Denholm, 5 Herdston Place, Cumnock

 Denholm, 5 Herdston Place, Cumnock

        

                                                                  Image - Chimnie - Nos 5 & 7 Herdston Place

        It was very unusual for a council house to be given a name, however, when the Robson Family moved into their newly constructed semi-detached bungalow, 5 Herdston Place, they named it Denholm.

        The Rev. Mark Newton Robson was born in the village of Denholm, Roxburgh, in 1861. He was an evangelist, a missionary and a very gifted public speaker. From 1913 until 1934 he was a popular minister at the Cumnock Congregational Church. 

        His first wife, Agnes Sibbald, died in 1888 when she was only 22 years old. The Rev. Robson married again in 1890 to Elizabeth Davidson and they had a daughter, Mary, who was born in 1894 in Durham. When they arrived in Cumnock they moved into the Congregational Manse. Poor health forced him to retire from the Ministry in 1934 so they had to vacate the Manse.

        A brand new scheme of council houses had just been built at Herdston Place. It consisted of eight blocks of four houses/apartments and seven semi-detached bungalows amounting to forty six new homes for council tenants. The Robsons were allocated Number Five. The bungalows in Herdston Place were very small with very large back gardens, however, the Robson bungalow was larger and more attractive. 

        The Rev. Robson died at 5 Herdston Place in 1939. His widow Elizabeth and his daughter Mary remained there after his death. Elizabeth died there in 1947 and Mary, who was a spinster, moved away a few years later.

Hawick News & Border Chronicle 3/2/1939

Braemar, 109 Glaisnock Street, Cumnock formerly Herdston Cottage

 Braemar, formerly Herdston Cottage, 109 Glaisnock Street, Cumnock

Braemar formerly Herdston Cottage
     

    Herdston Cottage was situated on the east side of Glaisnock Street a few yard from Pottery Row which was a row of six single story cottages adjacent to the Pottery and roughly opposite the Town Hall. These cottages were constructed to house the Pottery workers. In 1852 James McGavin Nicol was appointed the manager of the Cumnock Pottery & Tile Co. and four years later became the new proprietor. He also made bricks and drainage tiles. 

    By 1871 the Nicol family had moved into Herdston Cottage. James died there in 1885, followed by his wife Annie in 1906. Their son William, a coalmaster, continued to live there with his wife Mary Brydon Nicol. When William died in 1927 he left the cottage in Trust to his wife Mary Brydon Nicol liferentrix and three other Trustees - Alexander F Borland, ironmonger, Cumnock, John Strathdee Nicol, Kent and John T Torrance, Carnwath. Mary Brydon Nicol died in Herdston Cottage in 1938.

    In 1934 the slum clearances in Cumnock had begun. Herdston's Field, which lay behind Herdston Cottage, had been acquired by compulsory purchase from the Marquess of Bute and work had begun building a large scheme of houses. 

    After Mary B. Nicol's death the cottage was purchased by Herbert William Morton and renamed Braemar. Herbert had married Jeanie McGrady in 1922 at the Hotel Royal, Cumnock. Jeanie's family were shoemakers who lived in Breezyhill in Glaisnock Street. Herbert became the proprietor of the Cumnock and Auchinleck Picture Houses. He was the Director of the Ayrshire Bowling Association and a Scottish International team bowler having represented, along with three others, the Scottish team in the 1954 British Empire & Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, Canada. Their eldest daughter, Jean, married Don Ward who later took over the business.

Sources:

Valuation Rolls, Scotlands People

Scottish Censuses 

Cumnock History Group Website

Cumnock Connections Tree

Ayrshire Archaeological and Natural History Society - The Cumnock Pottery, Gerald Quail

Ardossan & Saltcoalts Herald 4/3/1892

    

Hillside House

 

Hillside House - Image CHG Website 

    Hillside House, 2 Barrhill Road, Cumnock, a large and impressive villa, stood in extensive and beautifully kept gardens and included a conservatory, vinery and greenhouse. It was built by the Crichton family in 1846. Adam Crichton was the factor to the Marquess of Bute and his son, Hew  Crichton, became head of the Edinburgh firm Tait & Crichton, Writers to the Signet. Hew's son Hew Hamilton Crichton, who died unmarried, built Hamilton Place in Cumnock. Hillside House was tenanted by Hew Hamilton Crichton  and his sister Margaret. After her brother's death Margaret went on to fund the building of the Crichton West Memorial Church in Ayr Road in memory of her father and brother.

    Hillside House was purchased by the School Board for £1,500 after Margaret died in 1908 and by 1927 it had been renamed Cumnock Academy. By this time the gardens had almost disappeared and, as another wing was added in 1939 to form a U-plan, Hillside House itself was demolished. The old Academy buildings, sadly, are now abandoned and scheduled for demolition.

Cumnock Academy (latterly Greenmill Primary)

Sources:

Cumnock History Group - Researched by Bobby Grierson

New History of Cumnock - John Strawhorn

Boswell Cottage, 55 Ayr Road

 The family of Samuel and Mary Manderson lived in Ayr Road by the 1891 census. No house number given until the 1901 census

From 1901 until his death in 1922 the occupant was baker William Gillespie and family.

