Strichen Market Place:Rough Justice

Viewed from the embankment which carries the Formartine Buchan Way above Strichen Market Place the grassy space below presents a tranquil scene. Quite apart from the hustle and bustle which must have accompanied the weekly Tuesday markets the Market Place has a far from tranquil history.

In a paper entitled, 'The History of Strichen', delivered to the Buchan Field Club in 1891, Robert Anderson stated that two whale bones used to stand in the Market Stance close to the point at which the railway line crosses it. These bones were used as the town stocks and miscreants such as drunks were reputedly chained to the neck to the bones and subjected to public humiliation. Even more grisly was the nearby chair with along pole attached to it. This was used to ‘dook’ those unfortunates suspected of witchcraft in the waters of the Ugie.  A common test of witchcraft was ‘swimming the witch’; the witch was held under water, those who survived the ordeal were thought to have done so by means of supernatural powers and were deemed to be guilty. Witch hunting in Scotland was most prevalent in the 16^th and 17^th centuries, in 1597 twenty four ‘proven’ witches out of dozens who were accused of witchcraft were executed in Aberdeenshire alone.  Execution usually took the form of strangulation before being burned at the stake.

The Market Place viewed from the Line

Bridge carrying the Line across the  Market Place, the lane leads towards the Ugie. The bush seen through the bridge is full of catkins. Presumably the market stance extended down to the Ugie before the line was constructed.

Viaduct carrying the Line over the Ugie close to the Market Place. The viaduct supports gave way during  construction. The chair used to duck witches was probably on the right bank of the river in this vicinity.

The land close to the river bank is carpeted with Wood Anemones in Spring. Also known as Wind Flowers, theses delicate beauties were considered, in accordance with the doctrine of signatures, to be a cure for Parkinson's Disease.

Railway time along the Line

Logierieve Station building still displays a conspicuous clock

As railways developed across the country and ran according to timetables punctuality and accurate time keeping became essential. Until the need to catch a train arose every community had set its clocks without any regard for what time it was anywhere else. There was no real need to standardise time until trains ran to strict timetables and it was not until 1880 that, after much opposition, Greenwich Mean Time, at first sometimes actually known as ‘Railway Time’, was adopted as the official legal and standard time throughout Great Britain. An immediate result was an upturn in the clock making trade and a rash of easily seen public clocks being added to the outside of churches and public buildings.

Not quite a GNSR engine above the clock on Strichen Station

Such was the importance to the railway system of accurate time keeping, that clocks were a highly visible and important feature of all the stations. Every station had at least three clocks in addition to those in signal boxes. Two clocks, one displayed on the platform, usually mounted high on the wall of the main building, and one inside the building were visible to the travelling public. (Maud had two platform clocks)  There would be at least one clock in the station staff offices. The clocks, supplied by a variety of manufacturers,  were almost always of clear design with a face diameter of about 18 inches. Some stations had special niches in the wall where the clock was mounted, several station buildings which have been converted to houses, including Strichen, Logierieve and Rathen continue to display a clock, presumably in the original position. 

During the 1880s the accuracy of station clocks was ensured by an employee of the clock manufacturer who travelled by train from station to station each week checking and winding the clocks. Such was the importance of the clockman that waiting times of trains at stations could be extended whilst he carried out his duties.The travelling clockman was made redundant by the introduction of the electric telegraph which enabled clocks to be synchronised daily at 10.00 a.m G.M.T. using the telegraph system.  A working time table of 1891 stated that this and the winding of the clock at 8.a.m. on Monday was the responsibility of the station agent.