Day 5: 15 August 2019 Exploring Alford

Dad and I both needed a bathroom quite urgently, but when we got to Grampian Transport Museum they were still closed. Luckily for us there was public bathrooms a few steps from the museum.

We could not wait for the museum to open so we just took a few photos on the grounds. Will visit them when I move to Scotland someday.

Grampian Transport Museum

It is a transport museum and charitable-based trust located in Alford, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Its exhibits chart the history of transport in the north east of Scotland through dramatic displays, working and climb-aboard vehicle exhibits and video presentations.

The museum was formed after a group of local transport enthusiasts and collectors in the early 1970s sought to develop a local transport museum. In 1978, the group held a public meeting at which, after an offer was made to lease the former goods yard to the north of the former Alford railway station, the Grampian Transport Museum Association was formed. A pilot museum was established in a local factory in 1981, and after the first annual Alford Cavalcade vintage vehicle rally held during July, a combination of local councils offered grants and subsidies to establish a permanent exhibition base. Construction work on the current building was completed in September 1982, and the museum opened in April 1983. An extension was completed in 1998, landscaping and a track added in the early 2000s, and a second building, the Collections Centre, to house larger exhibits in the 2010s. In 2016, the museum completed a new reception extension to improve the frontage of the museum and provide a warm welcome to its visitors.

After our visit to Grampian we did some more exploring of Alford on our way to our next stop.

Thank you very much for taking the time to join me on my travels through Scotland. I hope you enjoyed it just as much as I did.

Till next time, safe travels and keep dreaming.

Have a fabulous day.

Coreen

Day 5: 15 August 2019 – Exploring Alford

While exploring Alford one of the places on my list was the Alford Valley Railway Museum. When we got there it was closed for business. I must say I was very disappointed. I was looking forward to visit and ride on the train. I took some photos of the grounds although there was not much to see.

Alford Valley Railway Museum

The construction of the Alford Valley Railway began in 1856 and the line opened in 1859. It ran in a westerly direction from Kintore, a station on the line from Aberdeen to Inverness. The line served Kemnay Quarry and three other granite quarries in the area.

The current station building is on the site of the original granite structure which was demolished after British Rail closed the line. The passenger platform is the original. A small railway museum is housed in the railway station building. The original locomotive shed was situated to the east of the station but this has also now been demolished. To the west of the station the granite carriage shed of the previous railway is now used by the Alford Valley Railway.

Alford Millennium Sculpture Garden

In 1998 at the instigation of Alford and District Rotary Club an adhoc committee consisting of representatives from all the local voluntary organizations was established. Their purpose was to create a lasting memorial to the start of the new millennium. Suggestions was made and they decided on a sculpture garden.

The land was provided by Aberdeenshire Council and the artist Louise Gardner did the layout of the garden and also created the sculptures. A local quarrying company was asked to provide pieces of Corrennie Granite which they kindly donated and conveyed to the Scottish Sculpture Workshop at Lumsden.

The garden was officially opened on 25 October 2003.

The largest stone shows a family group whit the man leading his wife and child into the new millennium. The man looking back to the second stone where domestic animals represent agriculture on which Alford was founded. When the railway reached the Village it became the natural gathering point for livestock and produce from surrounding farms destined for markets in the south.

The various animals and birds on the third Stone represent nature on which all of life depends.

Children at Alford Academy were asked to create clay shields displaying some aspect of Alford or its surroundings that appealed to them. The shields, also, were taken to Lumsden where the Workshop used them to form molds for the castings of the bronzes which can be seen set into the pavement.

Thank you very much for taking the time to join me on my travels through Scotland. I hope you enjoyed it just as much as I did.

Till next time, safe travels and keep dreaming.

Have a fabulous day.

Coreen

We left Aberdeen and took the A944 and headed for Alford. The road was not that busy and we enjoyed the beautiful landscapes along the way. I did not stop along the way because we were already running a bit late.

Day 5: 15 August 2019 – Exploring Alford

Alford is a small country town happily nestled in rural Aberdeenshire with a peaceful and tranquil feel to it.

Skirted by the beautiful River Don and surrounded by the hills of Bennachie and Coreen, the area is a great place to relax from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

The place-name is thought to come from the Scots auld ford; its original position being on the banks of the Don. Alford gave its name to a battle of the Battle of Alford (1645). It is also the home of the Aberdeen Angus cattle breed. It is believed that the original breeding ground of the cattle was Buffal, located between Tough (Tulloch) and Craigievar nearby Alford. Another claim to fame for the town is Alford Oatmeal, ground at Montgarrie, just outside the town. 

Howe Trinity Parish Church

Designed by James Souttar and built-in 1867 as Alford Free Church.

Howe Trinity Parish Church is situated at the eastern edge of the rural Aberdeenshire village of Alford, alongside the main A944 road running through the community. The church was formerly called East Church and became Howe Trinity in 1999 when the parishes of Keig, Tullynessle & Forbes, and Alford were united. There is a car parking area to the front of the church, and a large, modern hall is attached to the rear.

There are houses around the church, and the manse stands to the west.

The rectangular church is tall and narrow, with a square tower at the northwest corner, and there is a larger 21st-century hall complex joined to the rear of the church building. The church has granite walls, composed of large, roughly-finished (‘rock-faced) blocks, with paler bands of granite used for decoration. The steeply-pitched roof is slated.

The tall north gable and tower of the church form the principal elevation. The gable has a single window, composed of three lancets (pointed-arch), the central one of which is larger. The windows have small, latticed panes of glass. There are three bands or courses of paler granite; the top one rises into a relieving arch above the window to spread the weight of the gable around the weaker window. Above, in the gable head, is an oval window, again with latticed glazing. Mounted on the apex is a tall, stone cross finial. The attached tower, to the northwest, is slightly advanced from the gable and the side elevation. It is square on plan and of two stages. There may have been a tall spire planned to sit on top of the tower, but this was never carried out. There is a chamfered, recessed, pointed-arch doorway at the base of the tower. The double-leaf door has large, decorative metal hinge plates. Above is a pointed-arch (lancet) window. The west face of the tower has a small round window at ground level and a lancet window above. There is a sloping stringcourse above the doorway and a simple cornice at the top of the tower.

The above information on Howe Trinity Parish Church I got from the POWiS website.

Thank you very much for taking the time to join me on my travels through Scotland. I hope you enjoyed it just as much as I did.

Till next time, safe travels and keep dreaming.

Have a fabulous day.

Coreen