Mary Queen of Scots and Midlothian

Posted on May 1, 2013 by kenb

The Infant Queen 1542-48
Even before her birth Mary’s fortunes had been closely bound up with the political and ecclesiastical rivalries of the great powers of Europe. Her father, James V had taken Scotland into the French and papal camp, a policy underlined by his marriage to a Frenchwoman, Mary of Guise, who was the mother of Queen Mary.

When Mary became Queen of Scots in 1542, Henry VIII of England saw an opportunity to align Scotland with his realm. The agreement that the infant queen should marry Henry’s son, Edward, a boy of five, was, however, repudiated by the Scots. Thereafter, Henry began a series of devastating invasions of Scotland known as The Rough Wooing, the objective of which was to win Mary’s hand for Edward. During these incursions, the Earl of Hertford and an English army laid siege to the castle at Roslin. Despite its strong position on a peninsula above the river Esk, the castle was badly damaged by fire.

Rosslyn Castle

Mary at Crichton
For nearly four years following her return from France in 1561, Mary successfully ruled Scotland alone. Many people thought that her policies were eminently fair and she gained popular support because of her attractive personality.

On 11 January 1562, she visited Crichton Castle to celebrate the marriage of her half-brother Lord James Stewart to Lady Janet Hepburn. Mary was attended by a brilliant retinue, including the Four Maries and other elite members of her court. This was a great occasion at Crichton. It was reported that there was ‘much good sport and many pastimes’ on the level field beneath the castle on the banks of the Tyne. Randolph, the English ambassador, was among the guests and no doubt he sent an account of the event to his mistress Elizabeth I of England who always loved to hear the latest gossip.

Crichton Castle

Mary and Darnley
It was the duty of every monarch to marry and produce a successor. On 29 July 1565, Mary married her cousin Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley at the Palace of Holyrood. There has long been a tradition that Mary and Darnley spent part of their honeymoon at Crichton Castle. However, an inscribed monogram on the wall of the castle does not display the initials of Mary and Darnley, as is sometimes claimed. Rather they are those of Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell, and his wife Margaret Douglas. They are dated to the later sixteenth century.

Mary and Bothwell
Following the murder of Lord Darnley in February 1567, Mary entered into a badly chosen marriage with James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell. The couple moved to the Bothwell stronghold at Crichton Castle.

Borthwick Castle

Whilst living there, Mary was a frequent visitor to Borthwick Castle. During one visit, she received news that an army was coming to capture her and Bothwell. Mary escaped to the recently-constructed Cakemuir Castle in the Moorfoot hills to the south-east. She was met by some of Bothwell’s retinue and spent the night at Cakemuir before resuming her journey to Dunbar. Near Cakemuir Castle are the grass-covered roots of Queen Mary’s Tree, supposedly planted to commemorate her brief stay at the castle. Both Borthwick and Cakemuir Castles have a room each that is known as Queen Mary’s Room.

Cakemuir Castle

The Penicuik Jewels
Before Mary was executed on 8 February 1587, she gave to Geilles Mowbray, one of her maids of honour, several items of jewellery. Subsequently, these came into the possession of the Clerk family of Penicuik. The jewels were a treasured possession of the family until 1923 when they were bought for 400 guineas by the National Museum of Antiquities. The main pieces of the collection, which have all been authenticated as genuine relics of the Queen, are a gold locket, known as the Penicuik Jewel, which encloses miniatures portraits of Mary and the infant James VI, dated to 1576-79; a gold and pearl pendant; a necklace consisting of 14 large oval beads divided by 13 smaller gold beads; and a brocaded floral fan mounted on silk and silver tissue.

Now, where’s that again?

Posted on March 14, 2013 by kenb

It is always exciting to receive new donations to the archives, to get them into proper order and capture information about collections for future generations to enjoy. But sometimes archives can be puzzling.

Midlothian Archives have recently started to catalogue a large collection donated by a man called Andrew Fraser. Andrew was once a well-known character in Midlothian and amongst other achievements became county librarian of Midlothian.

