The History of Kintore

Between 2002 and 2004, archaeologists undertook a major excavation programme on the site of the Deer's Den Roman camp in Kintore, prior to work starting on the housing developments that now cover the area.

During this the archaeologists from AOC Archaeology uncovered not only remains of the Roman camp, but of settlements dating back to the mid-to-late Bronze Age.

The Roman camp itself is thought to relate to Agricola's campaigns into Scotland. The Romans, it is believed, were attracted by the belief that Scotland was rich in natural resources, including gold, silver and tin.

The Deer's Den camp could have been involved in the preparations for the decisive battle of Mons Graupius (believed to be the source of the name "Grampian").

The archaeologists say that the Kintore camp was definitely occupied in 120 AD and may have been occupied on as many as three occasions during the Scottish campaigns, before disappointment about the lack of resources and more pressing matters elsewhere in the Roman Empire, brought about consolidation and retreat.

The Deer's Den Roman camp is one of the largest in the area, stretching from close to the centre of Kintore out across the bypass. Covering 44 hectares, it is believed it could have been occupied by as many as 10,000 men.

During the two-year excavations the archaeologists uncovered the remains of no less than 250 Roman bread ovens (the stone base of one is pictured below), one of the largest number found in this country. In these ovens flat bread would be baked, probably with toppings of locally grown vegetables - effectively the ancient Roman equivalent of a pizza! This staple diet was apparently augmented by eggs.

It is not just the sheer numbers of troops and the logistics of feeding this army that is quite mind boggling. Viewing the excavation work, just prior to construction starting on Stewart Milne Homes' Deer's Den development gave me an amazing insight into the construction work involved in what was a temporary marching camp.

The archaeological team have dug trenches acrosss the original ditch which fortified the Roman Camp. It would be a huge task to dig this two-to-three metre ditch right around the camp with a modern excavator, but that this was dug by hand by an advance party is staggering.

In addition to the Roman remains, the archaeologists have found a number of Bronze Age round houses. These would have been built of wattle and daub, but the precise detail of their construction is unclear from the post holes that remaining.

Candy Hatherley of AOC Archaeology says the huts could have had either pitched or 'beehive' roofs and could even have had two floors, with the animals kept on the floor level.

One thing that puzzles the archaeologists is that - while they have found evidence of almost constant habitation from Neolithic times to the Roman campaigns - there is then little evidence of occupation between then and the Middle Ages. This was when the town of Kintore developed, being granted its royal burgh status in 1190.
 

"It may have been thought taboo to stay in that area because of its association with an invading army," says Murray Cook, senior project officer at AOC Archaeology".
 

Perhaps because of its royal connections Kintore seems to have enjoyed an elevated status through much of its history.
What royal connections, you may ask? 

Hallforest Castle was a hunting lodge in the royal forest frequented by kings and queens of Scotland and then there was the battle on Tuach Hill against the Danes.

"The Early History of Kintore: Extracted from Old Records and Charters" says: "The Burgh is of very ancient date, claiming its original charter from King Kenneth II of Scotland, whose reign commenced about 834 and terminated A.D. 854. 

"Tradition says that in commemoration of a signal victory gained by that monarch over his enemies and that for the good services of the villagers turning out en masse, with their cattle covered with with oak branches, who made so formidable an appearance that a complete victory was obtained; and that for their good services the King granted them Royal Privileges." 

Since there were no written charters in those days, it is difficult to establish where Kintore ranks in the history of Royal Burghs in Scotland. But, it is clear that Kintore must have been one of very few Royal Burghs apparently dating from before the first millennium.
In "The Early History of Kintore: Extracted from Old Records and Charters" the author says that: "...Rothesay, Forres and Lauder are the only places to which notarial charters were granted earlier than Kintore".

Even by the early nineteenth century Kintore was quite a modest village, albeit with a magnificent Town House in The Square where the annual Marymass Fair took place. 

But, Kintore consisted of more than just the village. "The Early History of Kintore: Extracted from Old Records and Charters" records that "The extent of land including Burgh and Parish measured 3408 acres in cultivation; 2477 acres in waste land; 652 acres in pasture, 1892 across in wood; total 8492 acres imperial. 

