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Longside is a village located in
Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially different boundaries. The Aberdeenshire Council area includ ...
, Scotland, consisting of a single main street. It lies seven miles inland from
Peterhead Peterhead (; gd, Ceann Phàdraig, sco, Peterheid ) is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is Aberdeenshire's biggest settlement (the city of Aberdeen itself not being a part of the district), with a population of 18,537 at the 2011 Census. ...
and two miles from Mintlaw on the A950. Its population in
2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanist ...
was 721. The River Ugie flows through it. It lies in the centre of what was the ancient parish of Longside, which was established in 1641 and covered an extensive area. There are a number of listed buildings in the village. During the First World War, the most northerly Royal Navy air station was based within the parish and there was also an active airfield used during World War II on a different site close to the village. Amenities include a local Parish Church, a primary school, and a junior football club, Longside F.C. There is also a golf club, Longside Golf Club, which was opened in 1979 and its course was extended to 18 holes in 1996. There are also local shops; businesses; a community hall; and tennis courts.


History

There is considerable evidence of
prehistoric Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...
activity in the nearby area, most notably in the form of the
Catto Long Barrow Cairn Catto is a Neolithic long cairn near the village of Longside, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Historic Environment Scotland established the site as a scheduled monument in 1973. Description Cairn Catto is located southeast of Longside, in Abe ...
and numerous
tumuli A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones built ...
. The records of the
Parliament of Scotland The Parliament of Scotland ( sco, Pairlament o Scotland; gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba) was the legislature of the Kingdom of Scotland from the 13th century until 1707. The parliament evolved during the early 13th century from the king's council of ...
shows an act was passed in November 1641 to allow the erection of a kirk at Longside. A church had previously been sited in Longside dating back to 1620. May & Hay (2000): p. 1 Almost a century later following the Penal Act of 1746, the Episcopal Church at Longside was burnt down by the Hanoverians. Rev John Skinner of Longside spent six months in prison after evading a strict Penal Act of 1748 which decreed that Episcopalian ministers could only preach to his own family. Skinner had tried to circumvent the Act by preaching from his cottage window to a congregation outside. Buchan (2008): p. 110 Skinner is buried in the parish churchyard and his grave is marked by a monument. The grave of
Jamie Fleeman Jamie Fleeman or Fleeming (1713–1778) was better known as "the Laird of Udny's Fool" or "the Laird of Udny's Fule" in the Scots language. Although described as a fool, he had a reputation for his clever, witty repartee and many anecdotal tales ...
(1713–1778) who was better known as 'the Laird of Udny's Fool' is also at Longside and a monument to mark his grave was erected in 1861. He was born in Longside and died at nearby Kinmundy. His notoriety in the area is best exampled by his mention in the New
Statistical Account of Scotland The ''Statistical Accounts of Scotland'' are a series of documentary publications, related in subject matter though published at different times, covering life in Scotland in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The ''Old (or First) Statistical Ac ...
1845, where under Section II, eminent characters, it states: :"No offence is meant by introducing here the name of an individual who had a county (if not a national) reputation, and whose printed memorabilia have gone through several editions. This was Jamie Fleeman (or Fleeming), "the Laird of Udny's fool," who flourished here about the middle of last century. His name appears frequently in the session's list of paupers and his sayings and doings have been a theme of wonderment to a generation or two." The village was extended by the Laird of Pitfour, James Ferguson (the Member) in around 1801 as part of the planned village’s development in the area. Buchan (2008): p. 86 The village population in 1831 was recorded as 316. It steadily increased to 447 in 1861 with a further increase to 584 ten years later in 1871. By 1881, the population had dropped back to 474. In 1882, there were two schools recorded at Longside. The first was just given as Longside and it had accommodation for 135 with an average attendance figure of 107. This attracted a government grant of £93 2s. There is also a listing for Longside girls' school. The figures quoted for this are accommodation 120; average attendance 96 and the grant was £84. Longside railway station was part of the rail link between Mintlaw and
Peterhead Peterhead (; gd, Ceann Phàdraig, sco, Peterheid ) is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is Aberdeenshire's biggest settlement (the city of Aberdeen itself not being a part of the district), with a population of 18,537 at the 2011 Census. ...
which was opened to both freight and passengers on 3 July 1862. It was a station on the
Formartine and Buchan Railway The Formartine and Buchan Railway was a railway company operating in the north-east of Scotland. It was built to link the important fishing ports of Fraserburgh and Peterhead with Aberdeen. It had a junction with the main line of the Great Nort ...
until the service was terminated as part of the
Beeching cuts The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Development of the M ...
of the 1960s. The platform can still be seen situated adjacent to the golf course.