Amongst the Fraser collection is a small photograph album containing about twenty sepia toned prints. These date from the Edwardian era and many of them feature unidentified people, but there are also several landscape shots that we would like to identify.

Do you know where any of these places are? Please let us know.

Feeding racing pigeons at an unidentified location

This man is feeding racing pigeons. Is it at Waverley Station in Edinburgh?

Large unidentified house

A beautiful large house somewhere. But where?

Large unidentified house

Another large house with plenty of character. But where? East Lothian?

Unidentified country cottage

Beach in East Lothian

Finally, where is this beach with its distinctive pavillion? It looks like the Bass Rock in the background which would place it in East Lothian. Is it still there?

Thistle Lodge of Free Gardeners, Penicuik

Posted on March 14, 2013 by kenb

Thistle Lodge of Free Gardeners, Penicuik

: Free Gardeners Lodge, Penicuik 1908

The Black Collection is a remarkable record about Penicuik and surrounding area from 1880 to 1930. It is named after James Black and his son Robert, who assembled a mass of material about life in Penicuik. The collection includes research and lecture notes, newspaper cuttings, notebooks, postcards, photograph albums and many other items.

Amongst the collection is a large ammount of material about the Thistle Lodge of Free Gardeners, Penicuik. The Ancient Order of Free Gardeners was a fraternal society that was founded in Scotland in the middle of the seventeenth century. It later spread to England and Ireland although it was principally a Scottish phenomenon. Like numerous other friendly societies of the time, its principal aim was to share knowledge amongst those working in a particular profession and also to provide mutual aid and insurance for its membership. In the nineteenth century, the latter activity became predominant. The Free Gardeners always remained independent of Freemasonry, but the history and organisation of the two orders show numerous similarities. By the end of the twentieth century, the Gardeners had become almost entirely extinct.

Free Gardeners Lodge, Penicuik 1909

The Thistle Lodge of Free Gardeners, Penicuik was formed in June 1822 from members of an earlier order called the Hand Papermakers’ Society (Penicuik was a centre of the paper making industry). The Gardeners were a highly visible presence in Penicuik and held annual walks and feasts, church services, concerts, sales of work and excursions. The Order had very specific rules and members were entitled to wear special regalia, sashes and badges. It would appear that in Penicuik at any rate membership was not very restrictive and open to almost everybody (except, of course, women).

Gardeners demonstration on Bridge Street, Penicuik 1909

Robert E Black, who compiled the Black collection, was an enthusiastic member of the Penicuik Gardeners and at one time acted as secretary of the local branch. His collection contains a good deal of material about the local Order, including dinner menus, press cuttings, concert programmes and photographs of members. As secretary of the Gardeners, he wrote a short history of the Order in Penicuik which was published in 1910. His collection is a treasure trove for any researcher with an interest in this little known but important aspect of Scottish culture.

Page from scrapbook on the Free Gardeners, Penicuik

Livingston in the 1970s

Posted on February 28, 2013 by jennifert

I have been cataloguing the archive of the Livingston Development Corporation for eight months now. The collection is great on the technical detail, on the why and how the town was built, on who made the big decisions, but sometimes you get the hankering for a personal touch – a view of the town that has an opinion. Because the Corporation was, well, a Corporation, much of its documentation can be a little dry, efficient, business like and very much to the point – and even, dare I say it, a little self-congratulatory.

However, a couple of months ago, whilst cataloguing the records of the Housing Department, I came across the “Reports of the Assistant Housing Visitor.” They don’t sound that promising, but these turned out to be almost diary like entries made monthly by two or three women employed as Assistant Housing Visitors. From 1970 onwards and through the 1970s these women (they were all women) visited new tenants in the town and make sure they were settling in okay, to ask if they had any problems or any issues; and, unfortunately an all too common a problem, to help them find ways to pay their rent arrears. They ended up acting, in a town with limited community facilities and services, as quasi-social workers.

