Drummuir Hall & Community Association. 2004 - 2005.
Trustees
	Rev. R. Gauld	St. Rufus Manse, Church St., Keith. AB55 5BR.	01542-882799
	Cllr. P. Paul	56 Land St., Rothes. AB38 7BB.	01340-831761
	G. Findlay	Botriphnie School, Keith. AB55	01542-831293/810207
Office Bearers & Committee Members
Chairman	James Mark	Mains of Pitlurg, Cairnie, Keith. AB55 5PJ.	01466-760214
Vice Chairman	Neil Theodoreson	Westerton House, Drummuir, Keith. AB55 5JP.	01542-810236
Secretary	David McWilliam	Towiemore House, Botriphnie, Keith. AB55 5JD	01542-810344
Treasurer & Community Assistant	Fiona Morrison	11 Tocher Terrace, Drummuir, Keith. AB55 5JD.	01542-810371
Hall Bookings & Cleaning	Shona Cockill	15 Tocher Terrace, Drummuir, Keith. AB55 5JD.	01542-810301
Committee Member	Alex Gordon-Duff	Estate Office, Drummuir, Keith. AB55 5JH.	01542-810225
Committee Member	Priscilla Gordon-Duff	Estate Office, Drummuir, Keith. AB55 5JH.	01542-810225
Committee Member	Mandy Gordon	Yarraville, Sauchenward, Drummuir, Keith. AB55 6JF.	01542-810292
Committee Member	Margaret MacDonald	17 Tocher Terrace, Drummuir, Keith. AB55 5JD.	01542-810350
Committee Member	Fred MacDonald	17 Tocher Terrace, Drummuir, Keith. AB55 5JD.	01542-810350
Committee Member	Ruth Anderson	26 Tocher Terrace, Drummuir, Keith.AB55 5JD.	01466-799148
Committee Member	Derek Scotston	The Mews, Grange, Keith. AB55 6SN	01542-870710
Clubs Etc Representatives
Bowling Club	William Bell	Fieldhead, Newmill, Keith. AB55 6UX.	01542-882886
Badminton Club	James Mark	Mains of Pitlurg, Cairnie, Keith. AB55 5PJ.	01542-760214
Youth Club	Richard Henderson	Station House, Drummuir, Keith. AB55 5JF.	01542-810279
W.R.I.	Davina Gray	School House, Drummuir, Keith. AB5 3JD.	01542-810353
Church	Peter McWilliam	Mains of Davidston Cottage, Cairnie, Keith. AB55 5PX	01542-810269
School Board	Fiona Morrison	11 Tocher Terrace, Drummuir, Keith AB55 5JD.	01542-810371
Drummuir-21	Priscilla Gordon-Duff	Estate Office, Drummuir, Keith. AB55 5JH.	01542-810225
Strathisla Community Council Representatives
	David Dillon	Mill of Towie Farm, Auchandachy, Keith. AB55 5QD.	Tel: 01542 810340 Mobile: 07810100578 Email: d.d.towiesheep@btinternet.com
	Alex Gordon-Duff	Kirkton House, Drummuir, Keith AB55 5JE	Tel: 01542 810225 (Office)         01542 810300 (Home) Email: alexgd@drummuirestate.co.uk
	David McWilliam	Towiemore House, Botriphnie, Keith. AB55 5JA.	Tel: 01542 810344 Mobile: 07974 216824 Email: dave.mcwilliam@towienet.co.uk

 

All items that previously featured in the Local News page are transferred to here when they become old news.

SAVE OUR SCHOOL!

Link to Moray Website - www.saveourschool.info

A meeting was held in Botriphnie School on the evening of 20th June to decide how to oppose the proposals to close many small schools, including that at Botriphnie. A committee was formed to work in concert with the Botriphnie School Board. Contact details for the two bodies are given below.

