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Mine a Rich Vien

In 2000 the late Dave Smith as part of The Communiversity put the most recent draft of Helen Crummy's history of Craigmillar online. The book was updated and published as part of the exhibition Arts: The Catalyst Craigmillar

Click to see Dave's website

and

Dave's website

Copied from archives Oct 2000 Working copy 13 November 2000

GREATER CRAIGMILLAR LIVING ARCHIVES

INTRODUCTION

Craigmillar, a public housing estate in the East of Edinburgh , a much maligned and under valued community, is today undergoing a massive regeneration which will dramatically change the landscape and the image forever..
Locally the hope is, utilising modern technology, people's own skills, their life experience. as well as their creativity, regeneration will not only change the outward image but effect change in the inner self of the community . To do this the history of the area needs to be examined With this in mind a group of local people are collectively compiling a living archive of Craigmillar's history. This they hope will help ensure ....
* that the mistakes of the past are not repeated.
* that the lessons learned from the history will be used to create a fairer and more just society..
* that the strengths and successes of the area and its people are built on .
* that the true story of Craigmillar is left for posterity, not the stigmatised bad image perpetuated by press and media over the second half of the 20th century.
* that using their experience, knowledge and creativity residents have a say in the shaping of their future.
To facilitate this The Greater Craigmillar Multimedia Group (a group established and run entirely by local people) is bringing together via the Internet, residents,. ex-residents , ex -patriots and others interested , not only in the social, cultural, economic and political history of Craigmillar., but in the present time and what the future should hold.
Using as a foundation the book "Mine a Rich Vein"; a History and Vision of Craigmillar by Helen Crummy, the group have started to build a Living Craigmillar Archive. This includes the land that today is known as Niddrie Mains, Niddrie Marischl, Niddrie Mill, Niddrie House, Peffermill and the Peffers, The Thistle, Greendykes, Bingham, Magdalene, the Jewel and Newcraighall
Starting in medieval times the archive goes into the new millennium . It shows how down the centuries the indigenous population of Craigmillar, Niddrie and the surrounding areas have contributed much to the social , cultural . economic and political life of Scotland. Also why this proud heritage, which includes all that is good in the local culture and traditions, should be preserved, built on and handed down to future generations
In order to bring people together to stimulate awareness and discussion of the issues and problems which regeneration must tackle if it is to succeed, the digital archive includes an online Open Forum for the exchange and development of ideas .
The Multimedia Group now invite individuals, groups and organisations to participate in compiling a Craigmillar archive by including the history of their area or group, highlighting it with photographs, videos, film, artefact, press cuttings, text, oral histories or reminisces. All material will be marked with ownership and where located in the community Individuals, groups and others who would like to join the team compiling the archives are welcome. Please contact John Somerville at House 1, Jack Kane Centre, Niddrie Mains Road. or Dave Smith Webmaster at e mail: zapvector@yahoo.com
 
 
GREATER CRAIGMILLAR ARCHIVES

CONTENTS
* Introduction --Craigmillar.from 1131 --Craigmillar Castle --Niddrie; from 1212-1899
* Wauchopes of Niddrie Marischal --Niddrie; Village --Niddrie Village family names
* Niddrie & Benhar Coal Company --Newcraighall from 1830 --Newcraighall from
* Newcraighall; Fight to save village --Newhailes --Brunstane House; Maitland Bridge
* Craighall --Duddingston Mansion- Milton House --Peffermill House
* Craigmillar Housing Estate from 1930 --The War Years ...names for a memorial
* Craigmillar College Settlement --Craigmillar Boy's Club --Childrens House Nursery
* Craigmillar Labour Party --Churches --Craigmillar 1962-1985 Craigmillar Festival Society
* Craigmillar from 1985 - 2000 -Craigmillar Community Musicals Scripts and songs....
* BBC Films --Videos --Photographs --Craigmillar Regeneration. --The Partnership...
* Visions of the future --Craigmillar Arts and the Centre --Craigmillar Communiversity
* A Healthy Living Centre --Other community archives --Reminisces, oral histories
* Open Forum- discussion; comments; ideas --Bibliography --Maps
* Permanent Exhibitions housed throughout the community --Acknowledgements  

GREATER CRAIGMILLAR ARCHIVES
For thousand of years people have inhabited Craigmillar. The Gaels were here. They named it Craig-miol-ard - signifying a high and bare rock.
The drone of the Druids wafted into eternity as the Votadini and Maetae tribes left their imprint on the land.
Vikings probably strayed this far inland.
The tramp of Roman Legions reverberated over the fields as they marched behind their centurions en route to Inveresk Fort.
Over the centuries countless generations of peasants tilled the fertile soil, many as serfs or neyfs bound to a piece of land, bought and sold with it.
Many were the times the English pillaged the land with fire and sword. In 1544 the Earl of Hereford and his hordes on their 'Rough Wooing mission' burned Craigmillar Castle. Twenty-two years later Mary Queen of Scots convalesced there, while in the Great Hall her nobles planned the death of her husband Lord Darnley.
From the middle ages to the 19th century two powerful families dominated Craigmillar.... the Prestons in Craigmillar Castle and the Wauchopes of Niddrie Merechel. The latter owning the lands of Niddrie and the coal beneath.
Coal extraction went on for six centuries. As the search for the 'black gold ' went deeper whole families were forcefully lowered into the bowels of the earth. There men hewed the coal while women and children carried it on their backs to the world above, many of the children being 'arled' (sold) to the coal-master at their baptism. From 1606 to 1799 a Scottish Act of Parliament enslaved collier and salter families to the pits for life. So for 193 years Niddrie colliers and their families were slaves.
During the 19th century although colliers were now free, conditions in Lothian pits were among the worst in the UK. In 1842 a Royal Commission examining conditions of children in 'mines and manufacturer' collected evidence in Newcraighall, one of the deepest and worst pits. Enshrined in the memory and echoing down the ages, Newcraighall village will forever be haunted by the ghostly voices of their children giving the Commission a horrendous picture of their young lives. Following a national outcry employment of women and children in the mines was outlawed. Excluded were boys of 10 and over.
From the days of the first Bell pits to 1968 when the last deep pit closed, miners suffered cruel punishments, imprisonment and eviction from their homes in their fight to improve the appalling living and working conditions. Supported by home and community the spirit of community was never quelled. A sculpture in Newcraighall commemorates this for all time.
The community spirit was never more evident than, when in the 1892 Parliamentary election, miners, who now had the vote, affected the course of the country's history. Putting their jobs and homes in jeopardy they courageously voted against their laird, Colonel Andrew Wauchope, who refused to support an eight-hour working day. Wauchope lost the seat. Gladstone returned as Prime Minister.
As Craigmillar went into the 20th century, coal-mining, brewing, and the manufacture of margarine were the main industries. At one time there were seven breweries, two pits, Woolmet and Klondyke and the Creamery.
In 1928 the Wauchope dynasty was no more and the estate was sold to Edinburgh Town Council. Two years later the building of public housing began, bringing the city homeless and slum dwellers to live in Niddrie Mains, the home farm.
By the 196O's Craigmillar was made up from twelve areas of housing, Niddrie Mains; Niddrie Marischal; Niddrie House; Niddrie Mill; the Peffers; Peffermill; The Thistle; Greendykes; Bingham; Magdalene; Cleehkim; and Newcraighall Village.
With a population of 17.000 it was now the size of a small town. Built without amenities needed for a small town life, it was a social disaster waiting to happen.
The first rumblings came with the run-down of the coal-mines and breweries and the closure of the Creamery. This left Craigmillar largely a dormitory area. The resulting mass unemployment was to dog the area for decades to come, bringing with it all the festering social ills of 20th century urban living.
It was then in 1962 that Peffermill School Mothers Club, frustrated at the lack of employment, educational, social and cultural opportunities for their children, re-acted angrily to a brush off by authority which scoffed at their children's' ability to profit from music lessons. Tapping into local culture and traditions they staged a people's festival.
Thus Craigmillar Festival Society was born. Marrying the fun of the festival with the passion of politics, it created a powerful partnership of residents, politicians and professionals dedicated to fighting for social justice. This won for the area some of the missing facilities and opportunities, with many of the caring services being run by the people themselves. Twelve years later the European Economic Community awarded the Society a massive grant to further what was now seen as an innovative approach to community development. The community would decide needs and spend the grant accordingly. - a radical step indeed. So successful was the programme that people from many lands beat a path to Craigmillar to study and take home a blueprint.
The required EEC report proved a unique document. Called The Gentle Giant who shares and cares, Craigmillar's Comprehensive Plan for Action In it the people gave 400 recommendations for improving the quality of life in Craigmillar. Some of these have since been implemented by the local authority and by the community. Others remain a pipe dream - ie a family swimming pool.
But as fundamental problems such as unemployment, education, health and crime can only be solved by national government policies, community action, however Herculean, can never be more than sticking plaster on the wound.
Because of this, Craigmillar stands at the gate of the 21st century still dogged by the highest unemployment rate in Lothians, bad health and an education system which in spite of positive discrimination, dedicated teachers and extra resources, due to souci-economic deprivation, fails to develop the potential of most children and adults.
But beyond the gate flickers a flame of hope. In partnership with the private sector and the community, Edinburgh City Council has set up a Company committed to taking radical measure to halt economic decline and redress the social balance. It promises community participation and consultation. The Partnership strategy document acknowledges that Craigmillar differs from other city housing estates in need of regeneration. Its people gained world acclaim by unlocking and using the community's creative energies to trail-blaze the use of art as a catalyst for community development and social change. But will the partnership learn from Craigmillar's past?
If its history is ignored and regeneration is attained by bureaucracy selling land and houses: changing the name, inter-spacing out-of-town shopping; dispersing much of the indigenous population; ditching local culture and traditions and burying the past, then what was once Craigmillar, may well become part of Edinburgh's polluted, soulless urban sprawl. Then the area no longer with a heart pump-primed by its people's creativity, will appear to have lost both its identity and its spirituality.
Yet future historians will show, how, throughout the UK and in many parts of the world the spirit of community, which flowered here, lives on. It was borne there by Craigmillar sons and daughters and the people who came to study and take home the blueprint for a sharing-caring creative community. They will also show, how, cradled deep in the psyche of the remaining indigenous population, the spirit of community lives on to one-day bloom again.
So if on the other hand, Craigmillar regeneration is fanned by the people's philosophy, which believes everyone is creative, that the arts, education and training can unlock the community's creative energy and develop people's talents, skills, know-how and intelligence to create a sharing-caring, creative community. Then the future might well see Craigmillar a collection of 12 thriving communities, each with a vibrant focal point - renowned, not for its deprivation, but for its enterprising social and cultural life-a place of opportunity for all, where families will want to put down roots and bring up their children.
CRAIGMILLAR its history....

