industrial /
post medieval
Wilsontown
Industrial Ruins
Cleugh House
Searching for the original house
Haywood
Indus-trial Workings
Braehead
Old Quarries
High Mill
M i l l
High
Westshield House
17th Century House
Shodshill Mill
Remains of Mill
Terra Cotta Brickworks
Cleghorn
page
04
Industrial / Post Medieval: Wilsontown
Grid Reference: NS 95 1 549
Wilsontown
Survey of Industrial Ruins
However, due to the lack of rail connection and
fierce competition from more up to date iron
works that were able to take advantages of new
methods, the Dixons were forced to close the
works in 1842. After that, the fortunes of Wilsontown rested with the coalmines and now
that is only confined to Open Cast workings.
Wilsontown is an iconic industrial site as it was
the first integrated Ironworks in Southern
Scotland - everything was on hand for the production of iron bars - iron stone , coal and limestone for purifying the iron and to get rid of
impurities.
The works were founded by a wealthy family
called the Wilsons who are connected with
Cleugh House. Unfortunately the project was
mismanaged from the start and too much faith
was put in Alexander Gunn to manage the
works. In addition money was spent before it
was commercially viable on a fancy house
called `Wilsontown House' - a Palladian style
villa.
Investments were badly timed and the money
ploughed into rolled iron was not recouped and
it was ironic that, if they had waited 25 years,
they would have profited greatly from the
development of the railways.
Family fallouts and inability to make the
concern profitable led to the works being sold
to the Dixon family in 1821. Likewise the
Dixons were innovative and Wilsontown was
one of the first places to see the introduction of
the hot blast techniques.
The group have visited this site several times as
it is perhaps the most important site to be
examined as part of the entire Renewables
project, despite the demolition of a fair chunk of
the surviving industrial remains in the 1970s.
The group in their reports noted that there were
few outstanding monuments to be seen on the
site except for the store which is currently privately owned. The store is the only relatively
complete building that survives in situ.
The principal items that are now visible are the
bell pits which lie to the east of the site and are
no great distance from the site of the
Ironworks. These are fairly easy to see but
some are obscured by forestry plantations.
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The line of the railway lines is fairly easy to see,
but, unfortunately the rail connections did not
appear in time to save the ironworks, so they
belong to a later phase of the development of
the site.
Mere are ruins of the Ironworks and the group
saw what was left of the blast furnace area, but
these are fairly well documented. 'I he workings
are in a small valley with a stream running
through it. To the east of the ironworks is the
site of a row of houses known as Quality Row
where familes lived up to the 1930s. Other parts
of the site were abandoned before that date
including Muircock Row, marked as being in
ruins by 1856.
At the south end of the site there was Wilsontown House which stood on the elevated piece
of ground overlooking the car park for visitors
to Wilsontown.
Comment
A great deal of research work has been done by
the Forestry Commission on this site and they
are keen to work with Visit Scotland to develop
this site as a Tourist Attraction. The potential is
there, but more remains to be done to enhance
our knowledge of the social history of the
site.This could be done by small scale excavations undertaking the following sites - Quality
Row/ Muircock Row and Wilsontown House.
Such a study would give better understanding to
the social dynamics of the site.
Industrial / Post Medieval: Cleugh House
Grid Reference: NS 95415417
Cleugh House
Searching orthe original house
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Apart from the house which was substantially
altered and the old outbuildings which were
demolished, there are some really old walls
which are listed, but in a very bad state of repair.
Nevertheless, they are a very interesting feature.
Indeed they may predate the house, which is
marked on Blaeu's map of 1654 and they could
belong to that era.
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Comment
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There are a couple of theories about this
house:
1.'1 hat this house was first built by the
Apart from making a detailed study of the walls,
there is little that seems to merit attention
though it may be that there are interesting
features within the house.
Wilson family who were the founders of
the Wilsontown Iron Works and that it
was built before the 1750s as stated in
other references about the Ironworks and
Wilsontown.