Bruce's Camp on Shaw Hill, above Crichie (the ridgeline in front of Bennachie in the photo). This is the highest point in Kintore, so it was an ideal site for a prehistoric hill fort, with a commanding view of the area.
Bruce's Camp measures from 150 metres up to 250 metres on its east-west axis. It was surrounded by a stone wall which would have been about 1.5 mretres high. and there is some evidence to suggest a later wall inside this circle. A significant find of Iron Age metal work was made on the hill in 1867.
The name Bruce's Camp refers to Robert the Bruce, who is said to have been behind the construction of nearby Hallforest Castle, in Kintore, as a Royal hunting lodge.
In reality, it is believed that the fort's proximity to the hill fort on the Mither Tap of Bennachie is significant. It is likely to date from a similar time. However, as a good surveillance and defensive location, it is very likely to have been used long after the original fortification was constructed.
Read more about Bruce's Camp at http://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/SM12523 

  Although it was widely known as Inverurie Paper Mill, the reality is that the Thomas Tait & Sons paper mill at Thainstone was actually in Kintore, along with everything south of the River Don, bar Port Elphinstone.
The paper mill, which operated for more than 150 years, had employed more than 500 people and was known not just in the UK, but around the world. The mill produced 250,000 tons of paper per year. A lorry load of paper left the mill every 45 minutes on most days.
Each day it produced enough paper to stretch from Kintore to Paris. I well remember the pride I felt as I found photocopiers around the UK using the famous ‘Captain Copier’ branded paper.
in 1989 Thomas Tait and Sons became a subsidiary of US company Federal Paper Board. In 1996 that company became part of International Paper and, in 2009, it closed the Kintore paper mill. Ironically some of the equipment from Thainstone is believed to be still in use in Russia, with the paper being imported into the UK. 

As a canal shareholder, Thomas Tait was compensated when the G.N.S.R. took over the canal to use as the railway track. Its my understanding that he used the money to start up the mill and the dates seem to fit in.

  Kintore Public Hall was opened on Friday, November 1, 1895 with an Opening Ball. The programme (below) contained a dance card into which was written the name of the dancing partner for each dance.
 

Thanks to George Wood for contributing this information and the copy of the programme

  Andy Beattie (Bob as he was known to his family) was born in the Forest Cottages, near Tom's Forest Quarries in Kintore.
 

He started his football career with Inverurie Loco Works, before moving to Preston Nothend. Roger Summers, whose wife is Andy's neice, takes up the story.
 

"He was a key player for Preston Northend and was capped many times. Later he became the first-ever Scotland Manager.
 

"He also had built for his parents the bungalow "Deepdale", which is the name of Preston's ground. It is the house on the right-hand side at the start of the Lang Stracht."

  An old photograph of the Town House in Kintore is believed to date from around 1900. 

This picture is taken from an old postcard and shows the back of the Town House.

A fantastic picture of Kintore Town House looking down Northern Road. On the very left of the picture you just catch the edge of what is now The Square Hotel (formerly The Kintore Arms) On the far right of the picture you can see the edge of the now First Photographics building (formerly the bank) and the Kintore Chemist. Apart from the horse and cart transport no massive change to the look.

Born 10th April 1879 at Mid Mill, Kintore
Died 29th March 1954 at Belize City.
 

William Alexander Robertson, Willie or Robbie, was the third child (of 8) born to George Robertson, a farmer (of 86 acres) and miller at Mid Mill, Kintore, and his wife Jessie Carnie.
 

By 1901 the family had moved to Mill of Leask, Slains, again farming and milling, but both George (1832-1913, b Kintore) and Jessie (1855-1923, b. Causeyton, Cluny) later retired to Yew Bank, Port Elphinestone, where George died in 1913. Jessie was still living at Yew Bank, but died at the Carnie family home of Broomhill, Kintore 10 years after George.
 

William is recorded in the 1891 census as a “horseman” at the family home of Mill of Leask, but after this he disappears from the “Scotlands People” records.
 

