A Scottish girl who migrated to Australia when only about 15yrs with her parents. She grew up in a classic Scottish 2 story cottage with low small doors. As her father work on an estate, the family enjoyed home help with domestic servants. 

Wormit Farm House 2008

Wormit Farm House 2008

Wormit Farm House 1984

        Circa 1780-1800 farmhouse and detached now (2008) largely L-plan steading. 2-storey, 3-bay, rectangular-plan farmhouse with further single storey and attic bay and mid-later 19th century 2-stage, distinctive conical-roofed rear tower housing rare water closet. Single storey porch with cornice and stepped blocking course; attached ancillary structures including gabled dairy. Whitewashed rubble and harl with droved and stugged ashlar quoins; eaves course; some raised margins and cills; tower of harled red brick with mutuled cornice.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION: symmetrical principal elevation to S with widely-spaced bays, porch at centre with window to S and door on return to right. Set back bay to right raised in brick with piended dormer window. Rear elevation to N with tower breaking eaves at centre. 

ANCILLARIES: small single storey, gabled dairy projecting from rear elevation of E wing of farmhouse with single storey piended range immediately to E and further 4-bay piended wing at SE. Both piended ranges with corrugated roofs.

Timber sash and case windows, predominantly 12-pane (all boarded up at time of site visit). Graded slates to farmhouse. Ashlar coped skews, coped ashlar gablehead stacks with polygonal cans.

INTERIOR: good interior with original room plan largely in evidence. Low ceilings, panelled shutters, deep ingoes, simple cornices to ground floor principal rooms. 6-panel and boarded timber doors.
Flagstones at entrance. Room to rear leads to tower press lined with boarded timber and timber shelves. Semicircular timber stair. 1st floor bedrooms with simple painted timber fire surrounds, one with cast iron horseshoe fireplace, the other boarded up. Room to rear leads to tower water closet encased in timber (possibly valve closet type) with boarded timber interior with tiny circular earthenware washhand basin. Kitchen with tall boarded timber dado, flagstone floor and later small range. Leads to flagstoned dairy/larder with slate shelf and timber shelf above and probable laundry with evidence of base of copper boiler.

BOUNDARY WALLS: to South, some remaining sections of high rubble wall to former orchard.

STEADING: larger complex of agricultural buildings now truncated to form predominantly L-plan survival with good cartshed and granary range. 

CARTSHED AND GRANARY: rubble with some tooled ashlar margins. Some openings blocked. 4 segmental cart openings to (E) courtyard elevation. W elevation with small eaves openings with sliding boarded timber panels with fixed glazed panes above. Slate roof, piended to N. 

FURTHER RANGE: wide gabled elevation with blocked openings to courtyard (N) elevation. S elevation set into sloping ground with gables with loft openings flanking circa 1900 gabled projecting wing.

An important early farmhouse with an unusual tower water closet addition to the rear and a good cartshed and granary range.

North East Fife has a particularly rich arable agricultural heritage and its post-Improvement period farms form a major part of the area's architectural and landscape character.

Probably dating to around 1780-1800 Wormit Farmhouse survives largely externally unaltered with its widely spaced bays, windows set close to the eaves and traditional glazing pattern. The distinctive tower to the rear with its careful detailing is unusual and the water closet it houses is a particularly rare survival. It is likely that this was added some time in the mid to late 19th century and it appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1893-5.

The interior layout of the farmhouse retains its traditional plan and, as a consequence, much of its character. It is unusual to find the survival of the demarcation between the working and polite areas of the farmhouse so clearly indicated. At Wormit, the working areas have boarded timber doors and flagstoned floors as well as some boarded timber dados, whereas the polite areas have timber floors and timber panelled doors. The dairy/larder and laundry rooms were vital ancillary rooms which add to the interest and understanding of the farmhouse.

Ordnance Survey maps show that the farm buildings were once considerably more extensive and formed a near-complete quadrangle complex which included a horse mill. Although much of this does not survive, the remaining structures include a particularly fine cartshed and granary range.

