The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Mystery of old map that found its way home – 136 years later
Bid to find out why architect would be so interested in small Fife village
A curiously detailed map has managed to find its way home, more than a century after it was carefully crafted.
While the painstakingly detailed piece of Auchtermuchty history may shed new light on a bygone time, it has also been shrouded in mystery.
A framed copy of the map, originally produced in 1883 by Dundee architect George Jamieson, has been unveiled in Auchtermuchty Library.
The original was purchased for around £50 by village resident Toril Imrie in an antiques shop in Cupar as a present for her husband Brian’s birthday.
The “map of the town and surroundings of Auchtermuchty” details houses “that have dates upon them”.
Toril said: “We lived in Norway at the time and had just bought the house we live in now when I saw the map.
“I thought it looked quite interesting and our house was in it, although it doesn’t have a date stone.”
Muchty Heritage group was so intrigued by it they based an exhibition on the map.
Brian Slattery, a founder member of Muchty Heritage said: “This is a fantastic document and every time you look at it you see something new.
“It has also sparked further investigation into its provenance and into the family history of George Jamieson himself.”
Such is the detail, individual lampposts, summer houses and telegraph lines, are all documented.
Mr Slattery added: “The main purpose of the project seems to have been to identify the 66 houses “that have dates upon them” and where exactly one should look to find these date stones.”
Work also began to discover why a Dundee architect would be so interested in the small Fife village.
George Jamieson was born in 1862 in Dundee but the family had close ties with Auchtermuchty.
Both his parents were born and lived there before moving to Dundee, presumably for better work prospects.
By 1871 the family was living in a tenement in Ellen Street and George senior was working as a mill and factory timekeeper.
On his paternal side, his family were weavers but a relative had a chemist shop at the foot of Kilnheugh, providing one link to the Fife town.
According to the Scottish Architects website, young George was articled to Alexander Hutcheson of Dundee from 1875 to 1879, remaining there until 1881.
He then spent four years in the office of James Maclaren before becoming chief assistant to Alexander McCulloch, who took him into partnership in 1894.
Away from the drawing board, he was a loyal servant to Tay Square Church in Dundee, performing as session clerk and superintendent and organist of the Sunday School.
He died in 1939 at the age of 76. A definitive answer about the map’s origins has not been reached but it may have been a project towards his qualification.
While no one knows where the map was housed for its first 50 years, an article in the heritage group’s possession threw up a snippet of information.
Early in 1934 the Rev James Bell, the minister of the South United Free Church on Burnside, wrote a series of articles in the Fife News chronicling reminiscences of the burgh a half century before.
That included a piece on a presentation to the Town Council of Auchtermuchty of a map as the town had existed in 1883.
Entitled “Handsome gift from native” it described the map as an “interesting and excellently executed specimen of the topographer’s art”.
It was given to the town by Thomas Jamieson, a first cousin of George.
Then it popped up again during the 1970s and ’80s – Ted White of John White & Son (Weighing Machines) Limited remembers seeing it hanging in a Cupar solicitor’s office.
In the 1920s and ’30s the town clerk was one Alfred E Grosset and his obituary, in a DC Thomson newspaper, explained he had been in the post for 20 years.
He was also a senior partner in the firm of Messrs Drummond, Johnstone & Grosset in Crossgate, Cupar.
Perhaps during an office refurbishment the original ended up in an antiques shop and from there, it finally found its way home.