#kirkcowan

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EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY - 6

Kirkcowan has been the focus of our past and present / people and places photograph project. We have selected old photographs and retaken them today to contrast and compare.

The new photo shows the present owners of the Blue House watching a vintage 1962 Fordson Major pass by. The driver, Jim Rae, takes his tractor, Reg. 369 UXS, to rallies and charity runs.

Thanks to the records of the Road Locomotive Society the steam roller has been identified as Aveling and Porter No 3260 supplied in October 1893 to The Upper District (Machars) authority. It was their Fleet No1 and was sold on to JJ Nelson of Glasgow by November 1903. So we can be pretty sure that the old photograph was taken in the late 1890s.

We will be featuring more old and new photographs that tell the story of Kirkcowan.

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EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY (4)

Old photographs of the people and village of Kirkcowan are a remarkable resource that have featured in windows to create a Street Exhibition. A closer look at each photograph combined with local knowledge and a little research help reveal the story of a village.

This is a photograph of Kirkcowan School House and appears to show headmaster John McCallum, his wife Agnes and two grandchildren and was probably taken in the mid 1890s.

The school house was built in 1863 the year after the parish school was constructed in the top of the village close to the new Parish Church. The earlier parish school was located at the bottom of the village at Ballgreen between the Old Kirk and the Manse.

John had been appointed as the headmaster of the old school for a short while before moving into the new school house with Agnes where they raised six daughters and three sons. He remained in the house until 1898 when at the age of 72 he retired after 38 years of service as the headmaster.

John Cuthbert moved into the School House as the replacement headmaster and John McCallum moved to Storgan Villa in Church Street.

With thanks to Alix Parker for the photograph.

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EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY (3)

This photograph was taken in the 1860s and the two-story building with the carriages outside, on the left of the photograph, was the Commercial Hotel. It was described at the time as being the principal hotel in Kirkcowan with 10 rooms – it must have been ideal for weary visitors arriving on the newly opened railway.  

Thomas Hunter / Scott Hunter  

In the early 1860s Thomas Hunter was the inn keeper and later in the decade Scott Hunter took it over. Born in Midlothian Thomas was a merchant with a grocer shop when in 1845 he married a local woman with the same surname, Arrabella Hunter. She died 2 years later and Thomas then married Mary Tully in 1848 and raised a family at the Commercial Hotel. Both Thomas and Mary died in 1864 and the hotel was taken over by Scott Hunter, probably the younger brother of Thomas. Scott ran the hotel with his wife Janet Hutcheson until his death in 1873.

The business remained in the Hunter family until the early 1900s when the hotel changed ownership and use. It became a corner shop and post office run by the Crozier family.  

With thanks to Andrew Gladstone for the photograph.

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BANISHED AND RETURNED (3) KIRKCOWAN

During the “Killing Times” some Covenanters captured by troops were prisoned, tried and banished before making the return journey to Scotland. The legacy of Gilbert Milroy can be seen in the remains of the mill at Kirkcowan with the remarkable story of his banishment to Jamaica and return to his family preserved in a book written by Robert Wodrow.

GILBERT MILROY

We are fortunate that Gilbert Milroy was able to tell his story to Robert Wodrow who recorded it in The History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland from the Restoration to the Revolution first published in 1722.

Gilbert Milroy, or McIlraith, was a Presbyterian who lived in the fermtoun of Kirkcalla in the parish of Penninghame. Hiding in the moors to avoid persecution he was captured in 1685, tortured and questioned before being marched to Edinburgh. Janet, his wife, was thrown out of her house and also tortured and questioned. She appealed to her local minister to confirm her husband’s good character but the sealed letter that she delivered to the court stated that he was a persistent rebel. Sentenced to have his ears cut off and 10 years banishment to Jamaica Gilbert was considered so close to death by the surgeon who visited the prison that his ears were not removed. He endured a difficult voyage to Jamaica where he was indentured to a plantation. Gilbert was initially beaten and badly treated before eventually becoming a slave overseer and later survived attacks by the plantation slaves. In 1690 he returned to Scotland and his family and was reported by Wodrow as being a useful member of the church at Kirkcowan.

The Milroy family prospered in Kirkcowan and the following century his family established the Waulk Mill that was to become the centre of the woollen industry in the village.

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Every picture tells a story (2)

A collection of photographs can record the identity of a place and become a kind of village family album that stores stories from the past. With a bit of detective work information can be gleaned from deeds and on-line archives so that even the earliest photographs will reveal a story about people and places. By combining information gathered by local historians with names in census records and trade directories we can discover more about Kirkcowan.

When this photograph was taken in the late 1860s the Craighlaw Arms Hotel was one of three hotels in Kirkcowan, the other two being the Kirkcowan Arms Hotel (later renamed Tarff Hotel) and the Commercial Hotel.  Located near river crossings over the Bladnoch and Tarf on an ancient route between Glenluce and Wigtown passing travellers will have welcomed a place to stay overnight.  By the time this photograph was taken the village was growing, a new railway had arrived a few years earlier and the Waulk Mill woollen manufactory was expanding.

At the entrance of the hotel stands Agnes Milligan, who by this time was a widow in her late 50s with her family growing up and leaving home. Robert Milligan married Agnes McKean in 1833 and together raised a large family and ran the hotel which they rented from Alexander McWilliam. After Robert died in 1857 Agnes continued to run the hotel and by the 1860s she had been the hotel keeper for over 30 years and had become the owner too. The girl in a servant uniform standing next to her could be one of her daughters, but is probably Margaret Hamond.  Agnes appears to have retired from running the hotel at the age of 65 but remained the owner until her death in 1882 at the age of 71.

With thanks to Dave & Debbie McBain for historical information and Andrew Gladstone for the photograph.

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EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY 1

A call out for old photographs of Kirkcowan has resulted in views of many street scenes. With a little detective work it is often possible to work out where, when and why the photograph was taken. This photograph shows road construction work in Kirkcowan opposite D Crozier Tailors at 16 Main Street at a time when road rollers must have been an uncommon sight in the village.

John Loundon McAdam championed the construction of roads using crushed stone bound by compacted gravel, a system that became known as "macadamisation". The method spread very quickly and most roads were subject to the McAdam process by the end of the nineteenth century.

The invention of steam powered road rollers by a Kent based company Aveling & Porter in the 1860s made the operation much easier and soon they were being exported far and wide. This Aveling & Porter road roller dates from about 1892.

Onlookers in the photograph include two men in the doorway of D Crozier Tailors who must have had a range of cloth available to them from the large woollen manufacturers in the village. They may be David Crozier, (a master tailor although he seems to have spent most of his life also working for the Post Office), and his son John who also took up the tailoring trade.  David died in 1901 so if it is him in the picture then the photograph must have been taken during the late 1890s. John Crozier is well known in the village for forming and conducting the successful and long running Kirkcowan Musical Society.

We will be featuring more old photographs that tell the story of Kirkcowan and as well as street scenes we are also interested in views of agriculture in the area - particularly any connected to the woollen industry - sheep shearing for example.