Craigmillar Castle Craig- moil- ard, signifying a high and bare rock, accurately describes the site prior to the erection of the Castle.
The earliest record of Craigmillar is 1137 when David 1 gave to the Holy Trinity Church of Dunfermilne in perpetual gift, some houses in Cragmelor with several acres of arab.e land.
1212; During the reign of Alexander 11, William Fitz Hendry granted 'toft' of land;. He was known as Henrey de Craigmillar
1374; Barony of Craigmillar acquired by Sir Symon Preston from John de Capella. Tower House built.
1380; North-east tower of castle provided with cannon for defence.
1427: machiolated parapets added to Castle; Date shown over entrance gateway.
1434: Sir Henry Preston now owner of Castle
1477: John Stuart. Earl of Mar, done to death in Castle by his brother, James 111.
1509: In the castle gardens it was said two scorpions were found. One dead the other alive.
1510: Armorial stone so dated at Castle bearing arms of Sir George Preston.
1514: Young King James V removed to Castle for safety from the pestilence raging in Edinburgh.
1544: In May the Earl of Hereford's on his 'rough wooing mission' burned the Castle.
1543: Queen Mary made Sir Simon Preston Lord Provost of Edinburgh
He afterwards broke away from her allegiance and it was in his house that the Queen was lodged the night before she was carried to Loch Leven.
1560: Queen Mary recovered from an illness at Castle. "The clear sweet air of Craigmillar" she was wont to call it.
1566: The signing of the Bond at the Castle. Present were Queen Mary, her nobles Argyll; Bothwell; Huntle;y. Maitland and Sir James Balfour
1566: Rizzio murdered at Holyrood.
1567: Darnley blown up at Kirk o' Field. Queen Mary in residence
at Craigmillar Castle.
1572: Castle garrisoned by Regent Mar and used as a military prison.
1578: Colonel Preston of Craigmillar fought against Germans in the low Countries.
1628: Sir Richard Preston of Craigmillar drowned on a voyage to Ireland.
1660: Barony of Craigmillar bought from Preston by Sir John Gilmour WS. Afterwards he was President of the College of Justice and elected MP for Midlothian. He altered and enlarged the Castle
1671: Sir John Gilmour died. Succeeded by Sir Alexander Gilmour.
1678: Sir John Preston was excluded by the Duke of Lauderdale from commission as one inclined to burn too many witches.
1693 ; Kate Oswold, wife of a farm labourer was accused of having carnal dealings with the Devil and bewitching cattle. (the farmer's cows had blood in their milk)
ADD HERE other names of local women burned as witches - also photo
 
 
1737: Sir Chas Gilmour Baronet elected MP, Lord of Trade and Plantations
1759: Sir Chas died. His sister Helen married Liberton
1758: Sir Alexander Gilmour of Craigmillar taken prisoner at St Cas. He was MP for Midlothian 1751-to 1774. He died in France 1n 1771 and the barony and main line of family became extinct.
1792; The succession devolved on William Charles Little of Liberton, great grandson of Sir Alexander Gilmour and grandson of Sir Alexander's daughter Helen. He assumed the surname Gilmour.
1813: John Pinkerton, advocate and Mr Irvine WS discovered a human skeleton in the dungeon of Craigmillar Castle.
1884: Walter James Little Gilmour spent a large sum in preserving and repairing the Castle which was rapidly going to decay.
Mr Gilmour who never married died. The estates devolved to Sir Robert Gilmour of Liberton and Craigmillar.
At what period the Castle was last tenanted does not seem to be recorded. But till well into the eighteenth century, two old ladies, daughters of Sir John Gilmour lived there. It is also said that a farmer then occupied part of the castle.
The Castle became a ruin.
1906: A Pageant of Queen Mary was held in the ruined Craigmillar Castle in aid of the Scottish Children's League of Pity. ADD PHOTO
1927: July. A spectular Scottish Historical Pageant, staged by the aristocracy of Scotland, was held in the castle grounds in aid of Queen Victoria Jubilee Institute for Nurses. Directed by Sir Frank Benson. It had 40.000 spectators; 3000 in the cast. and attended by King George V and Queen Mary. (See Book Scottish Historical Pageant July 1927 and a pictorial record in Helen Crummy archives) ADD PHOTOS
1938: Public housing built in Kerr's field adjacent to Castle.
1946: Sir John Little Gilmour handed over Craigmillar Castle to the Ministry of Works.
1967: Craigmillar Historical Pageant. Staged by Craigmillar Festival Society, and enacted
by local people it traced the social history of Craigmillar. (see Book Craigmillar '67)
1970: Craigmillar Mediaeval Joust staged by Craigmillar Festival Society.
Over the next decade many productions, based on authentic Castle history were staged in the castle by Craigmillar Festival Society..... Written, produces and costumed by the people of Craigmillar they included..
Rough Wooing
Castle for a King ADD PHOTOS
Children Thro' the Ages
Annual Mediaeval Banquet and Ball
1992; Ian Hedworth John Little Gilmour was made a life peer.
And chose to be known as Baron Gilmour of Craigmillar. (See Who's Who 1993).
Bibliography information on castle
Craigmillar & Its Environments by Tom Speedy
 
 
*1927 Scottish Historical Pageant. Craigmillar Castle
includeds a Programme and pictorial souvener
*1967 Craigmillar '67 - CFS Historical Pageant.
CFS Castle Productions ....see Community Musicals and Castle Productions page
Programmes and scripts -Craigmillar Festival Mediaeval Joust.1970 Rough Wooing, The Craigmillar Recipe, Sir Simon, Saint or Sinner, Children Thro` The Ages, A Castle For A King
.
 
 
THE BARONY OF NIDDRY MERSCHELL. 1212-1899
ADD photo of Mansion
In 1212 William, son of Henricus de Craigmillar 'gave to the church and monastery of Dunfermilne, a toft of land in Craigmillar, which led from the town of Nedrieff to the church of Libberton.
About that time Niddrie Merschell was occupied by a family called Nudrie. The date of their last charter of confirmation was 18th October, 1364. although the Wauchopes may have been contemporaneous in two parts lands.
The Wauchopes of Niddrie Merechel were of French origin. They had settled in Roxburghshire about 1062. and came here in 1390 when GILBERT WAUCHOPE was granted a charter of the lands of Niddrie from Robert 111.
Except for two short periods of time when the estate was forfeited it was held by the family known as the Wauchopes of Niddrie Marischal, until 1899 when the dynasty died out with death of Major Andrew Gilbert Wauchope. He died without issue. The estate was sold to Edinburgh Corporation in 1928, but much of the surrounding land was still held by the Wauchope family.
ARCHIBALD, who stands THIRD in the genealogical account, seems to have been pretty successful in acquiring additions to the lands. - PILMUIR in Currie Parish in 1489 - the two merk land of GILMERTON in 1493 and the three husband land, called BOGGIS lands in 1503.
His son and heir GILBERT had sasine of the office houses and part of HOUSTOUN in 1502.
The Mansion House of Niddrie Maershell stood in the vicinity of Craigmillar Castle and was until l920, in the Parish of Liberton and lay about three and a quarter miles south-east of Edinburgh. The barony was not very extensive, but was compactly situated, and the soil was fertile. In charters and other documents it is described as consisting of" twa pairt and third pairt" lands of Niddrie Merschell- these divisions having different possessions in remoter times. A small stream having its source in the Pentlands Hills ran past the house, and contributed much to the beauty of the undulating grounds which formed the park. It drove a mill at Niddrie, as well as one at Brunstane and flowed under the Magdalene Bridge out into the River Forth.
Around the old Mansion House, which stood on the rising ground east of the present stream a hamlet grew up, called the village of NIDDRIE. It occupied both sides of the stream and the public road passed through it and contained at one time three hundred houses, three breweries and fourteen houses which sold liquor. The village has long since disappeared and by the late 19th century the only hamlets MILLTOWN and WHITEHILL were chiefly inhabited by colliers.
1502 - A chapel called "Capella de Nudry-Merschale" stood on the north side of the rivulet at the west end of the present Mansion. It was one of the two chapels, which beside the parish kirk existed in the parish of Liberton in former times. It was dedicated to God and the Virgin Mary, "in honorem sancte crucis,"and held of the Abbey of Holyrood. The clergyman who officiated on its foundation, in 1502, when Archibald Wauchop de Nudry-Merschale, with consent of his spouse Euphame Skowgate, made a mortification. "dominus Williemus Werok," and had a manse, an acre of ground for a glebe the privilege of having two cows fed in the common pasture and twelve merks paid him yearly at the usual terms of Whitsunday and Martinmas, from the lands of Pylmuir, in the parish of Currie , which with Ravelrig at that time belonged to the barony of Niddry Merschell. There was in catholic times, an organ loft in the chapel. Three priests lived in the village to serve it, one at the east and one at the west and one in the middle just over against the house. The chapel was destroyed by a mob from Edinburgh, after they had destroyed the royal chapel at Holyrood-house in 1688, Nothing of it now remains save what is used as the burying vault of the family. It is neatly enclosed and secured by an iron gate. On a tomb inside near where the great altar is supposed to have stood, there is the following inscription;-
" This tome ves biggit be Robert Wauchop of Nydry Marischal, and entries heir, p p, 1587"

Pavilion Vault (1735) interior incorporates some fragments of Chapel according to RCAHMS (See 1735 Pavilion ) Pavilion extant 1986
(See the Play The Young Laird of Niddrie, ( HC Archives) - Illustrative of events in Edinburgh and vicinity 1589 -1598) this depicits Archibald Wauchope's feuds and his death, as well as the burning of the Chapel)
Thus Robert is said by My Whyte, in his Account of the Parish of Liberton to have been the founder of the chapel and they quote the date as 1387. The second figure is somewhat defaced and might be taken for a 3, but circumstances lead us to the conclusion , after mature consideration, that it is a 5 and that the real date is 1587. In that year William Wauchope died and was buried in the tomb. A large stone placed horizontally above it, records the fact in the following terms "Haer lyes ane honorabil man William Wauchop of Nidre Mershhil quha deceist ye day of February 1587. The other date given with Archibald as founder is 15O2 (this being the date on the charter)
After the Reformation the chapel was united to the Church of Liberton and as the Laird of Niddrie was joint patrons with the Crown, a right later disputed.
The burying place of the village was formerly close to the chapel, but in 1683 it was removed to a short distance south-west of the old garden, where it was thoroughly enclosed and seldom disturbed. Several headstones, most of these neatly carved and inscribed, point out the resting place of the tenancy and other inhabitants of the old village of Niddrie. On making some excavations in the 19th century at the west end of the chapel vault, a number of bones were dug up, the remains no doubt of the former burying ground.
It would be interesting to learn how the name of Niddry came to be given to the lands. The word is evidently of the British form of the Celtic and is sometimes spelt NIDROF and NIDRAIF in old documents. The historian of Libberton parish - Rev Mr Whyte - derives it from the Gaelic NIADH AND RI - which compound word would signify the King's Champion. Unlike that of Craigmillar, immediately adjacent, the name is not derived from any peculiar topographical feature, but there is an upright weather worn stone of large dimension, in a field immediately west of Niddrie House which in all likelihood marks the scene of some important conflict during the British period of our history. The etymology of the King's Champion might thus be supposed to receive some countenance, but there are other two Niddries within the bounds of the Lothian so that to account for so many Kings Champions is out of the question.
The addition of Merschell, Marischal or Marishal arose from the heads of the family of Wauchope of Niddrie having been hereditary Bailles to Keith, Lord Marischall and Marischal Deputies in Midlothian; from the Lords Marischal they had the lands of Niddry designed Niddry Marischal.
ROBERT the famous ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH must have been a younger son of Archibald, who was a man of great piety.. He was defective in his vision almost to blindness, possessed extraordinary talents. After studying under a tutor at home, he was sent over by his parents to France where he finished his course in Belles Lettres and Philosophy. He then applied himself to theology, went to Rome and took holy orders. He was appointed a Doctor of Divinity in the Paris University and was eight times elected procurator. He was recalled to Rome in 1535 by Pope Paul 111 who employed him as his legate to the Emporor of Germany and the King of France. He was then promoted Archbishop of Armagh in Ireland. He found the natives there in great ignorance and laboured with incredible pains for their instruction. Being ignorant of the Irish tongue he employed an interpreter. The Pope finding it necessary from the spread of a reforming spirit everywhere to assemble a General Assembly, called him to Rome that he might benefit from his advice, The wars and troubles in France had hindered such a convocation, but finding that the Emperor and the King of France were resolved to call one, for reforming the abuses complained of by Luther the Pope anticipated them by issuing a Bull for a general meeting of Trent on the 15th March 1544. Archbishop Wauchope was present during the entire sitting of the Council of Trent and continued until 1551; he also wrote a full account of it. He died on his way home from Paris immediately afterwards on 10th November 1551.
GILBERT successor to ARCHIBALD added WHITERIG, WODFLAT, OVERMOSS HOUSES and LADYLAND to the estate. The feuds, began in his Father's time, continued in his. In 1534 there was a mandate from Pope Paul 111 to confirm by apostolic authority to GILBERT the lands of QUHITINCHE and others granted by the Abbot of Holyrood.
GILBERT took an active part in promoting the Reformation. He was present at Knox's first sermon at St. Andrews in 1547. He was a member of the famous Parliament held in Edinburgh in August 1560, by which the Reformation was established.
WILLIAM successor to GILBERT died 1587.
1595 GEORGE. a celebrated Professor of Civil Law at Caen, Normandy was a younger son of William. He was sent to the Paris University to study Belles Lettres and Philosophy and wrote famous works. one being a Treatise concerning Ancient People of Rome.
ROBERT son of William, his son and his grandson were charged with rebellion in 1587 brought about by their adherence to the cause of Queen Mary.
ARCHIBALD in 1589 was charged with slaughter after a fight with Edmonstone and others at Bridgend, but escaped with the help of Sandilands. He was associated with many deeds of this nature throughout his young life. Together with the Earl of Bothwell he lead an attack on the Palace of Holyrood in 1591. For this the estate was forfeited and he appears to have gone abroad for some time. He came to an unhappy end, jumping to his death on trying to escape from Skinners Close where he was held on a charge of treason. His servant gave the alarm that his enemies had surrounded the house. With a view of escaping or destroying himself rather than be taken. he sprang out of a storm window and in falling broke his neck. He therefore preceded his father and never inherited the property . He was married and had at least one son, Francis who succeeded him.
Just after his death the Mansion House, which it was said could house a hundred men was burned by enemies of the family.
1594 - 3rd April; The Battle of Niddrie Edge.
(See Play The Young Laird of Niddrie in HC Archives.)
1600 - James Wauchope, slain in combat at St Leonards Hill. by Robert Auchmurtie, a barber. Some of the Bailes of Niddry were his seconds.
Meanwhile the forfeited estate of Niddrie was conferred on the EDMONSTONES - the feuded enemies of the family. as a solution probably for the injuries sustained by them and their friends during the feuds with the Wauchopes. ANDREW EDMONSTOUN OF EDMONSTOUN had a charter of the Barony of Niddrie in 1597 and another of the lands of Gilmertoun etc in 1603.
From the EDMONSTONES they were acquired by SECRETARY SANDILANDS , but whether by purchase or otherwise is not very clear
SIR FRANCIS son of Archibald was restored in 1603. The estate was formally conveyed over by SIR JAMES SANDILANDS of Slamannon to Sir Francis in 1608 who married Sir James' daughter. Francis had a career in the army was twice married and had 7 children. The restitution of the house of Niddrie was confirmed by Act of parliament in 1609..
SIR JOHN WAUCHOPE. son of Francis succeeded in 1632. He was a man of great prudence and managed to restore the broken fortunes of the family, while taking part in public affairs. He may be regarded as the chief restorer of the House of Niddrie. By frugal living and selling land viz Pilmuir, Revelrig, and Berney in West Lothian and selling off effects he financed it. He was a bed fellow of the Duke of Lauderdale, living with him. He was knighted by Chas. 1 in 1632.
(A skeleton was found while knocking down a window in the library. Considered to be a member of the Wauchope family, entombed 20 years before during the feuds).
1661 Sir John bought estate of Yetholm or Lochtree in Roxburghshire. Was also an Member of the Scottish Parliament - one of the Plantation of Kirks.
1668 - Was a Member of the Convention of Estates.
His second son John of Edmonstone was presented at his christening by a beautiful gold and enamel chain by Chas. 1 who took it from his neck. He was bred at the bar and promoted to the bench by the title of Lord Edmonstone in 1682. He married Anne only daughter of James Raitt of Edmonston and succeeded to the estate of which he had a crown charter.
1671 He was succeeded by his two sons who died without issue and his daughter's husband assumed the name of Wauchope
By a second marriage Sir John had a son James, He fell at Killiecrankie in 1689.
1643 Sir John resigned the lands and barony of Niddrie with the house, gardens, orchards, mill, multures, coals and coal-works and the patronage of the chapel, as well as the estate at Tounyettam, Chirrietrees etc in favour of his son ANDREW.Sir John died 1682 and was buried in Niddrie Chapel.
ANDREW was a catholic. He was very prudent and added land. Like his ancestors he spend much time in legal battles disputing rights to lands etc.
WILLIAM became friar of Niddrie, but unlike his father he was a Roman Catholic. An Act passed against the growth of Popery in 1700 being stringent, prohibiting any one of that religion either from acquiring or succeeding to property, or even acting in the capacity of tutor and as no resignation had followed the bond of entail it became difficult to see 'what mode William Wauchop. now younger of Niddrie 'should take to establish his right to the lands and baronies '
1692-1700 Wauchope made a net profit of £11,384. 4.8d. Price of coal was 2/2d per cart

