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.

Geraldine – My time in the Archive

Posted on September 6, 2012 by jennifert

I began my work experience at West Lothian Archives and Records Centre on Wednesday 4^th of July and for two months I have loved every minute of it! Having no previous experience in archives, the staff was quick to enlighten me and give me a wide range of tasks that gave me a better understanding of what it is like working in an archive.

I initially transcribed 19^th century log books from schools in the local area to see if there were any major developments or changes to the area that the school’s Headmaster would note down. It was fun to read about the nuances of the school’s daily life that were so different to my own school experience. There were outbreaks of measles and whooping cough and children “absent without leave” from the school as they went to help in the harvest, which all paled my “struggles” of homework and maths. I later transcribed World War Two log books from my local village and was fascinated to hear about the various changes that everyone – pupils, teachers and school officers – faced together. When reading about the air raids or a teacher being called up for military service after it was noted he was married three weeks beforehand, you get a real sense of what it was like for the everyday person during that difficult time as well as the community spirit of the people mentioned.

I also catalogued Community Council minutes and agendas of West Lothian from the late 1970’s to the mid 2000’s. This was more of a challenge for me as I had to fill in the details of the archives onto a database, but I had plenty of help and once I got the hang of it I was able to progress through them. The de-stapling of the minutes and keeping track of all the catalogue numbers was a challenge I embraced. Like the school log books, the feeling of a community is felt in their collaboration of making their town or village theirs by taking an interest in the issues and problems of their area.

Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in West Lothian Archives and I’m still amazed by what treasures they have in the building. Though some are grander than others, like the school log books and the Community Council Minutes, they are all a part of a community and I would like to thank the staff at the Centre for making me a part of theirs!

The Fairport Magazine

Posted on March 28, 2012 by kenb

One of our projects in Midlothian Local Studies is to catalogue a large collection of pamphlets that once belonged to William Hutton Marwick (1894-1982). Marwick was, amongst other many other accomplishments, professor of Economic History at the University of Edinburgh, a Quaker and committed pacifist. His collection includes many rare pamphlets about politics, economics, social issues, peace and religion.

Amongst the collection are several small manuscript magazines compiled by William Marwick’s father, who was also called William. William Marwick senior was born inEdinburgh in October 1863. He spent his early years in Arbroath and attended Arbroath High School. Later, he went to Edinburgh University and became a Church of Scotland missionary.

As a teenager, Marwick produced his own in-house magazine called The Fairport Journal, which was named after his home in Arbroath. Eight copies of the journal have survived in the Marwick collection. The magazine is hand-written in best copperplate-style and contains short articles by Marwick and his friends.

These magazines provide an extraordinary insight into the intellectual life of a group of Victorian teenagers living in a small Scottish town. This must have been quite a serious-minded group of young people, judging by the articles they wrote and contributed. Amongst these are essays on science, history and literature as well as numerous short stories and poems.

The Fairport Magazine first appeared in October 1876 and consisted of 16 pages. It contained the first chapter of a story by the editor (William Marwick) entitled ‘The Two Young Crusoes’ and another called ‘The Far West’ by Henry Angus, as well as short articles and poems by other contributors. The magazine continued fortnightly until the end of the year when it was announced that a printed version would be available.

In January 1878, the magazine returned to manuscript form. Two of the main contributors were young ladies, Miss E H Smith of Glasgow and Miss M E Angus of Arbroath. The magazine seems to have been distributed only amongst its contributors who were allowed to keep it for three days before passing it on. Probably less than a dozen people ever read it.

It is not clear how much of magazine was original work or simply copied from other sources, but in any case it is hard to imagine anybody, young or old, undertaking a similar venture today.

Rosewell Village

Posted on March 28, 2012 by kenb

The village of Rosewell in Midlothian grew-up around the coal-mining industry. Mining had been taking place in theMidlothianarea since medieval times. Monks from Newbattle Abbey were known to work the local area. Whitehill colliery in Rosewell was owned by Wardlaw Ramsay. It was situated at the top end of the village where the houses ofRosedaleand Fairmeadow are now. In 1856, Archibald Hood, an engine manager, acquired the lease for Whitehill Colliery from Ramsay. Hood modernised and extended the workings of Whitehill and extended the railway to service his pits at Carrington, Eldin, Gorton, Polton and Skelty Muir. Hood also improved the social conditions of the miners. Houses were built to accommodate workers and their families. The houses were built in a hierarchal system with managers and foremen having bigger houses than the ordinary mine worker. Unusually, every house had a garden attached to it so that workers could grow some of their own food. In 1846, the population of Rosewell was just 133 people, but by 1881 it had risen dramatically to 2129. This rise was due to many Irish immigrants coming over to find work and escape the effects of the Irish potato famine. This influx of Irish workers led to Rosewell becoming known as ‘littleIreland’.

