Highclere

Highclere Castle is a country house in Hampshire, best-known today as the set for the drama 'Downtown Abbey'. In 1838, the 3rd Earl of Carnarvon commissioned architect Charles Barry (who was also working on the Houses of Parliament at the time) to transform the Georgian House he had inherited at Highclere into a spectacular Italianate Castle. The work was carried out during the 1840s.

However, there is also a 'Highclere' in Lundin Links at 25 Hillhead Lane. The story of how this house got its distinctive name starts with Andrew Peebles, who was born in Lundin Mill in 1836 to James Peebles and Mary Grieve. Like most of their Emsdorf Street neighbours, the whole family were linen hand loom weavers. In the census of 1851, 14-year-old Andrew was described as a weaver, as were his two older sisters and his 12-year-old brother - just like their father.

However, hand loom weaving was on the decline and before long all the Peebles children had found alternative employment. Andrew - described as a "strapping youth" - found employment with the factor's office of the Largo Estate. This was in the days of Lady Dundas (Lillias Calderwood Durham, wife of Robert Dundas). By the 1861 census, Andrew was working as a forester on the Arniston estate in Midlothian which was also owned by Lady Dundas. The move to Arniston was one made by several Largo folk including gardener Colin McTaggart and William Tivendale who was also a forester, a former weaver and a cousin of Andrew Peebles. 

By 1871, Andrew had made the move to Highclere in Hampshire and was residing at Pen Wood Lodge on the estate with his wife Phoebe, their one-year-old daughter Margaret and an 18-year-old servant named Mary Methven (who was in fact a former neighbour from Lundin Mill).  The family grew and remained at Highclere for several years, with Andrew working as estate steward for the Earl of Carnarvon. The above article written for the Berkshire Chronicle of 10 Dec 1870 and the piece below from the Reading Mercury of 20 Nov 1875 show that Andrew had specialist knowledge of trees.

Towards the end of the 1870s Andrew secured a new job as 'estate agent' at Albury near Guildford in Surrey. Here he would remain for three decades as agent to the Duke of Northumberland. During his time at Albury, Andrew took great interest in the welfare of the Parish. He quickly became involved in many aspects of local life such that "there was hardly a society of body with which he had not been connected". Among the offices he held were chair of the Parish Council, chairman of the football club and captain of the Fire Brigade. He also was one of the founders of Guildford Golf Club. By 1901, while Andrew was still Estate Agent, three of his children were working as 'Assistant Estate Agents'.

As he grew older, Andrew began to plan ahead for retirement and bought several properties back in his native Lundin Links during the 1880s and 1890s. Upon finally leaving Albury in early 1908 he was presented with, along other things, "a service of plates and a purse containing twenty guineas" and a clock designed by the Duke of Northumberland himself (see clipping from The Globe 10 Feb 1908 above). Andrew finally returned to his native Lundin Links (which had changed greatly during his half century away) and settled at 'Highclere' on Hillhead Lane (shown in the centre of the map below and in the photo at the foot of this post). The location chosen as it was adjacent to Ivy Cottage on Emsdorf Street where his daughter Annie was living. The choice of house name presumably reflecting his fondness of picturesque estate where he started his family as a young man.

Andrew quickly became active in local life ranging from golf, to the local brass band, to local politics. However, by 1911 Andrew's health began to fail and in the summer of 1912 he travelled to St Alban's to visit family and for a change of air. While there he passed away, surrounded by his wife and several of his children, aged 75. His funeral, held in St Alban's, was conducted by son-in-law Rev. Algernon Samuel Farnfield. A century later, the name of Highclere lives on in Lundin Links.