At some point before WWI he left home and started his adventuring, when, according to anecdotal family history, he went to London and joined John I. Thornycroft & Company at their shipyard in Chiswick, London. The yard specialised in building fast steam vessels, such as the first torpedo boat for the Royal Navy, H.M.S. Lightning in 1873. How his experience as a horseman from a Buchan farm fitted in with torpedo boats is not clear, but he must have gained some experience and found his niche, for he was sent with one of the yard’s products to British Honduras, then a British Colony in Central America and today the independent country of Belize.

Clearly the colonial life appealed, because instead of returning to Thornycroft, he stayed on in Honduras and entered the mahogany logging business. Prior to WWI he worked in the Vacca Falls area, close to the Guatemala border, scouting for new logging areas and spending long periods in the unexplored interior.

When WWI broke out he, in common with a lot of British subjects who spent their life in the Colonies, returned to Britain and enlisted in the Armed Forces for “Hostilities Only” service. In William’s case, he chose the Royal Navy and joined the fledgling Royal Naval Air Service on 6th July 1915 at H.M.S. President, the R.N.R. headquarters ship in London. He was given the immediate rank of Petty Officer and he was recorded as being 5’- 6¾”, with brown hair, blue eyes and a fresh complexion, his occupation being listed as “Engineer”. In 1916 he was promoted Chief Petty Officer and served until the end of the War.
 

After his war service, William returned to Honduras and continued in the timber trade, latterly serving as Manager at the Mango Creek Lumber Camp owned by The Belize Estates Ltd.
 

On the outbreak of WWII, William again wished to serve his Country, but at the age of 60 was too old for active service, so he brought a squad of his Honduran lumberjacks to Britain as part of the British Honduras Forestry Unit. The Hondurans, almost 900 of them in all, worked in Britain from 1942 until the end of the war, despite suffering somewhat from the climate and culture. They provided a service which, had they not volunteered, would have been sorely missed and were the subject of a 2004 documentary, “Tree Fellers”, shown on the BBC.
 

Once more he returned to his adopted land and the forestry trade, later adopting a local boy, Ness, as his son and on one occasion bringing Ness across to the UK to meet his Scottish relatives.
 

In March 1954, he was attacked by a Carib worker whom he had discharged from the lumber camp and he suffered stab wounds which penetrated his lung. Despite being flown from Mango Creek to Belize City, he died of his wounds the next day, Monday 29th March, and was buried in the Kirk Yard there. A memorial was later erected, but it is not known where, or if it is still standing.

The Picture is “Fusker” Willie in 1912 .

(Thank you to George Wood for this fantastic information)

Born 29th May 1896 at Broomhill, Kintore
Died 8th August 1918 in the region of Harbonnier
 

Service Nos. 79347, Private, Machine Gun Corps
201966, Gunner, Royal Tank Corps
 

VIS-EN ARTOIS MEMORIAL Haucourt, France.
The Memorial behind the gravestones bears the names of 9000
British and Commonwealth servicemen with no known grave
who died between the 8th August 1918 and the Armistice.
William Carnie is commemorated on Panel 11.
 

William James Carnie “Willum” was born on the 29th May 1896, the first child of William Alexander Carnie (1860-1943), farmer at Broomhill, Kintore and his wife, Mary Wilson (1867-1951), who had married at the Bon Accord Hotel, Aberdeen on the 13th July 1895.
 

William had been destined to become a farmer and follow his father and grandfather on Broomhill, but the Great War intervened and his father encouraged him to enlist. No record of his initial enlistment survives, many of these having been destroyed in the WWII Blitz. The Machine Gun Corps, in which he did serve, was created by Royal Warrant on the 14th October 1915, so his enlistment may have been after this. I can find no earlier Army No. and he was not awarded the 1914-15 Star, so he cannot have been in France in the first year of the War.

Whatever his early service with the Machine Gun Corps involved is not clear, but he was re-drafted into the new companies of the Machine Gun Corps which were designated as the Heavy Section MGC and were formed to operate a new weapon, the Mk.1 tank, which entered service in September 1916. In November 1916, as the potential of tanks was recognised, these companies were expanded into battalions, eventually separating from the Machine Gun Corps in July 1917 and becoming the Tank Corps.
 

