Kilmahew House in Montgomerie Street was the home of John Barr, Ardrossan's first Provost. In later life, the building was headquarters of Ardrossan Town Council but was later demolished.
The building is shown in this picture (from Tom McGrattan):
The building was mentioned recently as the original location for the Ardrossan lions - one now at Cannon Hill, the other now on a wall at Eglinton Street (see this article).
How much would it have cost to buy Kilmahew House in 1885? The answer is in this advert from the Glasgow Herald of 21st January 1885:
Here is a further small insight into the history of Kilmahew House... a break-in during 1884 after which an offender was caught, tried and found guilty (I have obscured the name of the accused). This report is from the Glasgow Herald (24th April 1884). Two other Ardrossan grand houses are mentioned - Crescent Park House and Seafield House. Are these still standing?
Seafield House is what I presume most of us will know as Seafield Home in Eglinton Road and therefore still standing? William Mutter has been discussed before and therefore I think I know his house in North Crescent, also still standing.
I'm drawn too to the accused's remark - "I never saw such justice as in this court." Ten years penal servitude for little material gain and on circumstantial evidence. I'm inclined to agree with him. I wonder if he had broken into 4 houses in Kilmahew Street instead of those occupied by the local gentry if the sentence would have been the same?
Nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we remember it.
Two of the three charges against him in Ardrossan were 'housebreaking with intent' which means he never actually stole anything from these houses!
There is every chance of course that he was definitely the culprit but I would love to know what circumstantial evidence linked him to the 4 housebreakings .
Nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we remember it.
When you actually think of the innocents who were found guilty,due to race, religion,lack of funds, whatever, and vice versa, it will make you a humbler soul.
"You don't have a Soul. You are a Soul. You have a body."
C.S.Lewis
morag wrote:When you actually think of the innocents who were found guilty,due to race, religion,lack of funds, whatever, and vice versa, it will make you a humbler soul.
Morag - I still think you are only as guilty as your solicitor is good at his job.
georgersweir wrote:Two other Ardrossan grand houses are mentioned - Crescent Park House and Seafield House. Are these still standing?
George
I don't know anything about Crescent Park House but agree with Penny Tray that Seafield House still exists in Eglinton Road. It was built in 1840 and is now known as Quarriers Seafield School. The photo below was taken on 4 January 2008.
The accused in the robbery cases described above was sentenced to 'ten years penal servitude'. Penal servitude is not simply imprisonment but hard labour. I assume that we were no longer sending offenders to Australia by 1884. In England the sentence of transportation was abolished, and the sentence of penal servitude substituted by the Penal Servitude Act, of 1857. Presumably, Scotland was in line with this change. Which leaves me wondering how a prisoner in 1884 would serve 10 years of penal servitude - sewing mail bags in Barlinnie?
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