Ill-fated Farington Hall

Kenneth Baxter has supplied the photograph on the right and says: “The attached photograph was taken in April 1911 and shows the ill-fated Farington Hall. One of Dundee’s largest and most-imposing mansions, it was located in spacious grounds off the Perth Road. Just over two years after this picture was taken, the house was reduced to ruins following an arson attack by suffragettes.

“At 11pm on Friday, May 9, 1913, a man residing nearby thought he had heard the sound of breaking glass. About an hour later, he saw lights and, on further investigation, realised that the building was ablaze and rushed to alert the fire brigade. Although they arrived soon after, the firemen found the inferno had spread throughout the building and was almost impossible to control. The roof quickly started to collapse, and the mansion was consumed by flames.

“Shortly afterwards, the chief constable of Dundee received a copy of the newspaper The Suffragette with a handwritten message which indicated that the arson was in response to ‘British tyranny’ and that the blame should fall on ‘Asquith and company’.

“Farington Hall was built in the 1850s and was the home of Allan Edward, a noted merchant who helped develop the jute industry in Dundee. At the time of the fire, the building was owned by the solicitor

W B Dickie, but was unoccupied.

“Ironically, it had just been leased by ex-lord Provost Henry Mcgrady, who lived at nearby Arnhall. Mr Mcgrady had been planning to move into Farington a few weeks later, but ultimately would never live in it. The ruined tower continued to serve as a local landmark until 1929, when all that was left standing of the once-great house was finally demolished.”

Stacking the timber

“The recent item about woodcutting was of interest to me, as woodcutting was in my blood,” emails Thomas Anderson. “It mentions the sawmiller Jock Macdonald. My first job when I left school was in Dye’s sawmill in Kinross from 1964-72. I worked between two contractors, J Macdonald and a lad named Cowie.

“I was only 15 years old and sawmill work was hard for a young Kelty lad who had just left school. At that time, most of the sawn timber went to the coal pits. So my first job was stacking the sawn timber off the crosscut saw for Jock Macdonald. He was paying my wages, about one shilling and sixpence an hour.

“One story has always stuck in my mind. It was my first day’s work in Dye’s sawmill.

I though I’d done a great day’s work for a young lad. There was no wood left to stack, so I decided to sit down for a rest at 4.55pm – five minutes before finishing time. Suddenly, Jock Macdonald ran down the passageway and said: ‘Laddie, if ye canna gie me a day’s work, dinnae bother coming back the morn.’ These are words I’ve carried with me for all the years I’ve worked in forestry on private estates in Scotland.”

‘Keithy’ loved to dance

“In my younger days, in the mid 1960s,” says Eric Adamson of Carnoustie, “I was a regular at the Moorfield Hotel, the place where I met my wife-to-be. Friday and Saturday nights were the nights that ‘Keithy’, the late Keith Robertson, really enjoyed himself. He loved to dance and have his bottle of Coca-cola. He was maybe a wee man, but he had a big heart.”

Get the point?

A reader who did not even know he was committing an error of speech found out about it when his doctor said how much she disliked “the jab” being referred to as “the jag”. As she was sticking a needle in his arm at the time, he didn’t argue.

He assumes that jag for jab is the result of mishearing among a large number of people, but it spoils his response on being offered a “jag”, which was to say that he’d rather have a Range Rover.

Farington Hall, one of Dundee’s largest and most-imposing mansions. Read about its fate at the top of the left-hand column. Picture: University of Dundee Archive Services.

“This is Desperate Dan on Covid watch,” says reader Jock Elliott of Brechin. “The photograph was taken in Dundee prior to lockdown.”