Aberdeenshire HER - NJ93SE0002 - ST MARY'S CHURCH, ELLON

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Period Details

PeriodOrderProbabilityRadiocarbon DatesDate BuiltDate of DestructionDate of Loss
Medieval (1100 - 1560 AD) A100    
Post-Medieval (from 1560 AD) B100    
18th Century C100    
19th Century D100    
Modern (1900 - 2050) E100    

Period Notes

Period Notes Earlier church mainly pulled down 1776-7 to make way for present church; repairs 1828-9; organ chamber built 1884; renovated 1876; apse added 1884; alterations 1907; conversion of organ chamber 1967-8; bell dated 1828.

Architect Details

Architect Details George Clerihew, builder 1828; George Marr, architect 1876; George Marr & William Davidson, architects 1884; Kelly & Nicol, architectural practice 1907; conversion of organ chamber by H G West & Associates; bell by Baird & Wallace. George Marr began practice as an architect and civil engineer at Campbell of Udny from 1855, concentrating almost exclusively on school and farm work. The practice moved to Ellon in the mid-1860s and became G & G Marr in 1872. In the summer of 1878, Marr was taken into partnership by the Aberdeen architect and civil engineer George Gordon Jenkins. Throughout their early careers, the work of Jenkins & Marr was of a simple and strictly practical nature, but with Mannofield Church (1882), for which an experienced assistant was probably brought into the practice, it moved to a rather higher plane. In the earlier 1880s Jenkins & Marr formed a loose partnership with William Davidson of Ellon, which lasted at least until the late 1890s. Marr died intestate on 3 October 1899. He does not appear to have been married. In Marr's obituary it is reported that he had a 'special acquaintance with designing papermills'. William Davidson was a native of Ellon in Aberdeenshire. He formed a loose partnership with George Marr in the earlier 1880s which lasted until at least the late 1890s. William Kelly was born in Aberdeen on 22 December 1861, the son of Francis Bonnyman Kelly, a tailor and outfitter, and his wife Jane Tough, daughter of James Tough, tenant farmer at Mains of Drum. He was educated at William Rattray's School in North Silver Street and attended King's College 1876-78, principally to study mathematics and natural philosophy. In May 1878 he was articled to William and John Smith and on the completion of his articles in May 1883 he sought wider experience in London, William Smith's open reference describing him as having 'gentlemanly manners' and being 'steady diligent and obliging'; he was also an 'exceptionally good draughtsman'. Of the several offices Kelly worked in while in London, only John James Stevenson's has been identified. In 1885 he made a study tour of the French chateaux and visited Spain and Holland. He returned to commence independent practice in Belmont Street in 1886 and, following John Smith's death on 11 April 1887, declining health induced William Smith to invite Kelly to become his partner. The partnership was dissolved late in 1890 or early 1891, probably because of Smith's failing health, as the firm name was retained. In 1893 Kelly married Mary, eldest daughter of George Carmichael, bank agent in Aberdeen, thus becoming the brother-in-law of the architects Charles and Duncan Carmichael. In 1896 Kelly had an important competition win when John James Burnet selected him as architect of Aberdeen Savings Bank, the business of which he retained thereafter. In 1902 Kelly took into partnership his chief assistant James Brown Nicol. Nicol was born c.1867 and was articled to Alexander Marshall Mackenzie from 1883 to 1888, where he worked under the supervision of the ablest of Mackenzie's assistants, Alexander Mackintosh. In 1889 after a further year in Mackenzie's office he moved to Edinburgh to gain wider experience first with James Bow Dunn in 1889-90 and then with Sydney Mitchell & Wilson as chief assistant from 1890 until 1891 when he returned to Aberdeen initially as Kelly's chief assistant. Some years after he became a partner, Nicol published 'Domestic Architecture in Scotland', a survey of contemporary work, in 1908. Kelly was elected ARSA in 1911 and had the degree of LLD conferred upon him by the Unversity of Aberdeen in 1919, mainly in recognition of his work at King's College Chapel. He retired from the practice in 1928, but remained consultant architect to Viscount and Lady Cowdray, doing much work on the Dunecht estate and consolidating and partly restoring Dunottar Castle in association with his lifelong friend the historian and antiquary Dr W Douglas Simpson. Simpson described him as 'endowed with commanding height, a fine leonic head and a rich resonant voice… His tall figure and rapid walk made him noticeable among Aberdonians of his time. Men with shorter legs found it trying to come down Albyn Place with him in the morning'. He was active in 'choral singing' and 'a good player of both piano and organ, always reading from the old-fashioned tonic sol-fa system and scarcely ever from the conventional staff notation' but his main interests were antiquarian. Some of his relatively few papers were published by Simpson as a tribute to him from the University of Aberdeen after his death in 1944. The practice was continued by Nicol after Kelly's retirement. Nicol was an early contributor to the transactions of the Aberdeen Ecclesiological Society, having been enthused by the Rev Dr Cooper, proponent of that society. He furthered the interests of his fellow-architects as President of the Aberdeen Society of Architects from 1925 to 1926 and as a member of the RIAS Council. For many years as Governor of Robert Gordon's College he was Chairman of the Arts & Crafts Committee which controlled the School of Architecture. Nicol retired from practice in May 1952 and was killed in an accident on the Aberdeen-Ellon road on 25 January the following year. He was survived by his wife, three sons and two daughters.