1710 - James Wauchope, married daughter of Sir William Wallace, the champion of Scottish Freedom.
making a tentomony and nominating 10 tutors, 5 Protestant and five catholic..
1715 - 1745 Wauchopes sympathises with the Stuarts' Cause.
1735 - Pavilion/Vault - The front has a rusticated and pedimented arch between key stoned niches. Tablet set in pavement inscribed " This Pavilion is found(ed) by Andrew Waucho(pe) of Niddrie Esqr the eight day of October, 1735. (Vaulted interior incorporates some fragments of Chapel to the Virgin Mary (1502) according to Royal Commission for Ancient Historic Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS)
1745 Wauchope smuggled money in a basket of strawberries to Prince Chas Edward Stuart at Duddingston, where he lay with his army, the night before the Battle of Prestonpans..
1784 succeeded by ANDREW (born 1736), a captain in the regiment of the dragoon guards and who fought at the battle of Minden.
" Come stately Niddrie, auld and true Girt with the sword that Minden knew We have o'er few sic lairds as you, Carle, now the King's come."
He also inherited lands at Halterburnhead and Frogden.
Andrew his eldest son was killed at the battle of the Pyrenees in command of the 20th foot. He died 1784. He had 15 children,
1799 Part of the Wauchope Mansion damaged by fire... restored by Robert Adam the famous architect.
1811 - WILLIAM , Lieutenant Colonel in the army succeeded. He married Elizabeth eldest daughter of Robert Baird of Newbyth in 1816 and had 4 children. He died 1826
1824 - Restoring the mansion after the fire another wing was added. The architect was Robert Adam. Stonemason/author HUGH MILLAR worked on the house for two years. His book, My Schools and Schoolmasters gives an account of the two years he spent in Niddry. In his book
he gives a graphic account of Niddry Village.
1826 - ANDREW, a minor succeeded. In 1840 he married Frances, daughterof Henry Lloyd of County Tipperary. They had four children William born 184l Harriet-Elizabeth-Francis
Andrew Gilbert born born 1846 Hersey-Mary-Josephine
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1882 ANDREW GILBERT succeeded then being a minor. His older brother William having died.
1861 census;. Housekeeper (Sarah Turner). Butler (John Falside), footmen children's nurse, lady's maid, cook 2 housemaids, coachman, groom, head gardener, 3 gardeners, poultry keeper, shepherd, gas man, 4 male servants, 7 female servants and a shepherd. , Niddrie Mains Farm -400 acres employed 4 boys, 10 women, agricultural workers.
Robert Savage - Schoolmaster.
1863 - 64 Prince Albert - Duke of Edinburgh, eldest son of Queen Victoria, dined and stayed week-ends at Niddry Mansion. He served with Andrew on HMS George .
1865 - Andrew Gilbert enlisted in Army; made Lieutenant in 1867; Lt Colonel in 1884 and Lt Col.1898 Major General in 1898.
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1874 -Wauchope sold land to the Niddrie Colliery Company.
1875 - 1800 Wauchope sold land to the Benhar & Niddrie Coal Company .. The Benhar Coal Company acquired an extensive estate near Niddrie and started a brickyard at
Portobello and two stone quarries at Joppa.
1882 - The Niddrie and Benhar Coal Company was established to acquire certain colliers, houses and plant from the Liquidators of the Benhar Coal Company, which was itself an amalgamation of the Niddrie Coal Company and the original Benhar Coal Company who had acquired an extensive estate near Niddrie and started on it a brickyard, and two stone quarries at Joppa.
(The Wauchopes were very minor shareholders in the Niddrie and Benhar Coal Company (see will )
1882 - Andrew Gilbert marries Elythea Ruth Erskine.

1883 - Twins born, named William and Andrew.

1883 - Mrs Wauchope died in London
Fife. 1887 - 4th April; Twins get scarlet fever. William died. Andrew left severely handicapped and went to live with his Mother's family the Erskines of Cambo in Fife
1885 - Craigmillar Creamery Company open (Apple Blossom Margarine factory

1890 - Wauchope, began an election campaign at a meeting with the miners in Newcraighall School on 10th Feb. Chaired by Sir Chas. Dalrymple, (who had fought the seat previously and persuaded Wauchope to stand.. One of the reforms being put forward by the Liberals was an eight hour day for miners. Wauchope as a Conservative opposed it. As the miners were in the forefront of the fight for legislation for the enactment of the eight hour day they courageously voted against him. This was to cost him his seat.
In 1892 -Wauchope (Unionist) fought Mr W. E Gladstone (Liberal) for the Midlothian Parliamentary seat at the General Election.
The result was GLADSTONE 5845 WAUCHOPE 5155 Majority 690 Wauchope reduced Gladstone's majority from 4,631 to 690
The Scotsman, which had given Wauchope loyal support in his campaign said ." If Colonel Wauchope had fallen and bowed before the eight hour idol, he would have been Member of Parliament for Midlothian at this time".
1893 -Colonel Andrew Gilbert Wauchope married JEAN MUIR daughter of the Principal of Edinburgh University. SIR William MUIR. 1895 - Wauchope chosen as one of the deputies by the Church of Scotland Assembly at the Irish Presbytery in Belfast, said,"I am a Presbyterian born and bred and want to die one!")
1895 - Map shows a considerable extension of coal-mining around Niddrie
1899 , 11th December, Major General Andrew Gilbert Wauchope killed at Magersfontein in the Boer War. He died leaving £87,000 plus Niddrie and his other estates. He died without issue as his heir was mentally handicapped.
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1890; Jewel Cottages built beside Fever Hospital.

1892: Breweries built in Craigmillar

1928 - Wauchope Estate bought by Edinburgh Corporation The Mansion was uses as a Civil Defence training centre during the war and lying neglected and unsupervised after the War it was burned by vandals. (Local councillors, Jack Kane and Willie Campbell tried unsuccessfully for many years to have it refurbished as a community centre)
1942 - Mrs Wauchope died
Today all that is left of the Wauchope dynasty is a graveyard, a Pavilion, street names and in front of Niddrie Mill School a monument standing sentinel over what is left of its dykes built to keep the serfs at bay Thw Sports /Community Centre built near where their majestic mansion once stood is named, not after Wauchope, but Dr Jack Kane,,OBE.. the son of a miner, who as a young man lived in Niddrie For 38 years he was a Labour Town Councillor and then Edinburgh Corporation first and las Labour Lord Provost.
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NIDDRY VILLAGE
Niddrie Village started off as a mansion house occupied by the Wauchopes, surrounded by various buildings and houses for what was a large agricultural estate; in effect a small hamlet with a chapel. It had its own Mill, i.e. Niddrie Mill and down stream made a mill pond, Perhaps in the 17th century or earlier, houses were built for the colliers well away from the main village, but around the mill. This led to the splitting of the villages into two distinct areas, as Hugh Miller describes them ; Milltown and probably Hunters Hall. By 179l the colliers's cottages were terraced and similar to those in Whitehill Street Newcraighall (according to Miller's description) In his time the numbers had dropped to 5 or 6 living in Milltown. The fact combined with the absence of a mention of any pits at Niddrie in the Commissioner Frank's Report of 1842 suggests by the end of the 19th century coal mining in the Wauchope estate had dwindled to almost nothing or had stopped altogether.
1792 Stat Acct shows"The old village of Niddrie Marischal situated on the east and west of Niddrie Marischal House on both sides of the rivulet . The public road passes through it. It contains 300 houses - 3 breweries - 14 houses which sold liquor. The chief villages are Hilltown and what is called Hunters' Hall, where those who work in the colliery reside, where a fire engine is erected which it is hoped will be successful. A few years ago there were 50 colliers - at present 5 or 6. So as early as 1700 the colliery here was considerable."
183l - Old Niddry Railway opened from Niddry to Fisherow,