BOTRIPHNIE SCHOOL ACTION GROUP
	Name & Address	Phone & Mobile	Email address
Chairperson	Julie Theodoreson, Westerton, Drummuir. AB55 5JP	01542-810236 07792-595713	jntheo@talk21.com
Secretary	Shona Cockill, 15 Tocher Terrace. AB55 5JD	01542-810301 07967-891744	robert@cockill6.wanadoo.co.uk
Secretary	Fiona Morrison, 11 Tocher Terrace. AB55 5JD	01542-810371 07854-499182	matthew.morrison@tesco.net
Secretary	Yvonne Stewart, An Tyellach. AB55	01542-810720 07837-075695	nelly8stew@aol.com
Treasurer	Ginette Playle, Mill Cottage, Wester Chalder. AB55	01542-810757 07879-634524	jamieplayle@aol.com
Committee Member	Neil Theodoreson, Westerton, Drummuir. AB55 5JP	01542-810236 07837-338195	jntheo@talk21.com
Committee Member	Diane Mark, Mains of Pitlurg. AB55 5PJ	01466-760214 07751-682092	dmmark@aol.com
Committee Member	David McWilliam, Towiemore House. AB55 5JA	01542-810344 07974-216824	dave.mcwilliam@towienet.co.uk

 

BOTRIPHNIE SCHOOL BOARD
	Name & Address	Phone & Mobile	Email address
Chairman	Peter McWilliam, Mains of Davidson Cottage. AB55	01542-810236	dp@mcwilliam888.fsnet.co.uk
Vice Chair	Fiona Morrison, 11 Tocher Terrace. AB55 5JD	01542-810371
Secretary	Yvonne Stewart, An Tyellach. AB55	01542-810720 07837-075695	nelly8stew@aol.com
Committee Member	Shona Cockill, 15 Tocher Terrace. AB55 5JD	01542-810301 07967-891744	robert@cockill6.wanadoo.co.uk
Committee Member	Norma Rendall, Mains of Bellyhack. AB55 5PT	01542-810371
Committee Member	Mandy Gordon, Yarraville, Sauchenward. AB55 6QX	01542-810292
Committee Member	Melissa James (retired) Auchindachy	01542-

Drummuir & Botriphnie Community Trust

Election Results and Celebration of Hall Purchase.

Drummuir Hall 7.30pm on 24th June 2005

The celebration event duly took place and a good time was had by one and all! The serious part of the evening was the counting of the votes and the announcement of the results. This was performed by Rev Ranald Gauld acting as Returning Officer, assisted by Councillor Pearl Paul and Headteacher Gillian Findlay. There were 152 ballot papers returned and those polling the most votes were (in alphabetic order of surname) -

Richard Henderson	Station House, Drummuir, Keith. AB55 5JF.
James Law	Midthird, Botriphnie, Keith. AB55 5JR.
James Mark	Mains of Pitlurg, Keith. AB55 5PJ.
Dianne Mark	Mains of Pitlurg, Cairnie, Keith. AB55 5PJ.
John Rendall	Mains of Bellyhack, Drummuir, Keith. AB55 5PT.
James Thain	Mossend, Botriphnie, Keith. AB55 5QB.

The six Directors will now meet to decide who will fill the various posts. Then we will stand back in amazement as sparks fly, puffs of coloured smoke issue from under the Boardroom door and OUR Hall is transformed into a place of wonder and delight! Remember, though, that the Magnificent Six (why didn't we make it Seven?) are just the pinnacle of this enterprise and they will need lots of help from all of us to make it all work. We all wish them every success.

Lots of old photographs were displayed and many new ones taken. If anyone wants copies on paper or CD just get in touch.

 

The McWillie Diaries are on the Web! 

George McWillie farmed Cachenhead, then Midthird and then Ardgaithney and kept a diary from 1826 until 1876. Robert McWillie in Canada and the wider McWillie family have provided the transcript of the diaries and given permission for them to be included on the Botriphnie/Drummuir website. They make fascinating reading so ENJOY!

 

We have had our postal appeal for members, and we have had our postal vote to elect our first Board of Directors for the new Drummuir & Botriphnie Community Trust.

We delivered membership forms to all houses in the area (about 140) and 93 forms were returned resulting in 217 members of which 174 were adults and 43 juniors. Twenty of the adults put their names forward for election as listed below -

