" A Saunter roon Stinstin"

[jsmith]

I remember all these places of the bottom end of Stevenston, does anyone remember any of the folk who lived in Warner Street. I lived there late 1950 early 60. My neighbours at the time was Maureen Arundel John Fullarton Eddie Macome Ann Mackenzie to name a few. Hope someone remembers them from jsmith

[imajrk]

Maureen Arundel is a good friend of mine. We lost touch for a few months as her PC went down. But now we are back in touch and caught up with all our news the other day. She is still in Stevenston, and has a lovely family. I didn't realise she lived at the bottom end. She must have moved from there to the prefabs "up the Hayocks". I can't remember the name of the street she lived on but I used to run down that hill often, trying to catch the bus at the stop at the bottom of the hill. She and her family later moved to Hamilton Cres. We went through school together and that wasn't yesterday, so our friendship has lasted many years.

[bobbydarg]

Maureen Arundel's family and my family were brought up in the prefabs together. Maureen's mum and my mum went to the bingo together. We used to call her auntie.

[bobbydarg]

I found this while i was looking for stuff on Ardeer Thistle.
As my mum stayed there for a wee while i found it interesting.



28. Ardeer Square, Stevenston

(Merry & Cunningham, Limited.)
This square consists of four rows of houses built in the form of a square, and other three rows situated inside the square. The houses are all built of stone. There is a very large pond of water in the square for supplying the furnaces which are close at hand.

Side Row. - This row contains 16 two-apartment houses. The kitchen measures approximately 12 feet by 11 feet and the room 10 feet by 9 feet. The rent is 9s. 6d. per month. (The rents in this square are from 30 to 50 per cent higher than the rents of similar houses we have visited anywhere in Ayrshire.) There are three washing-houses provided in this row, and inside each washhouse a water-closet has been erected in recent years for the use of females. Some of these closets are in such a bad state of repair that they cause an offensive smell in the washing-house, and with regard to other rows in the square they cannot be used at all. Two dry-closets are provided for the males. They have doors on them, and are built in conjunction with the ash-pits, and placed in front of the houses. The roadway is unpaved and dirty.

Back Row. - This row contains 26 single-apartment houses built in blocks. Three blocks have six houses each, and one block has eight houses. At the top end of the row there is a model lodging-house and dining-room, where boarders are fed and lodged at 12s. per week, or where a bed can be obtained for 6d. per night. The dwelling-houses measure approximately 17 feet by 11 feet, and there is a cupboard with a set-in bed. As a rule there is one washing-house for every three tenants and a water-closet inside of it for females, and one dry-closet for every three tenants. There is one ash-pit for every six tenants. As these are the sanitary arrangements for the whole square, with exceptions which we shall note, we do not propose to refer to them again. The rent of these houses is 7s. 11d. per month.

Shilling Row. - This row contains 8 single-apartment houses, and the house measures 14 feet by 12 feet approximately. This house does not even contain the cupboard bed described in the row above. This row has no closets, washing-houses, or coal-houses, and shares those conveniences attached to the row opposite. The houses here are very damp, and in the inside of several doors the water was lying in pools. The rent is 6s. 6d. per month.

Front Row. - This row contains 10 two-apartment houses and 8 single-apartment houses. The rent of the two-apartment house is 8s. 7d. per month and the single apartment 6s. 6d. per month. The single-apartment house measures 12 feet by 12 feet approximately, and the double house measures—kitchen 12 feet by 12 feet and room 10 feet by 8 feet. In this row there is one washing-house for six tenants, with closet in it for females, and one dry-closet for males for every six tenants. The syvors and cesspools at this row were in an abominably filthy condition, and pools of water inches deep lay on the roadway in front of the houses.

Monkey Row. - This row is formed of 8 single apartments built back to back with the 8 single apartments of the Front Row just described. In fact, they correspond exactly with rooms of the Front Row. The whole house measures 10 feet by 8 feet. They have neither coal-houses nor washhouses, closets nor ash-pits, and human filth and refuse is thrown out on the ground in front of the houses. The syvors are in an abominably filthy condition.

Middle Row. - This row contains 12 single-apartment houses, and is the same type of house as the ones described in the Back Row, with the same rent and same sanitary conveniences.

Furnace Row. - This row contains 18 single-apartment houses in three blocks of six houses each, and 13 two-apartment houses. The single apartment measures approximately 16 feet by 11 feet, and there is the same cupboard with set-in bed, as previously described. The rent in 7s. 11d. per month. The two-apartment houses measure approximately - kitchen 12 feet by 12 feet and the room 12 foot by 9 feet. The rent of this house is 9s. 6d. per mouth. There are the same outhouses as are described in the Back Row.

The aspect of the whole square is a most melancholy one. There do not appear to be any rhones on any of the houses, and as none of the roadways are paved the result can be readily imagined. At every gable there are large pools of water several inches deep, and ruts of mud at every row. The floors are all brick tiles, with the usual sad result of broken floors and uneven surfaces, which mock the efforts of the most industrious housewife to keep a tidy house. The houses are inhabited by the miners of the neighbouring pits and the furnace workers of the Ardeer furnaces.

[chriso]

Here's a photo of my mum and auntie teresa taken out side my grans house in Ardeer square.

[JimMcCub]

Cracking pic Chris when was it taken roughly?

[chriso]

Jim, I would guess some time in the 1920's.

[little plum]

Great photo Chris, thanks for sharing it with us. Its interesting to look back at the fashion of the day.

[bobbydarg]

Here are the two photos of the Schoolwell i promised.

[morag]

Bobby, do you have any current pics to coincide with these, for the life of me I can't orientate them!

[Anne]

Thanks Robert, you have just saved my sanity. A while back I asked about a shop that was there in Schoolwell St next to the Champion Shell selling household goods & toys. It was in one of your pics. Since then the name May Cherry has been running through my mind. Now this morning I see in your latest pics posted of the Street the name Cherry in the right hand corner. I have a rotten memory so why I would remember this I don't know but thanks again.

Anne

[bobbydarg]

Glad i could help.