Old Saltcoats - The Drakemyre

Discuss all aspects of the three towns in the Threetowners' Lounge.
Post Reply
User avatar
Hughie
Administrator
Administrator
Posts: 11138
Joined: Thu Dec 09, 2004 12:42 am
Location: Australia Formerly Ardrossan
Contact:

Old Saltcoats - The Drakemyre

Post by Hughie »

Like the recent article about the old Railway to the harbour this too is a long article. But I'll post it as a whole.

The Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald
April 1904


The last thatched house in the street now called Vernon Street vanished from sight for ever last week, and with it is finished, so to speak, the history of the ancient houses which formerly stood there. The north side of the street, from Chapel Brae to Countess Street, is now wholly occupied by the third railway station and its goods' sheds and loading banks. A high red stone wall encloses the ground from end to end.

Lift the wall away, and reinstate for a moment the houses which stood there in the olden time, see the faces, and listen to the voices once more which were familiar in the several doorways there. Drakemyre was never the name of the street. it was a nickname. The proper name was Chapel Street. In the days of the monks there was a chapel near, but the exact spot is unknown.

The monks' well gave the name to Chapelwell Street, their gardens gave the same to Chapelhill Yards (now Springvale Street), and the chapel to Chapel Street and Chapel Brae. The nickname, no doubt, was correctly descriptive of the street in its primitive days, and it continued to be so miscalled long after it deserved a better title. The time came for a change of name as well as of character.

In the year 1878 the street was rechristened "Vernon Street" by the unanimous voice of the proprietors, who met for the purpose in the Town Hall. The report of the meeting recalls the names of Robert McKillop, Gilbert Gray, Capt. Blakeney, John Grimwood, Thomas Borland, and others now no more.

At the head of Chapel Brae, and facing Manse Street, the first house was a two-storey one, long occupied by William Hill and afterwards by his son, also William Hill, both horse dealers. Through the stables at the back there passed many a drove of the highest class of Irish horses. It was nothing unusual for English dealers to come there and purchase a dozen of the most valuable, real - Irish-mettle in a forenoon. To the delight (and also danger) of the rising, as well as the risen, generation, the spirited creatures were shown" along Manse Street and up the Gaswork Brae by Jimmy Spence, the chief of grooms, and others of the craft. Horse-dealing in the hands of the Hills was one of the important industries" of Saltcoats which flourished to decay, and the spot which knew it so well then is now occupied by the new approach to the Gaswork Bridge over the railway.

The next house on the brae was a one-storey private dwelling-house, and the next to it was the corner one. It was a "wee shoppie." What a contrast between it, in all its dimensions, and the spacious shop buildings of to-day. Yet there was business done in it. It was long occupied by old Archibald Kelso, and latterly by his son, "Wee Willie (Earl Gray) - small in stature, great in soul; weak in body, but the mind's the standard of the man." He was a member of the "Literary," as it was then called, and always stood up valiantly in the tussle of debate. He was a good singer, and often led the praise in the Parish Church Sabbath School.

Then round the corner came “Willock's Sheds." James Willock was long carrier between Saltcoats and Glasgow. His house, with stables at the back, was at the corner of Chapelwell Street, and the carrier's sheds were opposite. Willock's Corner was as well known as the Shopends. In his day the railway company allotted vans or trucks to the carriers (the other carrier was William Wilson). The goods were collected from the shops and warerooms, and also at the carriers' quarters, and taken to the old railway station situated between the Free Church and Canal Street. There they were put on rail. The loading bank was on the side next Kyleshill, high up above the railway. There was another lye, on the opposite side on the level of the road. The carriers' quarters were busy places on the days of arrival and dispatch. The weavers' bags were an important item of the freight. They contained the material of the largest industry of the town, and often the arrival of the carrier was anticipated with fear and trembling.

Next came a row of one-storey thatch houses. The first was Rabbie Boll's house; it was owned and occupied by John Fullarton, a sailor. The next two belonged to Chalmers, and then came a two-storey slated house, known as the Turf Inn. It never was an inn or public house. How it was so called, perhaps some one who reads this may be able to say.

At the back of it William Craig, a joiner, had his workshop. At the gable of this house there was the road up to the Gaswork Bridge, but the road was only shifted there when the railway station was brought to the street previously the road was farther along to the west. Alongside of the Turf Inn was Lennart's Smiddy, and next to it one or two smaller houses. Then came the entrance to the road, which is now called Wellpark Road, but then was called the "Muckle Yett," and was so called because of a large wooden gate at the entrance. The road led from the Drakemyre in a straight line past the AntiBurgher Kirk (Mr Ronald's), and continued, as it is now, parallel with Raise Street. It crossed the railway as long as it was a horse railway on the level, but when the railway was altered for steam locomotives, in the year 1840, the level crossing was stopped and the muckle-yett road was taken over the Gaswork Bridge.

The house on the east side of the Muckle yett was a one-storey slated house with a Napois, and next to it was a one-storey, thatched house, a public house, opposite the bend of Green Street. The next was the two storey slated house, long occupied by Peter Hill, who was also an extensive horse dealer. He was a very tall man, wore a tile hat, swallow-tail dress coat, and kneebreeches. He smoked a long pipe and flourished a long four-in-hand whip when he was showing off his stud. "Robin, bring oot that broon kowt an show it to Wulliam Kirkwood, he's an honest man and an eller(?)." Peter Hill and his witty jokes were known and told far and near, not only in Scotland, England, and Ireland, but among officers in the Indian service. He died in 1819.