Gordon Stuart	Blackhall House, Drummuir, Keith. AB55 5PS.
Sue Barker	Blackhall House, Drummuir, Keith. AB55 5PS.
Andy Shipley	East Lodge, Drummuir, Keith. AB55 5JB.
Alison Shipley	East Lodge, Drummuir, Keith. AB55 5JB.
Matt Holland	Easterton Kennels, Drummuir, Keith. AB55 6QX.
Leslie Hanson	Four Trees, Drummuir, Keith. AB55 5JJ.
Suzanne Clark	Hazlewood, Drummuir, Keith. AB55 5JA.
James Baird	Loch Park Adventure Centre, Drummuir, Keith. AB55 5JX.
John Rendall	Mains of Bellyhack, Drummuir, Keith. AB55 5PT.
James Mark	Mains of Pitlurg, Keith. AB55 5PJ.
Dianne Mark	Mains of Pitlurg, Cairnie, Keith. AB55 5PJ.
James Law	Midthird, Botriphnie, Keith. AB55 5JR.
James Thain	Mossend, Botriphnie, Keith. AB55 5QB.
Richard Henderson	Station House, Drummuir, Keith. AB55 5JF.
Roger Williamson	9 Tocher Terrace, Drummuir, Keith. AB55 5JD.
Alan Cruickshank	14 Tocher Terrace, Drummuir, Keith. AB55 5JD.
Doug Cruickshank	14 Tocher Terrace, Drummuir, Keith. AB55 5JD.
Edith Cruickshank	14 Tocher Terrace, Drummuir, Keith. AB55 5JD.
Fred MacDonald	17 Tocher Terrace, Drummuir, Keith. AB55 5JD.
Ewen MacDonald	17 Tocher Terrace, Drummuir, Keith. AB55 5JD.

A voting form was delivered to each adult member, along with a stamped addressed envelope addressed to the Rev. Ranald Gauld who had agreed to act as Returning Officer. The votes were duly cast and on the evening of the 24th June Rev. Ranald Gauld, Councillor Pearl Paul and Headteacher Gillian Findlay will count the votes and announce the names of the six successful candidates.

During and after the vote counting we will be celebrating the purchase of the Hall by the Community and the election of our first Board of Directors. Everyone with any connection or interest in the area is invited (even exhorted!) to attend to join in the fun.

There will be:

Live music by the local children's Band.

Other music provided by Mr Scotson.

Bouncy Castle.

Barbeque.

Display of over 100 old photos of people and places of the area.

Sale of the new booklet about the Kirk and Cemetery.

Games.

Bottle Stall.

Raffle.

And lots and lots of FUN!

Come along and take part in this unique event so that in future years you will be able to say -

I WAS THERE!

 

	Disabled access to main hall
	Disabled toilets
	Disabled access to kitchen, balcony, etc
	Sewerage requirements

	Heating system – replace
	Toilets - redesign/refurbish
	Windows - double glaze
	Doors - improve sealing and appearance
	Carpark - improve area in front of Hall.
	Sign - 'Drummuir Village Hall' sign
	Floor - improve/replace
	Balcony area – improve/convert
	Stage - improve, replace, remove, etc
	Storage – provide more
	Kitchen – refurbish
	Ceiling - could/should it be lowered
	Extension - could extension be added
	Meeting room - decorate/modify
	Replace locks

Botriphnie Cemetery Project. Sun 18th April

The Moray Burial Ground Research Group will be conducting a Recording Day at Botriphnie Cemetery on Sunday 18th April for the purpose of recording the inscriptions on all the headstones. They will then produce a booklet of the inscriptions and on the history of Botriphnie Kirk. They expect to be on site from 10a.m. until about 5 p.m. The four aspects of the work will be as follows:

1. Site Plan - The plan for the day is to check/construct/amend the site plan, adding in any later ones.

2. Monumental Inscriptions - This team will aim to record fully the inscriptions on all the stones, including Masons Marks, etc., and to record the shape and material of the stones. They also include Mason's Blocks in their records. Any difficult stones will be cleaned, and assistance with this is always appreciated. (always, as specified by HS, using non-metallic implements). Some of the team will concentrate on the barely legible ones, and again local volunteers may be interested in this.

3. Buried Tombstones - The buried stone survey people will probably carry out a probe of the site, to trace any stones buried beneath the surface. Whether or not time will be available to commence an excavation will depend on progress with other aspects of the work, and may have to wait until a future visit.

4. Site History - The history of the church which has already been prepared will be checked against any possible surviving features on the site.

5. The eventual plan is to publish all of the inscriptions as part of the ANESFHS (Aberdeen and North East Scotland Family History Society) series of books, and the Buried stones as part of the Moray Burial Ground Research Group "Forgotten Tombstones" series. All information will also be made available to the local Heritage Group, for whatever use they wish to make of it.