The appearance of the Niddrie and Benhar Coal Company formed sometime before the early 1870, amalgamating with the Niddrie Coal Company was started up by a third party, such as a coal merchant, taking advantage of the new railway line through Niddrie . The Wauchope family benefited from the third party by being able to sell mineral rights, grant wayleaves, rent and sell land to the Coal and Railway companies. By 1899 (see Wauchopes's will) the Wauchopes income from the coal workings was over £20,000 per year and this was all without raising a finger, just sitting back and taking the money.
A song dating from the 18th century and sung by the women of Niddrie as they worked....
" When I was a coalbearer to be
When I was a coalbearer to be
Through all the coal pits I maun wear my dron brat:
If my heart it should break
I can never win free."
(The dron brat was the harness/apron that the women had to wear to drag the coal.) It is said a Wauchope aunt sung this song as her party-piece.
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LIST OF NIDDRIE FAMILY NAMES
From the first Government Census. 1841.
Young; King; Macnab; Scott; Marshal; Miller; Walker; Waldie; Hewson; Anderson;
Brown; Waugh; Sinbaid; Nealeands; Blackloch; Anderson; Barrie; Cane? Ruthrford;
Taylor; Johnston; Kelly; Taylor Melledis? Tait; Knight; Buchanan; Ferguson; Scott
Stobbie; Ferrier; Visit; Branless; Blair; Flockhart; Stewart; Ross; Aitken; Downie;
Ogilvie; Watt; Henderson; Nicol; Stoddart; Lumsden; Taylor; King; Makgill; Forbes;
Wauchope; Squance; Howden; Dingwall; Grahan; Watt; Galvane; Hirme; Steedman;
James; Tobias; Bowes; Ferguson.
Niddry Village was replaced by the Jewel Cottages.which were built beside the old Fever Hospital. The latter became St Christopher's School and is now a business centre..
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Niddrie School.
NEWCRAIGHALL
Newcraighall village is unique in that it is the only mining village to be redeveloped within the city of Edinburgh..
Away back in the mists of time the land on which Newcraighall is built was called Wanton Walls, from the Gaelic Bhaile Chuitail - probably a farmtoun with a guidman farming the land.
Although the village as we know it today only began in 1827, when it was given the name of Newcraighall, the ancestors of some of today's mining families lived and toiled here in feudal times, when this part of the Lothians was rich fertile land worked first by serfs and nerfs who were the property of the land owners.
The fullest early account of conditions of farm service dates rom 1656. In an Assessment of Wages by the Justices of the Peace for Midlothian wages were fixed at maximumnot minimum
By then farm servants lived either in "cot houses" or in the farm house. A 17th century traveller, the naturalist John Ray described those in East Lothian as "pitiful Cots, built of stone and covered in turves, having in them but one room, many of them with no chimneys, the windows very small holes and not glazed." The windows were simply blocked up when the weather was rough. The wages of these servants were paid entirely in kind, in oats and pease and grazing for one or two cows. Such an arrangement meant that they were heavily dependent on their masters and on their stake in the land itself
The oldest building in present day Newcraighall is the 17th century farm house on Wanton Walls farm steading. Originally it was the mains farm belonging to the Whitehill Estate, later renamed Newhailes. Today it is worked by tenant farmer, Robert Denholm, whose family has farmed there since 1931 and it is fully mechanised for the production of grain and barley. Part of the old road and the stane dyke can still be seen at the entrance of the farm steading today.
The course of the underground stream running through Newcraighall was until 1891 the boundary line between two parishes, namely Inveresk and Liberton. Thus the west side of the village was in Liberton Parish while the east was in Inveresk Parish.
Below the rich fertile land in these two parishes lay some of the richest coal seams in Scotland. The land and the coal was owned by a few powerful aristocratic families, who, as part of the Scottish aristocracy and by virtue of their involvement in Parliament, the Courts, Church and Army wielded absolute power over the lives of the families who lived and worked both on andr under their land.
COAL - BLACK GOLD
Nature endowed mankind with an abundance of energy in the form of coal and Scotland by its geology was given a major share. Vast reserves still lie untapped across its central belt
Mining for coal is one of the oldest industries. It is also a dangerous occupation and mining folk have had more than their share of suffering and hardship. The price of coal has been dearly bought in human suffering and no more so than in the coalfields of Scotland.
The attractive countryside around Edinburgh has long been famous for its coal mines and goes back 800 years to the time when mediaeval monks first worked the shallow workings, which grew into the gigantic deep mines of the 20th century.
Within the city boundary were two mining communities, Gilmerton and Newcraighall. Each community had it's own identity and traditions. but both were united by a common heritage.
Today only Newcraighall survives as a village and only because of the dogged fight put up by the villagers.
Built in 1827, life in Newcraighall eventually revolved around the KLONDYKE - it's giant mine. Then in 1968 on the Altar of Progress the pit was axed. and the village, run down and in need of modernization, was condemned to die.
But as the death-knell sounded and City Fathers stood with bull-dozers at the ready, determined to wipe the village from the face of their fair city forever, Newcraighall villagers took to the barricades crying "Stop - our village must not die!"
The unquenchable spirit of community, born in the barren coaldust of centuries of abject poverty, slavery. struggle, sacrifice and exploitation, spurred the mining families on to save their village. Together they fought to preserve it's identity, culture and traditions of sharing and caring for each other and to leave for posterity, a living monument to that spirit - their reborn village of Newcraighall - a modern village equipped to face the needs of the 21at Century.
Supported by the Craigmillar Festival Society, the community umbrella organisation which miners and their families had played a major role in establishing, they were put them in touch with professionals from Universities and other institutions all anxious to assist the 'Save the Village' Campaign
Not only did the campaign succeed, but the villagers won the right to have a say in the replanning of their village and together with the Society and Lord Provost Kane helped to spearhead a new concept in community participation,
Over centuries of Newcraighall's dark history the endurance and commitment of its mining families in their constant fight for survival, freedom, equality and justice has given the community a sense of comradeship, self-respect, dignity and a reputation for loyalty to the wider mining community. This has made not only a lasting and valuable contribution to the culture and traditions of this part of the Lothian coalfields, but to the economic stability of Scotland itself.
NEWCRAIGHALL WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
Back in the mists of time the land on which the present village of Newcraighall is built was known as WHITEHILL.
There the ancestors of some of today's families lived and tilled the land as serfs and neyfs - bound to a piece of land and bought and sold with it. They were paid entirely in pease and oats with an allowance of land to grow oats and bere and graze one cow.
Whitehill lay in two Parishes with the underground stream being the dividing boundary line. The west was in LIBERTON Parish and the east in INVERESK
Below the lush fertile lands in these two parishes lay some of the richest of coal-seams in Scotland, owned by two powerful aristocratic families.
In Liberton Parish was one of the oldest and most powerful land owners in this part of the Lothians, the Wauchopes of Niddrey Merechal. Of French origin, they came here in the 12th century when Gilbert Wauchope was given a charter of the lands of Nudrie from Robert 111.
On the east Sir Archibald Hope, Bart, of Craighall came to Inveresk in l768 from Fife bringing the name Craighall. He started mining in Inveresk and rented other pits from Lord Wemyms.
As those landowners were part of the Scottish Establishment who controlled Parliament, the Kirk, the Courts and the Armed Forces, this gave them the power of life and death over all who laboured for them.
The earliest record of coal being used in these parts was during the Roman Occupation, but the first reference to real coal workings appears in Monastic Charters. The monks at Newbattle Abbey were granted a coal works and a quarry in 1210. Old prints show them working on the Banks of the River Esk.
After a bad harvest and faced with starvation during a hard winter, the serfs, desperate to find a means of supplementing their meager livelihood, followed the example of the monks they saw on the river bank. In the frozen snow-covered fields on the banks of Niddry Burn and the River Esk they dug up surface coal, which they sold to their feudal lords living in the nearby mansions.
It was not long before these already wealthy land-owners saw the potential of and the value of this vast untapped wealth - the black gold lying beneath their land, Mobilising their labour force against their will, very soon they were lowering not only men, but women and children deeper and deeper into the dark dungeons of the earth to extract their coal - a terrifying experience!
Thus many of those early agricultural workers became part-time, them later full-time colliers and coalbearers in their masters' coal-heughs.
As coal extraction went deeper so new systems had to be found. One was the Bell Pit. A shaft was sunk, them bellied out where the coal lay. An early drawing of such a pit shows women and children carrying creels of coal on their backs up ladders. As the shaft showed sign of collapse the pit became unmanageable through flooding, so the pit would be abandoned and another sunk nearby. Evidence of
T
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these Bell Pits have almost disappeared, but sometimes where they have subsided, they leave a funnel like depression on the surface about 30 feet across.
Another method was the Pit and Adit system. Under both these systems men hewed the coal, while women and children as young as six years of age carried it in creels on their backs up turn-pike ladders.
When the industry was in it's infancy coal-heughs belonging to these noble families encircled Whitehill. But over the centuries as they became deeper and increased in number Whitehill was eventually engulfed, blighting the landscape and the environment.
In 1544 the Prestons of Craigmillar Castle were granted a charter for Whitehill but it was not until 1699, that John Smith a famous Architect built a house there. This was the first phase of the house which was later to become Newhailes Mansion. Smith who fathered 32 children sold out to Sir David Dalrymple in 1707. His son Lord Hailes the famous historian and judge wrote 'The Annals of Scotland" at Newhailes.
As the estate became established they called their home farm WANTON WALLS
Today that farmhouse is the oldest house in Newcraighall. Although still part of the Newhailes Estate, it is worked by a family of tenant farmers, the Denholms. Part of the old road and a stane dyke can still be seen beside the farm steading today.
North of Whitehill was Brunstane Estate, anciently called Gilbertton. By 1547, the time of the reformation, there was a mansion there.
The Earl of Abercorn, lived in nearby Duddingston Mansion, (now the Milton Motel) It was built in 1763 for the eighth Earl, who owned pits in Easter Duddingston and Liberton.
The 1600's
Although by the 1600's coal mining was an expanding industry. coal owners were experiencing great difficulty attracting and keeping workers to dig out their coal. Such was the appalling working conditions in the Scottish pits, that in spite of the fact that beggary was rampart, people would rather die from starvation than work in what they saw as a slow living death. Those already employed were leaving in droves. Those who remained were quick to realise their bargaining power .But the coal-owners had the power to put a stop to that.
In 1606, at their instigation the Scottish Parliament, to its eternal shame. passed the infamous Act reducing colliers and salters to abject servitude. At the same time it gave coal- owners the power to apprehend vagabonds and sturdy beggars and make them slaves in their pits. Other Acts followed which strengthened and extended the Masters' power of life and death over their labour force.
Thus for nearly 200 years colliers and salters in Scotland were slaves, the property of the pit- owner.
The Scottish slave differed from the American Negro only in that he could not be sold on the open market. He was bought and sold as the goods and chattel of the pit and the land. A collier could be exchanged for a donkey - indeed often was! The beast being treated better than the human.
In 1641 the Act was further strengthened by restricting the giving of bounty money and depriving the collier of holidays.
In 1661 Correction Houses were introduced to deal with faults in the character of the individual. Many were the innocent men and women who suffered in such places merely for protesting about conditions.
If collier slaves ran away and were caught, they were charged with stealing themselves from their Master. Brutally and severely punished. they were either jailed in a house of correction, or harnessed to the gin and made to walk backwards doing the work of the horse. Many were encased in an iron collar and chained to a pillar of coal. As the collar pressed on the three jugular veins., this cruel punishment became known as the 'jougis'.
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(The saying 'In the "Jug" meaning in jail is derived from this)
The 1700's
By the beginning of the 18th century demand for coal was growing steadily. There must have been considerable coal workings over at Niddry, because over the period, 1692 to 1700, Wauchope made a profit of £ £ll,384. The price of coal was then 2/2d per cart load.
Poverty and enslavement became absolute when the Habeas Corpus Act of 1701, which gave protection to Scottish people against wrongful arrest and delay in trials, stated it was "in no wayes to be extended to COALLIERS AND SALTERS!"
Thus colliers and salters became a race apart, despised and ostracised in their own land by State, Kirk and their fellow-countryman. People called then 'the broon yins'
A deeply religious people, only the promise of a Heavenly Life Hereafter made their lot on earth bearable. So when in some places they were debarred from worship in the Kirk and refused a Christian burial they cried out in anguish,"Punishing us on both sides of the grave - for what?"
Over at Newton Parish Church. where many families from Niddry and neighbouring villages worshipped we find they are now excluded from worship in the Kirk and buried in unsanctified ground. A plaque dated 1742, under the colliers loft in that church commemorates their acceptance back into the Church after a 15 year fight for re-admission. It gives names of some of the colliers alongside the tools of their craft. - ARCHIBALD, ADAM AND KINGHORN
This rejection by society bound them together as never before. Swearing, what they called the SECRET OATH OF BROTHERING, they pledged undying loyalty to one another and a dogged determination to carry on the fight for freedom and justice. This practice spread like wildfire throughout Scotland, the message often carried by runaway slaves, who would be sheltered by mining families putting themselves in grave danger.
" ARLING" children to the pits went on in Scotland down the centuries. This barbaric practice sold the child's future labour in return for a sum of money given to the father at his child's baptism with the minister as witness. It became a formal and regular custom with a written record of the responsibilities undertaken by the coal master for his part. At one time there was a tax on each child baptised, so many frail children were never christened because of this.
In 1707 James Smith at Whitehill was in financial difficulties because of involvement of a 'drowned colliery' near Musselburgh. He sold Whitehill to Sir David Dalrymple, Bart of Hailes. son of the first Viscount Stair, who renamed it NEWHAILES. adopting the name from the old family seat Hailes Castle near East Linton, His son, Sir David Dalrymple, born there in 1726. later became the famous Lord Hailes who wrote the 'Annuals of Scotland'.
On studying a map of 172l we see for the first time the home farm of Newhailes s being shown as WANTON WALLS. A 1793 map shows 2 houses there.
Further evidence of the profits being made from coal in this part of the Lothians at this time, was the installation of the 2nd steam engine in Scotland in the Edmonstone Pit in 1725. Another was installed in 1763 over at Duddingston by the Earl of Abercorn.
1745 saw Scotland embroiled in the Jacobite Rebellion. Over at Niddry, Wauchope supported the Stuart cause and smuggled some of his wealth, carried by his young son and his tutor through the enemy lines to Cavalry Park where Prince Charlie lay with his Army, before the battle of Prestonpans. (His colliers were still slaves)
Meanwhile the Earl of Abercorn had let some of his coal and salt works to an enterprising man called John Biggar, who built a drainage tunnel through the estates of Edmonstone, Niddry and Duddingston to the sea at Joppa, a distance of three miles.
The same John Biggar received a licence to keep a public House over at Cairnie to sell bread, ale, beer, spirits, candles and other commodities to his collier slaves. who now had to supply theirs own candles and pay for the sharpening of their tools from his meagre wage.
So now not only did the Coal-Masters own pits and slaves, they owned the shops. Colliers were forced to buy all their requirements there. In most cases no money was passed. goods were to the value of the labour. In time of sickness, short-time or unemployment the shop would give credit. Repayment would be deductible from future labour. Even after the law freed colliers from servitude many families were trapped for life in this vicious spiral of debt. Known as the Truck Shop System (part payment in goods) this was by now common practice in mining communities.. Lothian Coalowner s met regularly to fix prices.
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
1750; The second half of the century, witnessed a transformation in Scotland.
This was the age of great inventions and discoveries. James Watt had so perfected his double acting rotary steam engine that it could drive new machinery of all kinds.
The age of steam power and mechanisation had arrived!. The Industrial Revolution had began!
For the Coal Industry this meant a new lease of life. The age old menace of flood water could now be tackled mechanically, coal could be raised from greater depths; underground workings could be extended and new fields of coal opened out. Above all , the use of coal coke to smelt ores brought with it a dramatic rise in the iron industry.
And of course, coal was needed in vast quantities to drive the new machinery,
All this meant a greatly increased demand for coal. Scotland, rich in coal, was virtually sitting on a gold mine.- a black gold mine. The "Golden Age" was surly dawning for the Scottish people, - or was it?
The coal and the 'know how' to get it out was there! The ever expanding home and overseas markets were demanding more and more coal.. Alas it seemed that the demand could not be met because of a shortage of labour.
What? you well may ask "A shortage of labour in a country were it was estimated that one fifth of the nation was in beggary!". Something must be wrong. But what? Why would people rather die of starvation than accept employment in the pits? The reason was not hard to find. For one hundred and fifty years Scottish colliers had been, and still were slaves. Bad enough to work and live in the appalling and degrading conditions, but to give up the only thing many had left in life, their freedom, was unacceptable under any circumstances
1760 - First mention of a pit at Wanton Walls on a map.

