Website last updated at 09:08h GMT, Thursday, 1st February 2012
Fordyce News Archive.
New Fordyce Community website attracts huge amount of interest
Published: 08 February 2010
Fordyce’s new community website, launched on 22nd of January 2010 has experienced very heavy traffic, with over
1800 page views and an average time spent on the site of almost 9 minutes. Visitors from as far afield as the
United States, Canada, Australia and Malaysia have spent time browsing and finding out about our unique little village.
The site is being continually developed, with a local artists’ ‘virtual’ gallery being developed, and a ‘Fordyce Reunited’
section being added to provide those who have links to Fordyce with a facility to research family trees and regain contact with
old friends.
In terms of search engine rankings, the site is consistently showing as no 1 page 1 on Yahoo, with rankings improving on
a day-by-day basis on Google. The site appears on page 1 for the phrases ‘Fordyce Kirk’, ‘Fordyce Village’, ‘Fordyce Village
Hall’, etc, which is unusually prominent for a site so new.
Feedback will be gratefully received. Please email editor@fordyce.org.uk.
Hall group sets itself £500,000 target [TOP]
By Leanne Carter
Published: Banffshire Journal 26 January, 2010
A picturesque Banffshire village is stepping up its efforts to secure a much-needed £500,000 refurbishment of its community hall.
Fordyce Community Association wants to carry out an extensive modernisation of the building and create a hub for local residents.
Although the building - a former church - is already well used, the association believes that upgrading it will give it even more focus.
The group has set the ball rolling by co-opting former bank manager Mark Leith on to the committee to help it create a business plan.
Mr Leith said that grants would be sought from a wide range of funding agencies to help the dreams of the community become a reality.
He said: "The figure for the refurbishment could be as much as £500,000 and I would estimate that 95% will have to come from external funders.
The community association has done a fair bit over the years to raise money, but there is no chance that we could do it all on our own.
We have all the permissions for the new extension, gutting out and refitting the new hall and I would hope we will go to the funders in three to four months.
The village hall was taken over from the Church of Scotland in the 1970s. It was renovated and a flat-roofed extension added in 1978.
While the community association has maintained the building, there have been no further upgrades since then and it is now falling short of the standards expected by modern facilities.
It is hoped that some of the work will start as soon as possible, and the flat roof will be replaced as a priority as it has reached the end of its lifespan.
The disabled access will also be tackled in the improvement plan, along with the kitchen facilities, heating and insulation.
Mr Leith added: "The building is still usable, but if it can be modernised and upgraded, we believe there will be an increase in demand for use as a hall.
"We have a lot of groups using it regularly - the badminton club, the SWRI and old time and country dancing. We have about 100 users a week.
"The hall is a real hub for social activities, and we would love to see more young folk using it so we are looking at putting IT and internet access in place.
"It is the venue for all our fund-raising events. We have held a number of soup and sweets, and coffee mornings and we are planning a ceilidh, quiz night and a summer ball all with a view to raising money."
A new website - www.fordyce.org.uk - has been set up to try and boost the profile of the village, and to help generate fund-raising ideas for the hall. The business plan will also be posted on the site.
"It will be really important in helping us to publicise our fund-raising for the hall redevelopment, and there will also be a what's on guide.
"We also have forums in which people can put forward their own ideas for possible future uses of the hall," added Mr Leith.
Fordyce Man on Ministry Mission [TOP]
Published: 24th January 2010
Alastair Rose, 35, son of Anne Geddes of ‘Annie’s Gift Shop’, is all set to take up the position of intern with ‘Metro Ministries’, the world’s largest Sunday School organization.
Former soldier Alastair served in Northern Ireland, Germany and Bosnia, and after leaving the forces experienced personal difficulties. According to Alastair ; ‘I was working at a kids camp in New Jersey in 1997. My life was in a mess, one of the local volunteers gave me a book about Christianity and I felt loads of weights lift off of me. My life really changed, my minister was really kind to me. He was a great preacher and really inspired and encouraged me to grow in my faith. This is one of the reasons I want to go to Metro. It sometimes takes only one person to reach out and make a difference. Have I got the guts? Do I have what it takes? With God's help, yes I can!’.
Based in The United States, Metro Ministries reaches over 21,000 children in New York City and an additional 22,000 in the Philippines, Africa and Romania. Each Saturday there are Sunday School services and they use school buses to go to pick up the children at their home. Weekdays, special trucks provide a mobile stage at hundreds of locations. The Metro staff and trained volunteers visit the families of the children every week at their homes. Metro has also organized child sponsorship. For the children who live too far to go to the Sunday School services, they have wandering trucks that stop in areas of the city and where from they produce Sidewalk Sunday School.