Cairngall

Slightly to the east of the village and close to the railway was the Cairngall estate. This had a mansion and extensive granite quarries. The quarries were first worked around 1808. It is known the land there was originally little more than a waste moorland but sometime prior to 1841 it was reclaimed and became highly productive. In 1808, the foundations for
Bell Rock Lighthouse The Bell Rock Lighthouse, off the coast of Angus, Scotland, is the world's oldest surviving sea-washed lighthouse. It was built between 1807 and 1810 by Robert Stevenson on the Bell Rock (also known as Inchcape) in the North Sea, east of t ...
were supplied from Cairngall. The new London Bridge, the pier walls of the new Houses of Parliament, pillars in
Covent Garden Market Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site ...
and the pillars of St George's Hall in Liverpool were just some of the other well-known structures with granite from the Cairngall quarries used in their construction. In the Statistical Account for Scotland 1791–99 granite from Cairngall is described as "very beautiful" but it also goes on to state "its hardness renders it unfit for any except the plainer orders of architecture". Cairngall House and its garden walls were first built with two floors and two windows in the 18th century. In the 19th century the house was extended and the windows changed. Both the house and the garden walls are included on
Historic Environment Scotland Historic Environment Scotland (HES) ( gd, Àrainneachd Eachdraidheil Alba) is an executive non-departmental public body responsible for investigating, caring for and promoting Scotland's historic environment. HES was formed in 2015 from the mer ...
's category C statutory listing.


Airfields

There was a
Royal Navy Air Service The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps t ...
base built at Lenabo to the south of the village in 1915–16; it is referred to as RNAS Longside or sometimes RNAS Lenabo. It was the most northerly of the twelve
airship An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early ...
stations operated by the Royal Navy to defend the British coast during the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fighti ...
. The buildings on the site were extensive and included three airship sheds that were high and could be seen on the horizon for miles as the land was flat. There were also two high chimneys as well as stores, workshops and administration areas together with barracks. Unlike most sites constructed for use during the war, which were of an easily removed nature, the buildings at Lenabo were built to last and were heavy concrete and brickwork. The main entrance had two concrete pillars adorned with elaborate globes mounted at the top. May & Hay (2000): p. 334 There were 1500 personnel based at the station and the facilities included a swimming pool, shops, a theatre and Church. There was also a gas works within the site. The base was disbanded in 1920 and it is now a forestry plantation with little indication of its former use. Longside Community Council raised funds to have a plaque mounted on the remains of a building at the entrance to the site in 2003. Hughes (2003): pp. 33–34 Originally a World War II airfield, Longside Airfield was also known as
RAF Peterhead Royal Air Force Peterhead or more simply RAF Peterhead is a former Royal Air Force sector station located east of Longside, Aberdeenshire and west of Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. History The airfield was built in 1941 and disbanded in ...
or Peterhead Airfield and is situated to the east of the village adjacent to the A950 road. The airfield was built in 1941 and disbanded in 1945. During this period there could be up to 2,000 RAF personnel based there including around 250 WAAF. A large number of RAF squadrons from a variety of nations used the five accommodation camps there. In November 1941 it was hit by two bombs from a Ju 88 bomber causing one person to be killed and three to be injured.
Hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...
,
Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Gri ...
and Mustang aircraft are recorded as flying from Longside airfield to provide protection for eastern convoys. During the 1990s, the airfield site was inspected and aerial photographs were taken as part of an assessment for a proposed pipeline running between
St Fergus St Fergus is a village in the Buchan area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. St Fergus lies from the North Sea coast and north-west of Peterhead. The Parish of St Fergus includes the remains of Inverugie Castle and Ravenscraig Castle. The church i ...
and Peterhead Power Station. These reports and photographs showed pillboxes and many buildings still survived, although most of the land had by then returned to agricultural use. The control tower had been demolished. In November 2004, further investigation was undertaken. The report compared photographs from 1946 which showed the airfield and all its ancillary buildings with photographs taken in June 1969. By then the hangars had been removed but many other buildings and pillboxes still survived.
Bond Helicopters Offshore Helicopter Services (OHS) (known as Bond Offshore Helicopters until April 2016) is a British helicopter operator, specialising in providing offshore helicopter transportation services to North Sea and Irish Sea oil and gas platforms. C ...
and Bristows have used the airfield as a refuelling point for helicopters servicing North Sea oil platforms, roughly a 45-minute flight. In 2003, after funds were successfully raised by the local branch of the Longside
British Legion The Royal British Legion (RBL), formerly the British Legion, is a British charity providing financial, social and emotional support to members and veterans of the British Armed Forces, their families and dependants, as well as all others in ne ...
, a cairn monument was erected in memory of those who had served at RAF Peterhead, Longside airfield. At the time of the unveiling ceremony of the monument on 14 September 2003, there was a flypast from a Dakota of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. More recently a stretch of the runway is used for flying radio-controlled model aircraft. The airfield is owned by Aberdeenshire Council and on a 99-year lease to a North Sea Helicopter operator through acquisitions. The airfield, which is strictly Prior Permission Required (PPR), is used regularly by the Buchan Aero Club as a goodwill gesture from the helicopter operator. The airfield qualifies for zero business rates through club status and does not operate or promote commercial activity to remain within this agreement. The airfield's radio frequency is 118.280
MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...
(callsign "Longside Radio"). Circuits are at 1,000 ft on Aberdeen
QNH The Q-code is a standardised collection of three-letter codes that each start with the letter "Q". It is an operating signal initially developed for commercial radiotelegraph communication and later adopted by other radio services, especially ...
; right-hand on runway 10, and left-hand on runway 28.


