Old Letham, Guthrie and Friockheim

Old Letham, Guthrie and Friockheim Synopsis

Three wee places off the beaten track in the county of Angus. Letham is a planned village built to a grid pattern in the late 18th century by "Honest" George Dempster as a new centre of the linen industry in a bid to offer affordable housing and stem emigration to the New World. The village, its social history and its environs were comprehensively and beautifully photographed by Will Forbes in the early 20th century and some of his work is included in this book. Friockheim similarly was another planned new linen industry village. Guthrie is the smallest of these settlements, the lands being named after the 15th century Sir David Guthrie, but is in the title of the book because the author has the same name! The book also includes Glasterlaw and Kinnell.