House with Suffragette story to tell

A KINROSS-SHIRE house that was once owned by one of Scotland’s first female doctors has gone up for sale.

Edwardian Mosspark House in Rumbling Bridge is on the market for offers over £850,000.

The five-bedroom property was once owned by Grace Cadell, one of the first women in the country to gain a medical degree.

Dr Cadell, who was also an ardent Suffragette, took over the property in 1906 and turned it into a home for orphans.

Present owner Meriel Cairns (71) has lived at the house for the last four decades and has decided to sell in order to downsize.

She and her husband originally used Mosspark House, which has been in his family since 1918, as a family home.

She said: “I’ve lived here 42 years. Before that it belonged to an uncle of my husband and before that it was my husband’s grandfather’s

“When we moved here in 1970, it had belonged to my husband’s bachelor uncle and we had to open it up a bit and add on another room to make space for our four children.

“It’s been happy and noisy; it’s been a very nice family home.”

She added that Dr Cadell had originally purchased the home as a base for a group of orphans.

She continued

to

live and work

in Edinburgh, coming by train to Rumbling Bridge station at the weekend to visit her children.

She is known to have taken them for picnics up Glendevon in her carriage, along with other children from the village.

The house also played host to Suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst, who used one visit to invite a local minister’s wife to join her at a Suffragette rally in Glasgow.

It is reported that the minister was not amused and refused to let his wife attend.

After Dr Cadell’s death, the house was offered to her nephew, who rejected it, before it was sold and the money split between her two charities – a hospital for destitute women and orphans, and another which funded medical education for women.

Mrs Cairns said that, following the sale of Mosspark House, she intends to move into Dr Cadell’s former coach house, which she is now refurbishing.

Dr Cadell died at Mosspark on February 19 1918. The house was listed in her will with its contents valued at £411 18s 6d. Two cattle at the property were sold for £52.

She had begun studying medicine in Edinburgh under Sophia Jex-Blake, who had passed her medical exams in Ireland and was only the third woman to be registered with the General Medical Council.

Dr Cadell Inglis.

She also headed the Leith branch of the

later

studied under

Elsie Women’s Social and Political Union, but later joined the less militant Women’s Freedom League.

She was one of the medical advisers to women hunger strikers in prison, who were frequently released into her care under the “Cat and Mouse Act”.

Although Dr Cadell did not marry, she did acquire four children – Margaret Frances Clare Sydney, George Bell, Grace Emmeline Cadell and Maurice Philip Shaw.

Dione McKenzie, of estate agents Remax, described the property as “fascinating” and said they had received interest from as far af ield as the Midlands.

She added: “There’s an award-winning garden, which is lovely when it’s in bloom.

“It’s a gorgeous house and the photos of the garden don’t do it justice.

“We are delighted to be offering the property for sale.”

Mosspark House, in Rumbling Bridge, has a fascinating history.