Admiral Sir Henry Fairfax of Ravenswood was born in Edinburgh, to the well-known Fairfax family and spent his life in the Royal Navy. As owner of much of the land around Newstead, on his death in 1900, his widow Dame Harriet gave land and set up a trust to provide a Library, a Mission Hall, and a Reading Room, for the benefit of the residents of the village. Nothing remains of these buildings, although a marble bust, once in the grounds, is now in the Village Hall.