2. The second theory is that this house was
originally a small cottage and in later years
the roof was removed and this property
was converted into a double storeyed
building. This theory came about as a result
of the roughcasting which, it is alleged, was
done to hide the joins in the building.
page
07
industrial Post Medieval: Haywood
Grid Reference: NS
548985.
HaywoodIndustrial Workings
Haywood is really a deserted industrial site.
The main industry in Haywood was coal
mining and when the mines closed Haywood
became deserted as people moved away in
'I he church has gone but the manse is now a
private house. From old photographs, it appears
that the church was an imposing building. 'the
village at one time had a war memorial in its
search of new jobs. The following sites were
looked at
centre, but this has been moved. '1 here was
also a police station, now gone, and a grocer
and off license. 1 he latter was located at
Greenbank Farm.
I. The Primary School
2. Site of Haywood Church and Manse
3. Haywood Village.
The Primary School is to be found on the right
hand side of the road from Wilsontown to
Auchengray. The following remains are to be
seen - a section of the playground wall with two
entrance pillars for people on foot. '1 here are
also remains of a building 8 ft high.
Comment
'I he sites are known from photographs and
maps and therefore the best way forward is to
locate these valuable sources of information.
Archaeological excavation or resistivity surveys
are not required here.
Braehead
Old Quarries
The workings that the group examined were
in the vicinity of Kilnpothall Farm near Eastshield. 'I he reason for examination of the area
was to look at the quarry pits and remains of
kilns. The area was known principally for the
production of lime. The pits produced limestone which was converted into lime using the
local coal. The lime was used for building work
from the Mediaeval Period onwards, but as yet,
none of the workings has been conclusively
dated. Suffice to say, it seems from local records
that the quarries and kilns were in use through
to the 19th century, but gradually fell out of use
as the industrial mining of limestone at Levenseat near Forth became more important.
The lime had agricultural uses, being used to
break down the local clays to make the land easy
to cultivate. However from the mid 19th
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century, the importation of cheap guano /
fertilizer from Chile spelt the end of the
production of lime from small rural kilns as
well as the use of cement for building
purposes. The group looked at a couple of sites
where the lime was made near Kilnpothall
Farm as well as the sites of the quarries. Due to
the intense use of the area for both activities, it
is difficult to distinguish exactly what is what.
Comment
The area has already been looked at by Tam
Ward of Biggar Museum Trust and at this stage
further work would be best done as a partnership with Biggar Museum Trust. The surveying
of much of the area has been done, but there is
plenty of book research to be done and this is
an area that the volunteers could make an
important contribution towards.
High Mill
Mill Investigation
Carluke High Mill lies above Chapel Street
near the centre of Carluke and commands a
dominant position overlooking the town.
It dates back to 1797 and is an A listed structure.
Repair notices were posted as far back as 2003
but nothing has been done. It is the only surviving windmill of this period in Southern Scotland
and it originally started out as a grain mill.
The mill was converted to steam power in the
middle of the 19th century and at this stage the
cap of the mill was taken away along with the
sails. Later the mill was converted to run on gas.
The mill stopped working in the 1930s but the
machinery was left and at that time it was the
best preserved mill of its type in Scotland.
Indeed it was in relatively good shape when the
Trust took it over in 1988.
One of the more interesting survivals was the
gas engine of the early 20th century. Another
fascinating item was the balance plate of a millstone on the first floor. The inscription on it
reads - Millstone balance patenters / Clarke
and Dunham / 1859.
Comment
1 he mill is in a state of total disarray and is in a
very dangerous condition. It should not be
entered as parts of it are in imminent danger of
collapse. It is for this reason that further investigation of this site would be fraught with hazard.
Regarding surveying this building, both the
Carluke High Mill Heritage Trust and Historic
Scotland have made reasonably detailed surveys
of the building in relatively recent times. Up to
about ten years ago the High Mill Trust and
Historic Scotland were making considerable
progress. However, the Mill and the lands
surrounding it came into the possession of the
Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Lanarkshire, the
owner of Kirkton estates . It appears from
information from the Trust that he is not really
interested in its preservation. Consequently the
Mill has deteriorated greatly.