If anyone would like to come along and help, please do so, but first read the following note from the Chairman of the Group -

Graveyards can be dangerous places, and each year several people are killed by collapsing gravestones. Due to this the Historic Scotland Health and Safety regulations specify that all volunteers must be over the age of 17.
To avoid any problems under a similar heading it would be better if numbers of volunteers are limited to eight. We don't feel that our team would be able to cope with any more than this on site, as we ultimately may be deemed to be responsible for all persons participating in the site work.
If there are any volunteers (and we are quite used to not getting any!!), could they either contact us through you (Dave McWilliam on 01542-810344 or dave.mcwilliam@towienet.co.uk), or by phoning Helen Mitchell on 01343 546620.
I know that this may sound a little restrictive, but, as we are doing more than just recording the MI's, our authority for such work is granted only by our strict compliance with all of the HS, CSA and Local Council regulations.

The following is an article from the Moray Burial Ground Research Group and was provided by Priscilla Gordon-Duff.

Botriphnie Expedition

A chance meeting between our own Bruce and Mrs Gordon-Duff of Drummuir, led to a carload of volunteers (Mary Macd., Helen, Bruce & myself) descending on Botriphnie to check out a selection of broken gravestones that had been found outside the cemetery wall. It was thought that they had been dumped over the wall perhaps upwards of sixty years ago. The original idea had been to build a rockery with all these fragments and advice was being sought from our Group.

Mrs Gordon-Duff very kindly gave us a guided tour of the small and tidy cemetery that contains a number of interesting looking tombstones. She informed us that the Monumental Inscriptions had never been properly recorded or published.

We were then shown a jumble of fragments, which the gardeners had laid out around a large tree, with some attempts having been made at reconstruction. We then surveyed a raised area outside the wall where these fragments had been originally found. From what could be seen, it was apparent that more fragments existed, so with the gardener's motorised assistance, several more were rescued and brought over to the main pile. One substantial slate fragment with surviving text was housed in a lean-to for further temporary protection against the elements. Quite some time was devoted to placing a number of the fragments into some sort of connected order and, on at least one of them, we were able to reconstruct the majority of the Inscription relating to a family of Suter, dating to the 18th century.

Mrs Gordon-Duff then provided a welcome cup of tea, while some discussion took place about how progress might be made on recording the M.I.'s, as well as perhaps conducting further research into the gravestone fragments.

It has now been arranged to record the M.I.'s later this year, possibly at the end of May, in readiness for the tourist season. It is envisaged that some of our members will team up with local volunteers possibly over a period of one or two visits. If you are interested in taking part, please let Helen know as soon as possible to book your place.

 

3rd April 2002. Handout at Public Meeting to discuss Community Web Site: 

What is a Web Site? - The Internet was formed by the US military's DARPA (Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency) in 1969 as a means of exchanging computer data between military research establishments and companies and universities working on military contracts. In 1971 there was just 15 computers on the Internet, but in that year email was introduced and quickly became very popular. In 1973 the Internet went International with the first overseas connections being University College, London and the Royal Radar Establishment, Norway. By 1986 the number of computers on the Internet had risen to 5,000, in 1987 it was 28,000, in 1989 it passed 100,000 and in 1990 it passed 300,000. That sounds a lot but the Internet was still very unfriendly, complicated and technical. There was no Web and no nice friendly Web Browsers. Eighty percent of all traffic on the internet was email.

Then, in 1991 the World Wide Web (WWW) was created - consisting of Web Servers holding information, and users like ourselves with Web Browsers on our PCs, all connected to and accessed via the Internet. The idea of using HyperText was developed by an Englishman called Tim Berners-Lee whilst working at CERN (the European Nuclear Physics Research Establishment in Switzerland) between 1980 and 1991. In 1992 the first graphical Browser (Mosaic) was released, and suddenly the Internet had become so user-friendly that anyone could easily use it. In that year the number of computers on the Internet topped a million.

In 1994 and 1995 respectively, Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer were introduced and the Web took off in a big way. In 1993 the number of computers passed 2 million, in 1994 it passed 3 million, in 1997 20 million, with half a million of them being Web Servers holding information that the rest could access. In mid-2000 the numbers were over 93 million computers with 20 million of them being Web Servers.

Many of these Web Sites are owned and run by businesses who have a permanent connection to the Internet. Others, however, are provided and managed by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Web Service Providers (WSPs). Running your own Web Site is a complicated and expensive business because you don't just have to provide the computers, you also have to pay for a permanent high-speed data link connecting your Web Server(s) to the Internet. The ISPs and WSPs do all that and any individual or business can put their Web onto one of the ISP/WSP Web Servers. All the individual or business has to worry about is the content of its own Web, the ISP/WSP handles everything else.

