Local History

A wonderful response from  Mr Andrew Callum,  now resident in Australia.

"Firstly, we sold Chapelton Farm to Mr Goodbody/Balloch Farm in May 1967 not 1968 as stated , I know this, because I lived, and worked on the farm until we sold it when I was 20 years old and emigrated to Australia.

The remains of the Anderson shelter or "Nissan Hut" in Chapelton top wood is not a wartime relic as stated , but was erected there by us in the mid 1960s to provide shelter for our cattle in winter, and at one stage housed free range, laying hens.

The bottom wood was known as the "Crow Wood" although I do not recall ever seeing crows there, (the crows rookery was in the strip of trees between Chapelton and Torris).
The field below the Crow Wood, or bottom wood, (now Moray Park Terrace) was the Upper Lime Kiln field, and the field below that, which was part of Culloden Home Farm, and adjacent to Balloch Farm was the Lower Lime Kiln Field, and is now Moray Park Avenue.

We paid a stipend each year to the church of Scotland of a few pounds as I recall, which was also legally payable in bushels of barley or other measures of farm produce, and itemised as payable by these means, on the account we received each year from the church.
This stipend, as I understood it, was for the St. Mary's Church and grave yard that once occupied the area on the lower side of the farm road below the "Tree of the Dead" which is still standing just below the farm buildings along the farm road.
Also by the road side there, is the spring and well, which we understood to be St Mary’s Well and which was covered over by my father I believe. I have seen this well, which was lined with a brick that looked very like the bricks in your photo as I recall, and I helped my father replace the heavy timbers he had put over it to keep the cattle from turning it into a muddy mess in the early 1960s. 
According to my father, the "Wishing Well" was actually the Culloden House Gentry's private bathing place, and not St Mary's Well, thus the secluding wall around it.

Another point of interest is the section of the farm road, now known as Torris Road, which runs between the start of Chapelton Wood and the big tree on the roadside as you enter Chapelton proper. I recall my father telling me that this section of road was never sold to anyone by Culloden Estate when it was sold off, and so technically was the only remaining part of the estate.
He was complaining because at the time we were spending a considerable amount of time and money on the maintenance and repair of the road, from the farm through to the main road then known as "The Brae" and now called Culloden Road, and, including that small "unowned" section, which he sarcastically stated we should not have had to pay for the upkeep of.

I also read something about the original post office and the Appleyard family.
The original shop and later the post office which was run and owned by Lena Campbell in my day, is still there as I recall, about 100 yards up the hill from the corner of Culloden Road and Cullernie Road and set back slightly, on the left hand side travelling up the hill.

The original shop at the corner of Culloden and Cullernie Roads was, as I recall built by the Appleyards, who also installed the first petrol pumps in the village on that site, and both shops were open at the same time for many years, through most of the 1950s and early 1960s as I recall.

I was disappointed on my trips back to Balloch to find that the old Forbes family vault had disappeared from the woods near Culloden House.
In the burial ground around the vault were some members of the Forbes family who had been "originally interred" at Chapelton, and reburied there, and others who it stated on the headstones, were due to be buried (interred) at Chapelton, but had been buried there due to the closure of Chapelton cemetery.

These are the facts as related to me through out my life by my late father,  also Andrew Callum, who was born at Chapelton in 1914 and had to leave school to work the farm round about 1927 after my grandfather (another Andrew Callum) had died.
I had hoped to find a copy of the original stipend notice from the church of Scotland, which may have proved the name of the church at Chapelton, but unfortunately, I have ebeen unable to locate the document.

I had intended to contact your group during my last visit to the UK and Balloch in January this year, but unfortunately my time was limited, I did however visit Chapelton, and took a short walk into the top wood as far as the remains of the Nissan hut, and the railway sleepers in the ground that it was built on top of (in spite of not having suitable footwear).

 

I must congratulate you on your work that made this possible, as the previous time I was there, the woods were totally inaccessible due to being overgrown with brambles."