Auchinleck History <history_auchinleck>

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Town Hall1/22/10
 
Following the opening of the community center in 1958 attendance at the town hall fell dramatically as a number of organisations moved to the larger center. A public meeting was called in 1961 to see what could be done to improve matters,but attendance was poor. On the 20th of September that year another meeting took place and despite the contraversial topic only 32 people turned up including members of the Public Hall Trust. Following a vote (which went 15 to 14) it was agreed that the trust should be wound up and the hall was closed. It then remained empty until 1964 when the Lugar & Cumnock Loyal Orange Lodge took over the premises and the Star of the West Social Club opened on the 8th October 1966. The club closed in 1974,& the hall remained empty thereafter,finally being demolished and houses built on the site
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Highhouse rows1/21/10
 
Highhouse Rows, Parish of Auchinleck

(Owned by William Baird & Company, Limited.)
Highhouse Rows stand on the side of the Ochiltree and Auchinleck Road, just outside of the village of Auchinleck.

There are two rows of forty-nine and forty-eight dwellings respectively, of two apartments.

The 1st Row. - The 1st row contains 49 two apartments, except four which have three apartments. The two apartments are rented at 2s. 1d. a week, the three at 3s. 6d., exclusive of rates.

The kitchens measure 13 feet by 11 feet, the rooms 12 feet by 10 feet.

This row is built of stone, which gives it a nice, clean appearance.

There is a washing-house for every four houses and a closet for every four, with coal-houses and ash-pits. These have the defect common to most rows - all built together in front of the houses, and only 18 feet distant in this case.

There is a supply of Loch Bradan water.

The paths are paved, which give here, as everywhere else, the houses a better appearance, and help to keep the inside of them much cleaner.

The open syvors at the top of this row were almost stagnant, and when we saw them on 6th December 1913 contained quantities of dirty water.

The houses inside are fairly comfortable, having wooden floors, and in the dwellings we visited were oven grates.

The 2nd Row. - The 2nd row is built of brick, otherwise it is the same as the 1st row.

There is often a bad smell at the top here, so we were informed, from the fact that there is an outlet from all the closets here. There are provisions for flushing regularly, but this is often neglected. The ash-pits, too, were very dirty; indeed, some of them were disgraceful. We were told that in summer the flies were " something ' awful." We could well believe it from the state in which we found the ash-pits. Some of the people to whom we spoke expressed an earnest desire for water-closets. The open syvors all along the rows looked dirty, and better scavenging here is urgently needed.
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THE COVENANTERS Rev. Alexander Peden1/21/10
 
ALEXANDER PEDEN
'PUIR AULD SANDY'
'THE PROPHET OF THE COVENANT'

Alexander Peden was born in 1626 at Auchencloich Farm, Sorn in Ayrshire, the son of a small land-owner. He studied arts and divinity at Glasgow University from where he returned to his native Ayrshire to take up the position of schoolmaster at Tarbolton. The minister of the parish at that time was John Guthrie, a notable Covenanter in his own right and brother of William Guthrie the renowned minister of Fenwick. Peden would soon follow them into the ministry and in 1659 he was ordained at New Luce in Wigtonshire. However, this ministry was short-lived and like many ministers of the time including Hugh Crawford of New Cumnock, he was ejected from his charge.

The hills and the moorsides of south-west Scotland became his church. His congregation swoll to numbers that no building could hold as his reputation as a field-preacher spread throughout the land. His pulpits were often a moss-covered boulders many of which have passed into local folklore as 'Peden's Stanes' , like the one in the neighbouring parish of Kirkconnel in Dumfriesshire.

Peden was outlawed in 1666 and he had to take special precautions to avoid detection by informants as he trudged throughout the upland parishes from conventicle to conventicle. One form of disguise was his famous 'fawse-face and wig' which from a distance would confuse even the most alert spy !

In 1673, however, he was finally captured at a house-conventicle at Knockdow, Ayrshire and then imprisoned on the Bass Rock, in the Firth of Forth, where he remained for four and half years. In one his letters from the Rock he woefully relates 'We are close shut up by our chambers: not permitted to converse, diet , worship together'. The contrast with the realtive freedom of the expansive uplands and moors of his native Ayrshire engaged in Christian worship with his fellow Covenanters must surely have eaten at his soul.