How do we create a Web Site? - When we as individuals want to get access to the Internet/Web we get a PC and a Modem and we contact an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to get an account there. The ISP gives us a telephone number to call, plus a small amount of other information that we put into our computer. Then, when we want to access the Internet for Email or Web Browsing our computer dials the ISP's telephone number and our PC makes a connection to an Access Server at the ISP. That connects our PC to the Internet and now we can send/receive email and browse the Web.

The account we have with the ISP can usually be one of three different kinds: 

	We can elect to pay nothing at all to the ISP but pay a Local Call rate (about 4p/min during the day and 1p/min during evenings and weekends) for any calls we make to the ISP's number. The ISP actually gets his money by BT giving him some small percentage of the cost of the calls. This is a good method for when you start or if you don't spend much time on the Internet.
	We can elect to pay the ISP a fixed monthly sum of, say, £8/month and for that all our evening and weekend calls to the ISP are free. If we access the Internet during the day we still have to pay at the Local Call rate. If you are connected to the ISP for more than about 13 hours per month on evenings and weekends but not much during the working days, this is a good method.
	We can elect to pay a fixed monthly sum of about £13/month and for that all our calls to the ISP are free. This method is good if you use the Internet much during the day.

Whichever sort of account we have, it usually provides one extra thing; some specified amount of disc space on the ISP's Web Server that we can use for our own Web.

My own account is with Freeserve and I pay the fixed monthly sum of £12.99 to get all my calls free. I also get 30Mb of disc space on a Freeserve Web Server and can put my own Web on it if I want. That 30Mb is very little in terms of disc space - a normal PC hard drive is 40Gb and costs about £90 so 30Mb of that accounts for just 7 pence and the ISP isn't being hugely generous! The ISP might also put a limit on how much traffic to/from your Web site will be allowed per month. The ISP is paying for a permanent connection to the Internet so it's reasonable that he should apply some control to stop you creating a very busy business Web site and use all his expensive bandwidth. Anyway, if he does impose a limit it will be so large that you're unlikely to find it a problem. 

The 30Mb allowance might not be very much in terms of disc space but it is enough to hold the entire contents of a couple of dozen paperbacks. However, text is very efficient in storage and it is large, complicated pictures that really gobble up the space. Even so, if we are reasonably sensible the 30Mb will be ample to handle our Community Web Site for a while.

I have set up the Community Web Site on my own Web space and it can stay there at no cost (I wasn't using it anyway) until we are sure the Community Web Site is going to take off and become permanent. At that point we can easily move the whole thing to a specialist Web Space Provider who will charge about £120/year for 200Mb. 

How do we specify the Site's Name? - The Web gives everything addresses called Universal Resource Locators (URLs). A URL is like -

www.drummuir.org.uk\estate.htm

The part (drummuir.org.uk) is called a Domain Name. The 'www' part is the name of the computer at that Domain Name (www is just the standard name given to a WorldWide Web server) and the (\estate.htm) is the name of the file on that Server. It is obviously vital that each address be unique so there is a central organisation for the whole worldwide Internet that dispenses Domain Names. This organisation delegates the process of selling Domain Names to many organisations around the world and we can contact any of these organisation on the Web and query the address we'd like. Such a query results in an immediate responds telling us whether the address is available and if so how much it will cost. We used http://www.domainnames.com and paid £79 to get -

	drummuir.com
	drummuir.co.uk,
	drummuir.net
	drummuir.org
	drummuir.org.uk
	drummuir.info

for two years. After that time we'll have to renew them or let them go to anyone else who wants them. In the meantime, we have cornered the market on Drummuir Domain Names! We could use any of them to be the name of our Web Site but we've chosen to use drummuir.org.uk, which is the right type of name for a community web site in the U.K.

So we've got a Domain Name (drummuir.org.uk) and we've got web space on my Freeserve account (www.towienet.fsnet.co.uk). We now need to bring the two together so that any user on the Web can specify www.drummuir.org.uk and that will take him/her to my Web space at www.towienet.fsnet.co.uk. Doing that is simple and free. We just email support@domainnames.com and ask them to make the connection. Domainnames enters the information in the Internet Domain Name Service (DNS) system, which is just a worldwide address look-up system, and that's all there is to it.