George Connell the builder was there until his death his 1963

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Wrentnall House, 10 Barrhill Terrace, Cumnock

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Wrentnall House, 10 Barrhill Terrace, Cumnock was built in 1924 at a cost of £750 by the Wrentnall Baryta Company Limited for their mine managers. The mine, 'The Barytes', was situated near Gasswater village which lay along the Muirkirk road. Charles Pugh, their mine manager, occupied Wrentnall House from 1924 until his death there in 1941. He was buried in Shropshire.

Charles Pugh was born in Shropshire, England and the 1921 England census shows that he was manager of Wrentnall's barytes mine in Pontesbury, Shropshire before he moved to Barrhill Terrace. Wrentnall Baryta Company Ltd later had a house at 31 Auchinleck Road, Cumnock. The company was taken over by Anglo-Austral Mines Limited in 1947. 

Valuation Rolls

1925 - House Barrhill Road - Prop: The Wrentnall Baryta Co Ltd, 1 Leadenhill St., London EC3

                                               Tenant/Occupier: Charles Pugh, manager

1930 - Tenant Occupier: Charles Pugh

1935 - Tenant: Charles Pugh - Barytes Mine Manager

1940 - Prop: The Wrentnall Baryta Co Ltd, 95 Gresham St, London EC2 Ten/Occ: Charles Pugh 

                                                                                                                                     Manager

Sources:

Ayrshire's Lost Villages - Dane Love pp153,154

1921 England Census

Dunvegan, 9 Barrhill Terrace, Cumnock

9 Barrhill Terrace 

John Mirrey Reid was the Stationmaster at Cumnock Railway Station which was situated at the top of the Barrhill Road. He came to Cumnock in 1899 after his wife Isabella died in Hurlford. He married again, another Isabella, in 1900 in Edinburgh. On his arrival in Cumnock he was housed in one of the station's cottages and remained there until 1924 when he retired. He had been an employee with Glasgow & South Western Railway Company, Glasgow and LMS Railway for 51 years, 21 years being in Cumnock.  Immediately after his retirement he moved into Dunvegan, 9 Barrhill Terrace as Proprietor/Occupant. This seems to have been a new-build, the original three station cottages still being occupied by railway employees. 

1901 Census - Station Cottage, Cumnock

John M Reid 41 station master

Isabella Reid 35 born Harris

Janet M Reid dtr b 1898 Dumfriesshire

William E Reid son 1 month born Cumnock

Valuation Rolls

1920 - house, Station Prop: Glasgow & South Western Railway Co., Glasgow Occ: John M Reid

1925 - Dunvegan, Barrhill Road, Proprietor/Occ: John M Reid

1930 - Dunvegan, Barrhill Road, Prop/Occ: John M Reid retired stationmaster

1935 - Dunvegan, 9 Barrhill Terrace Prop/Occ: John M Reid retired stationmaster

1940 - Dunvegan, 9 Barrhill Terrace Prop/Occ: John M Reid retired stationmaster

8 Barrhill Terrace, Cumnock

                                                 8 Barrhill Terrace is on the right of the image

In 1905 8 Barrhill Terrace was owned by joiner Thomas Miller and tenanted by Mrs Margaret Urquhart.

The next owner of 8 Barrhill Terrace was Hugh Black, his wife and family. In 1901 newly married Hugh and his wife Rose were living in the Square. The 1911 census shows Hugh, Rose and their two sons Hugh 8 and  Gerald 2 living at 7 Ayr Road, Cumnock. By the 1921 census the family were living in 8 Barrhill Terrace with an additional son Harold. Hugh was the son of a publican/miner from Galston. He was a solicitor and also Procurator Fiscal for the Burgh of Cumnock and had experience in Parliamentary work. He was married twice, his first marriage being in Coventry, Warwickshire and his second marriage in Preston, Lancashire.

Hugh lived in 8 Barrhill Terrace until his death in 1963 at Glenafton Hospital, New Cumnock. The informant on his death certificate was his son Harold who lived in Ayr. His executors were Alan Stevenson Lockhart and Gerald Black, solicitors.

1901 Census - The Square, Cumnock

Hugh Black 26 solicitor

Rose Black 24 wife

1911 Census - 7 Ayr Road, Cumnock

Hugh Black 36 law agent

Rose Black 35 wife

Hugh Black 8 son

Gerald Black 2 son

1921 Census - 8 Barrhill Terrace, Cumnock

Hugh Black 46 solicitor

Rose Black 45 wife home duties

Hugh Black 18 son apprentice engineer with J Drummonds & Co. engineers

Gerald A Black 13 son

Harold FD Black 6 son

Valuation Rolls

1905 - 8 Barrhill Road - Prop: Thomas Miller joiner 13 Springvale Street Saltcoats

                                        Occupant/tenant: Mrs Margaret Urquhart

1915 - house Proprietor/Occupant Hugh Black solicitor

1920/21 house Proprietor/Occupant Hugh Black solicitor

1925 - house Proprietor/tenant/inhab/Occ: Hugh Black

1930 - house Proprietor/occ: Hugh Black solicitor

1940 - house Proprietor/occ: Hugh Black solicitor 

The Scotsman 17/5/1917