Industrial / Post Medieval: Westshield House
Grid Reference: NS 94564930
Westshield House
17th Century House
West Shield is described in Volume 3 Nigel
Tranter's series of books on the Fortified House in
Scotland. Unfortunately the property was
demolished in the late 1970s; these days such a
property would have been restored.
The building was the property of the Denholm
family and, from what illustrations survive,
seems to date to the 17th century It was
probably built about the same time as Jerviswood near Lanark c.1630 and added to till
1668. Nigel Tranter states however that parts of
the building may date to the 16th century In his
description, Tranter states that the lower part of
the building was vaulted which may suggest
that the building developed in three stages tower house, mansion house and a later
addition making the whole house into a three
storey L-shaped building.
There were several interesting features — wood
panelling from the first floor though this had
disappeared by the 60s and a heraldic panel at
the foot of the added east wing showing a heron
— the symbol of the Denholm family. Also of
interest is the fact that the house eventually
passed into the hands of the Lockhart family,
who also had Lee Castle.
Comment
The house has been demolished and all that is left
are the policy walls which are possibly late 17th
century. They should be accurately recorded by a
measured survey. Perhaps excavation and a resistivity survey should be conducted.
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page 11
Shodshill Mill
Remains of Mill
This site is quite old and the name
Shodsmill goes back to at least 1596, when
Pont's map of Lanarkshire was done. The site
was fairly intact about ten years ago, but recent
property developments have seen the demise of
much of what was there. The remains of the
actual mill buildings are:
Comment
Due to the developments round about, archaeological investigation would be out, so would a
resistivity survey, but a detailed measured survey
and photographic study would be extremely
worthwhile.
1.The Gable end of the Mill building
2.A few feet of the roof, still intact.
The axle of the mill wheel is still in place (the
group were told that the wheel itself is now in
the Victorian Farm House). The wheel was
originally under a roof. The mill race is clearly
visible at the point where it goes by the building,
but it is not clear how and why it was diverted
from the river — the course of the river
Medwin has changed, it previously flowed where
the cottage above the mill stands.
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One side of the building also remains standing.
The width of the end of the building is about
33 feet wide- the wheel house was attached to
the end of this bit. Part of a side wall and the
corner of another building also remain and this
has a sliding door attached.
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Another structure (with glass house attached),
lying at right angles to the other building, has
one side wall left. It stretches in the direction
of the cottage, which was the location of the
Mill Dwelling house.
The present owners of the farm house have had
an aerial photograph taken of the whole complex
of buildings which was there in the 1960s.
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Terra Cotta Brickworks
Cleghorn
The site is one of many that produced bricks
in the Carluke area. The others included
Nellfield, Auchinlea, Mayfield and Milton. The
bricks at the Terra Cotta were manufactured
from local clay mixed with sand and industrial
waste.The bricks were then fired using local coal
The Cleghorn Terra Cotta Brickworks
produced very hard durable bricks from the
vitrification of sand and gravel. The site started
producing bricks from 1899 to the 1920s.
Local stories maintain that the Brickworks
went bankrupt trying to produce special bricks
for the boilers of Dreadnought Battleships in
World War I. Unfortunately the war ended by
the time the company had perfected the requisite bricks.
The works were ideally situated near the main
railway line running south from Motherwell
and Glasgow - a spur line went into the works
so that the bricks could be quickly loaded up
for transportation.
The site is fairly overgrown, but the main
outlines can be made out with the aid of a map.
On the O.S. map it shows the site of the local
quarry for the clay. Bricks belonging to the
period when it was in operation can be found
over the site. Other interesting features include
the remains of the aluminium body of a lorry
that was dumped here when the works closed.
Comment
To make much sense of this site the Archaeological Investigations would have to be large scale
and probably would not reveal much more than
can be seen on one of the old Ordnance maps.
The lorry might be an interesting task but
would also need a fairly substantial effort for a
group of enthusiasts.