Highlights from the Kincardine and Banff County Council collection

One of our targets for this year was to check and complete cataloguing work on our County Council collections: these bodies oversaw local government in Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine counties between 1899 and 1975, when they (along with the Aberdeen Town Council and the other Burgh Councils around Aberdeenshire) were absorbed into the newly established Grampian Regional Council. 

We talked about the largest of these collections, Aberdeen County Council, in a previous blog post. We are pleased to say that descriptions for our Kincardine and Banff County Council records can now be searched on our online catalogue as well! 

This blog is going to highlight a couple of items from the collection that tickled our fancy during the cataloguing process. 

First up is material detailing the negotiations between the authorities and farming families over the tattie holidays. Below we have a petition from farmers and potato growers, received by the St Cyrus School Management Committee in the early 1920s, asking for a three week potato holiday (aka the tattie holidays). The petitioners comment that "We find boys and girls from nine to ten years of age upwards make as good "Pickers" as men or women, and consequently pay them an equivalent wage, which goes a long way to cloth them in the winter". 

Handwritten signed petition asking for the release of school students to help with the potato harvest
ASKcty/5/3/5/7 Petition regarding potato picking from St Cyrus School Management Committee File of correspondence and papers
Handwritten notes on potato gathering in St Cyrus parish: detailing the scale of the task- 400 acres of potatoes - and the number of children required - at least 50. Their wages were important supplements to their family's income. It also suggests that the time could be made back in the summer, and the existing 8 week summer holiday is "far too long for country children"
ASKcty/5/3/5/7 Notes on potato harvesting from St Cyrus School Management Committee File of correspondence and papers

This document describes the scale of the task in St Cyrus: 400 acres of potatoes to pick, with children an essential part of the harvesting process. 

Next up is a list of demonstration dishes to be taught at a course of cookery classes at Arbuthnot in 1909. The programme seems ambitious for completing in an evening class and includes familiar (doughnuts, macraroni cheese, scotch eggs) and not so familiar dishes (Bedfordshire pudding, Invalid custard, Albert cake).

AS/KS/arb/8 Scheme of work for cookery classes at Arbuthnott, 1909

The register below records those given secondary bursaries in the county for the 1915/16 school session. These detail the name, date of birth, address and school of the bursars, and also notes their progress or withdrawal from the bursary. Poignantly, an entry for Bertie Duthie of Laurencekirk records that he had left his bursary at Mackie Academy for military service, and he was killed in action during the First World War. An entry for him in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's database notes that he died at the age of 19 in October 1918, serving as a Second Lieutenant in the Gordon Highlanders.

Handwritten list of bursaries granted by Kincardine Secondary Education Committee in 1915/16, including an entry for Bertie Duthie
ASKcty/5/4/13 Kincardine County Council Secondary Education Committee Register of Bursaries

Finally for Kincardineshire, this is a page from Stonehaven Burgh Council's register of places for public refreshment in the town. What is striking is the number of ice cream shops, including Ernesto Guilianotti on Evan Street (established in 1899 and still operating in 2022).

Handwritten entries in a register, including one for the Giulianotti's Ice Cream Shop on Evan Street in the town
AS/Kstn/7/2 Stonehaven Register of Places of Public Refreshment

Moving north to Banffshire, this item is a minute book for meetings of the Lieutenancy of Banffshire under the Militia Acts (AS/Bmil/1). Nowadays the Lord-Lieutenant acts as the Queen's personal representative in historic counties, but historically they were responsible for raising and organising militias. The Banff Lieutenancy was formed in 1794. The minute book records enrollment returns from 1831 and 1854/5: the enrolled men were to join the 10th Regiment of the North British Militia, along with men from the counties of Inverness, Nairn and Moray.

Handwritten schedule of men enrolled in the 10th Regiment of the North British Militia in August 1831 from the parish of Banff. Information is written in tabular form, with the name of the enrolled man and their substitute, the date they enrolled, age and class
AS/Bmil/1 schedule of men enrolled in the 10th Regiment of the North British Militia in August 1831 from the parish of Banff

As you can see from the entry, many of the men balloted had found substitutes to take their place. You can see more about militia recruitment in the context of the 18th century in these blog posts: Aberdeenshire Militia and Militia Impressment in the 18th Century.


The book also includes minutes of committees formed during the First World War to take precautionary measures in the event of invasion. It also records the names of those appointed as deputy lieutenants through to 1977. 

Finally, an entry in the Banff County Medical Officer of Health Report for 1919 about the suspected "patient zero" of the outbreak of Spanish Flu in the county in 1918:

Printed report headed "Influenza 1918-19", written by the Banffshire Medical Officer of Health. The report describes the outbreak of the Influenza pandemic as being the return home to Gardenstown of a young Seaman from his barracks in Portsmouth. It also describes the prevalence of the disease and the fact that it occured in several waves.
ASBcty/6/3/4 entry in the Banffshire Medical Officer of Health's report for 1919, discussing the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918-19

Second page of the report, noting that Banffshire had one of the highest mortality rates in the country (6.6 per thousand, 321 total deaths). It also mentions the importance of skilled nursing in the successful treatment of cases.
ASBcty/6/3/4 entry in the Banffshire Medical Officer of Health's report for 1919, discussing the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918-19

We now believe that this chronology was probably wrong: cases were recorded prior to this date, but the movement of troops after the end of the First World War certainly contributed to the spread of the disease during 1918 and 1919. 

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