1766 - Map shows Wanton Walls and Newhailes. Also Cleekhim and Niddrie Mill villages.

By 1775 the Scottish Coal-owners now realised that the 1606 Act which they had used their power to bring into being, was working against them. People were flocking to work in the new factories springing up, but they would rather starve than give up their freedom to work in the pits
So once again the Masters used their power to solve their labour problems. At the instigation of the MP the Earl of Abercorn, supported by the Scottish coal and land owners, MPs ,the Act was repealed in 1775, not on humanitarian grounds, as befits a Christian country, but purely on economic grounds.
The lst of July l775 was proclaimed FREEDOM DAY by Parliament and colliers given a public holiday. Throughout the land colliers were jubilant.
Here with home made banners flying and crude drums beating two hundred colliers from Niddry, Cleekhim, Easter Duddingston, Inveresk, and surrounding pits marched to Duddingston Mansion. Believing that the shackles of slavery had at last been removed there they humbly thanked the Earl of Abercorn's for gaining them their freedom. Iwas not his Bill which had gone through Parliament.
Alas their joy was short lived! Next day at the pit they discovered that the Act applied only applied to new colliers entering the pits for the first time. Collier-slaves had to serve their Masters for another 3 to 10 years, depending on their age. Furthermore, they had to make application to the Sheriff - a daunting and awesome undertaking for men, the majority of whom could not read nor write. So few availed themselves.
1778 - Here in the Invereek Parish the coal industry was expanding rapidly. Sir Alexander Hope, Bart of Pinkie bought Craighall Estate, bringing the name with him from Fife. He opened pits on his land and rented others from the Earl of Wemyss.
1780; Two years later a map of Inveresk Parish shows a village called CRAIGHALL. and a pit at Wanton Walls - traces of which can still be seen opposite the present Miners Welfare and Social Club, between Newhailes and the Muckletts. By 1791 the census shows 252 colliers living in Craighall.
From a statistical account we see in the Liberton Parish that there are now two villages at Niddry, Hiilltown and Hunters Hall!. A public road passes through there. The villages contain 300 families - 3 breweries, 14 public houses. It also points out that there are only 5 or 6 colliers living there, where a few years ago there were 50. Many of the residents were of course estate workers. It looks as if the Niddry Pits by that time were on the decline.
1783 - Coal output in Scotland was 17 million - mostly going for export.
1792 - A Census shows no houses at Wanton Walls, but 252 colliers at Craighall.

1794 - Colliers from the two parishes, along with others took to the streets and marched through the streets of Edinburgh, when Margarot and others were being tried for their progressive views.
1798 - John Wauchope wrote to Lord Balgonie on the subject of combination (Unions) of colliers for higher wages)

By 1799 it was not surprisingly, that in spite of the 1755 Act many colliers were still slaves. So Parliament enacted that all colliers in Scotland still in bondage be freed from their servitude.
At the same time they passed the COMBINATION LAW making it a punishable offence to attend meetings designed for the purpose of raising wages, Money could not be collected for strikes. Locally Justices, usually the employers, were to try the offenders. But this did not deter many brave colliers from continuing the struggle for justice. Many were punished under the Act.
While the Combination Law forbid people to meet to discuss wages , the Lothian Coal-owners met regularly to fix prices in their Truck Shops.
The family's stable diet at that time was porridge oats and kail.. So, when in 1799, there was a severe shortage of grain, starving colliers in and around Edinburgh rioted in the streets. The Dragoons were called out and patrolled the towns and villages.
1799 - Fifteen people were killed in Militia riots at nearby Tranent.

The 1800's
As colliers from Liberton and Inveresk Parishes heralded the dawn of a new century, although they were no longer slaves many practises remained. which kept mining families in the same position as n they were as slaves.
The arling of children and the binding of long-term contracts increased and the breaking of a bond was punishable by law. The Truck Shop system gained prominence, with more and more families tied to the pit by debt. Families continued to work from l2 to 16 hours a days; father hewed while their wives and children. some as young as six years of age carried the coal on their backs from the coal face up ladders, as many as 20 journeys a day, It was estimated these journeys was equivalent to climbing Ben Lomond daily.
Working and living conditions were still appalling for colliers and their families. Yet in spite of the severe punishments inflicted on any collier who broke the Combination Law or who dared question far less challenge the system, there was an ever growing ground swell of unrest throughout the Lothians and other pits in Scotland.
1801 Map shows a few cottages on Wanton Wa's

We now see from the maps that there were two large pits operating at Wanton Walls, with others dotted over the land stretching towards Old Craighall. Some of the colliers working in these pits lived in Craighall Village, where the lack of accommodation was becoming a problem as numbers increased.
1821 - Map shows still just a few cottages at Wanton Walls.