How do we create our Web? - Okay, we've got some Web space at an ISP and we've got a Domain Name that points to that Web space. Now all we have to do is create the information we want to put on our Web, and then copy it to the Web space on the ISP's Web Server.

So far it's been a bit technical but very quick and simple to do. Now the work really starts! We have to design the layout of the Web and we have to input all the text and pictures we want to put on the Web.

A Web is like a book, albeit one that can be easily changed and reorganised. Think of what it would be like to try to create a book about Drummuir with all sorts of things in it from the history of the Estate, Castle, Village and Kirk to things like Local News and old school photographs. Clearly the book could be organised in lots of different ways and could contain lots of different material so it would be pretty difficult to get it right for publishing. A Web is just like that except that we don't have to get the organisation right first time because it is relatively easy to change it later. Because of that, we've taken the decision to have a fairly simple layout to begin with and later when we see what kind of information we can garner we'll reconsider it. This leaves us free to concentrate on gathering material to put on the Web.

We have created a structure that looks like this -

Every Web Site has a Home Page that is the page that, say, www.drummuir.org.uk takes you to. You can put as much information (text and pictures) in the Home Page as you like but it is usual to keep it quite simple so that it loads quickly and then provides a number of HyperLinks to take you to the specific pages you want. Our Home Page is shown at the end of this document.

The bar at the top is a Navigation Bar. If you click on any of its entries it will take you to The Village, The Estate, etc. The rest of the page consists of a few pictures, each with a little bit of text, to give a visitor some idea of what the site is about and make them feel welcome.

So we've got the bare bones of our Web in place and now we need MATERIAL! We need people, individually and collectively, to take on the myriad tasks of identifying, researching and writing articles to put on the Web, and we need to collect and scan in photographs that tell the visual story of the area. There are countless things that are worthy of a place on the Web; fact or fiction, past or present. At the end of this article there is a list of 'interesting things' about the area, you can probably come up with many more so have a go! 

How will people find stuff on the Drummuir Web? - If we know the address of a Web Site (www.drummuir.org.uk in this case) we can just type it into the Address line of our Browser and go straight there. More likely, though, we do it by using HyperLinks or by Searching.

The thing that makes the WorldWide Web so easy to use is the use of HyperLinks. When we create a document (text or pictures) on a Web we can create HyperLinks (often called 'hotspots' or 'hotlinks'). These are just pieces of text or areas of pictures that we highlight and 'put a URL underneath' so that anyone can click on them to be taken to somewhere else. Thus, we might ask Moray District Council to put a HyperLink on their Web site pointing to www.drummuir.org.uk so that if anyone browsing the Moray Web Site wants to find out more about Drummuir they simply click on that link and are taken to our Web. We can also use HyperLinks within our Web, so if you click on 'Kirk' you will be taken to the part of our Web dealing with Botriphnie Kirk.

The other way to find stuff on the Web is to use a Search Engine. There are a number of very powerful computers on the Internet known as Search Engines. These computers spend all their time accessing the millions of Web Servers on the Internet and cataloguing everything on them. Any user on the Internet can access one or more of these Search Engines (www.google.co.uk, www.lycos.com, and dozens of others) and type in questions. The Search Engine scans through its vast catalogue and comes back with a list of all the documents it knows about containing these words. Search Engines are far from perfect because they really only look for the occurrence of individual words, not complete phrases, but nonetheless they are extremely useful.

Search Engines don't just scan all Web Servers on the Internet willy nilly. Anyone wanting their Web Site to be catalogued by a particular Search Engine must submit a request to that Search Engine to have the Web Site added to it's list of catalogued Sites. We will therefore have to submit www.drummuir.org.uk to all the main Search Engines. Even then, with so many Web Sites to catalogue it could be months before Drummuir appears on some of them. Rather than submit our details to every Search Engine individually, there are facilities available on the Web that will do most of the work for us. We will wait until we have our Web Site in an agreed 'open to the public' state before we submit it.

What will it all cost? - There are a number of costs in setting up a Web Site but fortunately we can avoid most of them. We have purchased the Drummuir Domain Names for £79 for two years. The Web is currently up on my Web Space, which I wasn't using anyway so it doesn't cost anything. Later we will probably transfer to a Web Space Provider at a cost of about £120 per year for 200Mb, which should be ample for some time to come. These costs are pretty nominal but there are two other costs that can be high. First, there is the cost of designing the Web Site layout, creating the Web structure and maintaining the Web for its operational life. Fortunately, we're doing that ourselves at present so there is no cost. Later it might be decided that a Web design company should be employed but that's in the future. Second, there is the cost of researching the material, writing the articles and obtaining/copying the photographs (making sure that all copywrite costs are met). At first at least we'll do these things ourselves but there may be costs associated with getting information from Government archives, buying books, using maps, etc. It is not yet clear (to me) whether these costs will be borne by the interested individuals or whether they should be funded centrally. One of the things we need to find out is whether a Community project will be able to access Government services without a charge.

