Anecdotes and Updates 1882-1982 - Virden Centennial ... - Manitobia

1974 when the stone house on the Clifford 1. Goodridge farm onemile northeast of Virden was demolished.The historic old house was built in 1881 for Lord Elphinstone,a Scottish nobleman who visited the Elphinstone area in 1879 andfell in love with this country. He returned the next year to start acattle and sheep ranch north of Newdale on a thirteen-section landgrant from Queen Victoria for whom he was Lord-in-Waiting. Thepost where he picked up his mail was renamed Elphinstone in hishonor.He also had a four-section horse ranch at Virden on which hebuilt a manor house of fieldstone in 1881. The architecture, it wassaid, was inspired by Carberry Tower, the Elphinstone ancestralhome at Musselburgh, near Edinburgh, Scotland.Sidney Herbert was the second of three sons of the fifteenthLord Elphinstone. He was educated at Marlborough, completedhis education in France, Germany and Spain, and later travelled insearch of sport and adventure to "lesser known parts of theworld", of which Virden was one. In 1890 he returned to the OldCountry after becoming heir to his father's title and estates on thedeath of his elder brother. Three years later he succeeded to hisfather's title and Scottish estates. In 1910 he married Lady MaryBowes-Lyon, elder sister of the present Queen Mother Elizabeth.He died in 1955 after holding the title of Lord Elphinstone forsixty-two years.W. 1. Gyles, a Virden pioneer, bought the Virden propertyfrom Lord Elphinstone shortly after his return to his native Scotland.It was later owned by the Sidney Acheson family of LangleyPrairie, B.C. and purchased from them by Mr. and Mrs. C. 1.Goodridge in 1946.The house had been vacant for fifteen years when the Goodridgesmoved from Winnipeg to make it their home but time andneglect had failed to erase the beauty and dignity of the lines of thispioneer architecture. Over the years the house was modernized,but by 1974 repairs and renovations were no longer practical and itwas replaced with a new home of modern design.Over the years, Mr. Goodridge planted more than 15,000trees, maples, willows and fir, and 2,000 caragana bushes tofurther shelter and beautify the farm established more than onehundred years ago by a Scottish lord who took a liking to the newland.31