1823 - We know that profits were making the already wealthy coal owners even richer and greatly enhancing their lifestyle. Over at Niddrie Marischal Mansion, with no expense spared, William Wauchope had added a new wing, containing many magnificent apartments. The architect was the celebrated and fashionable Robert Adam. The parkland was also expanded, with new approaches and avenues being formed, lodges erected and gardens and vinaries laid out. The whole estate was transformed into one of the most beautiful country seats in the Lothians.
In contrast, life for miners and their families living in his village at Niddry Mill during the rebuilding of his mansion, was grim indeed!. How do we know? Because we have a vivid and moving eye witness account from a young stonemason who for two years worked on the mansions's ornate chimneys.. He is none other than the celebrated and famous writer, Hugh Miller who in his book "My Schools and Schoolmasters" gives a graphic account of the quality of life of the Niddry colliers
He tells" of a slave village in the immediate vicinity of Niddry Mill where the houses were a wretched assembly of dingy, low roofed, tile covered hovels. The collier women, poor over toiled creatures, carried all the coal up a long turnpike stair, inserted in one of the shafts and it was calculated that each day's labour was equivalent to carrying a hundred weight from the sea level to the top of Ben Lomond . No wonder, they cried like children under the load, no wonder a peculiar type of mouth. wide open, thick lipped projecting equally below and above ... like savages was developed. This was known as "Niddrie mouth" He concludes by saying 'I first learned to suspect in this rude village, that the democratic watchword "Liberty and Equality" is somewhat faulty in its philosophy. Slavery and Equality would be nearer the mark".
So we see that in spite of increased profits and productivity in the coal industry little had changed for those whose labour extracted the coal. In theory miners were no longer slaves by law, but Miller tells us of one miner, who had been born a slave and although in 1823 he lived only four miles from Edinburgh, he had never been there.
One of the major developments of this time was the advent of the Railways. In 1824 the Lothian Coal Owners held an important meeting in Edinburgh. This meeting which was to have far reaching effects on the coal industry in this area. They were seeking permission from Parliament to open Railways in the Lothians. This was granted by an Act of Parliament in 1826.
This opened up new horizons for the coal-owners, as one of their major problems was transportation. Coal had been carried to the industrial centres and the seaports, first by women with creels on their backs, then by horse drawn carts over rough and often dangerous tracks.
Coal owners were jubilant. They realised their industry was in for a period of rapid and unprecedented expansion. Coal was the life blood of the Industrial Revolution which was gaining momentum. So now was the time to invest heavily in the industry.1824 The Combination Laws were finally repealed.
Over at Craighall, Sir Archibald Hope, planning ahead and anticipating the need for extra labour, supplemented his accommodation at Craighall Village by building a second village nearer to where many of his colliers were now working at Wanton Walls. So in 1827 he built a row of traditional 2 room 'But an' Ben' Scottish cottages and a school The roofs were tiled with old Scottish clay Pantiles, curved to overlap each other at the side. They had sash windows and slatted doors. He called the row WHITEHILL STREET and the village NEW CRAIGHALL.(Today these cottages are "C" list buildings under a Government Conservation order).
But conditions in the pits were as bad as ever. There things had changed little in a hundred years. .
Now that the combination Laws were repealed in an endeavour to give themselves a measure of protection against poverty in the event of death, accidents, sickness and unemployment and in spite of opposition from the coal-owners and often the Kirk, colliers set up mutual aid societies. In l827 the Benevolent Society of Colliers and others at Craighall and Inveresk was set up, to be followed the next year by the Union of Friendly Society of Colliers of Niddry, Edmonstone and places adjacent. These and similar societies were to play a vital role as centres of strike and relief in the first widespread strike of colliers ten years later.
1828 -The biggest steam engine in Scotland was erected in the Newcraighall Pit to clear mine water. It cost £6,000 and was constructed by Claud Girdwood & Co. Glasgow. The cost was exclusive of sinking the pit etc. It was 140 horse power, worked 13 strokes per minute and delivered at that time 889-779 ale gallons with an 80" piston. A Treatise by Mr John Milne, teacher of architectural drawing, Edinburgh, entitled 'A practical View of the Steam Engine, illustrated by engraving of the oldest Engine in Scotland'
By 183O we see NEWCRAIGHALL established as a mining village in its own right. It now had one of the largest pits in Scotland. It had
* One of the largest pit steam engines in Scotland.
* A Railway Junction for transporting coal.
* A row of cottages for some of the workers.
A school.
183l - Edinburgh's first railway was opened. It was built by the Edinburgh & Dalkeith Railway Company, a company formed to promote the building of a line from St Leonards in Edinburgh to the coalfields in the Lothians. A branch line was built from St.Leonards through Old Niddry, Newhailes to Fisherow. It was horse drawn, with wooden rails and customers supplying their own wagons.
It was not until 1832 that passengers travelled the line, when a certain Mr Fox. ,an enterprising coal merchant, introduced a novel idea. He charged passengers a set fare and paid the Railway an aggregate weight. It proved so successful that the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Company started its own service in 1834 and was soon carrying 400,000 passengers every year going from Edinburgh. Many were families having a day out. The Railway became known as the Innocent Railway, because it did not issue tickets to travellers. At a Board of Enquiry the Manager Mr Rankine, explained that this was because the passengers could not, or would not, make up their minds as to their destination
1832 .Another Cholera Outbreak. - 117 people buried outside Newton Parish Kirk Cemetery.
1834 - The Poor Law came into force.
1834 - map shows the row of collier houses in Whitehill Street, a railway, and two pits No 3 and No. 4, with an engine house and a pond.
1837 - The first widespread strike of colliers in Scotland (The economic crisis was causing great hardship and destitution) It lasted four months. Colliers and their families became destitute and their Societies were rendered penniless.
1841 - First Government Census, This shows most of the men in the village as being miners. There was only one street of cottages and a school. (where the Craigmillar Festival Society Training Workshop is today).
By 1845 the horse drawn railway system was becoming outdated. The North British Railway Company, using steam, built a main route to the North which ran through Newhailes to Berwick-upon-Tweed from Edinburgh.
But what of the working condition of those and their fellow miners toiling in the pits around these parts? Things must surly have improved - or had they!
Children were still being arled to the pit , women and children still toiled in the pits and were still singing the same song they had sung two hundred years before."When I was engaged a coal bearer to be
When I was engaged a coalbearer to be
Through all the coal pits I maun wear the dron brat
If ma heart it should break I can never win free."
(It is said that this song was sung by a Wauchope Aunt as her party piece in the Niddrie Mansion).
THE AWAKENING OF THE NATION'S CONSCIENCE
The time came at last when echoes of the coalbearers heart rendering cries, wafting up from the pits awakened the nation's conscience. One of the people to listen and take up the cudgels on their behalf was Lord Shaftsbury
In 1841 he was instrumental in persuading Parliament to set up a Children's Employment Commission, to report on the conditions of employment of the children of the poorer classes in the mines and in the various branches of trade and industry, in which growing numbers of children were being employed in the laissez fair. Victorian economy
Here in the East of Scotland Commissioner Franks reported that conditions in the Lothians was much worse than any other part of Scotland and that Scotland was much worse than England. Judging by the grim and horrifying evidence of the children of Newcraighall Pit, conditions in this parish were as bad here as anywhere in the country.
Commissioners said, "The picture presented is of deadly physical oppression and systematic slavery of which I conscientiously believe no one unacquainted with such facts would credit the existence in the British Domain."
The grievous suffering thus inflicted on so many persons of tender age and of the female sex is perpetuated by the coal owners continuing to work their mines, which have been obsolete in other districts."
" It is revolting to humanity to reflect upon the barbarous and cruel slavery which the degrading labour constitutes - a labour long since abolished in England."
Enshrined in the memory and echoing down the ages, Newcraighall will ever be haunted by the ghostly childish voices giving Commissioner Franks a horrendous picture of their young lives.
ADD DRAWINGS
JANET MOFFAT: 12 years of age said "I draw the cart through the narrow seams. The roads are 24 to 30 inches high - I draw in harness, which passes over my shoulders and back. The cart is fastened to the chain - The place of work is very wet it covers my shoe tops. I pull wagons 4 to 5 cwt from the mens' rooms to the horse row. We draw on flat floors - horses draw on iron rails!"
AGNES MOFFAT aged 10- "I fill 5 baskets - the weight is more then 22cwt -. 20 journeys is o'er sare fir females."
ROBERT THOMPSON; 11 year old horse driver; - "The pit is very wet and sair drippie; The wemen complain o' the wet, but they are obliged tae like it!"
ALEXANDER GRAY:- 10 year old pump boy at Newcraighall Pit - "I pump out the water in the bottom of the pit to keep the men's rooms dry I had to run away a few weeks ago as the water came so fast I could not pump at all. The water frequently covers my legs; I work every day whether the men work or not. No holidays but the Sabbath. Go down ad 3 or 5 and come up at 6 or 7. Have no meal all day!
Another was AGNES Johnson 17 years of age, road redder.
Fathers who gave evidence said that they had ruptured themselves straining to lift the coal on their childrens' backs.
The Finding of the Report rocked Victorian Britain. It said :
" From the tender age and sex of the great proportion of the work people, the long hours or work, the wretched conditions of the pits and the meager and unsubstantial food, the degree of fatigue produced by collier labour in the district is extreme. The tender age and feeble powers of girls and boys of this age must be taxed beyond their strength by an uninterrupted labour of twelve hours average daily - labour called for at irregular periods, sometimes by day and sometimes extending through the whole night. The medical evidence shows that this labour is injurious to the health of the bodily frame. From the exhaustion of their labour they are in most instances too fatigued even to attend their evening school, should one be found in their neighbourhood. After taking a meagre supper of kail and porridge they are but too glad to seek the ill-provided rest which is to prepare them for the toil of the succeeding day!"
The Church confessed, "We put ourselves forward as the champions of the human race, now we are, on our own showing, exhibited to the world as empty braggarts and shallow pretenders of virtue which we do not possess We have listened to the cries of the slave afar off, but we have shut our ears to the moaning of the slave at our feet!".
In 1842 an Act of Parliament was passed PROHIBITING THE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN UNDERGROUND. But bowing to the powerful coal-owners' lobby they still allowed boys of 10 and upwards to toil there.
But no one thought to provide alternative work for the women, many of whom were widows or the family breadwinner where the husband was maimed. A few found work at the pit head. but many were refused Parish Relief and they and their family became beggars. Others turned to prostitution.
So life in Newcraighall went on. with the miners still fighting a losing battle for justice. The wage at that time was 16/-d a week.
1841 - Association of Miners of Great Britain and Ireland formed
in Wakefield.1845 - The horse drawn Railway system was replaced by steam. A main route now ran from Edinburgh through Newhailes to Berwich -upon - Tweed.
1861 - Census. population of village 336

1863 - A local branch of the Free Miners' Society was formed with John Nicholson of Niddrie as Grandmaster.
1864 - ALL MALE ADULTS OVER THE AGE OF 21 WERE GIVEN THE RIGHT TO VOTE.Miners saw this as a milestone in the battle for human rights for all.
1872 , Miners won the right to appoint their own Workman's Inspector to examine the mine and report.

1873 - Newcraighall Parish Church is built.

1876 - Methodist Church is built.

1880 - BENHAR Coal Company built a school for 403 children. Only 240 attended.
1880 - The traditional coal/land owners were disappearing. Coal Companies were taking over. The Niddrie & Benhar Company bought land from Hope; Wauchope willingly sold Niddry and Abercorn sold his pits. Now without lifting a finger all they had to do was to draw rents, feus, wayleaves and royalties for every ton of coal extracted from beneath their land. Wauchope became a minor shareholder in the Company
1881 - Census, population 1482

1882 - Cholera epidemic.

1882 - Niddry Colliery suffered 2 disasters, flooding and fire, but no recorded loss of life.

1882 -The Niddrie and Benhar Coal Company bought Niddrie from the Benhar Coal Company for #97,500

1884 - Fire in Niddrie Coal-mine - costing 7 lives

1884 - Strike at Niddrie Coalworks (17 weeks)1884 - Niddrie Coal Company and the Benhar Coal Company joined, becoming the Niddrie and Benhar Coal Company.
1884- The Poor Law Act
1887- Rows of miners' two storied houses were built in Newcraighall by the Company. They had outside dry Lavatories, communal street taps and no paved roads or pavements.
1891-Census.; 75 houses. 240 males. 194 females. Whitehill Street had a dairy at No. 4 . The Post Mistress at No.5; 2 police houses at 22 and 26 and just under the Railway Bridge on the left The Co-operative Store. The school still was at No. 30
1891 - Newcraighall became a parish its own right.
MINERS USE THEIR POWER!
In 1892 The Laird of Niddrie, Andrew Gilbert Wauchope, now a Colonel in the Black Watch, not content with being a famous soldier, was now fired with political ambition. His desire was to follow in the footsteps of some of his forbears and become a Member of Parliament.
Here in the Midlothian Constituency he contested the Parliamentary Seat held by Prime Minister Gladstone. On February 2nd, he held a meeting in Newcraighall School, and speaking as their Laird fully expected the miners to vote for him. When asked if he would support the enactment of an eight hour day for miners his reply was emphatic. "No!"
Before the meeting, Brown the Miners' Agent had visited Mr. Gladstone over at Roslin where he was staying with Lord Rosebery, There he had been given assurance. that if returned, Gladstone would support the miners claim for a reduction in their working hours.
So with Wauchope's "No" ringing in their ears many of the miners, knowing they put their jobs and homes at risk, courageously voted against their Laird. The result was...

Gladstone 5845
Wauchope 5158
Majority 670Wauchope lost. Gladstome returned to Parliament and became Prime Minister. The Colonel went back to being a soldier and was killed in the Boer War. He died without issue. leaving his widow to live in solitude for over forty years in their majestic mansion.
NEWCRAIGHALL STRIKES GOLD -'BLACK GOLD!'
In 1897 two incline shafts were sunk at the west side of the village. It was officially named Newcraighall Colliery but when the miners were told that it had enough coal to last THREE HUNDRED YEARS AND MORE they were jubilant. They nick-named it THE KLONDYKE. as this coincided with the Gold Rush in the Yukon of West Canada to which many Scots had gone.
Miners were convinced that from that day on there would be work in plenty. Those rich coal seams would surly mean fair wages, vast improved working conditions, with safety measures being introduced. Now at last, they would be able to give their children the things they never had, a decent home, adequate and healthy food and decent clothing ..
Now that the Elementary Education Act of 1872 made primary education compulsory for all, they saw their children getting a good education with years of steady work to look forward to when they left school. Sons who, because of unemployment had been forced to leave the village, could now return. The Klondyke was going to provide work for all and more! And so they dreamed!.
That year the village received another boost. The Dalrymples presented it with the gift of a new Bowling Green. This started as a small green near the village, but later transferred to the present site beside the old Newhailes Station.
In 1900 the school was burned and education was severely affected.
THE 1900's
As the village went into the 20th century a large quantity of cannel coal was being extracted at the Klondyke for use in the manufacture of gas. but when incandescent mantles were introduced, more common types of coal could be used. The bottom dropped out of the market. By then the most important seams at Klondyke (or Niddry as it was officially called) were, Parrot Stairhead. Corby Craigie. North Green.
By 1902 workings in the incline at Klondyke reached depth of 460 fathoms. It was one of the deepest mines worked in Scotland at that time (approximately 2760 feet) It was to reach 16 miles in length, 130 fathoms deep and run for 1) miles under the River Forth, This the miners called the Sea Dook).
1905 - A new school was opened. The site was gifted by Sir Chas Dalrymple. The architect was A. Murray Hardie of Edinburgh and the red facing stone came from Closebun Quarry. Total cost £3743
1907 - A Fountain was erected in memory of Andrew Balfour a much loved and respected Doctor.
In 1908 a branch of the Musselburgh and Fisherow Co-operative Society was built in Whitehill Street. It had a Grocery, Drapery, Boots and Butcher Department. Two houses were built above the premises. One shilling made a family a member and a shareholder. Twice yearly families collected dividends based on the amount they purchased. The Co-operative movement was now world wide and miners saw this as a conscious deliberate attempt by men and women in many lands to work together for the benefit, not only of the individual and his community but for society at large.
Remembering how their forbears had suffered under the old Truck System, enthusiastically they invested their time and energy in becoming Directors on the Board. Later their wives established a Co-operative Women's Guild. Here women were no longer just the housewife who purchased the goods. through their Guild's Education Committee many furthered their education and developed latent talents. This village has produced many strong and able women who not only fulfilled their potential, but in the process became more enlightened mothers. At the same time they learned, along with their men, how the system that governs their lives works; how to question it and how to speak in public and make their voices heard.
1910 - Niddrie and Benhar sunk a VERTICAL SHAFT AT THE KLONDYKE,132 fathoms) Winding equipment was supplied by a steam powered engine of 2-25 inch bore cylinders driving a 14 ft diameter cable drum made in 1903 by Grant Ritchie of Kilmarnock.
1912 - Another major strike. It lasted from 1st March - 15th
April
1912 - Sculleries and toilets were added to the houses and water was piped into each houses.