By 1885, Rosewell had a church, post office, school and a savings bank. In 1890, Whitehill colliery was amalgamated with the Newbattle collieries, which were owned by the Marquis of Lothian, to form the Lothian Coal Company. It was at this time that Archibald Hood’s son James took over as general manager of the company. James Hood was also a Midlothian County Councillor. He was closely involved with many of his father’s projects, such as the Rosewell Co-operative Society which was founded in 1862 and was the first of its kind inMidlothian. Rosewell was known as a ‘company village’, which meant that the coal company owned and controlled every aspect of life, apart from the school and the church. The co-operative retail society was encouraged and a ‘Gothenburg’ style system was adopted with the opening of The Tavern in 1909. The coal company stipulated that a proportion of the profits from the sale of alcohol went towards the creation of the public park and community facilities, such as abowling greenwhich opened in 1901. This was a win-win situation for the mine owners as the wages that they paid to their workers were handed back at the shop and the Tavern. If a worker lost their job then they also lost their house. There were strict rules about maintaining a tidy garden and planting. Failure to comply with these meant that a worker would be brought up in front of the infamous ‘green table’ to face the consequences.

Life was undeniably hard in the early days. There was no electricity or running water, and water had been drawn from wells situated in the village streets. However, there was a strong sense of community. For example, on25 February 1892, the Rosewell Co-operative annual soiree and concert took place. James Hood was in the chair and guests were entertained by soprano singers and a ventriloquist. On21 July 1892, Rosewell Athletic Games were held in a field adjoining the colliery. Games were also held on29 September 1892under the auspices of the Rosewell Brass Band. These games included a pigeon race from Hawick to Rosewell, and there was also a trotting handicap. Rosewell had many different clubs at this time, including football, pigeon-racing and dramatic arts. By 1900, Rosewell was a self-sufficient village. Nobody really needed to venture outside of it as their needs were met. Local people worked hard and had few material possessions, but in many ways they appeared to be happy with their lot.

Written by Maureen Moffat, Local Studies Assistant

Thank goodness for collectors!

Posted on January 26, 2012 by kenb

Bonnyrigg Calendar 1977

Thanks goodness for collectors! You might call them daft but they are a godsend for archivists and archive collections.

Recently, Midlothian Local Studies has completed a catalogue for a collection once owned by Eric Basden.

Eric B Basden lived at 7 Leyden Park, Bonnyrigg with his wife Joan and four children. He was a keen entomologist, and a member of the Bonnyrigg and Lasswade District Horticultural and Industrial Society. He was active in local affairs and his collection reflects his interests, including horticulture, local shops, businesses, the annual Civic Week, and clubs and societies in Bonnyrigg and Lasswade.

Civic Week programme

Alex Eadie

In the 1970s and early 1980s, Eric collected a huge amount of ephemera from the Bonnyrigg area. This included advertising leaflets from local shops and businesses, political leaflets, newsletters, membership cards and calendars, even books of bingo tickets and brown paper bags. Few people would consider saving this kind of material which is normally just thrown away.

Vote for Buchanan

Fortunately, Basden kept it and it was donated to Midlothian Local Studies after his death. It provides a fascinating snapshot of life in Bonnyrigg in the 1970s, a typical Scottish town of its day.

Amongst the collection is a series of fact sheets called ‘Compar-a-cost’. These were produced by the local council in the 1970s and compared the prices of basic groceries in local shops. Inflation and rising prices were one of the big issues of the 1970s and here local people could compare prices. In December 1975, a tin of baked beans cost 11½p in Nobles of Bonnyrigg but 15½p in St Cuthbert’s of Mayfield.

Another typical item is a receipt for Allan Forrest, Grocer and Fruiterer, High Street, Bonnyrigg. Eric Basden has added a note to the receipt stating that he asked the four members of staff to sign it the day before the business closed for good (15 May 1976).

Raffle tcikets

The collection includes two scrapbooks of local small ephemera, such as bus tickets, raffle tickets, business cards and invitations.

The collection also holds some internment notices from Lasswade cemetery dating from 1916 onwards. Basden probably rescued these from somebody’s bin.

Eric Basden died in 1984, having been a Midlothian man and pillar of the local community for all of his life.

Bonnyrigg & Lasswade Official Guide

The only worying thing about this collection is that if you are of a certain vintage, the 1970s don’t seem that long ago but the decade is rapidly becoming the stuff of archives.

Craigshill Mural

Posted on December 29, 2011 by emmap

One of the fulfilling aspects of working in an Archive is helping with and promoting programmes within the community that it serves. A recent enquiry highlighted this; from Julia Priestley, the Arts Development Officer at West Lothian Council, and Thomas Connelly, Library Manager asking for photographs of Craigshill as source material for a mural.

Craigshill is one of the oldest districts in Livingston, being one of the first areas built when the New Town was created. The mural project involving Arts Services/Community Regeneration entailed young people attending a local arts-based youth project Offbeat and working with an experienced public artist to create designs based on life in Craigshill over a period of time. These designs would then be applied to large mural pieces by artist Tom Ewing to the exterior of Almondbank Library in Craigshill.

