NEWMACHAR  or  NEW  MACHAR

(or  SUMMERHILL) ? 

Most of the area now represented by the Community Council is coterminous with the original parish created in 1609.  The territory was taken from the much larger parish centred on the Cathedral of St Machar.  Hence the new parish was called Upper Parochin of St Machar or Upper Machar or New Machar.  This last version became the standard usage.

            The two-word version remains the correct name for the whole Community Council area and parish.  Hence the full and correct name for the Community Council is ‘Parish of New Machar Community Council’, the Church is the ‘Church of New Machar’, and the School ‘New Machar School’.  As early as 1696, however, for convenience of writing or speaking, people had begun to run the two words together and ‘Newmachar’ became common though never official.

            The village at the centre of the parish was known as ‘Summerhill’ but the postal authorities found that confusion could arise between Summerhill in New Machar and Summerhill, a part of Aberdeen.  In 1928, therefore, the name Summerhill was dropped and the village took the name of the railway station, Newmachar.  Strictly speaking, therefore, the village is ‘Newmachar’ and the wider area ‘New Machar’. In practice, the distinction is not carefully observed and the Community Council, for example, is generally known as ‘Newmachar Community Council’ although the Church and School try to maintain the correct name.

            People from outwith the area seem to find great difficulty in spelling either version of the name and tend to put in a second ‘e’.