The range of houses from the Turf Inn to Peter Hill's (nearly the half of that side of the street) was swept away when the railway station was brought to Vernon Street. The old material of the old houses were sold by auction on 11th June, 1857.

The next notable house was the Lion's Den. This house remained standing till the time the present railway station was erected. It stood at the entrance to the former station, and was long a public house. It was last occupied as such by Robert Harris, who afterwards built the Railway Hotel at the station in 1884. Why it was nicknamed the Lion's Den, perhaps no one now living can tell. Another house in the same street, but on the opposite side, bore the title in further back times.

The next property was the corner one, the front entrances were from Raise Street. Up till the year 1884 this property was a grocer's shop and public house, kept by Gilbert Gray. The red wall ends where the frontage to Raise Street stood. Crossing the road to the south side, at the opposite corner stands the public house where ex-Bailie Campbell, who is still with us, commenced his connection with Saltcoats, 53 years ago. The property belonged at that time to Robert M'Killop of Raise Street, and the tenant was John Ore of Green Street It has been modernised, and the business is still carried on by the Bailie's youngest son.

No more interesting spot in the street than the next house comes back to memory dear. It was a one-storey thatched house. In it James Service kept school. He afterwards became Prime Minister of the Colony of Victoria in Australia. His partner, My Ormond, who still carries on their extensive business in Melbourne, came from a similar small schoolroom on the Pun Brae in Stevenston. Later, the first Ragged School in Saltcoats was opened there first under Ephraim Barbour, next Thomas Young, and afterwards the Rev. John Ewing. It is round the meetings of the Literary Society the interest centres. The late Arthur Guthrie and Peter Gorme were the founders and soul of the Society. They were the leaders, to whom all ... older members were willing to sit mute and listen.

The other lights were the Rev. John Ewing. Dr Wallace the first, James Walker, baker; Finlay Mitchell, gas manager: Mr Bowie, clerk at the colliery office in Canal Street; Mr Ingram, James Barclay, teacher; Hugh Stirling, painter ; Wm. Davie, Verdant Paddy, and others. The meetings were always interesting, especially the debates and the fifteenpence teas at the opening and closing of the session. The place which knew them then knows them no more, and the old school is replaced by a modern two-storey dwelling-house.

The next house (Docherty's) was originally Peter Hill's stables, and next to it was a one-storey thatched house at the corner of Green Street, which belonged to Lord Eglinton, and was long occupied by the Late Joseph Milne Mason. He was a tradesman of the old school, and wore a tile hat at his work. The house at the opposite corner of Green Street is still as it was a hundred years ago, but the axe has been laid to the root of the tree. It has been sold to the burgh, and as it projects beyond the line of the house farther on, it is to be taken down. Part will be thrown in to the street to widen it, and probably the other part will be wrought into the new buildings of the Co-operative Society to be erected in Green Street.

Jimmy Whatley's loan comes next, so called because in one of the little thatch houses in the recess, back from the line of street, James Whitelaw, chimney sweep, had his private residence. His name was common terror, with which weary mothers and nurses tried to send wakerife children to sleep, and he was sometimes the only sick nurse who could be got to attend in fever cases when others were afraid to venture. The loan was favourite spot for marbles and peeries and other games, and in winter the sivor would run clear with a good volume of water from Spooties burn.

Here, too, was the first pawnshop in Saltcoats, kept by a man named James Logan under the nickname of "Hand-me-down." The next house was long owned and occupied by Thomas Borland, carter. It is the one which was taken down last week. He knew a good horse and could keep one, he was fond of a joke, and was on the road late and early. His day's work for length would make the present-day carter stare. The loan is now the property of his son, John Borland, coal merchant, who is putting up new property of red Ballochmyle stone.

The Christian Institute, Newal's furniture warehouse, and the three-storey property of Mr James Wilson - all modern buildings occupy the former sites of long row of one storey thatched houses. The one next to Borland's belonged to a Mrs M'Kelvie, and next to it was the famous lodging-house of Peter M'Culloch, where many a weary traveller reposed without regard to numbers or cubic feet of space per inmate.

Next came the house of Elder Brodie, of the Parish Church, and the last one was the house of David Shaw, long precentor in the Free Church, and at one time president of the Gardeners' Society. From his house to the corner the houses are more modern and slated, and still remain as they were a century ago. In one of them lived James Reid, cattle dealer, who was said to know the pedigree of the most of the cows in Arran. The corner house was James Willock's, referred to at the outset. The continuation of the street from Countess Street to the Kyleshill Bridge has Countess Street to the Kyleshill Bridge has opened up a straight road along Vernon Street and Manse Street, which is now much used, the through traffic of vehicles being a great as in Dockhead Street. As we carry out present life up the street we meet our boyhood life coming down.

Here's an image of Drakemyre Street during its demolition.
User avatar
Hughie
Administrator
Administrator
Posts: 11138
Joined: Thu Dec 09, 2004 12:42 am
Location: Australia Formerly Ardrossan
Contact:

Re: Old Saltcoats - The Drakemyre

Post by Hughie »

Hughie wrote: Tue Jan 15, 2019 6:46 am Then came the entrance to the road, which is now called Wellpark Road, but then was called the "Muckle Yett," and was so called because of a large wooden gate at the entrance.
Robert Louis Stevenston used the expression, Muckle Yett. Meaning gateway to hell.

Muckle Yett.jpg
Post Reply