Glenbuchat Heritage

15 Bank House Bellabeg and girl

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Town and County Bank Bellabeg
The Town and County Bank formed as Aberdeen Town and County Banking in 1825 and represented one of two native banks in Aberdeen; the other being the North of Scotland formed in 1836. In 1863 the Town and County bank was installed in new premises featuring Classical Roman architecture at a cost of £14,000.

Bellabeg Town and County Bank - Listed building
The early bank house is a substantial, well detailed Victorian villa, uncommon in design for this area. The shop appears on the 2nd edition Ordnance Survey map. Situated at the centre of Bellabeg Village, the former Clydesdale Bank, Bank House and Shop have been at the hub of both village and glen life for generations. It is distinguished by its prominent corner siting, castellated porch and distinctive decorative stacks. Although the bank itself closed last year, the adjacent shop and post office, the last in Strathdon, remains open (2006). Groome, writing at the latter end of the 19th century, mentions a branch of the Town and County Bank.

Residence of Town and County Bank

Name Charles A Wilkie
Residence Date 1973
Street Address Bank House, Bellabeg

Name George Mackie
Residence Date 1960
Street Address Bank House, Bellabeg

Name Alexander Emslie
Residence Date 1955
Street Address Bank House, Bellabeg

Name Isabella Donald Grant
Residence Date 1938
Street Address Bank House, Bellabeg

Name Charles Craigmile
Residence Date 1930
Street Address Bank House, Bellabeg

Name Charles Craigmile
Residence Date 1927
Street Address Bank House, Bellabeg

Name George Todd
Residence Date 1923
Street Address Bank House, Bellabeg

Details of Bill Todd, whose father worked in the Town and County Bank Bellabeg

Bill Todd’s father was George Todd. Bill was born in 1920 to George and Veda (nee Mary Eliza Veda Watt) Todd in the rooms above the bank at Bellabeg. George was the son of Mr Adam Todd Netherhills, Crathes. Veda was the daughter of William Watt, the minister at Strathdon since 1881. George and Veda had two sons Bill and Jack. Bill became a doctor and eventually was a GP in Kemnay and Jack was a pilot in the fleet air arm in the war. The family moved to Rothienorman about 1923

George, Bill’s father, had had a leg amputated as a child. Apparently, he fell in front of a reaper and the leg was very badly damaged. The leg was removed by Professor Ogston who travelled out from Aberdeen and carried out the amputation at his home. Professor Ogston was appointed as Regius Professor of Surgery in 1882 and was also famous for his discovery of Staphylococcus bacteria. In 1892, Queen Victoria appointed him Surgeon in Ordinary, a post he also held under King Edward VII and King George V. He was appointed Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1912.

As a result of his disability George was unable to undertake manual labour so he was put to work in a bank and he came to Bellabeg as the clerk in the bank beside the shop, and lived above the bank. Bill Todd recalled that George often had problems with his stump due to heat, sweat and chafing. He fashioned his own prosthetic leg and designed a bellows contraption at the top which cushioned pressure on his stump but also drew in air to ventilate it.

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