A further year of imprisonment in the Tolbooth at Edinburgh followed before he was sentenced to banishment for life in the plantations of America. Along with others to suffer the same fate he was shipped from Leith to London. However, the captain of the connecting ship to Virginia could not stomach such an unholy act on such a pious group of Presybyterians. Peden made good his escape and would spend half a year in England and then later some time in Ireland before returning to his calling of field-preaching in his homeland of Scotland.

Peden's powers and reputation went beyond that of field-preaching. Traditions handed down often allude to his shamanistic qualities perhaps better associated with the great bards of the Dark Ages. He could call upon the Lord to 'cast the lap of Thy cloak ower auld Sandy and thir poor things and save us this one time' and a hill mist would descend concealing Peden and his fellow conventiclers from advancing dragoons. He had the gift of the second-sight earning him the accolade of 'Prophet of the Covenant' but too often his visions were filled with impending grief and perphaps none more so than that associated with John Brown, the Christian Carrier.



On the day he performed the marriage of John Brown and Isabel Weir at the farm of Priesthill he prophecised to the new bride 'You have got a good man to be your husband, but you will not enjoy him long; prize his company and keep linen by you to be his winding sheet, for you will need it when ye are not looking for it, and it will be a bloody one'. John Brown's life indeed came to a bloody end. He was shot on the spot at Priesthill by Graham of Claverhouse or 'Bluidy Clavers' in full view of his wife and family and sadly another of Auld Sandy's prophecy came to past!

The years of field-preaching and imprisonment finally took their toll on 'puir Auld Sandy' and he returned to his native Ayrshire to die. Still an outlaw he concealed himself in a cave on the Lugar Water near to a farm called Tenshillingside his brother had rented at in the parish of Auchinleck. Government troops were garrisoned at nearby Sorn Castle and would subject Tenshillingside to thorough searches on a regular basis with little success. Peden left his little cave for the last time to spend his last few days at his brother's house where he died on 26th January 1686, aged 60 years old. Boswell, the Laird of Auchinleck permitted the corpse of the Prophet to be laid rest in the family tomb in Auchinleck Kirkyard. Some 6 weeks later, Peden's body was taken by the dragoons to be hanged from the gibbet on the Gallows hill at Cumnock, an unholy act of contempt. The Covenanters' monument standing proudly adjacent to the Boswell Mausoleum tells the story...

SACRED
TO THE MEMORY OF
THE REV. ALEXANDER PEDEN

THE NOTED COVENANTER, BORN 1626
DIED AND WAS BURIED IN THIS
CHURCHYARD 1686. HIS BODY
AFTER SIX WEEKS IN THE GRAVE
WAS RAISED BY THE DRAGOONS UNDER
COLONEL DOUGLAS AND IN
CONTEMPT WAS BURIED AT THE
FOOT OF THE GALLOWS -TREE AT
OLD CUMNOCK, WHICH PLACE
AFTERWARDS BECAME THE
PARISH CHURCHYARD



Murray, in charge of the dragoons was intent on having Peden's decaying body hanged in public view. However, the Earl of Dumfries, as Baron Crichton of Cumnock would not permit such a despicable act, claiming that the gallows had been erected for common criminals and not for men of the standing of Alexander Peden. Murray reluctantly complied but still craving his pound of flesh insisted that Peden's body would be buried on the gallows-hill.

Peden's body was finally laid to rest along side the Covenanting Martyrs, David Dun and Simon Paterson (captured on Corsgellioch hill , New Cumnock) and Thomas Richard an 80 year-old farmer of Greenock Mains, Muirkirk, all executed here the previous year.



The people of Cumnock now looked upon the gallows-hill in a different light and considered it as a sacred place. A few years later the Earl of Dumfries had finally given up any hopes of reversing the decision made in 1650 to split the parish of Cumnock into the two new parishes of Old Cumnock and New Cumnock. The parish of Old Cumnock required a new burial ground and the townsfolk could see no further than the hallowed ground where Peden lay.

