | | 30/9/2005
Stuart Taylor
Oxon | | | | We used to spend all of the summer in Colenden, sleeping in a large hut in the garden to the sound of a waterfall from the burn at the bottom of the garden. My memories are of playing from dawn to dusk (and later) in the woods behind the cottages, fishing in the burn, pumping water from a pump in Colenden, harvest time, and "helping" with the stooks, and school. (More on the Visitor Memories page) | | | |
| | | | 23/07/2004
Will Conway
Scotland | | | | Well, I’ve lived here for four years and still learned something from this site. Nice One, P+D. | | | |
| | | | 21/06/2004
Mary Mcleish
Scotland | | | | I spent the first 7 1/2 years of my life at the Boag Cottages, in Sept1948 my family moved to the
"top of the hill" Innerbuist Cottages where I stayed until 1960. My parents were Harry and
Meg McLeish, they moved from there after the fire in 1971. More on the Visitor Memories page. | | | |
| | | | 18/06/2004
Willaim Smith
GB | | | | Interesting - I happened upon your page while trying to sort out my Campsie ancestors - A William Campsie born in Scone in 1814 !! married to Jean Mckinnon. | | | |
| | | | 17/06/2004
Dugald F. Campbell
Robert Douglas Memorial School, Scone,. GB | | | | Came accross the site while looking for Scone Australia for a link to the Robert Douglas Memorial School of which I am Headteacher. I have put a link to this site on our school web site for interest. (see links page for link to this site) | | | |
| | | | 1/6/2005
Anita MacLennan
GB | | | | Guest book entry. Visitor to Stormontfield Heritage. | | | |
| | | | 19/05/2004
James William Murray
Scone Palace, Perth. GB | | | | I am the youngest of the old Murrays (Mansfields) at Scone Palace, where I grew up. I loved finding your great website, and like many others appreciate the lovely photos and information you have garnered. | | | |
| | | | 18/4/2005
Gregor J McAdam
Forres, Moray | | | | My grand father used to live at number 17 and i just thought id take a look if they had anything on it. Been many a time and lots of fond memories there, especially with my young friend Ewan Hamilton from next door. I remember falling into the lade many a time. HA HA HA | | | |
| | | | 18/3/2005
Nolene Lossau
Johannesburg,South Africa | | | | I chanced upon your great webpage whilst researching my PALMER ancestors of Perthshire. I have a direct connection with Stornontfield in that one of my direct ancestors, Charles PALMER had a son Thomas PALMER who was baptised at Scone on 12 April 1791. Charles PLAMER was reflected in the Scone Parish registers as being "of Stormontfield". Charles PALMER (who was described as a labourer on the 1841 census) was married to Mary SHEPPARD and nothing is known of either of their ancestries prior to the baptism of Thomas and his sister Christian (9 May 1784 at St Martins). The PALMER family ended up in Kinnoull & Perth City and did very well for themselves with Thomas PALMER, who started out as a wright being descibed as "gentleman" on one of his son's marriage certificate.
I visited Stormontfield a number of years ago and hope to be back one day! Best regards | | | |
| | | | 29/02/2004
Janet Stormont Miller
Victoria, TX, US | | | | I am glad to find this site. I hope to visit Perth and Stormontfield someday. I wonder if my Stormont ancestors originally came from the area around Perth. Obviously, we are probably not descended from the original Viscount Stormont, David Murray! | | | |
| | | | 24/02/2004
Peter Soutar
Portsmouth, Hampshire, GB | | | | I was born at hillhouse cottages in 1936 went to Stormontfield School 1940 to 1945, my father was Walker Soutar from Colenden, my Mother was Mary Christie. The Christies’ lived upstairs from the Blacks. | | | |
| | | | 18/02/2004
Allan Ogg
Dundee, GB | | | | Former resident from 1969. | | | |
| | | | 29/12/2003
Waltham
NL | | | | Guest book entry. Visitor to Stormontfield Heritage. | | | |
| | | | 12/12/2003
Paul O’Keeffe
US | | | | Guest book entry. Visitor to Stormontfield Heritage. | | | |
| | | | 11/11/2003
John Anderson
Bathgate, GB | | | | I read with interest your site, especially the page devoted to the ferry crossing. I fish the Waulkmill beat regularly in the spring, and to have information on that particular stretch of the river is very rewarding. | | | |
| | | | 03/11/2003
George Black
-, GB | | | | First time on the site. Didn’t know it existed, superb site!! I see my cousin John has helped with contributions to the site. My late father, Dave Black, was Johns uncle, brother of Jean who features in your current gallery. If it is of any interest, I have various photos of “Storie” schoodays circa 1926 and assorted family shots. | | | |
| | | | 03/11/2003
Maureen Wallace
-, GB | | | | Hello, browsing through the web site and Mary and I came up with some names for the 1953 class outing - if you are interested. | | | |
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