Fyvie Heritage

Here’s a wee tune for all the folk who will be staying in this Saturday night. Can you name the six songs? Thanks to Steven for recording this.

Free access to Ancestry via your library card. A great opportunity to get started with your family history. ANESFHS Aberdeen and north east Scotland have a Facebook page for all your queries too.

The bridge over the river Ythan in Fyvie was built in 1898. The Ythan which is 37 miles long rises in Ythanwells, flows down to Auchterless, Inverythan through the policies to the Howe o’ Fyvie, from there it meanders it’s way to Gight through to Methlick, past the new mansions at Ythanbank to Ellon and eventually reaches the sea at Newburgh. There is a pearl in the Scottish Crown from our very own Ythan.

Butteries - a north east “delicacy”. In Aberdeen they would be known as rowies and were originally baked for fishermen. Because of the high fat content they provided immediate energy. Ideal before a workout with Joe Wicks.

In 1960 there were 3 petrol stations in the village of Fyvie. The Garage was next to the present Fyvie Garage, Mansefield Garage was just up from the Church on the way to Woodhead and Central Garage was on Main Street where Thornton is.

Fyvie lad Lee is home.

Rothienorman is only 4 miles from Fyvie. Many Fyvie folk were employed by Fraser Brothers and most north east farms would have had a Fraser bruiser and cairt

A newspaper cutting from an old Sunday Post. Perhaps after all this is past we shall all do an act of kindness every day.

Remember to put your clocks forward an hour tonight. In 1968 the clocks were put forward an hour but weren’t put back till October 1971. All the Fyvie schoolchildren who walked to school were presented with silver fluorescent armbands as it was still dark when they were walking to school. It was an experiment to keep us in line with Europe but it was not popular especially with manual workers and farmers especially in Scotland and Orkney and Shetland so we went back to changing the clocks again.

Up until around 1970 Fyvie had its own Bakery in the village. Fyvie Garage in the Howe of Fyvie was the Bakery run by SCWS (Scottish Cooperative Wholesale Society) and the present hairdressers was the Bakers shop. The Master Baker and his family stayed in the large white house. There were two bakers’ vans out every day serving the area. The vans were custom made for the SCWS by Banff coachbuilders Crichton and Hay.

Meanwhile during lockdown the Fyvie farmers keep their distance keeping the country going.

Such a shame that the grounds at Fyvie Castle are now closed. No walks round the lake to see the bonnie daffies which are just starting to come out.

If you’re looking for something to do, check out the Traffic Scotland website where you can see all the live traffic cameras all over Scotland. You can check out the traffic or distinct lack of it today.
https://trafficscotland.org/livetrafficca meras/

And so we are in lockdown here in Fyvie for at least the next 3 weeks. We will try to post something every day to keep us all connected. Take care.

Message from Alison, the Fyvie minister.

A nourishing meal. Birselt tatties, grated carrots, add an egg and some of your favourite sauce with a touch of green. Birselt tatties are potatoes that have been previously boiled, then fried. (Boil a big pot of tatties, they'll keep).

Lovely to see the crocus flowering in the howe o' Fyvie next the A947.

This Morse code machine was donated to the Heritage Room by Russel last year and many thanks to Ian who managed to get it working again. With the situation as it is just now and the schools now closed perhaps some children might like to learn some words using Morse codes and torches and once the school is open again they are more than welcome to come in and tap out their words on this wartime contraption. Two charts are shown, one is alphabetical and the other is in dash dot sequence.