15 Albany Street
1901 - 1936 Martha Hay Rollo
1936 - 1946 William Charles Wordsworth, 11th Lord Rollo
1946 – 1974 Rosalind Rollo
When the house was built in 1806 it was bought by the Rollo family and they lived here until 1846. It was then leased to various residents until 1901, when Martha Hay Rollo moved in. Martha was the only daughter of John Rollo and Jane Hay (neé Paterson). She may have come to live in Albany Street as her parent’s house, Rodney Lodge, a pleasant villa on the river at Perth, had been demolished to make way for the new Victoria Bridge. For many years her father had been in prolonged litigation over the Council’s compulsory purchase order to demolish the property. When he lost, realising that the compulsory order only applied to those parts of Rodney Lodge which stood directly on the line of the bridge, the enraged Rollo took revenge by leaving the ruined gables of his house standing on either side of the parapets, where they stood for many years after the bridge was completed.
In 1919, Martha Rollo presented to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland a Lambeth Delft Ware cup that she had found in the back green of Number 15 in 1918, at a depth of 4 feet below the surface. In 1934, she donated an 1806 cookbook, John Simpson’s A Complete System of Cookery to the Perth library in memory of her father. Although works dealing with the kitchen were already published, Simpson, at the time of publication cook to the Marquis of Buckingham, claimed that his work was on a new plan as not only was the bill of fare (menu) set out for each day of the year, but he also only included dishes which he himself had put into practice. Following Martha’s death in 1936, William Charles Wordsworth Rollo, 11th Lord Rollo, (photo) took over the house. He was a Justice of the Peace, Captain of the Royal County Archers, and Lieutenant-Colonel and Honour Colonel of the 3rd Battalion Black Watch. He was made a Companion, Order of the Bath (C.B.) in 1911. He and his wife, Mary (neé Hotham), who had died in 1929, had just one child, Rosalind. Following William’s death in 1946, at the age of 86, the house passed to her.
Like her mother, Rosalind had an interest in antiquities. She became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and presented the National Museum of Scotland with a Roman-Iron Age Finger Ring that her mother had found at the Rollo’s country seat of Duncrub House, at Dunning in Perthshire. [The house was demolished in 1950] The Museum’s information states: ‘It was found some time before 1910 by Miss Martha Rollo on her family's estate, Duncrub, Dunning parish, Perthshire, during desultory investigations with an umbrella into a mound at Tarnavie. The east end of this feature is stressed as the most likely find-spot by Miss Rosalind Rollo, into whose keeping the ring subsequently fell; despite the local names of 'Ship' and 'Serpent' mound, there is no reason to suspect artificial construction. The ring measures approximately 2-3 cm in diameter across the hoop, and its bronze seems in good condition with clear signs of wear along the internal arc of the hoop.’
Rosalind Rollo was a keen golfer and is seen here at Gleneagles (far left) in a photograph from The Tatler magazine in 1930, with Percy Edward Thellusson- 7th Baron Rendlesham, and three other unidentified individuals.In the 1930s, she is noted as being a Division Commander of the Perth Girl Guides. Betty (Hutchison) Taylor, a local girl, recounted Rosalind’s role: ‘We met in the Church Hall on the Perth Road. Miss Rosalind Rollo from Duncrub and Miss Lily Shearer took the Guides and Miss Frances Young (later Mrs. Harding) took Brownies. My earliest recollection of Brownies was doing my bed making badge down at Duncrub (the huge home of Dunning's laird, Lord Rollo). Miss Rollo took us down and we went along what seemed to be very long corridors before we came to a room in which we did our bed making. I seem to recollect I did pass.'Rosalind died in 1974.
Property was empty until 1977
1977 - at least 1980 Bradford Pennine Insurance Company