These reports, far from being brisk businesslike collection of stats and targets, give a wonderful insight of Livingston in the 1970s, and of the problems the community faced and overcame. For example, something that I come across time and again is the problems caused by dampness in Corporation housing, this arose due to poor industrial construction techniques when building vast quantities of housing in a short space of time. I’ve come across a good many technical reports as to why the dampness happened, but in the visitors reports the issue is made far more human.

“The main complaints come from tenants in Bison flats who are “humbugged” by “dampness”. In most cases they are using their storage heaters properly and keeping their windows open slightly as they have been instructed – this does not seem to cure the trouble.”

The Corporation, in the early days, was reluctant to accept that their choice of building construction was to blame, and instead chose to tell people that because they had never used central heating before, it was their fault the wallpaper was hanging in damp shreds off the wall.

Another related issue was the cost of heating. Many of the early houses in Livingston were installed with electric storage heaters when electricity was cheap – then electricity prices rocketed. This was a pressing concern for many years (and one it looks like we are all going to have to face again). In 1972 the housing visitor wrote -

“There is a great deal of concern and anxiety among tenants over electricity bills. In many cases, money is not saved towards this bill at all – it is the ‘great unknown’ and panic ensues when it arrives…. for most people… the main problem is the insecure feeling caused by a large, long term fluctuating bill. The cards provided by the SSEB for calculating weekly costs are not widely used… most because people people would not really believe them or do NOT want to know about their bills, hoping they will be smaller when they arrive. “

In 1974 the visitor recorded that -

“I found that a great many of my tenants have solved their fuel bill problem this winter with some ingenuity. Several tenants living in the area arrange to visit one house for two days, then another house for two days, the person they visit has a warm house whilst the visitors can leave their heating off.”

Despite this novel solution, however, the cost of heating remained an issue for many years. In March 1977-

“It is generally accepted that this is the most quarrelsome time of the year and this is assuredly born out by the number of tenants who have sent for me because of family feuding, not necessarily about rent arrears, most because of the excessively high gas and electric bills… whilst Mrs is wondering how on earth she managed to accumulate such a bill, Mr is wishing he never got married, or blaming her for being extravagant.”

There are several more entries in the reports about this issue, it dragged on for years – however, the reports provide such a breadth of insights into life in the 1970s, it is worth moving on. There is another area of insight that the reports can give – into the social and economic mores of the time.

“It is now obvious that a percentage of women work either part time of full time and that it is not possible to make contact with them during working hours.”

This was a time when it was still thought that men were the breadwinners, and women were the housewives, though times were a-changing. But even then, there were obvious issues with unemployment in the early 1970s.

“It would appear that there is a shortage of jobs for the under twenties as well as part-time work for women and according to tenants, the Department of Employment & Productivity hold out very little hope of any immediate improvement. Two cases of men having given up their jobs to move to Livingston came to light. This could be a mounting problem with all its attendant difficulties.”

And, by 1977, problems with inflation –

“this past year has been one of inflation and its attendant problems. After dealing with rent arrears problems last winter, I suggested to tenants that they should try to keep their rent a little in credit each month to try to help out with the problem months… it would be wise to stock up… as a buffer against the winter and the increased prices.”

The reports also record an issue that was unique to New Towns. The New Town Blues. Because The main reason people moved to Livingston was “high standard of housing provided by the Livingston Development Corporation, probably the main reason why families choose to come, and remain in Livingston.” Housing in Livingston was newer, cleaner, warmer and better than the old slums and tenements of Glasgow, where many had come from, but these people left behind established communities to move to a town that had only existed since 1962, the first residents – “the pioneers” – moving to Livingston from 1964 onwards, moved to a building site, a place of “dust in the summer and mud in the winter”. It was a town that had no established community; no established groups or societies; no cafes, cinemas, parks, or sports fields. Loneliness was rife.

“I have been discussing the problem of loneliness with quite a number of tenants. This problem is known as the New Town Blues and is widely recognised. Its avoidance lies in the development of a sense of community.”