Transport

Longside was a mainstay of the turnpike system as it was crossed by two turnpikes; one running a mail coach twice a day and a stage coach running between Peterhead and Banff and returning in the evening. Buchan (2008): pp. 103–104 The twelve-mile stretch of road from Peterhead to Pitfour and then on to Coilsmore ran through Longside and was completed in 1810. It was partly funded by James Ferguson (the member) but he sold it to a Peterhead merchant, James Hutchison, in January 1809. Buchan (2008): p. 103


Listed buildings

Both the Old Parish Church dating back to 1620 and the Churchyard Gateway, which is on Inn Brae, are category A listed buildings on the
Historic Environment Scotland Historic Environment Scotland (HES) ( gd, Àrainneachd Eachdraidheil Alba) is an executive non-departmental public body responsible for investigating, caring for and promoting Scotland's historic environment. HES was formed in 2015 from the mer ...
register. The church was built with rubble and the windows conveyed an unbalanced appearance. The
bellcote A bellcote, bell-cote or bell-cot is a small framework and shelter for one or more bells. Bellcotes are most common in church architecture but are also seen on institutions such as schools. The bellcote may be carried on brackets projecting from ...
is thought to date from 1637. The Gateway also dates back to 1620 with the
finial A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the apex of a dome, spire, towe ...
at the top added in 1705. St John's Episcopal Church was built in 1853 to the design of the architect William Hay. Hay was particularly renowned for his work overseas but undertook this work and also built a house in Broad Street, Peterhead for his mother during the same period. St John's is a category B listed building. The slightly earlier Parish Church at Longside was built in 1835-6 and is also a category B listing. Its construction is attributed to the architect John Smith who undertook a lot of work in the area, including designs for James Ferguson at Pitfour,
Peterhead Prison HMP Peterhead was a prison in Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, operating from 1888 to 2013. Since June 2016, the former grounds operate as the Peterhead Prison Museum. History Peterhead Convict Prison was built around 1888. It was designed ...
and the remodelling of Slains Castle. A vestry was added to the church in 1889.


Other structures

The former Bruce Arms Hotel, on Main Street, was built around 1845. Charles McKean noted it on his pre-1990 visit to the village, but it is now closed. Kininmonth House was built in 1740, while the nearby Kininmonth Church followed about a century later. The Toll House is in Main Street, Longside; as the Toll House was sympathetically extended in 2008, it still allows the original features of the toll houses to be seen.


Expansion

In 2007, the village was expanded when a residential housing development of 33 houses was undertaken adjacent to Skinner Road, on the western edge of the village opposite the golf course. A further 21 houses were built on the same development in 2008. Further residential development is planned through to 2015.


Events

Each year, an annual gala is held in May. The Longside Gala is the first Gala held in the area each season. Always well supported by the local community, the weekend of events includes activities ranging from a parade, five a side football, netball and
Tae Kwon Do ''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast kicking techniques. T ...
. There is an outside stage set up for various entertainments; a gala dance in a marquee on Saturday evening and various events are also held throughout the Sunday. The Local Community Council works closely with the Gala committee and it also organises an annual Gardens competition, an environmental project which has run for many years. A stretch of the
Formartine and Buchan Railway The Formartine and Buchan Railway was a railway company operating in the north-east of Scotland. It was built to link the important fishing ports of Fraserburgh and Peterhead with Aberdeen. It had a junction with the main line of the Great Nort ...
Line runs alongside the village and the Community Council provided seating along the walk, a welcome facility popular with local cyclists, walkers and dog walkers.


People

*George Gatherer Wilson (1872-1949), son of Rev Thomas Lockerby Wilson (1810-1894) of the Free Church of Scotland in Longside. Working in a mission in Peking in the early 1900s he was awarded the Imperial Chinese
Order of the Double Dragon The Imperial Order of the Double Dragon () was an order awarded in the late Qing dynasty. The Order was founded by the Guangxu Emperor on 7 February 1882 as an award for outstanding services to the throne and the Qing court. Originally it was a ...
by the Emperor in 1911 for his work in the city during the
pneumonic plague Pneumonic plague is a severe lung infection caused by the bacterium ''Yersinia pestis''. Symptoms include fever, headache, shortness of breath, chest pain, and coughing. They typically start about three to seven days after exposure. It is one o ...
.Ewing, William ''Annals of the Free Church''


References

Citations Bibliography * * * * {{Authority control Villages in Aberdeenshire