Historiographical debate about religious change and secularisation in Scotland often fails to take a sufficiently long-term perspective and to subject the sources used to critical scrutiny. In this article, one possible metric of secularisation (churchgoing rates) is investigated for Scotland's third largest city (Aberdeen), by a statistical examination of thirteen church censuses between 1836 and 2016. Emphasis is placed on the varying methodologies of the censuses and the limitations to their comparability. Churchgoing in the city has declined continuously, relative to population, since the mid-nineteenth century. Six possible explanations for this are proposed. By 1984, Aberdeen had the lowest rate of church attendance of any part of Scotland. Today, only 4 per cent of Aberdonians are in the pews on an average Sunday, one-tenth the proportion in 1836.
The conventional histories of the Tay Bridge have focused understandably on the dramatic collapse of the first edifice in 1879 and the deaths then. Various aspects of what was an engineering project of international professional and public interest have been neglected. The construction of the two Tay Bridges (the original that collapsed, and its immediate replacement) took place over several years, leading to a major industrial site at Dundee. The ancient office of Coroner had fallen into desuetude and, in the absence of any substituting legal intervention, the deaths individually or collectively over the whole project on or near the industrial site were not investigated for consideration at any public inquiry, or as matters of general health and safety concern. Sudden and accidental deaths looked into by the police force were reported to the relevant Procurator Fiscal for the area. The result then was merely a confidential administrative disposal.
At a time of rising Cold War enmity in Europe, the British government planned a new Joint Services Guided Weapons Establishment in the southern Outer Hebrides and St Kilda. To mitigate local opposition in the Uists and Benbecula, the Air Ministry pledged the creation of jobs and new civil infrastructure for crofting communities struggling to maintain their security of tenure. This article examines both the high-level political manoeuvres in London and Edinburgh and crofters' responses to the government's scheme in the local context. The project's legal implications for land tenure are considered along with its deeper effect on local perceptions of the British state's developmental promise.
The art of printing came to Aberdeen in 1622 with the arrival of Edward Raban, a journeyman printer. Within months he was appointed Unversitatis Typrographus followed quickly by appointment as Urbis Typographus. He played a prominent role in both economic and cultural life of the city for the next twenty-five years. This article is based on research conducted as part of the four hundredth anniversary of Raban's arrival in Aberdeen. Previous scholars of bibliographic and print history have examined aspects of Raban's life and established a narrative that he first came to Scotland in 1620. Through interrogation of Old Parish Registers and other genealogical sources, this narrative can now be disproved, and the article demonstrates that Edward Raban was domiciled in Scotland as early as 1616. It also explores other aspects of Raban's familial connections, particularly his son & Eacute;douard Raban, printer in Orange. It also suggests further avenues for research around Raban's putative involvement with what is commonly called the Pilgrim Press in Leiden.
An examination of newspaper reports from 1840 to 1940 shows the widespread popularity of competitive turnip hoeing matches in northeast Scotland, notably in Aberdeenshire. Using the lens of a number of champion hoers, this article explores the emergence and development of such matches. Peaking in the late 1930s, they attracted hundreds of competitors and spectators. Their demise was linked in part to the dominance of a number of expert hoers but more to a long-term replacement of the turnip by silage as feed for the cattle that were such a central part of the region's agriculture. Retrieving the history of such events is not only of interest in its own right but gives us an insight into the distinctive rural culture of the area.