It is clear. then, that for the foreseeable future the costs will be extremely small. If the Web fails we'll have lost very little. If it succeeds and burgeons we can then take decisions on which costly options to pursue. 

The balancing act - Pictures are great for making a Site look interesting, but they really slow things down. Notice how even the navigation bars (which are really just pictures) take a long time to download compared with text. I have put in three Photo Galleries. The 'People' gallery has just a couple of pictures (if you have any more let's have them) and it is reasonably quick to download. The 'School Photos' gallery has 15 pictures (again, more would be appreciated) and takes quite a long time to download. Finally, I dashed around Drummuir and took a bunch of pictures and created a gallery of 46 pictures, most of them in colour. It takes an age to download and demonstrates the sheer volume of data in pictures. The message is that we need to decide how we can split them up logically into a lot of smallish galleries.

Maintaining the Web Site -A Web Site needs to stay current so it needs fairly constant attention to keep it up to date. Nothing is more likely to turn people away than to find that things like current-event information is well past its sell-by date. It makes the Site look as if it has been abandoned. A site should be easy to navigate because nothing raises blood pressure like being unable to find what you want or to be led round in circles by the navigation system. Although maintaining a Web Site isn't very difficult there is a fair bit to it and it takes quite a lot of time. I would be more than happy to continue in that role but if the Committee would prefer someone else to take it on I'll give them all the help I can.

Where do we go from here? -

	We need to decide the 'theme' of the site. Basically, is the site to be something that the community create to make the area look interesting to outsiders to encourage them to visit? Or should it primarily be the folk museum, folk library, notice board and story space of the area for the benefit of those who live here and those who have some link to here? The information on the web will be essentially the same either way but the emphasis will be somewhat different.
	We need material. The first and easiest thing to get is pictures. We need everybody to have a rake through their photographic collections and find all the interesting pictures. And we need suggestions about who might be a good source of pictures and stories. Old pictures are of primary interest because there are few of them around and they are slipping away all the time. But more modern ones are also welcome because things are changing fast and local memories and events will soon be lost in the masses of official and media records. If anyone has pictures of the area and its people, bring/send them to me and I'll scan them into the computer and return the originals. All pictures may not go on the web (hopefully we'll have so many that we'll have to sift out the ones for display).  However, they can all be written to CD (a few hundred on a CD costing 25p) so that if anyone wants any pictures they can have a whole CD of them for a very small charge. Note that most old pictures will have their elements of mystery. We probably won't know the date, the place nor some of the people. When we put the pictures on the web we'll include all the information we can, then we need to encourage people to fill in the blanks. I'd also like to wander around the area and take pictures of everything and everyone so that we have a snapshot in time of Drummuir/Botriphnie. I'd like to get the buildings, the businesses, the animals and the people as they go about their everyday work. If anyone doesn't like any picture of them or theirs it can easily be totally erased. (So, if you see me snooping around with a camera, reach for the teapot, not the 12 bore!) I'll also photograph all the gravestones (does anyone know how to bring up the writing on the worn ones?), the War Memorial and the church and hall inside and out. If anyone has, or knows of, anything that should be photographed, please let me know. We also need written text about the area, and text about anything (fact or fiction) by people living in the area. This is a much bigger job since not everyone who has a story to tell will sit down and write it. Have we got any good or would-be interviewers in our midst who can chat to people and record the conversations on a tape recorder? And could we find volunteers who could audio type to get it into written form?
	We need lots of ideas for what should be on the web and what things would be attractive to outsiders.

Some Ideas: 

We have Drummuir Estate and a Botriphnie Parish but how many of us knows the geographic extent of either? The estate has undoubtedly changed size and shape over the years so how has its geography changed over the years? And what about the parish, has it always been the size and shape it is now or has it, too, waxed and waned over the years? 

