Hopeman streets are first documented in the Hopeman Estates Book No 1 with dates starting from 1806 containing the separate entry listings for the residents who occupied the houses ‘Rental of the Village of Hopeman’ and who owned the land ‘Rental of crop for Inverurie’

Below we are looking at the rental of the village which mainly consisted of fishermen, mason’s, and other associated trades.

 1806 – Dunbar Street – named after James Dunbar previously in Plewlands a farm to the east.

1806 – Petrie Street  – named after Alexander Petrie and the original name for Coal Row / McPherson Street.

1807 – Farquhar Street – named after  John & William Farquhar (shoemakers)

1807 – Forsyth Street – named after  George Forsyth who lived up Inverugie Road

1808 – Thom Street – named after Alexander Thom (mason)

1810 – Shore Street – original name of what is now called Sea Park or Peepy Street.

1811 – Young Street – This street was either named after named after William Young (slater) or perhaps William Young whoowned the village. It is not known exactly what street this was but as all the others are located in the ‘Auld Toon’ it may well have been in the area of Mid Street which is still all very mixed up. 

It has been passed down through the generations that there was another street planned for the auld toon and that was between Mid Street and Dunbar Street.  The road was to run from a gap site in Harbour Street, which had a house built on it during the 1980s, through the ‘Ligh’ towards the school.

Later and during the 1850s there was another significant change to the village when Thomas Hutcheon, a civil engineer and land surveyor prepared a plan to develop the area to the west of Harbour Street. The plan was for a grid of streets bounded by Drummuir Street to the North and Cooper Street to the South. The present day Hutcheon, New, Gordon and Park streets are all part of the ‘New Toon’.

Hutcheon Street – Named after the above land surveyor – Thomas Hutcheon.

Drummuir/Duff Street – Drummuir Street ran west from Harbour Street to New street with houses on the south side only. On the North side there was another road called Duff Street which ran from New street to the briggie but running alongside the houses. This road has now disappeared and is part of the property gardens. 

New Street – On some of the older maps this is called Duff Street and may have been a continuation of the Duff Street mentioned above.

As we research the history of the village certain dates crop up where changes have been made. Above we noted that Thomas Hutcheon prepared a plan for the ‘New Toon’ to the west of Harbour street during the 1850s.  The section on the Ice House highlights that it was most probably built during the early 1850s and the section on the Bruce family highlights that during 1851 the Mill building (the Mull) on Harbour Street was built and the remains of the wooden structure which had carried William Young’s gravity railway from Dan Ralphs shop (next to the bridge) to Rock House (now called Rockola) was removed and replaced by the present earthen embankment which fronted the Mull and carried down on to the harbour. This was also the period when auld Dod Slater built a block of four houses – Teenie Ann’s; Betsie’s; Janet Slaters & Wullickie Bettie, down Harbour Street with the last two being No 1 and 3 Peepy Street and the levels of these houses were set to suit the level of the new road to the harbour. This block was initially occupied by the Slater’s and it would appear that the bridge, ice house, embankment road and the new road down to the pier along with the houses were all built at the same time during the early 1850s.