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Scottish Record Office Number: 226 Churches: St Machar, Bucksburn (Scottish Episcopal)
Cemeteries: list available from the Aberdeen & NE Scotland FHS Old Parish Register Availabilty:
[edit] Origin"The name of Newhills was given to this place when it was made the head of a separate parish; the name of Keppelhills, by which it had before been called, being changed in order to commemorate the new character it then assumed. Before its erection into a parish, the district formed part of the extensive parish of Old Machar, or St. Machar, whose church was in the town of Old Aberdeen; and it was impossible for the inhabitants, so remotely situated, to attend regularly at the church. This circumstance induced Mr. George Davidson, of Pettens, a burgess of Aberdeen, to assign the lands of Keppelhills, which he had purchased of the town of Aberdeen, as a permanent endowment for a regular clergyman. Upon this estate, consisting of 880 acres, he caused a church to be erected in the year 1663; and in 1666 the trustees, after his death, applied to the Lords Commissioners for planting churches, for the erection of the district into a parish, which application, being supported by the general voice, was successful. Since this period Newhills has enjoyed all the rights and privileges common to parishes in Scotland." From A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland by Samuel Lewis (1851) as provided online by GENUKI. [edit] Geography and economyNewhills is about 5 miles northwest from the centre of Aberdeen. The parish is about 6 miles in length and 5 in width. It is boundeed on the north by the parishes of Dyce and Kinellar, on the south by the parishes of Peterculter and Banchory-Devenick, on the southeast by Old Machar, on the east by the river Don and on the west by the parish of Skene. The best agricultural land is in the northeast, the rest is hilly and covered with wood or heath and stones. Due to the proximity of Aberdeen, dairying is the commonest agricultural pursuit. Paper manufacture was carried on in the 19th century. There were also mills producing cloth (worsted), grain and flour, snuff, and a brewery. Modern gazetteers do not comment. Villages within the parish include Auchmill (or Auchmull), Bankhead, Greenburn, Stoneywood and Woodend. Estates included Cloghill, Fairlee (or Fairlie), Hazlehead and Kingswells. The original school, from the late 1600s, was at Keppelhills. Others were established later. F. H. Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland of 1882-4 (made available online by the Gazetteer for Scotland) provides a great many statistics on the parish economy and welfare. [edit] CommunicationThe main A96 road crosses the parish from southeast to northwest toward Inverurie, and the A947 spurs off to the north to Dyce and beyond. These modern roads were based on earlier toll roads. A railway line (formerly the Great North of Scotland) parallels the A96 toward Inverurie with a station at Bucksburn (once spelled Buxburn). [edit] History of GovernanceNewhills was a parish, both ecclesiastical and civil, in the county of Aberdeenshire from its foundation in 1663 until 1975. In 1975 Aberdeenshire was merged into the Grampian Region. In 1996 a second reorganization of Scottish local government resulted in Grampian Region being split into 5 unitary council authorities including the City of Aberdeen and the Aberdeenshire Council Area which comprises the central and southern part of what had been the county of Aberdeenshire. Since 1996 the parish of Newhills has been part of City of Aberdeen unitary authority, but some of its neighbouring parishes are in the Aberdeenshire Council Area. [edit] Population Growth
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