An orchard was located to the south of the farmhouse and some fruit trees remain along with some sections of high rubble wall. 

More images of Wormit Farm click on this link

        But this is a cold part of the world and the family left to seek opportunity and a healthier warmer climate. Before coming to Australia Isa knew nothing of house work. She lived with her parents and siblings  as they moved around. Eventually settling in Koonwarra for while.. It was here she met onion farmer Harry Prosser, and the rest is history so to speak. After she married, home was to be just a large canvas tent in the open. Harry and Isa started there married on rented land, onion farming near Koonwarrra, Victoria. 

Her first child Charlie was born in this tent during the night with the help of her mother in law who was an experienced midwife. Eventually they moved to a proper wooden house at Black Wood Forrest and continued to try and grow onions. Rainfall and damp ground made this task difficult and was abandoned. An ever increasing family (10 children) kept Isa busy and was to reward her with a long life of family gatherings and visits. The early 1930's saw them move to Krowera where they purchased a dairy farm. The Great depression saw them lose this farm as prices for cream tumbled.

        A visit to grandma was always rewarded with the latest news and story's from a spreading family. Although she never lost her Scottish accent it was as strong as many and was always pleasing to listen to with Australian ears. She kept us in touch with each other and a sense of belonging that greatly missed. As a small child I always loved visiting her as she had on her shelves and walls ornaments that seemed wonderfully strange and exotic, things not seen in the normal domestic life. This included birds and especially talking Cockatoo's who greeted you as you entered the house with "Hello Polly". I hope that one day I can create such a world my grandchildren can visit.

Born Ravenscraig Villas, Wormit. Forgan

        Forgan parish extends 4 miles in length by 2 in breadth, lying near the mouth of the Tay; having Ferryport-on-Craig on the east, Leuchars & Kilmany on the south and Balmerino on the west. The land generally declines to the Tay from an elevated background, and is now well cultivated, enclosed and beautifully wooded. On the shore is Newport where there is a small harbor and ferry station opposite to Dundee. Recently some handsome villas have been erected on the slopes to the river, and a new road cut to Ferryport-on-Craig. Forgan has a constant communication maintained with the Dundee side by ferry. The Kirk of Forgan, which is situate inland, is about 10 miles from Cupar and the like distance from St Andrews. About one mile west from Newport is the small harbor of Woodhaven ." from Slater's Directory, published 1852.

Forgan parish is an agricultural parish on the south shore of the River Tay opposite Dundee. It has been the site of a ferry across the river for several hundred years. The village of Newport grew up around the ferry terminal. In the 1820s, the introduction of a steam ferry led to the building of Marytown, an extension of Newport. The town grew steadily during Victorian times. The building of the Tay (railway) bridge at Wormit saw the growth of that part of the parish as a commuter suburb for the middle classes of Dundee while Newport also expanded with similar housing. The burgh was created in 1887 and Wormit was added to it in 1902. Wormit was the first village in Scotland to have electric light in its houses.

Settlements:
--Newport
--Woodhaven
--Wormit 

Wormit.
A settlement on the Firth of Tay in NE Fife, situated at the southern end of the Tay Rail Bridge and lying at the western end of the Newport-on-Tay urban area.
It developed as a Dundee commuter settlement after the opening of the Tay Bridge in 1887. Wormit, which claims to have been the first village in Scotland to install electricity, has a bowling club and a boating club.

Wormit Farm is seen below, centre bottom Quarter. Between Naughton Rd and the Railway line

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Isa's Aunt Margaret Kinnear died in great Scottish rail disaster

The Tay bridge disaster
At approximately 7:15 p.m. on the stormy night of 28 December 1879, the central navigation spans of the Tay bridge collapsed into the Firth of Tay at Dundee, taking with them a train, 6 carriages and 75 souls to their fate. At the time, a gale estimated at force 10 to 11 was blowing down the Tay estuary at right angles to the bridge. The collapse of the bridge, only opened 19 months and passed safe by the Board of Trade, sent shock waves through the Victorian engineering profession and general public.