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

 

                                                            

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