Our archive photos show Huntly was a busy burgh in the 1970s. A self-sufficient community, it supported a variety of shops, industries and two schools.
In the previous decade, Huntly was one of the only stations Dr Beeching didn’t earmark for closure in the north-east.
He wanted to close every remaining station between Aberdeen and Huntly, and introduce a fast diesel service to Huntly.
Remembering Huntly’s last water mill
You wonder how Huntly might have changed if Inverurie had lost its station.
The 1971 census showed the Huntly population sitting at 3,790, down about 200 people from the 1961 survey.
But as the decade progressed, the population steadily rose to 4,289 by 1976.
Some of the population increase was undoubtedly down to oil, but Huntly had its own industries and a bustling town centre.
Huntly had a heritage in textile manufacturing and at the start of the 1970s, a time of mass-production, the archaic machinery at Huntly Woollen Mills still trundled on.
In 1970, the dilapidated red-brick mill still clung to the banks of the Bogie in the romantic setting of rolling countryside.
The mill’s machines were driven by power generated from a large 20ft diameter cast iron water wheel.
But by then there were only two staff – boss Charlie Brander and his one employee John Grant.
The mill closed at the end of the decade when Charlie retired, and it was later demolished.
Business boomed during the 1970s
But elsewhere, industry was booming. Manufacturing firm RB Farquhar opened new Huntly premises Deveronside Works in 1973.
Bob Farquhar started up as firewood merchant after the war, but moved into sawmills, then into the construction of poultry houses before setting his sights on bigger builds.
The growing company moved production from Rhynie to Huntly to keep up with demand for its prefabricated and purpose-built buildings.
Its Farquhar Mobile Home was the first of its kind constructed in Scotland, and they ended up making accommodation units for oil platforms.
The Huntly town centre, the Square, Duke Street, and Gordon Street were packed with independent businesses, many of them family firms that had been there for generations.
Agricultural implement makers George Sellar and Sons is still a name found on old farm equipment in Huntly and beyond.
Of course, some of those established businesses like Dean’s, Rizza’s and R Barron and Sons are still thriving in Huntly alongside new enterprises.
New bypass in 1978 relieved Huntly of traffic and congestion
One historic building that saw change in the 1970s and again more recently was the old Cruickshanks, or ‘Cruickie’s’ ironmongers.
Now a community-owned building complete with a cinema and cafe, it was turned into a flagship DIY department store in 1976.
Brothers James and George Stevenson bought the business and extended the premises, adding to its ironmongery offering with furniture, paint, wallpaper and other home-improvement materials.
But arguably, one of the most noticeable changes about Huntly in the late 1970s was the reduction of traffic in the town.
In 1978 the new bypass taking the A96 around the fringes of Huntly, rather than through it, opened.
Two years in the making, and at a cost of £1.6 million, there was relief for homeowners as the 2.4-mile stretch opened and northbound HGVs were no longer channelled along residential streets.
Gallery: Photos of Huntly in the 1970s
Gallery: Huntly in the 1980s
ALL IMAGES IN THIS ARTICLE ARE COPYRIGHT OF DC THOMSON. UNAUTHORISED REPRODUCTION IS NOT PERMITTED.
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