In July 1917, William was at Bovington Camp, Dorset, today the headquarters of the armoured elements of the British Army and the home of the Tank Corps Museum. On the 21st July he sent a postcard to his Mother thanking her for “the tin box”, which will “suit A1”, but we don’t know what it was going to suit. Perhaps it was just for keeping his gear together. He goes on to tell her that, “I think I’ve passed for a driver all right, but we won’t know till we go on tank course”, and adding, “There is something in the wind right enough”. The postcard has five views of Wool, a village beside Bovington, and when I visited the area a few years ago I was able to identify four of the scenes. They had changed slightly, but William would still be able to recognise the places, even after a lapse of 90 years.
 

At this time, William would have been operating the large and slow tanks, the forerunners of today’s heavy armour, but this was to change when in March 1918 delivery of the “cavalry” tank, the Whippet, was started.

Luckily, others of William’s letters remain, although incomplete and damaged.

(Postcard dated 9th July 1917 from Lulworth Cove.)
“We arrived here after 2 hours sweating with full pack. Has my boots arrived”? (Is this the same situation as during the Falklands War, when soldiers had to buy their own boots to keep their feet dry?).
 

(Incomplete and undated) “getting leave right enough I think, but I don’t expect I’ll get it for a few months, maybe by March or thereabout, after all the rest have gone. Got father’s letter on Sunday and George’s on Monday and Peoples Journal as well, he is fairly getting up to writing”. (In 1917 his brother George would have been 8)
“Never mind sending cocoa. I bought a tin at the canteen and it will last for a while”.
 

(Sunday 6th Jan. 1918)
“… he says the drainer has not been altogether a success, but I think if this confounded war was finished I’ll beat the lot of them with a spade”.
“… but I am doubtful about good bits of ground on Broomhill. I wouldn’t be afraid of one working here, for the ground is as soft and there isn’t a stone to be found. I’ve been digging a lot of holes here”.
“… as a good few of the crew had to leave their busses as they got a knock from shells and I fear Fritz has got a few of them when he counter attacked.
I think the papers have made far more of that reverse than was true”.
“You were saying that the engine wasn’t working very well. Have you taken out the copper bars, they make the most difference for keeping up the heat”.
 

In a letter from France dated August 1918, to his brother John who was a Sergeant Armourer with 144 Squadron Royal Flying Corps in Egypt, he writes: -
“I just had a letter the other day saying that you had arrived at your destination (Aboukir). I expect that you are not sorry either, although no doubt you have seen a few sights on your way. We have been swinging it lately at the sea side well away from old Jerry, but we only have another day or two to go now. We’ve been training for new busses and guns. The same busses I told you of before”. (This was the 6 weeks training which crews got on the Whippet.)
“I was rather late on getting a start (on the course) as I had a week or two in the hospital with trench fever, or that flu’ I think it was (though the doctor called it trench fever). I hear you caught it as well”. (This would have been the precursor to the 1918 flu pandemic.)
“I expect you will be having it nice and warm with you, it is bad enough here”.
“by the time this reaches you we will have been instructing old Jerry a bit how to go back the way he came. He has been getting a pretty decent set back lately, the Yanks and French have been pretty hard on him”.
By the time John would have received this letter, William would already have died.
 

One of the things which would be incredible today was that, because the Tank Corps were Cavalry, the senior officers of which knew only horses, tanks had to carry fodder. So tanks went into battle carrying tins of petrol on their roof.
 

The WHIPPET Tank
Tank No. A344 “Musical Box”
“B” Company, 6th Battalion Tank Corps.
Crew: - Commander – Lt. C.B. Arnold
Driver – W.J. Carnie
Gunner – C. Ribbans.
Medium Mark A “Whippet” manufactured by William Foster & Co.. Ltd., Lincoln. Length 20’-0”, width 8’-6”, height 9’-0” and weight 15.7 tons. Solid suspension,
Armour 1/5” to 1/2” thick bolted to an angle iron frame.
2 x 4 cylinder Taylor petrol bus engines of 45h.p. one to each track. Speed 9 m.p.h.
2 Hotchkiss .303 air-cooled machine guns, sustained fire at 200 rounds/min, but in bursts up to 600 r/m. Each tank carried 5,400 rounds of ammunition.
 