This is something that the residents of Livingston tackled with relish. From zero in 1964, by 1973 there were two hundred and thirty clubs and societies, one for every 100 residents in Livingston. Community spirit in Livingston had flourished.

Finally, as well as the ‘big picture’ the reports also capture the smaller details that show that perhaps life doesn’t change as much as we think –

“Another dangerous game of the children’s is to get boards and slide down the steep grassy slope from Eden Drive to the main road near the bus stop. I have seen children rolling down the slope which is quite steep and stopped my car to shout at them. One false move and these kiddies are straight under a passing car.”

Or, taking a break from work for a relaxing thirty minutes,

“the light entertainment of the month was caused through a tenant who had a hive of wild bees in her garden, these have now been removed by LDC… however I spent a quite pleasant half an hour watching the bees at close quarters, from the number of bees and the size of the mound I imagine it was quite a large hive.”

This remark attracted an annotation from the housing visitor’s boss Leslie Higgs, “Time available for this?”

Bosses are bosses, I suppose, no matter the decade.

The Housing Visitor Reports are the subject of an ongoing blog about Livingston in the 1970s which can be found at http://newtownlivingston.blogspot.co.uk/

Aidan Haley, Project Archivist (Cataloguing), Livingston New Town: From Plan to Community, 1962-2012.

The Mauricewood Disaster September 1889

Posted on February 14, 2013 by kenb

Mauricewood Colliery from the Illustrated London News

On 5 September 1889, the Mauricewood Colliery near Penicuik was the scene of the worst mining disaster in the history of the Lothians. An underground fire claimed the lives of 63 workers, including some as young as 13-years-old.

Following the accident, a Mauricewood Disaster Relief Committee was established in Penicuik to care for the dependents of the deceased. The committee was comprised of important local worthies, including the adventure novelist SR Crockett who was then a minister of the Free Church in Penicuik.

The Reverend SR Crockett

The Relief Committee raised money to help those who had been bereaved by the disaster. It is worth remembering that there was no welfare state in the late nineteenth century. As a result of the disaster, many households in the Penicuik area lost their only wage earner and would have been left destitute if the committee had not intervened.

The original minute book of the Mauricewood Relief Committee has recently been donated to the Penicuik Historical Society. It is a fascinating document that illustrates Victorian charity and welfare provision in action.

The Victorians have a reputation as being stern and uncaring, but the minute book suggests that, in this case at least, they were surprisingly sympathetic and compassionate.

Money for the disaster fund was raised by voluntary donations. The relief committee, which was entirely unpaid, began their work by compiling a list of victims of the disaster and the names of their dependents. It was calculated that 96 children had lost their fathers. Financial support was given to widows, children up to the age of 14, and to elderly parents who were unable to work for themselves. Pregnant widows received money for their unborn babies. A doctor was employed to administer to the medical needs of bereaved families.

However, there were also strict rules about who could receive support and not every application for assistance was granted. For example, widows who had started work or remarried were immediately cut off.

The original minute book of the Mauricewood Relief Committee was received in a poor condition, but it has been professionally restored and is now in the care of the Penicuik Historical Society. An electronic scan of the book has been prepared and can be consulted in Midlothian Local Studies in Loanhead along with other information about the disaster.

The Official Report on the Mauricewood Disaster

Pte Jack: Over and Out

Posted on January 30, 2013 by emmap

This blog is written by Stephen Thomas

First and foremost I’d like to thank all of you who have followed the Twitter and Blog feed recording the First World War Diary of Peter Jack; (http://lothianlives.org.uk/?p=1462). This blog is simply a reflection on the things I have learnt while carrying out the project, the first time I’ve posted diary entries of any kind, and the lessons learnt for the future.

