NewboldHouse.org
Title
Newbold House - workshop & retreat centre in Scotland
Description
NewBold’s history dates back to 1893 when the house was designed and built (over several years) for the Woodcock family. Colonel Woodcock was a retired Officer who had served in India and subsequently made his fortune trading tea. Settling here with his wife, they were apparently much in absence and the House and Gardens were kept by a large team of servants, including 8 full-time gardeners, who tended the 7 acres that comprise the estate. The Woodcocks were childless and, in time, sold the house to a Mr. Sommerville, who worked for the P&O shipping company. Mr. Sommerville and his wife also had no children and when the House was requisitioned during World War II, Mrs. Sommerville had another house - 'Kedah' - built further down St. Leonard’s Rd. After the war the House fell empty for some while until it was acquired in 1959 by Mr. Donaldson, a retired policeman from Keith who bought the property for £3,000 (the same as the original building cost!). The House became a Hotel and the billiard room (now the Art Room) was converted into a bar.
In the 70s the Hotel fell on hard times and, on May 3rd 1979, the Findhorn Foundation began renting it as an additional workshop space. Cally and Harley Miller and three others moved in from Cluny. The plan was for the Foundation to use the workshop rooms in the summer and have the House Group caretake the property over the winter. By the end of the year the situation had developed such that the House Group felt sufficiently confident to take on the rental responsibility and on November 17th declared themselves an independent organisation. In 1982 a separate Charitable Trust was set up. The Donaldsons who now lived at the Lodge House had been the landlords but in the spring of ‘82, they sold the House to the Trust for £85,000 - the purchase was completed on May 8th.
In 1980, the House began to run its economy according to a system of donations which proved highly successful and offered a persuasive alternative to accepted business practices. Buoyed up by the generosity of its guests, NewBold was paid off within ten years and has been self-managed since its origins as an off-shoot of the Foundation. It has been through many phases and incarnations, receiving invaluable commitment from a range of residents who stepped in to help guide and shape its growth. Cally and Harley, Kajedo, Ulrike, Deborah, Helmut, Helgalena and Kevin, Simon and Tom, Myrta and Ramon, all played their unique transforming roles in bringing NewBold to its present self.
