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Field Visit

Date July 1994

Event ID 757149

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/757149

NS95SE 31 centred 974 546

The core of the former mining village of Haywood stood on the N end of a ridge to the S of the Wilsontown Branch of the Caledonian Railway. The 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Lanarkshire 1864, sheet xx) depicts only one building at this site (Greenbank, NS95SE 31.01), but development must have begun soon after: the population reached 793 in 1871 (Groome 1883), rising to a peak of 1206 in 1891 (County Directory 1912, 1136). The 2nd edition of the OS 1:2500-scale map (Lanarkshire 1897, sheets xx.2 and xx.3) depicts a village comprising fourteen rows of cottages, a Police Station, Post Office and several other buildings, with other rows at some distance to the NW (NS95SE 29) and to the N (NS95NE 74), whose inhabitants were presumably included in the population figures quoted. Most of terraces are shown subdivided into 24 compartments, and as there is usually a named street on each side of each block it is likely that each consisted of 24 houses built back-to-back, which suggests that there were at least 280 households in the core area of the village. The 2nd edition map, however, shows the village at its greatest extent. By 1901 the population had shrunk to 853 (Giles 1912), and by 1910, when the 6-inch map was revised (Edition of 1913) six terraces had been demolished. Only fifteen houses are noted in the Haywood district in 1951 (TSA 1960) the bulk of the population having moved to Forth.

The plans of almost all the buildings depicted on the 2nd edition map can be traced on the ground, although almost all of them have been thoroughly robbed. One building, a cottage now known as Pentland View, which first appears on the 2nd edition, is still roofed, although uninhabited (CSW 7052 at NS 9746 5480). Otherwise the best preserved building is Greenbank, the house shown on the 1st edition map (CSW 3508, NS 9744 5461). Originally a farmhouse, this later became a hotel and off-licence serving the village. It is described further under NS95SE 31.01. The rows of houses were constructed of brick on a basal course of dressed sandstone blocks. The walls have been almost completely robbed out, and most are marked only by robber trenches, although these are sufficiently well-defined to enable measurement of the dimensions of most buildings. It is noteworthy how little demolition rubble there is amongst the remains: presumably the bricks were reused elsewhere. The fourteen rows range in length from 31m to 75m and in breadth from 9.5m to 11.2m over walls 0.25m thick, although within this range six buildings (all those depicted with 24 compartments on the 2nd edition map for which complete measurements are possible) measure between 54.5m and 57.3m in length. Transverse partitions can usually be traced, but little evidence survives of the back wall of each compartment, which may have been of more flimsy construction. Assuming that the compartments in each row were of equal size, and allowing for a wall thickness of 0.25m, each compartment would have measured about 4.4m in width and 4.6m in depth.

Amongst the 'standard' 24-compartment rows there are a number of other buildings shown on the 2nd edition map. At the W edge of the village there was a row of eight double-sized compartments (NS 9734 5468, now destroyed), and there are another three compartments running the breadth of the building at the WSW end of the adjacent row (CSW 7064). These may simply have been larger houses, although as they stood on Bank Square some of them may have had commercial functions. To the N of these there was a Post Office, now reduced to a subrectangular hollow at NS 9737 5473 (CSW 3505), while on the N side of the village, to the WSW of Pentland View cottage, a group of buildings of irregular shape stood on Store Square, a name which probably indicates their function (CSW 7050 and 7051). To the SE of Store Square the map shows a Hall, still traceable, at the NW end of a row of cottages (CSW 7056, NS 9752 5468).

Another group of public buildings was at the SW edge of the village. The Police Station (CSW 3506) was at NS 9736 5462, where there are the robbed remains of a building measuring 12.5m NW-SE by 11m transversely over a wall whose dressed masonry construction contrasts with the less solid brick-build of the rows. Immediately in front of this there are the remains of a small building which served as a gaol. To the NE of the Police Station there is another building measuring 9m square within walls 0.4m thick (CSW 3514). This has a concrete plinth projecting from the W side and the interior is quartered by low stone walls which may have been supports for a timber floor rather than partitions. By the 1913 edition of the OS map the Post Office had moved to this building, but the plinth (perhaps a stage) and the raised floor suggest that its original use may have been as a village hall. A building to the S of this, and immediately W of the hotel (NS95SE 31.01) is reduced to a slight platform: its purpose is not known.

Some evidence survives of the water and drainage facilities. The ruins of the water cistern (annotated on the 1913 edition of the map) are situated in the centre of the village at NS 9745 5467: a brick building 5.7m square, with an enclosure to the NE. Across the street from each row of houses the 2nd edition map shows a small strip of open ground, presumably a 'green', each with a small brick structure, probably a communal wash-house. One of these on Pool Square, towards the E of the village, measures 4.3m in length by 4m in breadth (CSW 7061, NS 9748 5466) but the others survive as no more than grassed-over piles of rubble. In several places drains are visible, running down each side of the green. Those in the E half of the village are linked together and run off to the SE. Also occasionally visible are the ruins of privies, now reduced to piles of bricks.

31.01 NS 9744 5461 Greenbank, Haywood Farmstead (CSW 3508)

31.02 NS 9744 5467 War Memorial

(CSW 3505-6, 3508, 3514, 7050-7066, 7070)

Visited by RCAHMS (SDB) July 1994

People and Organisations

References