As many who have followed the whole of the diary, Peter was not the most descriptive of men and on some days wasn’t forthcoming with large amounts of information. One can only speculate as to why this was. He may have been unaccustomed to expressing himself fully at all, let alone in writing; there is very little in the way of emotion portrayed, no colourful descriptions of the sites or sounds or smells of where he was posted. He does not record any details on conversations or gossip amongst the men he fought alongside, in fact I do not believe he mentions any of the names of his fellow soldiers apart from a few regrettable deaths of officers. This could have been out of respect for the privacy of those men or to prevent, should his diary been lost, information falling into the wrong hands. Personal diaries, unlike for those fighting in Europe, though not exactly encouraged were allowed on the Mediterranean campaign. I am surprised however that Peter was allowed to record, in sketches of admirable detail, the camps and defensive positions of his squadron. Perhaps Peter’s medium of expression was in drawing, rather than the written word. As I say; one can only speculate.

I would have therefore liked to have augmented some of the less than fulsome diary entries with more maps detailing the places Peter visited and information on the campaign he was involved in. Unfortunately, as a small archive with a small number of staff, time allowed for social media projects is sadly limited and so I was restricted to simply to transcribing the diary and adding additional details when time permitted. I’ve therefore learnt that in future I need to research and prepare the project further in advance, to allow it to be a more immersive experience for those following it and to better inform and educate people about the place in history from which the material originated.

I have also learned not to try to second guess or the writer’s meaning of words or phrases; to interpret them with the speech of 1915 in mind, rather than from a perspective of 2012. There were a couple of occasions I wrongly thought that Peter had misspelled or used the wrong words, when in fact it was my modern day take on phrasing that was in error. One must take what is written at face value and trust the writer, because their voice is clearer and truer to them, than when heard many decades later.

The Private Peter Jack blog with all the transcribed entries can be found at:

http://ptejack.blogspot.co.uk/

Edinburgh’s Top 12: Bailie Court Processes

Posted on January 4, 2013 by peterc

Edinburgh Bailie Court Forgery of Bank of Ireland 30/- Note, 1830s

The Bailie Court was the main local court within the medieval and early modern burgh of Edinburgh. In the later period into the 20^th century this court was also called the Burgh Court and the Police Court and became known latterly as the District Court.

The City Archives holds voluminous records relating to both the Canongate – which was a separate burgh until 1856 – and Edinburgh Bailie Courts. The bundles of records are not the easiest to handle and decipher because of the method of storage down the years since they were first created, the earliest being 1603.

Several hundred boxes of what are referred to as ‘processes’ survive, these being the documents which were used in the legal proceedings in court. The sheer scale of these holdings together with the range of offences which were prosecuted in the courts provides a fascinating, often tragic and sometimes comic, picture of everyday life in the capital.

Cases included theft, debt, housebreaking, assault, slander, breach of contract, disputes over property and many more besides. It is likely that a good proportion of the burgh’s population made an appearance in these records in some capacity over the almost three centuries they cover. The images shown here relate to two cases of forgery recently uncovered by an individual in our search room. Both processes include copies of forged bank notes which, at least to the untrained eye, must have appeared to be the genuine article.

The first is a 30/- note of the Provincial Bank of Ireland with a note relating that it: “…is a Forgery and was passed this day in the Counting House of Robert Thomas Merchant, Royal Exchange by Margaret Hill, who stated that she received it from Ann Ballantyne – Both in custody.”

Edinburgh Bailie Court Forgery of Glasgow Bank Note, 1836

The second is a forged one pound note from the Glasgow Bank apparently circulated in Edinburgh by Margaret Wilson or Shiels and Elizabeth Davidson or Cummings and seized on 23 December 1836.

The Baillie Court records are just one of Edinburgh City Archives’ Top 12 Treasures which are featured in our gallery of the same on our website. You can access this small exhibition by clicking here. More of our Top 12 will be featured in posts here over the coming months.

Livingston 50 – share your story

Posted on December 27, 2012 by jennifert

Were you among the first of the New Town residents?; or already living in West Lothian in the 1960s?; or perhaps one of the many children who were born and grew up in Livingston over the past 50 years? Would you be willing to take part in our oral history project and share your experience of New Town life with future generations? Whatever your story is, West Lothian Council Archives would like to hear from you.

