Blyth House, 72 Tay Street

Blyth Hall

A familiar name in Newport, Blyth House was the home of Isabella Blyth Martin, well known for having gifted the Blyth Hall to the village. The first owner of the house was William Kerr who lived there from the early 1860s. At that time the house was called Ashbank. In 1866 he married Isabella Blyth, a member of a prominent Dundee family, and who was already 48. Isabella was widowed in 1877, and she inherited Blyth House from her husband.

The following year Isabella married again, this time to William Martin. The couple took the surname Blyth Martin and the house became Blyth House. In 1877 when she had been widowed, Isabella gifted the hall to the village. When the gift was made therefore, she was not Mrs Blyth Martin but still in fact Mrs Kerr! So we may well have had a Kerr Hall instead, but of course the hall was named for the memory of her three brothers who had died, and not for herself!

Blyth fountain

The following year her husband donated money for the flagstaff at the front of the hall. In 1890 Mrs Blyth Martin came forward again and provided the money for an extension to the rear to accommodate offices for the recently formed town council. She was also responsible for the familiar and easily recognised Blyth Fountain on the Braes.