Being a native of Craigshill, I was deputised to look out photographs from our extensive Livingston Development Corporation collection of images for buildings and landmarks that are memorable to those who’ve lived there.

Hopefully the images supplied, like this photograph of Craigshill fire station training tower would provide inspiring enough visual sources to help create a mural worthy of Almondbank Library and the community.

The mural was unveiled on the 30th September. Not long after I strolled up to have a look see and took some pictures.

The mural blends familiar house types, landmarks and features into an image that represents and embodies Craigshill to those who have lived there.

As well as the glimpsing the lives and activities of it’s inhabitants; from the past, and as seen through the eyes of those youngsters who took part in the murals creation.

As a repository that holds most of Livingston’s written and photographic history, we at the West Lothian Archives were more than happy to provide pictorial references to the project. As a resident of Craigshill for more than 40 years, I was particularly pleased and proud to have at least one of the photographs I sourced from our collection used as an element in the mural.

The Craigshill mural can be seen at Almondbank Library, The Mall, Craigshill, Livingston, West Lothian, EH54 5EJ

(Written by S. Thomas)

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Wellington Farm Reform School

Posted on November 22, 2011 by BdBlackHat

School Children c.1895

The admission records of the Wellington Reform Farm School in Leadburn provide a rare glimpse into the lives of young offenders and nineteenth century approaches to understanding and ‘reforming’ juvenile delinquency. The admission applications and certificates are a rare survival of detailed individual records and help to tell the story of children from a variety of backgrounds and circumstances.

Although life as a ‘delinquent’ child during the Victoria era was certainly not easy, social reforms concerning the treatment of young offenders changed the way children were punished. Reforms ensured that juvenile offenders were no longer held for long periods in adult prisons and increasingly, most children were given access to some form of education or training.

By 1860, there were 27 reformatories in Scotland. Life in nineteenth-century schools like the Wellington Reform Farm School in Leadburn was highly disciplined and strictly regimented. Days usually began at 6am and ended at 7pm-every hour was accounted for with set times for schooling, learning trades, housework, religious worship, exercise and meal times. Nonetheless, the purpose of the reformatories was not only to instil discipline and ‘reform the character’ but also to provide basic education and training in a trade such as shoemaking, tailoring, wood chopping and carpentry-reformatories for girls taught cookery and domestic skills.

Offenders between seven and fourteen years of age could serve a sentence in a reformatory. The most common offence committed by children was theft and this was considered to be serious enough to warrant sending a child to a reform school, often for several years. Sadly, the stolen items were frequently food stuffs and it is likely that the children were driven to theft out of hunger and poverty. Although reformatories were undoubtedly punitive institutions, they did provide regular meals and essential clothing to children who would otherwise go without.

The following are examples of application and admission papers from the Wellington Reformatory Farm School between 1860 and 1861.


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Dalkeith High School Magazine

Posted on October 12, 2011 by kenb

Thanks to our friends at Glasgow University archives, Mildothian Local Studies recently received a generous donation of Dalkeith High School magazines. We were delighted to receive these as we had only one copy in our collections. Ephemeral material of this kind if often very difficult to obtain but is of great interest and social value.

The magazine was first produced in December 1933 although this was described as a ‘New Series’ and presumably it existed in an earlier format. The donation runs upto the 1970s.

The reader cannot help but be struck by the high quality of production of the earlier magazines from the 1930s and 1940s. They are attractively designed, well printed and fine examples of the art of typeography. They contain lots of articles about life in the school, including reports about sports matches, clubs and societies, short stories and poetry.

Some issues contain woodcuts and photographs. As always, the advertisements for local shops and companies, many now long gone, are of great interest.

It is noticeable that there is a marked decline in the quality of production the magazine in the 1970s, although some of the groovy covers are quite eye-catching.

Do schools still produce magazines of this kind? Please let us know.

And we are off…

Posted on July 28, 2011 by vikkik

Since the last posting from Edinburgh City Archives here on Lothian Lives, we have been incredibly busy packaging up our records ready for the big move to our new out-of-town repository.

In one very long and dusty day, we packaged up and made ready for transportation over 4500 items. These records have now made their way to the premises of Riley Dunn & Wilson who will make them all clean and presentable once more!

We are now left with the prospect of still having to package and move at least 10 times this volume of records from our existing premises into our shiny new one! This is going to be a mammoth task and will take several weeks to accomplish. Therefore I wish to remind everyone that our public searchroom will be closed from the 28^th July until Tuesday 11^th October 2011 to allow us to undertake this operation.

It has been over 18 months in the planning and we are all excited that the moving date is finally here. Our next posting will hopefully be to let you know that everything has been successfully moved, along with some images of our new repository.

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