At 04.20 a.m. on the 8th August 1918, the Battle of Amiens started. Whippet tanks of the 6th Battalion deployed in support of Australian and Canadian troops and advanced east, over the railway line and through the village of Villiers-Bretonneux. When I passed through there I noticed a café called “Le Kangourou”, presumably a tribute to the Australians who had re-captured the village from the Germans earlier in 1918 and who fought to the north of the town in this battle. The attack was an immediate success and the allied forces broke through the German line and pushed on.
 

Musical Box, due to its speed, became detached from other tanks and infantry early in the engagement and Lt. Arnold decided to act independently and harass any enemy he happened to find.
 

Broadcast by Colonel C.B. Arnold, 8th August 1940.
(The summary below is an edited version of the broadcast script)
 

I found our troops under fire from a 4 gun field battery, so I attacked across the front of the battery and then on its flank, killing about 30 Germans who had been manning the guns. About 10 a.m. some cavalry were being harassed by Germans in a field of corn, so “I dealt with them”. One of our patrols came under fire, so I ran “Musical Box” up and killed 4 or 5 of the enemy with one long burst, the others ran away.
 

I was young and it was very exciting, so we just kept following our targets. Really, we just went off to have a row with the Germans and none of us knew what the other was doing. There was no communication between the tanks, although we had a couple of carrier pigeons in a cage on top of the tank, but when I looked about midday, they were completely flattened by machine-gun fire. We were now well in among the Boche and came into a valley containing German hutments with the enemy packing up. I opened fire and others appeared from the huts, “we settled these”.
 

It was terribly hot inside Musical Box and German machine-gun fire had perforated the 9 tins of petrol, which was now running all over the cab and the fumes inside the tank obliged us to wear the breathing apparatus of our box respirators. Even so, we were all sick inside our masks.
 

At about 2 p.m., I decided that it wouldn’t be much good to go back among the people I’d knocked about so badly, so I again proceeded east. I’d already concluded that the only thing that could happen would be most unpleasant, but couldn’t even guess just how it would finish. Every time we were hit by a bullet or shell fragment, it fetched a bullet splash off the inside of the armour plate, small red-hot fragments which people got blinded by on occasions and after this expedition I was weeks picking the bits out of my skin, a most interesting pastime.
 

Now about 4 miles inside enemy territory, we were finally hit and set on fire. I tried to open the door, but failed on the first attempt due to the heat and the petrol running over my hands, but at the second attempt I fell out of the tank. I can’t say I was in a state of agony, but rather like taking ether and I’d just begun to float when the door gave.
 

We tried to get away, but the Germans closed in on us in a circle, firing all the time and Driver Carnie was killed. Finally, someone hit me over the head with the butt-end of a rifle, knocking me out and so put the closure on a rather exciting day.
 

Both Lt. Arnold and Gunner Ribbans survived, but spent the final months of the war in German Prison Camps.
 

William’s parents heard the broadcast by Colonel Arnold and corresponded with him after that.

William Carnie’s body was never identified and he has no grave, only a mention on the memorial plaque in France and on the War Memorial Arch at Kintore Kirk.
 

He was awarded the Victory and British War Medals, but the whereabouts of these medals and the Next-of-Kin Memorial Plaque are not known.
 

After WWI, William’s place on the farm was taken by his younger brother George who continued to farm there until the farm was sold in the early 1960s.
 

John Carnie, after being demobbed from the Royal Flying Corps at the end of the war, returned to McKinnon in Spring Garden where he had served an engineering apprenticeship. Later, he was sent out to Africa to install machinery on a plantation in Kenya. The owner, a retired Colonel, invited John up to the “bungalow” for dinner and during the meal found out that John was William’s brother. It transpired that the Colonel had been Willaim’s commanding officer and for the rest of his time there John lived in style in the Bungalow.
 

The W.J. Carnie Memorial Medal
After the War, William’s family instituted the W.J. Carnie Memorial Medal, a silver and enamel medal presented annually to the Dux of Kintore Higher Grade Public School.

The W.J. Carnie Memorial Medal
After the War, William’s family instituted the W.J. Carnie Memorial Medal, a silver and enamel medal presented annually to the Dux of Kintore Higher Grade Public School.

The 1953 medal which was still hall-marked silver.
 

Sometime later, the medal was changed to a book prize and finally lapsed when the fund became depleted.