Glendyne, 26 Car Road, Cumnock

 

        Cumnock-born George Stoddart had been Postmaster at Cumnock Post Office for 36 years when he retired in 1916. He had been 43 years with the Post Office.

        He married his first wife, Jeanie Stoddart, in 1886 in Douglas and they had two living children, Jane Scott Stoddart born 1887 and Margaret (Peggy) Stoddart born 1889, both in Cumnock. Sadly Jeanie died in 1892 of peritonitis six days after the birth of her son who did not survive. George then married Margaret Slimmon in 1898 at Sanquhar. 

        George was initially a postman in Cumnock. When he took over as Postmaster he supervised the sub-post offices at Sanquhar, Kirkconnel, New Cumnock, Ochiltree, Auchinleck, Lugar and Muirkirk. When he retired in 1916, after living in rented accommodation for many years, he purchased a house at 26 Car Road, Cumnock and named it Glendyne. 

        He and his second wife had close ties with Sanquhar. Sanquhar Post Office was established in 1712 and was considered the oldest working Post Office in the world. George had worked closely with them over the years. Alexander Peden and the Covenanters had hidden in the beautiful glen called Glendyne near Sanquhar. Perhaps these were the reasons he named his house Glendyne.

        George was not fortunate enough to enjoy his well-earned retirement for long. He died at Glendyne, Car Road, in 1917.

        Plans were passed in 1920 for a new housing scheme in Car Road and between 1921 and 1925 council tenants had began to move in. This work was not completed until 1951. George's widow and daughters continued to live there. His widow Margaret died in Glendyne in 1926 and his daughter Jane Scott Stoddart, postal and telegraph worker, also died there in 1956. Younger daughter Peggy died in Cumnock in 1976. Both daughters were unmarried. 

Sources:

The New History of Cumnock, John Strawhorn p95

Valuation Rolls

Cumnock Connections Tree 

        

Castlehill

 A tenement in Townhead street from 1851 census until demolished in 1972

in the 1851 census there were three households living there:

Andrew Miller a handloom weaver with wife and two children

James Whyte a carter with wife, sister, 4 adult children and a niece

Widow Janet McLanachan 42 with six sons

John Baird's house

Researched by Kay 

John Baird was a cloth merchant and owner of land in Lugar Street. The Baird Institute was built as his legacy to Cumnock.

Baird's Place 

Situated to the right when facing the Baird Institute, it is now part of a shop in Lugar Street.

The records below  are in Ayrshire Archives and would indicate that the house was built in 1880.

AA/DC177/1/81 Specification of the execution of masonry work for a house to be rebuilt by John Baird, Merchant, Cumnock, unsigned  May 1880

AA/DC177/1/82	Specification of the slater and other works for a house to be built by John Baird, Merchant, Cumnock, unsigned	May 1880
AA/DC177/1/83	Draft specification of the execution of masonry work for John Baird's house, Cumnock	May 1880
AA/DC177/1/85	Specification of the execution of plaster work for John Baird's house, unsigned	1880
AA/DC177/1/87	Plan of John Baird's garden	1881

The Taylor house

Researched by Kay

don't know what book this is from

 

Sep 2016 google

James Taylor of Cumnock Pottery built this about 1802 in Ayr Road. Now number 53 Ayr Road. It's thought to be the oldest two storey house in Cumnock. He died in 1825.

William White, notary, lived there from about 1851. It was described as at Bridgend or Bridgend cottage. He died there in 1876 and his wife in 1891.

From 1906 it was the home of the Murray family.

It has had some renovations done in recent years.

Hartfield Cottage, 48 Ayr Road, Cumnock

 Researched by Roberta

                                          Posted by John Inglis Hume on Old Cumnock Fb Page

                            Hartfield Cottage sat behind these railings. Note the Provost's Lamp.

Hartfield Cottage, 48 Ayr Road, sits back from the main road and at one time behind iron railings. It was known through the years for its beautiful gardens. To the rear flows the River Glaisnock on its way to merge with the River Lugar at the Dubb a short distance away. From the mid 1800s the cottage was owned by the McCowan family.

The 1874 Valuation Roll shows that the joint owners were William McCowan, manager of Portland Iron Works in Hurlford, the owner of a number of Iron and Steel companies and also a magistrate, and Robert McCowan, a bank teller in Helensburgh. These were the sons of John McCowan who was the tenant/occupier. John's mother's maiden name was Hart so the cottage appears to have been named after her.

 John McCowan, auctioneer and innkeeper of the Eagle Inn on the west side of the Square, was the 2nd Provost of Cumnock from 1878 until 1881. After his death at Hartfield Cottage in 1884 his daughter Jeanie Hart McCowan and her husband William Hill became the new owners. William Hill served on the Town Council from 1901 until 1911, becoming the 11th Provost of Cumnock in 1908.