1914 - 18 - The Great War

1918 - Women secured the vote at 30
1919 - A forty hour strike throughout Scotland.
1919 - The Sankey Commission on the Coal Industry recommended a seven hour working day
192O - Newcraighall became part of the city of Edinburgh
192O - Coal production at the Klondyke ran at 250,000 tons a year, with more than a thousand men employed
1920 -Newcraighall Poosie Nancy Club established.

1921 - National lock-out of Miners (March to July)
1921 -No. 7 Bus Service started.

1924 - Village given a gas supply

1924 - Niddrie Brick Work opened.
1925 - October 24th Lord Provost Sir William Sleigh opened the new Miners' Welfare building. It consisted of a large assembly room and gallery to hold 400 people. A new billiard room, reading room and library.
1925 - Park View and Park Terrace houses built after the Wheatley Housing
1925 - The Niddrie Bluebell Football won five cups.

1926 - Disaster, 32 men injured when cage overwound THE GENERAL STRIKE
On 1st May 1926 there was a NATIONAL LOCK-OUT OF MINERS for refusing to sign a new contract which reduced their wages and increased their hours. A GENERAL STRIKE followed which lasted nine days. but the miners stayed out until October.
In Newcraighall a soup kitchen was set up. A curfew was imposed on the village. Special constables stormed the village and using their batons battered men and women - some mothers defending themselves with clothes poles. At 3 in the morning police broke into houses, arrested 12 miners. took them to the police cells in the City's High Street, where they were held for two days.
The hated Means Test meant only women and children were given money from the National Assistance Board. Many young men left home never to return. In order to survive families often had to pawn anything of value, in some cases. even the wedding ring.
In had all been in vain!. When the miners finally went back seven months later they had to accept a 25% cut in wages and an increase in their working hours back to 8 hours.
After the Strike No.l2 and No l3 (Niddry Pits at the Wisp) were never re-opened. From then on all output obtained for the middle seams of measure at Newcraighall and Woolmet.
1927 Five children in the Nimmo family were burned to death in the pit house. Villagers contributed to the erection of a Gravestone in Joppa Cemetery.
1927 - 28 NIDDRIE THISTLE, 1st Class Juveniles, won 6 Cups,a shield and The East of Scotland Cup. 1947.
1929 - 3 men died in Woolmet, when the haulage rope broke.
1929 - Formation of Militant United Mineworkers of Scotland as rival to National Union of Scottish Mine Workers and to miners' County Union.
October - The Wall Street crash - The World slump begins.
1930 - Coal Mines Act gave miners a seven and a half hour day.

1933 - A campaign for Workmen's Inspectors met with bitter opposition from the Coal Companies. Jock Swan and Jimmy Mackinlay were dismissed as a consequence of the fight they put up to have the right to appoint Inspectors. Taken to Court the Sheriff granted a decree for eviction. The miners came out in a 100% strike. Police and mounted police surrounded the colliers as Abbe Moffat from the U.M.S addressed them. After three days the coalowners withdrew the eviction notices and the miners returned to work. But several months later, without any public notice the coal-owners carried out the eviction of the two families. Jock. who had been elected and paid by the miners as an inspector was down the Klondyke carrying out an inspection at the time.
Tam Phair's family was evicted because they gave Alex Moffat, the Union Inspector, a bed for the night after he had addressed the pit-head meeting. But the sacrifice of these three families was not in vain. In later years regular Workmen's Inspections became the established practice all over the Scottish coalfields and played a big part in the fight for greater safety."
1936 - Woolmet and Klondyke linked underground

1936 - Klondyke Pit-head baths built
1939 - 45 SECOND WORLD WAR; Coal comes into its own - it is needed to fuel the nation's war, Newcraighall gets the Bevin Boys.
1944 - National Union of Mineworkers formed from the Miners' Federation of Great Britain.
1946 - NATIONALISATION OF THE COAL INDUSTRY.
1947 - VESTING DAY

1950 - Newcraighall Tenants Association began the fight for improvement on their houses which are fast becoming slums.
1950 - Newhailes Station closed.
1953 - Friday August 14th, five men were entombed for twelve hours in the Klondyke;
No intimation was given to the Union and it appeared that an attempt had been made to cover the matter up. Inspection made by R.F Young showed several breaches of the law and safety regulations. The Union made a protest to the Divisional Board on their failure to report the accident to the head office. After much argument the Coal Board agreed to the removal of the manager, under manager and other officials for neglect of safety.
Three months later. the under manager was re-employed. The Union raised the matter with the Ministry of Fuel and Power and with members of Parliament. and pressed for prosecution of the officials concerned in violation of the Coal Mines Act. A summons was issued and the offenders were prosecuted. The whole of this important fight by the Union showed that beyond all other authorities the safety of the miners depended on the vigilance of their elected trade union representatives. "
1955 - 12th September a haulage accident caused by worn rope - 32 miners were injured.

(From 1950 to 1989 in the name of progress the Scottish Coal Industry was virtually wiped out
In the late 60's The death-knell sounded for Newcraighall -
1968 - KLONDYKE PIT CLOSED..
Bitterly contested by the miners, their Union and the local Labour Party. who though they failed to stop the closure, fought to get the best redundancy payments possible. The younger miners were offered jobs elsewhere, but many older miners never worked again.
In true mining tradition nothing was wasted. the coal- bing was sold to the Regional Council and used as a foundation for the building of a new Motor-way skirting the village. This was opened in 1986. Beside it on the cleared bing site, the INDUSTRIAL ESTATE, the community has so long fought for, was last being built. Or so the community thought. On it now is a shopping development, Kinaird Park.
197l - 27th November, the Pit winding gear dismantled and transferred to the Prestongrange Mining Museum. Verbal assurance was given by David Spence founder member of the Museum and ex-Manager of the Klondyke that they will be returned to Newcraighall if the villagers ever so desire.
THE FIGHT TO SAVE THE VILLAGE.
In July 1971, Edinburgh Corporation recommended DEMOLITION of Newcraighall Village and issued quit notices to tenants!.
" Notices to quit will mean break up of community!- Fight begins over homes!' screamed Edinburgh Evening News under the heading, " DEATH- KNELL VILLAGE WAR!" as angry villagers presented the Town Council with a Petition Of Protest signed by every villager,
That night a mass meeting was held in the Miners Welfare Club. Chaired by ex-miner Councillor David Brown, with MP Gavin Strang present. the villagers overwhelmingly agreed that their village must not die.
They dedicated themselves to fight to have their village rebuilt, preserving it's identity, culture and mining traditions of sharing and caring for each other. while at the same time fashioning it to meet 21st century living.
During 197l tenants investigated the possibility of forming a housing association which would manage the new housing in co-operation with the City Housing Department. In May the Tenants Association changed its name to Newcraighall Housing Association and Craigmillar Festival Society agreed to facilitate them.
In October the BBC 'Current Account' Programme filmed tenants from Newcraighall and Gairbraid, Maryhill, Glasgow, voicing strong criticism of their respective authorities. over the threatened loss of their communities with-out consultation.
After a year of unrelenting activity the Town Council agreed to rebuild the Village and ordered their officers to design a redevelopment programme.
1972 - "NEWCRAIGHALL VICTORY - TESTS GIVE ALL CLEAR FOR HOUSES", said the News headlines
Then in 1972 local Councillor Jack Kane, the son of a miner, was elected Edinburgh Corporation's first (and last) Labour Lord Provost. During his three years in office he supported the Newcraighall tenants at every stage and helped to spearhead community participation in Edinburgh.
In September his Council agreed that full and close liaison between tenants and all department concerned would be established to carry through the redevelopment of the Village. From then on Lord Provost Kane. the Chairman of the Housing Committee and officials from the Housing and Architect's Departments met regularly with the tenants, either in the village or in the City Chambers. consulting them at every stage. (see Town Council minute; meeting 73/74, Report on Newcraighall Village)
There were many problems to overcome. The land under the village had been the subject of old mine workings; the suitability of the land for rebuilding had to be established, The Council had to be persuaded that the 'slums' should be allowed to stand until phased re-building could be got underway; the Village had to be kept alive during rebuilding bus services had to be kept and the school prevented from closing.
The Planning Workshop of Craigmillar Festival Society assisted the Tenants Association by helping with publicity, administration and putting them in touch with architects, planners and other professionals from universities and other appropriate institutions.
1972 The Miners' Welfare commissioned John and Connie Byron from the University Architectural Research Unit to carry out a field study and a social survey of the village. This was to take into consideration the wishes of the people in respect of the design and lay-out of the village.
The Tenants ideas were then submitted, accepted by the Council and incorporated in the design. Villagers were consulted at every stage with layout, fuel, privacy, car parking and safe play areas were just some of the issues they commented on. They asked for a police house, corner shop, a public telephone and up-grading of the school.
In 1972 the Housing Association published a progress report, giving details of their hard fought campaign. listing the many meetings held in the community and in the City Chambers, and giving details of how villagers views had been taken into consideration.
By the end of 1973 proposals for a three stage development were well under and the basic design was approved by Committee.
The rebirth of the Village happened very slowly. The Dean of Guild Warrant was given for the redevelopment of 104 houses, 48 were to be rehabilitated, 152 houses were out to tender for the later phase. The work was be undertaken in five phases.
Phase 1 rebuilt 55 new houses and in the subsequent phases demolishing and rebuilding was to follow through the whole village. Throughout 1975 and early 1976 the work continued well and the builders finished on schedule. However, cutbacks and changes in policy were to mar the picture.
1976 saw re-organisation of local government. The new Edinburgh District Council was Tory controlled. There was now grave doubts as to whether they would continue with phase 11 and 111. Indeed the builders were not permitted to follow on with the work. The new houses were finished and ready for occupation in September 1976.
The chances of making the village into a Management Association had been lost, The half demolished rows of cottages were dangerous and unsightly and the houses awaiting rehabilitation look dismal.
The Tory Council then refused to do phase two. Things looked bleak indeed! But nothing daunted another campaign was mounted. Enlisting the help of Gavin Strang the MP and Councillor David Brown the Tenants approached the Scottish Special Housing Association and after many meetings and setbacks, eventually persuaded them to undertake the building of the next phase.
For the first time the Festival Society supported village mothers in the running of a summer playscheme in the village, This helped moral.
In 1976, Councillor Brown, seeing the writing on the wall, had the row of 19th century miner's cottage in Whitehill Street "C" listed under a Conservation Order. This meant they were now of historical interest and must be preserved. With the result that when the Council applied for permission to demolish from the Secretary of State. Hugh Brown Joint Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, on behalf of the Scottish Office refused the Council permission to demolish. To say the least the Housing Convener was furious at being thwarted.
The cottages were then placed on the open market, sold and refurbished privately with the proviso that they must retain for all time their original character - traditional Scottish miners cottages with red pan-tiles, timber sash and case windows and slatted doors.
The village redevelopment took nearly twenty years to complete. Not until 1990 was the rehabilitation of the 1926 Parkview houses complete.
At the instigation of Councillor Brown part of the Church was converted into a community centre under a Government Job Creation Scheme. Until it was proved unsafe activities for all age groups take place there. Today it is used as a workshop.
In 1986 at the request of the new village community, Edinburgh District Council and the Scottish Arts Council agreed to jointly commission a Sculpture for Newcraighall. Judged by the community, well known Scottish sculpture Jake Harvey, won an open competition. He worked from a brief of the village history.
On May 1st 1989 the Sculpture was unveiled by Councillor Brown on the village green. The Lord Provost of the City was in attendance. The ceremony was televised. A Souvenie Booklet was given to every villager and that night a pageant of Newcraighall's history was re-enacted by a cast of 79 villagers - Among them were children portraying the 1842 children who gave evidence to the Commission.
The Sculpture commemorates and symbolises the Spirit of Community conceived in the barren coaldust of poverty, slavery, struggle, sacrifice and exploitation . The Spirit which has sustained the mining families and their communities down the centuries and spurred them on to fight to preserve all that is good in their mining heritage and to leave for posterity, a living monument to that Spirit - THEIR RE-BORN VILLAGE OF NEWCRAIGHALL.
1988 George Hood. a life time Trade Unionist, a J.P and 36
years Secretary of the Newcraighall Tenants
Association. was awarded 'Edinburgh's Citizen of the
Year " for his services to Newcraighall.
Bill Douglas, a son of this village, became a famous Film Maker and won an International Award with his film, "My Childhood' which was set and filmed in Newcraighall. He died in 1993. A book BILL DOUGLAS A LANTERNISTS'S ACCOUNT by Andrew Noble gives an account of his life and extraordinary gift of film making. A plaque erected to him in 1996 is in Whitehill Street.
The research on Newcraighall was done by Helen Crummy for her novel Whom Dykes Divide. She thanks the following who helped with the research. Archibald Livingstone, David Brown, David Carson. George Hood. David Spence. Midge Hawkes, Larry, Philip, Stephen and Andrew Crummy. Newcraighall School, Newcraighall Miner's Welfare, Newcraighall Tenants Association, Craigmillar Festival Society, Newcraighall Heritage Society and many residents and ex-residents of the village.
In particular she thanks George Montgomery, whose book 'A History of Newton Parish" was not only a source of information but of inspiration.
 