The tombstones of Peden, Paterson, Dun and Richard can still be found in what is now the old cemetery in Barrhill, Cumnock encircled by the gravestones of generations of Cumnock families, a testimony to their wishes to lie in peace beside the Prophet of the Covenant.

I N M EMORY
OF
A LEXANDER P EDEN
(A NATIVE OF SORN)

T HAT FAITHFUL MINISTER OF C HRIST, WHO
FOR HIS UNFLINCHING ADHERENCE TO THE
C OVENANTED R EFORMATION IN S COTLAND, WAS
EXPELLED BY TYRANT RULERS FROM HIS PARISH
OF N EW L UCE, IMPRISONED FOR YEARS ON THE
B ASS R OCK BY HIS PERSECUTORS, AND HUNTED
FOR HIS LIFE ON THE SURROUNDING MOUNTAINS
AND MOORS TILL HIS DEATH ON 26TH J ANUARY 1686,
IN THE 60TH YEAR OF HIS AGE; AND HERE,
AT LAST, HIS DUST REPOSES IN PEACE, AWAITING
THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST.

SUCH WERE THE MEN THESE HILLS TRODE,
STRONG IN THE LOVE AND FEAR OF GOD
DEFYING THROUGH A LONG DARK HOUR

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Auchinleck Railway Station1/21/10
 
The station was opened on 9 August 1848 by the Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock and Ayr Railway.[1] then joining the Glasgow and South Western Railway it became part of the London Midland and Scottish Railway during the Grouping of 1923. Passing on to the Scottish Region of British Railways during the nationalisation of 1948, it was then closed to passengers by the British Railways Board on 6 December 1965. It was reopened on 12 May 1984
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a little more history1/21/10
 
The lands of Auchinleck, in Ayrshire, are known to have given a surname to their proprietors so early as the 13th century. In 1300, the laird of Auchinleck accompanied Sir William Wallace to Glasgow from Ayr, when he attacked and slew Earl Percy. The Chartulary of Paisley records a donation from Sir John de Auchinleck, in 1385, of twenty shillings yearly to the abbot and convent of that house, as a compensation for having mutilated the person of one of the monks. Thomas Boswell, a younger son of Boswell of Balmuto in Fife, having married one of the daughters and co-heiress of Sir John Auchinleck of that ilk, received in 1504 a grant of these lands from James the Fourth. This Thomas Boswell, who fell at Flodden, was the ancestor of the present possessor. The family of Boswell of Auchinleck has acquired celebrity in several of its members. There was another family of Auchinleck in Perthshire, designed of Balmanno, an Auchinleck having married the heiress of Balmanno of that ilk.

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William Wallace's Cave1/20/10
 
Not far from Auchinleck Castle, within the grounds of Auchinleck Estate is a cave hewn in a sandstone cliff overlooking the River Lugar. The cave is known locally as "Wallace`s Cave", no doubt alluding to an association with William Wallace, however Ayrshire abounds with sites claiming Wallace associations but unfortunately little hard evidence exists to prove or disprove the claims.It must be pointed out that this cave is not the only cave within the grounds of the estate, not far away at the side of the Dippol burn there are at least two other caves hewn from sandstone. Both of these are virtually certain to be associated with the 18th century Auchinleck House, one a cave used to store meat before the advent of refrigeration. Still, "Wallace`s" Cave in it`s "stylised" look as it is today may have existed in a more humble form in the past and may have been enlarged and altered cosmetically by successive generations.It does most definetely after all lie in a locale steeped in activity from the correct era.The small photograph shows steps hewn into the sandstone along part of the path to the cave.Some may say that the steps hewn in this fashion exceed pure functionality and so further strengthen the case that the cave is too stylised to be truly associated with William Wallace, certainly in the form we see it today

please check albums for the photo's of the cave
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A few historical dates 1/20/10
 
Here are just a few historical dates:

15th Century - Boswells of Auchinleck become landed proprietors
17th Century - Centre of Covenanters
29 October 1740 - James Boswell, biographer of Samuel Johnson, born
21 August 1754 - Birth of William Murdoch, the pioneer of gas lighting
1755 - 1760 - Auchinleck House built by Alexander Boswell, 8th Laird of Auchinleck
1782 - Auchinleck House passes to James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck
19th May 1795 - Death of James Boswell
9 August 1848 - Auchinleck Station
1907 - A public meeting at Kirkland's Green in Auchinleck forms a new football club
1909 - The new club is named Auchinleck Talbot after Lord Talbot de Maldahide who gifts the club Beechwood Park
1907 - Barony Colliery built
1954 - Barony A Frame built
1957 - Power station built
8 November1962 - Four miners die in a mining disaster at the Barony colliery: Henry Green, John McNeil, Thomas Fyvie and George Wade
6 December 1965 - Station closed
1970 - Auchinleck Boswell Society founded
1983 - Power station closed
1984/5 - Miners strike
12 May 1984 - Station reopened
1986 - Remains of Auchinleck House buildings turned over to Scottish Historic Buildings Trust by James Boswell
1989 - Barony colliery, which employed 1,200 at its peak, closed after 82 years in operation
1999 - Auchinleck House bought by the Landmark Trust
6th December 2002 - Auchinleck Millennium Clock unveiled
2005-06 season - Auchinleck Talbot wins the Scottish Junior Cup
21st January 2008 - Barony A Frame Monument, restored by the Barony A Frame Trust, officially opened by Prince Charles, Duke of Rothesay
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Auchinleck, Temple, Camp 22, Base Camp1/19/10
 
Organisation The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland
Alternative Name(s) CRAWFORD WELL; DUMFRIES HOUSE POLICIES; PENNYLAND; WATERSIDE WOOD
Canmore ID 158790
Site Type PRISONER OF WAR CAMP (20TH CENTURY)
County AYRSHIRE
Parish AUCHINLECK
Council EAST AYRSHIRE
NGR NS 5410 2114
Latitude, Longitude 55.462279N, 4.309122W
Images 9
Archaeological Notes
NS52SW 112 centred 5410 2114

A possible prisoner-of-war camp has been identified on vertical air photographs (RAF 106G/UK/571, 3135-37, flown 1945). Visible on the air photographs is a double fence-line enclosing the southern section of the camp. Immediately to the N is what may be the accommodation units for the camp guards. The sewage treatment plant, still depicted on the latest edition of the OS 1:10560 scale map, (1968) , to the S of the camp lies at NS 5415 2091. Examination of the air photographs reveals well over 100 huts within the compound, several of which have 'formal gardens' to the rear. In the central area of the camp is a group of larger huts, presumably the mess, kitchen and recreation buildings.
The camp was still extant in November 1945, as it is still visible on a later sortie of vertical air photographs, (RAF 106G/UK986, 3297-8, flown 1945). By 1951, however, the camp had been almost totally demolished, with only a few huts surviving at the N end (RAF 540/509 pt.1, 4140-1, flown 1951). The OS 1:10560 map shows no evidence of the camp.
Information from RCAHMS (DE) February 2000.
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Barony Colliery1/19/10
 
