Huntly has a rich history with the legacy of the Gordons woven throughout its built heritage and folklore.
The town is described as “hill-girt and river-wrought”, sitting between the rivers Deveron and Bogie surrounded by upland countryside.
The earlier settlement was known as Milton of Strathbogie until the Duke of Gordon established a planned village on its site in 1769 and renamed it Huntly.
Huntly was one of the north-east’s planned towns in 18th Century
Huntly bears the hallmarks of other north-east planned communities with its handsome Georgian town square and surrounding streets set in a grid layout.
With historic industries like textiles and agriculture, and the advent of the railway between Huntly and Inverurie, it was a thriving town in the 19th Century.
But another seminal time for the town was the inter-war years.
Huntly in particular was a town that suffered dreadfully with the loss of its menfolk in the First World War.
Of the 700 men who left the rural parish to fight, 144 of those killed were teachers and former pupils of The Gordon Schools alone.
The rector was so sorrowed he commissioned a stained glass memorial window in the school.
And in 1922, an elegant war memorial was unveiled at the foot of the linden tree avenue between the school and square commemorating all the town’s lost sons.
But the 1920s also brought optimism and growth for Huntly with a new mart and a new isolation hospital.
Old photos show how 1920s brought change to Huntly
Strathbogie Auction Mart, belonging to Messrs Reith and Anderson, opened on January 17 1923.
The new building was erected close to the railway station loading bank and the public road.
Designed by architects George Sutherland and Clement George, it was described as a “credit to Huntly”.
A few years later in 1926, the town welcomed three new motor mail vans to speed up the delivery of mail from Huntly Post Office to Aberchirder and district.
And in June 1927 there was a new addition to the Jubilee Cottage Hospital when the isolation hospital opened.
It was a joint scheme between Huntly District Committee and the town council, and Provost Christie was “the leading light in its initiation and completion”.
Lord Aberdeen opened the building, described as “a solid stone and lime structure of the bungalow type” facing the Parish Church manse.
New isolation hospital opened to tackle infectious disease in Huntly
The new healing hospital was needed after a previous outbreak of diphtheria in Huntly took over two wards of the Jubilee Hospital.
Now the standalone infection unit would contain patients away from ordinary surgical and medical cases.
It was divided into four small wards, each with two beds, with a smaller observation ward in the middle for nursing staff.
The hospital also had a verandah, with glass-panelled doors where convalescents’ beds could be wheeled into the open air.
Previously, hospitals were like ‘hot houses’ for fever and disease, with patients stuck in wards infecting each other.
The verandah was somewhere patients could recuperate in fresh air after the acute stage of their illness had passed.
Gallery: Photos in and around Huntly before 1950
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