The area has a long history - I remember "young" Robbie Gordon saying there was evidence of Iron Age occupation ( or maybe it was stone or bronze) up behind the Bunkhouse. Anyway, we could research the ancient history, and then the history of the parish and estate. There are many interesting facets, like who owned the Toll House at the top of Middies Brae? How were the tolls used? Who got the money? When did the current main road come into being? (I've been told that the Soor Bough, Bruntlin and over the top of the old quarry to Tambrak used to be the main road.) What is the history of the current school and its predecessor at the end of the Glass Road? I understand that the house at the Dufftown side of the School used to be a coaching inn, can we find out anything about it? The shop is now defunct but what is its history? It certainly used to be a lively place when Bob Sutherland ran it, and it even had a big post out at the front that some said was for tethering horses - although others thought it might just have been a handy obstruction to stop motorists nippin awa afore Bob Suds got their siller aff them.

The children could write down a few pages about their families. How long their family has lived here, where they came from, what their work background has been, old family photographs, the history of their house, if it's a farm, how it has evolved and its present characteristics. (A sort of local Doomsday book and associated history.) The school might be persuaded to use it as part of their projects and a full set of old school photos could be sought. Any stuff warranting further research could be carried out by interested adults. Perhaps retired people would welcome the opportunity to visit people and chew the fat of yesteryear with them - with tape recorder in attendance. People like Elsie Murphy, Norah Gordon, Jimmy Bremner and Pat McWilliam could be a mine of information. I have a friend down south who visits elderly people and writes a précis (just a couple of pages) of their life history for the benefit of their children and finds that it is very popular so that might be a way of getting stories of yesteryear.

There are many practices still within the memory of some but absolutely unthinkable to the current generations. I'm told that it isn't so very long ago that an unmarried girl getting pregnant would be escorted to the parish boundary and banished - perhaps after tarring and feathering. It is also said that there used to be a special stool in church on which unmarried mothers had to sit to show their shame. 

The castle/estate archives would probably be a fascinating source of information about the area, the area's First Family and, I suspect, many of the ordinary people who lived here. School records of who attended the school, and when, are available at Woodall House in Aberdeen - I have such records for my brothers, sisters and father - to build up an idea of population and jobs.

It's not just all history. There is much afoot at present and the recent initiatives such as the railway, Drummuir 21, etc should be documented whilst still fresh in peoples' minds. And the minutes of the various meetings could be published under a common Community heading.

Farming has changed out of all recognition in the lifetimes of the older farmers and judging by their remarks about the inaccuracy of some TV programs, videos and museums it would be a good thing to get the records set straight for practices in this area. There might even be some diaries to unearth - on the estate, perhaps? Other industries have come and gone in the area. There was the limeworks and Towiemore distillery, both now gone (has anyone got any photos of them?). There was also the smiddy, and a joiners shop at Forkins, both powered initially by water wheels on the Leanach burn. Loch Park was originally just a boggy area which one Laird drained and the next dug out to create the Loch. Are there records and photos of how it was done? Are there any old gamies/gillies around who can record the sporting days of yesteryear (did we ever shoot Capercailie here)? How did places like the limeworks come about? Its siding at Towiemore preceded the construction of the Distillery but did the limeworks precede the introduction of the railway? On the Distillery itself, it's recorded that if you added water to Towiemore whisky it effervesced. My brother often had a dram when delivering there but when asked he said there was no room for water in the tumbler when you got the drink and no inclination to worry about it afterwards!

It would be fascinating to know how the area was run in the past. We tend to think of the Laird as simply the boss who manipulated everyone in his realm but by all accounts this area was extremely lucky in that successive Lairds had a strong sense of responsibility to the people. Any information showing the estate from the solitary view of the Laird would be enlightening to say the least.

The church is very old but what of its history? And there is the now-defunct Free Church of which Hazlewood was the manse. It would be interesting to have a profile of each of the ministers of the church. Likewise with the school where a profile of the teachers over the years would probably strike many chords.

The War Memorial has the names of the fallen but I wonder whether we could find out a little more about each of them. And there's the others who went to war but survived. We could perhaps construct a Roll of Honour identifying the people and perhaps their exploits. The old Laird's military career (and the family's military background) would be of interest but so, too, would that of the ordinary men and women.

Where did Drummuir estate originally come from? Did someone simply buy up bits of land or was it gifted in some way. Presumably Drummuir Estate was just one of a contiguous patchwork of Estates so what were the adjoining ones over the years? Did Drummuir feature among the Improving Lairds?

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