2012 was the 50th anniversary of Livingston New Town. In partnership with Community Arts Service, West Lothian Council Archives have been awarded £49,800 from the Heritage Lottery Fund for the “Life is for Livingston – 50 years of new town life” project. This education and arts project is working with various communities and groups within Livingston in researching, recording and presenting the story of the new town in new and exciting ways. For more information on the project read our blog at http://lothianlives.org.uk/?p=3057

Over the next few months we will be training volunteers to gather oral history in order to record and preserve stories and memories about all aspects of Livingston life. If you would like to participate either as a volunteer or to share your story we would be very interested to hear from you.

Please contact us:

Jennifer Tortolano or Emma Peattie

Tel: 01506 773770 or e-mail: archive@westlothian.gov.uk

New donations to Midlothian Archives 2012

Posted on December 24, 2012 by kenb

Midlothian Local Studies is a treasure house of local and family history. Based in Loanhead, it is run by Midlothian Council Library Service and is a unique collection about all aspects of Midlothian history and culture.

The collection is always growing and in 2012 many new donations were received from local people.

Amongst these were two collections of photographs about Loanhead. One was given by the family by the late Ernie Tiernan, a local shopkeeper, and the second from the estate of Jim Abbot, a professional photographer.

The photographs are a wonderful record of life in Loanhead in the twentieth century. They show streets, buildings, shops, people and events, including Gala Days and the Queen’s visit to Loanhead in June 1961. Each photograph is being carefully catalogued and local people are helping to identify them.

One fascinating photograph shows a women’s football team. There are no details with the photograph, but it seems to date from around the First World War and may show munitions workers either at Loanhead or Roslin gunpowder works.

Amongst other donations, Roslin Primary Schoolgave a large collection of class registers and photograph albums. These will be of great interest to genealogists in the future.

The family of James Braidwood of Bonnyrigg donated an Air Raid Warden’s notebook that he had kept during the Second World War. This shows regular nightly inspections of the local area to ensure that everybody was obeying the rules during the blackout.

Today’s news is tomorrow’s history. David Adams of Loanhead donated a set of photographs of the Olympic torch on its journey through Loanhead in June 2012, which was a memorable and historic event.

Penicuik Historical Society have recently undertaken a major project on papermaking and the Society gave Local Studies a series of transcripts of interviews with former workers in local mills. These are an invaluable record of a once thriving local industry.

Local Studies also received the records of the Pentland Conservation Group, a local environmental action group which did much valuable work to preserve historic Pentland Cemetery.

2014 will mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. One poignant donation was a memorial plaque, commonly known as a ‘Deadman’s Penny’, belonging to Private John Watson, a Bonnyrigg soldier who joined the Royal Scots and who died at the battle of Arras in 1917.

Midlothian Local Studies thanks everyone who has made donations in 2012. New material is always welcome. Any of the items mentioned here can be viewed at Local Studies which is located at 2 Clerk Street, Loanhead and is free to use.

Who’s that girl?

Posted on December 10, 2012 by kenb

Midlothian Council Local Studies and Archives recently received a large donation of photographs of Loanhead and area. These had been collected by the late Ernie Tiernan, who was a well known Loanhead character. His family kindly donated the collection to the Midlothian archives.

Amongst the collection are some fascinating images of life in Loanhead, a former mining village just to the south of Edinburgh. The collection includes some lovely photographs of Loanhead Children’s Gala Day and long lost buildings in Loanhead.

Also amongst the collection is this photograph of a women’s football team. Unfortunately, there is nothing on the photograph to identify the team, but it seems quite early, probably from around the First World War. It may show muntion workers from the Roslin area, as there was a large munitons work in the area. Curiously there only seems to be ten players. Perhaps nobody wanted to be goalie.

There is the same mystery about this photograph of a car smash somewhere in the Loanhead area. What is the story?

And also for this lovely picture of Girl Guides. Who’s that girl? Can anybody identify them? Please let us know.