 
NEWHAILES ESTATE.
Originally known as WHITEHILL it lies to the east of Newcraighall.
The Prestons of Craigmillar Castle and Lord Bellenden of Broughton ownwd it at different times.
1544 - The first mention in the burgh charters is Richard Preston of Whitehill who had a charter of certain lands from his father Simon Preston. They were a branch of the Craigmillar Castle.
1576 - John Preston of Whitehill, heir to his father and Jean
Crichton his spouse had sasing of the property
1588 - David Preston was served heir to his father John
Preston of Whitehill
1667 - Owned by Earl of Lauderdale. before he became Governor
of Scotland 1667-1669
1689 - There was a Sir John Ramsay of Whitehill,

1686 - A famous Scottish Architect John Smith built, for his
own use, what was to become the first phase of the
present Newhailes Mansion. Twice married he fathered
32 children.
 
ESTATE BECOMES KNOWN AS NEWHAILES.
1707 - John Smith in financial difficulties, because of involvement in a 'drowned colliery! near Musselburgh, sold the house to Sir David Dalrymple, Bart of Hailes, son of the first Viscount. He renamed if NEWHAILE. adapting the name from his family seat at Hailes Castle near East Linton.
1720 - Two more wings were added to the house. One of the finest rooms, was the Library, which was to become a unique and famous collection of books and papers, many written by Lord Hailes himself.
1726 - Sir David, later to become Lord Hailes was born. His father was the youngest son of the first Viscount Stair and held the office of Lord Advocate of Scotland during the reign of George 1st. Sir James himself was an auditor of the Court of Exchequer. Young Hailes studied at Eton and became an advocate. On elevation to the Bar, he became Lord Hailes. the famous historian and Antiquarian and wrote "The Annuals of Scotland."
He was never remarkable as a pleader, but somewhat diffident and precise in his manner of treating a subject. He was elevated to the bench in 1766 and is celebrated for his financial notions in the Court of Session Garlard.
" This cause" cries Hailes, " to judge I cant pretend, for Justice I perceive wants an e at the end," - which satire is said to be founded on an actual fact.
Lord Hailes, it is well known, never had any particular taste for the law. He originally contemplated a literary career, but was induced to turn to the advocate owing to the circumstances of the family after the death of his father. * - *( Extract from History of the Regality of Musselburgh, by James Paterson.
He wrote the "Annuals of Scotland")
1885 - Sir Charles Dalrymple contested Midlothian Parliamentary seat. Lost to Gladstone.
189O - Sir Charles persuaded Major Andrew Gilbert Wauchope to stand against Gladstone - he lost.

1976 - Sir Mark Dalrymple handed over the Newhailes Library containing a collection of over 7000 volumes. It is now housed in the National Library of Scotland. Their 1978 -79 Annual Report describes is as " the greatest surviving contemporary collection of books of the period of the Scottish enlightenment and a cohesive and comprehensive record of the work of Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes (1726 - 1792)
The present owner Lady Antonia Dalrymple, widow of Sir Mark Dalrymple, looks to the day - when the problems of security, preservation and access can be overcome and the Newhailes Collection will be returned to its rightful place in the Newhailes Library, Her wish that one day the house will become one of the stately homes of Scotland is about to become a reality.
Weekend Scotsman October 26th 1996 - article by Jim Gilchrist
Here the family have lived in the house for 290 years, with all their collected possessions and who have never done anything to alter the interrity of the house or damage the 18th century decoration and layout.
In 1995/6 the family offered the house and grounds free to the National Trust. The cost of restoration and repair, particularly of the stable block - the necessary endowment to maintain such a place will demand more than £12 million.
In 1997 The National Trust for Scotland launched an appeal (the biggest in its history) to save the house and its unique accumulation or architecture, interior decoration, furniture and portraits by Allan Ramsay and John de Medina from being torn apart and dispersed under the auctioneer's hammer.
Now Lady Antonia's dream will come true - that it will be open to the public and modern scholars will have access to the Library.
 
B R U N S T A N E H O U S E (including Maitland |Bridge)
To the north of Newcraighall lies Brunstane Estate, anciently called Gilberton
In 1545 at the time of the Reformation, there was a mansion there
1547 - Demolition of existing tower built by the Crichtons of Brunstane. (B/Scot. Edin) Page 557

1565 - New L Plan House probably built. John Crichton was given a new charter in 1565. (B/Scot. Edin) .557

1632 - House passed to John Maitland, later second Earl and First Duke of Lauderdale.(B/Scot.Edin)
1639 - House remodelled probably extending north east jamb and adding a tower at north east corner. (B/Scot Edin)

1672 - Lauderdale consulted Architect Sir William Bruce about a major extension
" I do not intend" Lauderdale stated," A House of much receite" (i.e. there was to be no state apartment) but " will only patch what is already built and make myself a very convenient Lodge" Extensive building work was carried out from 1672 to 1674, with James Stark as overseer, Patrick Wotherspoon as Mason and John Young as Wright
1672 - Maitland Bridge. Built by Patrick Wotherspoon. (B/Scot.Edin) page 558 Evidence of earlier bridge (SPC 1986)e
1733 - Brunstane was bought by Lord Milton

1735 - 1744 Lord Milton employs William Adam to rebuild south range and make a new office court.(B/Scot Edin) page 559
1736 - Mansion rebuilt by the Duke of Lauderdale, who sold it to the Duke of Argyll.

In 1747 it was purchased by the third Earl of Abercorn, who as well as being a coal-owner was a member of Parliament. He in turn sold it to the Niddrie and Benhar Coal Company in 1875
The Earl of Abercorn owned pits at Easter Duddingston and rented out other in Liberton.
1745 The Earl let some of his coal and salt works to John Biggar of Woolmet, an enterprising man who drove a drainage tunnel from the coast through Duddingston, Niddrie, Edmonstone to Woolmet Bank, a distance of three miles. Eventually it proved a failure to the pit. Also brought about a law suit.
1763 - The Earl erected a steam engine in the Duddingston Colliery. extending the operation to a depth of 52 fathoms.
Brunstane Pit also had an engine.
1790 - 20th March, The whole seams of coal were overflowed and choked.
1875 - The Earl sold his pits to the Niddrie and Benhar Coal Company. The house stills stands and is privately owned.

CRAIGHALL
1768; Over on the East of Newcraighall at Inveresk, Sir Archibald Hope, Bart of Pinkie bought CRAIGHALL, bringing the name with him from Fife. He opened pits on the land and others he rented from the Earl of Wemyss.
Previous to that the first Earl of Dumfermilne had owned the land. (He built Pinkie House in 1622)
1780 Map shows a village called Craighall.

1795 - 252 colliers were employed at Craighall.

1827 - Hope built a row of miners' cottages and a school on Whitehill Mains. He called the street Whitehill and the village Newcraighall
 
DUDDINGSTON MANSION
Now Milton House Hotel
SOURCE: The Buildings of Scotland - EDINBURGH - John Gifford, Colins McWilliam and David Walker. - Mediaeval Buildings
1763, - Built by William Chambers for the eighth Earl of Abercorn, who had bought he Barony from the Duke of Argyll in 1745. (B/Scot Edin)
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION.
Two storeys plain block in polished grey ashlar. Classical, pedimented east facing Corinthian portico of four fluted, Corinthian columns. To the north the office courtyard open to the east.(B/Scot Edin.)
PARKLAND.
Majority of park laid out by James Robertson, cira. 1768 (B/Scot Edin)
There is a domed temple with Roman Doric columns.
Park entrance corner of Willowbrae Road and Duddingston Road. Concave screen wall with two crowning antelopes. (B/Scot Edin)
The Mansion is now a Hotel.
CRAIGMILLAR HOUSING ESTATE.

In 1920 Craigmillar Village, Newcraighall Village and The Jewel Cottages were annexed when the City extended its boundaries and formed the 21st electoral ward, which they called Craigmillar after the castle.
In 1928 the Wauchope Estate was sold to Edinburgh Corporation.
Two years later, building commenced on Niddrie Mains Home Farm, A plaque on 11 Harewood Drive commemorates the opening by the Princess Royal, Countess of Harwood,
By 1970 housing development in Craigmillar Ward included Craigmillar Castle; Bingham; Magdalene, Greendykes; Niddrie Marischal; Niddrie House, Niddrie Mill and the Thistle Foundation. The population had reached 17.000. With the exception of schools there were still no local authority purpose built amenities. It was left to philanthropy to provide them.
CHURCHES_ -

First to come were the churches. They included Presbyterian - Bristo; Richmond-Craigmillar. and Newcraighall. Roman Catholic - St Teresa's. Episcopalian - St Aidans & St Andrew, plus the Methodist at Newcraighall and the City Mission.
Well attended they administered to many needs in the community and reinforced the community spirit.
CRAIGMILLAR COLLEGE SETTLEMENT.
In 1934 the University Settlement built a college in Niddrie Mains Terrace. In an area where the door of higher education had always been firmly closed, visionary and enlightened, the name college had a stirring ring. It was acknowledging something fundamental and important - "Every human being has a brain and every human being is of value to society. Therefore each one should be given equal opportunity to develop their full potential". Catering for the whole family the College began by responding to the needs of the people. who soon discovered that learning can be fun as well as stimulating and fruitful. Seven days a week it was the hub of the community, All age groups found something there-- music, drama, art and craft classes, dressmaking, embroidery, literacy, creative writing, as well as athletics and other sports. Political, religious and community groups also met there. Then came the War and life dramatically changed for everyone. But lessons learned at Craigmillar College were not lost. They lay buried in the community's psyche to resurface a quarter of a century later, when the people realised opportunities to develop their potential were deliberately being denied them. By that time the College Settlement had been taken over by the local authority, who provided a caretaker - no other staff. The result, the building became almost lifeless until the Festival Society after a long struggle persuaded the authorities to let them run the building.
THE WAR YEARS
As elsewhere for Craigmillar the war years brought hardship and sorrow.. Many young men and women volunteered, many were conscripted. For the first time no local memorial to the men and women who lost their lives fighting for their country. This the archive would like to rectify. We ask residents for names and particulars of loved ones, friends or neighbours who lost their lives or were wounded fighting for their country. We also invite reminisces of life in Craigmillar during these years. For example who remembers scurrying to the Anderson shelter when the sirens sounded, or the night the bomb fell near Craigmillar Castle.
CRAIGMILLAR BOY'S CLUB 1935-54. Craigmillar Castle Loan.

Built by George Watson's School and their Watsonian Club, at the opening Lord Tweedsmuir said "Boys' clubs bring together all classes on the common ground of youth. The Club's first leader was the Scoutmaster of the Watsonian Troop, Sandy Somerville. He became a legend in Craigmillar and to this day the club is known to many as Sandy's Club. Pre-war the building was a buzzing centre of sporting activities, engaging almost every local boy, both as child and adolescent. Many went on to become professional sportsmen. The War stripped the Club of its leaders and for the duration was requisitioned by the Army. In 1954 it was taken over by the local authority and today is run by Community Education as a youth club.
THE WAR YEARS
CHILDRENS' HOUSE. Wauchope Terrace

Another innovation was the building of Childrens House Nursery. Here the benefactor was Miss Marjorie Rackshaw.
Advisor to University students, she worked at one time in St Savour's Child Garden in Chessel's Court and longed to give the children of Niddrie the same opportunities. Catering for thousands of children down the generations "The Toy School" as it was affectionately called, fulfilled a fundamental need, not only in children, but for their parents who were, and are to this day an integral part of Childrens' House. In 1946 it was taken over by the Education Authority
THE ADVENTURE PLAYGROUND.
Now run by Save the Children Fund, it is known affectionately as the Venchie by the thousands of childre