History of the Dr Spence Memorial Hall

The very front part of the building we know today as the Dr Spence Memorial Hall was originally the Hamilton Hall and it dates back to the 1850s. It was probably thatched and served many purposes – as a school room, a Sunday School room, and by the local Udny community for recreational purposes. Apparently, it had a stage at one end and a piano at the other.

The hall was gifted to Udny Green Church in 1914 by Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Udny-Hamilton of Udny Castle, the 11th Lord Belhaven & Stenton. The Church Session accepted this gift with the intention of extending it into something bigger. The family of Dr Alexander Spence, a long-serving minister of Udny (1876-1923) donated funds in the 1930’s, in memory of Dr Spence, towards the construction of an extended hall – the current building we see today. This new hall, the Dr Spence Memorial Hall, was built on land donated by Udny Castle “ to be used in all times coming as a hall, with appropriate offices, for the use and purposes of the surrounding district”.

This new, extended hall, the Dr Spence Memorial Hall, cost the then substantial sum of £3,230 to build and more than half of this was given by the Spence family. It was opened on the 29th September 1937 by the Marquis of Aberdeen, the Lord Lieutenant of the County.

It was quite new when soldiers evacuated from Dunkirk in 1940 were billeted there and, apparently, nearly burnt the place down when they overstocked the fire. People, so we are told, came running from neighbouring fields as they saw smoke pouring out of the hall’s chimney, to save their new hall.