Metro Ministries conceived and pioneered the concept of Sidewalk Sunday School. Now duplicated across the world by the thousands of people they have trained since 1980, this program has been proven to be an efficient and effective method of reaching large numbers of children and families on a personal level.
If you would like to find out more, Metro Ministries can be found at www.metroministries.org/
Our best wishes go to Alastair, who is set to depart on March 12th, 2010.
Heavy Snow Hits Fordyce
Fordyce was hit hard during the recent heavy snow and following cold weather. Snowfall began in December 2009 and continued through the New Year to January 2010. Although it looked fantastic, everyone was glad to
see the back of it!
Fordyce Snow - Slide show
Heavy Rain Affects Village
The village was badly affected by flooding in November 2009. Several outbuildings were washed away from gardens caused by the burn bursting its banks.
Other damage included the footbridge behind the church being washed away completely and access to the woodland walk being severely
compromised at the lime kilns. Fordyce Floods - Slide show
Fordyce Shop Featured on STV
Annie's Gift & Coffee Shop is rapidly establishing itself as one of the most popular attractions within the village.
With extensive coverage in the Press & Journal and even on STV, visitors have regularly travelled from as far as
Aberdeen, and even during the recent inclement weather people have continued to make a beeline
for coffee, tea and the locally sourced food which is provided.
Click HERE to see the video.
A Fordyce Woman born at the beginning of the Boer War dies.
Published: Press & Journal, 21 January 2010
Mary MacDonald, who was one of Scotland’s oldest women and celebrated her 110th birthday just before Hogmanay, died on the 20th of January at Balcarres Care Home in Dundee.
Born in Fordyce, in 1899, she was the oldest of 10 children. Moving to Dundee in 1920 to train as a nurse, she worked at the Royal Infirmary and at Maryfield Hospital where she met her husband Dr John MacDonald, who was medical superintendent. They had a son, Donald, who also trained as a doctor.
Mrs MacDonald returned to nursing in World War II to care for wounded soldiers at Maryfield Hospital. In the early 1950s the couple moved to Charlotte in the US state of North Carolina to be near their son, who had emigrated there. They returned in 1957. Dr MacDonald died in 1966.
His widow stayed in her home at Broughty Ferry until last year when she moved into Balcarres Care Home.
Kathleen Doyle, senior carer at the home, said: “It’s very, very sad. Everyone loved
Mrs Mac – she was the belle of the ball and kept everyone’s spirits up.“She will be missed by staff and residents alike.”
Tim Plucks Award as Villagers Say Thanks
Published: Banffshire Journal 09 December, 2008
The community of Fordyce celebrated harp-maker Tim Hobrough's ten years as volunteer manager of the village's joiner's museum and workshop at the weekend.
The Canadian instrument maker looks after the museum on behalf of Fordyce Community Association, and teaches woodwork to adults and children.
With the shop warmed by the log fire in the grate, association committee members and friends gathered at the weekend to honour him with a gift hamper, and a specially-made engraved wooden plaque. The plaque was made by Willie Urquhart of David Urquhart joiners, using the latest computer-controlled equipment. Mr Hobrough's partner, Lynne Aitken, missed the occasion because of illness. She is also an integral part of the workshop, and looks after the informal café.
Mr Hobrough made his first harp 36 years ago, and arrived in Scotland not long after. A native of Ontario, he has also lived in Vancouver and California. He said: "I just love it here. People may assume I'm insane to make a living building harps, but nobody in Scotland has ever asked me when I'm going to get a real job. "I've loved working with the local youngsters; it has been so rewarding; now some of their parents come around too. "It is completely gender-neutral here; schools tend to send boys down, but if the children come in on their own, it is very much 50-50 boys to girls. "It is very non-organised."
To mark his 10th year running the Fordyce joiners' workshop, Tim Hobrough (right) receives a luxury hamper and a specially-made wooden plaque from Fordyce Community Association chairman Bertie Robertson (left) and committee members.
For health reasons, Mr Hobrough is semi-retired from making harps, but is kept busy working with children and adults, including some with behavioural difficulties. The workshop is open to visitors to make use of the traditional workbenches and tools, making furniture, musical instruments, ornaments and wood sculpture. Some do stone-carving, with the help of another local craftsman, Norman Defoe, a retired art lecturer.
Aberdeenshire Council took over the traditional joiners' shop 36 years ago, and created a museum, and the working joiners' shop. It is open all day during the summer, and in afternoons in the winter. As well as the joiners' shop, the community association has had a busy year fund-raising to renovate the village public hall. The next step will be to apply for substantial grant aid for the hall.
