A view looking South-west, to
Newbigging, with The Laws Farm on the hillside in the centre.
The River Tay can just
be seen behind that, with Fife and St. Andrews in the far distance.
(Thanks to L.A.W., an Australian visitor, and
descendant of a former resident of Laws Farm, for this
photograph!)
Click
here for a panoramic 'movie'
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Please note that the placename of "NEWBIGGING" originally refers to a 'new bigging' or 'new cottar town' or hamlet. There are many places called NEWBIGGING to be found in old parishes and it might be better to think of this one as NEWBIGGING OF MONIKIE. A similar naming convention does, or should, apply to placenames of KIRKTON, etc. where each parish had such a placename. In Monikie, there is a KIRKTON OF MONIKIE which did not retain its 'status' after 1870 when the new railway line and station became the focus of the parish, and the village which grew around it today represents the main populated area. In Auchterhouse parish, for example, the main village is named Kirkton of Auchterhouse. Unfortunately, in the parish of Kinnettles the local council have decided to simply erect an ambiguous road sign as Kirkton, rather than Kirkton of Kinnettles. |
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1.- Our visit starts with the view looking west along Drumsturdy Road,
towards Kingennie, Baldovie Toll and the city Dundee. On the near left are houses at
Newbigging Toll on the crossroads of the road running north-south from Newbigging to Ardestie
Toll and the town of Monifieth, and the road which was the old turnpike
road from Dundee, running west east.
In the distance, on the right hand side of the road, is Omachie, and to the left are fields of The Laws Farm. |
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2.- Photographs 2, 3, 4,
& 5 are a set of
overlapping views taken from Newbigging Toll towards looking northwards to
Newbigging village, showing the panorama of Angus countryside.
This view shows in the far horizon the hill on which the Panmure Testimonial is placed (you can read about that elsewhere on this site.) The line of trees in silhouette on the horizon form the southern boundary of, what is nowadays, Monikie Country Park, but these were formerly a public reservoir serving the City of Dundee (see other webpage on this site). |
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3.- This view shows the complete Newbigging
from east to west. Over to the middle-right are Pitairlie and
Denfind farms.
The "bright" building at middle left is the school extension with the windows shining in the midday sun. Just to the left of centre in the middle of the village one can see the large, dark rectangle which is the roof of the church. |
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4.- This view is just slightly to the west of view 3 above. This shows the placement of Cunmont Farm in the middle distance and the road from Newbigging Toll into the village. | |
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5.- This final view in this panoramic set shows Cunmont Farm in the centre with Cunmont Quarry to the far left. | |
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6.- Moving nearer the village one can see the
"Welcome to Newbigging" notices with the 30 miles per hour speed
restriction signs.
Just visible in the gap between the left sign and the large tree are the two windows of the cottage where Miss Wilson formerly lived until she was 18 years of age. At the front, at the foot of the photograph is equipment connected with the water monitoring of the burn. The poles visible on several of the photographs carry the public electricity supply or the telephone service.
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7.- These are (one row of) Cunmont Cottages - there are
others elsewhere in the area). They were, and in some cases, still
are, occupied by workers on the Cunmont Farm, seen in earlier views.
The house to the farthest left of the three was the one formerly occupied by Miss Wilson. The rather bright recent addition to the right of the row of cottages no doubt provides extra living accommodation to that house, but the development cannot be said to be finished in a manner which is in keeping with the older houses in the row. |
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8.- This is the cottage occupied by
Miss Wilson, the lady who left Newbigging at the age of 20
years, and who died in June 2001.
Her mother is the adult on the right of the photograph, with the baby in her arms. The date of this photograph is assumed to be around 1920. Less youthful viewers might just make-out the 'gird', a child's toy, on the cottage wall, behind the 'bairn'. |
'Miss' Wilson. |
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9.- This is the cottage with Mrs. Low, the
former occupier, standing in her doorway.
The windows, of course, are replacements. The extent of the enlargement from the original window size can be seen by the re-constituted "stone-working" texture around the new frames. The house is under new occupation. |
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10.- This is Newbigging Church, which, regrettably, is to
cease on 25th November 2007 as a place of worship of members the Church of Scotland,
and has now been sold (November).
The last remaining church in the "Parish of Monikie" will then be Monikie Parish Kirk, some two miles distant. |
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12.- This row of cottages is another
original row of those running east to west. This row is occupied and
the little oval plaque on the gable wall facing says "Granny
Sanderson's". No doubt this means more to Miss Wilson than to
the writer.
The Sanderson surname is one of note in Newbigging, indeed a street of new houses nearby is named Sanderson Place. |
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13.- This old row of 2 cottages is no longer
occupied, indeed a new house was built in the garden grounds
a few years ago and can just be seen as a blip on the right edge of the
photograph.
Note the small windows and the two-vertical halves style of door. This row is on the other side of the road from the Cunmont Cottages of Miss Wilson. |
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14.- This is the second Newbigging
Primary School, probably the one attended by Miss Wilson. (See also the note
after photo #17). Then, the Headmaster's large schoolhouse was
to the right, and the small school to the
left. The house is now used as a nursery.
Comparing the size of the buildings gives an indication of the standing of the head teacher, or 'Dominie', in a community at the time. Today the old building is used as a school hall and lunch room. At Election time local electors visit this building to register their vote. The "new" building can just be seen in the background, to the extreme left. |
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15.- To the rear of the old school
building is the playground, no doubt fondly remembered by Miss
Wilson, assuming that she did attend her local school. There is a
stone on the gable of the school with "M.S.B." for Monikie
School Board, who were responsible for building the school in the 1880's.
One of today's teachers makes her way from 'new' school, behind us, down the lane on the right to the main road. "No children in the playground?" you say - it was a training day for teachers. |
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16.- The signs say it all. This is
the only shop in Newbigging and takes up the complete ground floor,
formerly two premises.
I understand that Miss Wilson's father, a saddler, occupied the left-hand part of these
ground floor shop premises in the early 1900s.
The little red box by the doorway is the posting box. |
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17.- These last two views again make an
overlapping composite.
The view is that from the farm road to Cunmont Farm, standing just in front of the farm, looking south-east. The large "slab" of a building is the school extension and the highest point to the centre left is the belfry of the church. |
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18.- This view is to the right, or east, of the previous
one.
The 'civilisation' just visible in the centre of the horizon is the area know as Newbigging Toll, that being where our brief tour of the Village of Newbigging started on frame one. |
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The 'very' original schoolhouse (1820 vintage - see details and map in 'The Monikie Story') was situated on the opposite side of the main road, almost opposite Newbigging Church.
The webmaster hopes that you have enjoyed this brief "journey" to parts of Newbigging, situated in the former Monikie Parish. You are invited to visit other parts of this website by following the Links below, or at the top of each page.
Best results are to be gained if you try the site search engine for personal and place names from the area - and far beyond.
If you would like to submit an article of public interest about Newbigging Village, or any place in the (former) Monikie Parish please contact the Webmaster.
"A COMPILATION"
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Larger photographs taken on Monday, 29th November, 1999
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