Another daughter, Margaret, married Robert Dalglish Hunter in 1909 and their son Robert Dalglish Hunter would become Cumnock's Town Chamberlain in future years. Jeanie and William died at Hartfield Cottage in 1925 and 1927 respectively and ownership of the cottage went to their son Jack McCowan Hill. Jack, a writer and historian, wrote the publication Old Cumnock Banks and Shops. After he died in 1969 the cottage was derelict. It was bought by a local doctor's family who employed tradesman George Sloss to restore it.

Fiona Hunter from Old Cumnock Facebook Page

'We bought Hartfield from RD Hunter's family when it was going to be knocked down as it was fairly derelict. George Sloss restored it for us and I painted it. Old Mr Hill used to live in it and always had a beautiful garden. Dr Christie bought it from us and the garden is even more beautiful.'

Improvements to "Hartfield" 48 Ayr Road, Cumnock for Dr I Christie. Architect unstated, with signed approval by the Dean of Guild.  12 Dec 1973 (Ayrshire Archive)

Cloverlea, 13 The Holm, Cumnock

 Researched by Roberta

Cloverlea is on the right - Image chimnie.co.uk

            James Henderson was born in 1854 in Kilmarnock and it was there that he learned his trade as a tailor's cutter. He then went to Canada to gain more experience with more modern machinery before coming to Cumnock about 1880 to work as a cutter for James Breckenridge, who had an established tailor's business in the town. Their shop was in the Square where, in years to come, the 'Buttercup' was. When James Breckenridge died in 1902 he set up business with James's son John Breckenridge and they became the very well respected firm of Breckenridge & Henderson, Tailors & Clothiers. They moved to Glaisnock Street and latterly to Ayr Road.

            James married Margaret Rorison Samson in 1887 and they initially set up home at Windyside (sometimes Winnieside) Cottage in Glaisnock Street. They rented the cottage from James Baird, a master joiner from Skerrington Mill, before moving to Cloverlea Cottage, The Holm, Cumnock. They had a family of four sons and a daughter. James died at Cloverlea in 1920 and his wife Margaret in 1944. 

Cumnock Chronicle 1902

            

Lochnorris House, 47 Auchinleck Road, Cumnock

Lochnorris House, 47 Auchinleck Road, Cumnock

Lochnorris is possibly named after Lefnoreis Castle which lay about 100 yards north-west of the old stable block of Dumfries House.

 

Image - onthemarket.com

        

        Lochnorris is a 2-storey red sandstone Category B Listed Building. It was built in 1891 by James Keir Hardie, the founder of the Labour Party, with the help of a £600 interest-free loan from business man Adam Birkmyre. 

        Keir Hardie was born in 1856 in Legbrannock near Holytown, Lanarkshire. When he was twenty three he married Lily Wilson and set up house in a single end in Hamilton. In 1879 he became  Secretary of the Ayrshire Miners' Association  and, at their request, came to Cumnock where they lived in a single-end in Waterside Place and later moved to a two-room-and-kitchen in the Barrhill Road. His next, and permanent, move was to his newly built house, Lochnorris, where he and his wife raised their family. James was born in 1881, Sarah, their second child, died at the age of two, Agnes (Nan) born in 1885 and Duncan in 1887.  James Keir Hardie died in a nursing home in Glasgow on 26 September 1915.

        His widow and his daughter Nan continued living at Lochnorris. Nan married Emrys Hughes in Lochnorris on 8 August 1924 and sadly, on 18 October that same year, her mother Lily died there. Nan inherited the house.

        Both Nan and Emrys were involved in politics. Nan was her father's daughter. Welshman Emrys, like his father-in-law, was a fiery socialist and a pacifist. He has been described as 'the most imprisoned objector in Wales'. He became the Labour MP for South Ayrshire and was known for being very controversial. Both became Provosts of Cumnock, Emrys from 1934-1935 and Nan from 1935-1947.  They initiated  a major programme of  slum clearances and provision for council housing.  They were also councillors - Emrys from 1934-1935 and Nan from 1933 until she died in 1947. 

        Emrys married Martha Cleland in London two years later and their wedding notice reports that they 'returned to Lochnorris, Mr Hughes's Ayrshire home'. Emrys died in Lochnorris in 1969. It was Martha who bequeathed the Lochnorris Collection to Cumnock & Doon Valley District Council before selling Lochnorris in 1983.

Sources: 

Sunday Post 4/9/1949 Wedding Notice

The New History of Cumnock, John Strawhorn 

Cumnock History Group