This colliery is located midway between Auchinleck and Ochiltree and is 120m above sea level, and exploits strata which dip gently from NE to SW in the SE part of the Mauchline Basin. The area of working is bounded on the W side by a fault which has prevented links with the neighbouring Killoch Colliery. The two main phases of development in the pit are reflected in its surviving buildings. The original shafts (numbers 1 and 2) were sunk between 1906 and 1912 and associated polychrome brick buildings were erected in the same period. The latter include two winding engine houses built to house horizontal steam engines, as well as an electricity power station and a water treatment plant for a bank of Lancashire boilers, the flue of which still leads to a brick-built circular-section chimney.
Reconstruction of the colliery was begun in 1937, but was delayed for 10 years because of World War II. New projects included the sinking of a third shaft, which was subsequently equipped with a German-designed steel headframe which now dominates the colliery. This and all the other shafts operated using a continuous rope winding system driven by two electrically -powered ground-mounted winding engines, each housed in rectangular, brick buildings on the W and E sides of the headframe. Associated with No.3 shaft were a new car hall, workshops, lamp room, administration buildings and medical centre. Also included within the reconstruction was a new coal preparation plant located to the N of the site on the other side of the Barony Road and connected to the Car Hall by a covered gantry containing a belt conveyor. Another improvement was the provision of new pithead baths which replaced the earlier baths that had been built in 1931 by the Miners' Welfare Committee. The old baths were later converted to an NCB training centre.
In 1962, not long after the completion of reconstruction, production ceased following the total collapse of No.2 shaft in which several men were killed. The neighbouring shaft No. 1 had to be filled in, and in the ensuing redevelopment, the old headframe above the shafts were removed, as was the old coal preparation plant nearby to the S. The two steam winding engines were dismantled and the engine houses subsequently re-used as stores. In 1965, the resumption of production was achieved through the sinking of a fourth shaft 500m to the S. The new shaft provided emergency winding facilities, and was also equipped with an extracting fan house which ventilated the pit. During the period, the mine was connected to the national grid, and its power station converted to an electrified substation and workshop.
During the 1980s, rationalisation in the Scottish coalfield has isolated Barony as the only colliery outside the Forth Valley. The neighbouring coal-fired power station (built in the 1950s/60s at the same time as reconstruction) was closed and demolished, and electricity generation in Northern Ireland emerged as the pit's major market. The new coal preparation plant was closed, the coal being shipped by road haulage to Killoch Colliery's preparation plant, which has been retained (despite the closure of the remainder of Killoch Colliery) in order to treat coal from neighbouring open-cast developments. In early 1989, the future of Barony was in doubt. affected not only by uncertain geological factors, but also by electricity privatisation, which was encouraging an influx of cheap open-cast foreign coal. A recent surge in productivity has resulted from the successful exploitation of the Musselburgh seam, but this may not be enough to guarantee the future of the colliery
(Location cited as NS 5275 2175). BARONY 1, 2 3, and 4 Colliery
Location: Auchinleck
Previous Owners: Bairds & Dalmellington Limited from 1931
Types of Coal: House and Steam
Sinking/Production Commenced: 1910 (1 and 2), 1945 (3), 1965 (4)
Year Closed: 1989
Average Workforce: 1,078
Peak Workforce: 1,695
Peak Year: 1958
Shaft/Mine Details: 4 shafts, Nos.1 and 2 (NS 5276 2173) both 626m, No. 3 shaft (623m) added in reconstruction (1938-40 and 1945-50), and had `A'-frame headgear (NS 5267 2187), the only part of the colliery to survive after closure in 1989, despite listed-building status. No. 4 (ventilation and emergency winding, 509m, NS 5264 2134) was sunk in 1965 after the collapse of Nos. 1 and 2 shafts in 1962, during which four men were killed.
Details in 1948: Output 1,520 tons per day, 380,000 tons per annum, longwall and stoop and room working. 1,264 employees. 5 screens for dry coal, Jig washer (Campbell Binnie and Reid). Canteen and Baths (built 1931, later replaced and converted into training centre). Morphia administration scheme. Steam and electricity, all generated at mine in its own power station. Report dated 09-08-1948.
Other Details: Barony Power Station opened by the SSEB on an adjacent site in 1953, burning slurry from the washery. It closed in 1982 and was subsequently demolished. The Coppee coal preparation plant was the first full-scale dense-medium plant in Scotland, and was opened in 1957. Linked underground to Highhouse (NS52SW 29). The last working pit in Ayrshire at closure in 1989.
M K Oglethorpe 2006.

There was a plaque situated on 'A'-frame headgear above No.3 shaft bearing the words, 'HEADFRAME manufactured and erected by MECHANS LIMITED of GLASGOW'.
[Information from Alan Riddle of British Coal Opencast, 1992]

Production ceased temporarily when No.2 pit collapsed in 1962. No. 1 pit was filled in to protect the surface buildings and shaft No. 3. In 1965 a fourth shaft was sunk. Production resumed in 1966. No 3 shaft (6.58m in diameter, 623.32m in depth) was downcast with two sets of cages and a winding capacity of 250 tonnes per hour. No.4 shaft was upcast (5.49m in diameter, 509.63m in depth) and had a single, one deck cage. The general underground layout is to the E of the colliery 'take' or from whence the coal is removed with 1988 workings to the NW and SW of the shafts.
British Coal 1988
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Auchinleck Talbot1/19/10
 
Auchinleck Talbot are a Scottish junior football club based in Auchinleck, Ayrshire. They currently compete in the Stagecoach Super League, Premier League and are one of the biggest junior clubs in Scotland.
They play in a local derby against near neighbours and biggest rivals Cumnock Juniors. The club colours are gold and black.

History
A public meeting was held at Kirkland's Green in Auchinleck forms a new football club in 1907. Auchinleck Talbot was formed in 1909 and are named after Lord Talbot de Maldahide, the man who gave them their Beechwood Park home.

However the Talbot suffix was not the first choice but rather the result of losing a play off against local rivals Lugar Boswell Thistle for the right to use the 'Boswell Thistle' in their name. A 4?1 defeat for Auchinleck meant that the title has since resided with Lugar and not Auchinleck, a town for whom the name Boswell is synonymous and omnipresent.

The clubs Beechwood Park is opened in 1909 with a charity match between The Old Players and The Merchant's. Talbot make their team debut the same year when they defeat the juvenile side Highouse Rangers 4-0. Weeks later they lost their first competitive game at Cronberry Eglington in the league. Their first win comes in September 1909 when they defeat Patna doon Athletic in their first Scottish Cup tie.

Talbot folded in 1916 due to financial problems and the First World War but make a comeback four years later, winning the Ayrshire Cup by defeating Irvine Meadow 3-0 at Rugby Park. That same year they set a club goalscoring record in the Scottish Cup defeating Craigbank 11-0 at Beechwood

The club have a proud record in Junior football, with eight Scottish Junior Cup wins and since 1920 eleven league championships. They are the only club to have won the Scottish Junior Cup three times in a row. They made a remarkable achievement of winning The West of Scotland cup 9 years out of 10 between 1979 and 1989 although they have not won it since.[1]

The club opened a new stand with a friendly match against local Scottish league side Ayr United on 9th October 2005 (the senior side winning 6-2)

Honours

Scottish Junior Cup

* Winners (8) : 1949, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1991, 1992, 2006, 2009
* Runners-up (1): 2001?02

West Superleague Premier Division

* League Champions (1): 2005?06
* Runners-up (1): 2006?07

Ayrshire First Division

* League Champions (11): 1977?78, 1978?79, 1979?80, 1985?86, 1986?87, 1987?88, 1989?90, 1990?91, 1991?92, 1994?95, 1996?97
* Runners Up (4): 1993?94, 1997?98, 1998?99, 1999?00

West of Scotland Cup

* Winners (10): 1947?48, 1978?79, 1979?80, 1980?81, 1981?82, 1983?84, 1984?85, 1985?86, 1987?88, 1988?89
Matchday action at Beechwood Park

Ayrshire Cup

* Winners (11): 1920, 1939, 1956, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1988, 1994, 1996, 1997

Ayrshire League Cup

* Winners (10): 1948, 1950, 1978, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1998, 2003, 2006, 2007

Ayrshire District Cup

* Winners (7): 1948, 1981, 1983, 1985, 1989, 1992, 1997

Cumnock & Doon Valley Cup

* Winners (4): 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995

East Ayrshire Cup

* Winners (4): 1997, 1999, 2000, 2002

Ayrshire Super Cup

* Winners (5): 1993, 1994, 1995, 1999, 2000


Full name Auchinleck Talbot Football Club
Nickname(s) The Bot
Founded 1909
Ground Beechwood Park, Auchinleck
(Capacity: 4000)
President Scotland Morton Wright
Manager Scotland Tommy Sloan
League Stagecoach Super League, Premier League
2007?08 Stagecoach Super League, Premier League, 4th
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