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The Monkey House, the Formakin Dream

Formakin House, known locally as the Monkey House, was built in the early twentieth century by John Augustus Holms. His father Archibald Campbell Holms, the son of a Kilbarchan weaver, set up business in Paisley as a textile manufacturer. Business prospered and he was able to retire at the early age of forty and purchase Sandyford House in Paisley. At the age of 55 he married a young wife and proceeded to have twelve children.

John Augustus Holms, Archibald’s third son, became a stockbroker. Like his father, he too was very successful in business and became extremely wealthy. He was a collector of art and antiquities, with a collection said to have rivalled the Burrell collection. He also had a keen interest in horticulture with a special interest in rhododendrons.

Formakin House

In 1902 John Augustus Holms bought land near Bishopton and appointed his friend the famous architect Robert Lorimer to build a prestigious mansion house, convert the old Formakin Mill and rebuild other old farm buildings on the site. The big idea was to create a 17th century Scottish tower house with formal gardens set in a landscaped estate with its mill, millhouse and ancillary farm buildings. The mansion house was intended to house his art treasures, probably in the baronial hall. Holms must have had a wicked sense of humour as stone monkeys sit on the rooftops of the Lodge Houses and one building has a lintel stone with the inscription DL 1694 ( DL standing for ‘damned lies’).

Swans with cygnets

Robert Lorimer took advice on the planting and landscaping of the estate from Gertrude Jekyll, a leading horticulturist and garden designer of the day. Today part of the original landscaped estate is designated as an area of special scientific interest. Lorimer’s formal garden, with its stone summer house, its fountain guarded by four lions, and its orchard are part of the mansion house grounds. A small beautiful lake, now with nesting swans, is still a feature of the estate. The remains of the old mill lade, predating Lorimer‘s transformation of the estate, and what appears to be the rusting remains of the machinery for a gin mill can still be seen beside the old Formakin Mill.

In 1913 Holms got into financial difficulties and had to halt his building programme and sell off much of his treasured art collection. By this time he was living in one of the completed buildings on the estate and the landscaped grounds with pasture, wooded areas and gardens were much as we see them today. The mansion house itself had been roofed, but much of the internal building work was never fully completed. However, although he never lived in the house, Holms on numerous occasions held dinner parties for his friends in the half-finished mansion house.

When Holms died in 1938 the estate was sold to A.E.Pickard, a business genius and eccentric millionaire. During the Second World the mansion house and estate were requisitioned by the military. Subsequently, the buildings fell into a state of disrepair. Holms’s dream was saved in 1988 when Kit Martin began the restoration and conversion of the mansion house and estate buildings into the seventeen dwelling houses on the estate today.

The Barmufflock Mystery

Previous articles in the Advertiser have looked at mills on the Gryfe at Bridge of Weir. These ranged from small rural grain, waulk and lint mills, to much larger cotton mills, which were the origin of the village. By 1815 Bridge of Weir’s cotton mills employed most folk in the growing village and surrounding area.

As the mills were powered by water, their economic survival, and the prosperity of the village depended on a constant flow in the River Gryfe. This was acknowledged in the ‘town rhyme’, which was read out at all local events through the nineteenth century:

‘May the River Gryfe
Flow on through life,
And ne’er be wanting water;
May Bridge of Weir town
Rise in renown,
And aye be growing better’.

The mill owners were obsessed with conserving water to such an extent that the times of the meal breaks in the successive mills were staggered downstream, and their sluices opened and closed in succession.

To provide extra water for times of drought, the biggest cotton mill, the Laigh Mill, built its own reservoir, Houstonhead Dam, which fed into their lade directly above the water wheel. However this dam was too far downstream to benefit the two highest cotton mills, the Old Cotton Mill and Burngill Cotton Mill. In 1815 the three cotton mills jointly formed a plan, the “Barmufflock Agreement”, to create a new reservoir for the benefit of them all. The dam was built high above Bridge of Weir, on the headwaters of the Pow Burn, above Lochend Farm.

There was one snag – the Pow Burn entered the Gryfe below three of the mills, at the foot of Mill Brae, and would only have benefited Crosslee Mill, whose dam was further downstream. The solution was to build a lade, diverting the Pow Burn into the Gryfe above the highest mill.

Half-way down its course, the Pow Burn was diverted at Clevans Road, just above what is now Ranfurly Castle Golf Course Club House. It followed the line of modern Barrcraig Road, then fell steeply down towards the Gryfe, passing under Torr Road and entering the Gryfe upstream of what is now the railway viaduct. As the cotton mills differed in size, their contribution to the Barmufflock scheme was based on their respective number of spindles. The reservoir had another use, as a popular curling venue. When the cotton mills closed in the 1870s the dam fell into disuse.

At the same time, the Pow Burn became a source of drinking water for the village. An initial scheme was completed in 1881 and fed into tanks at Donaldfield. In 1900 another dam was built in the headwaters of the Locher Water at Ladymuir, with pipes laid down to Donaldfield.

Barmufflock Dam (see image above) fell into disuse and was drained by 1913. The boggy site became well known by naturalists as a home of rare plants. The massive rubble dam still survives and the lade can be traced down through the village to the Gryfe.

The Secret of Johnstone’s Washing Green

The modern bridge crossing from Collier Street to Morrison’s supermarket, Johnstone, gives a scenic view of the Black Cart Water. Looking upstream, the observant shopper might notice traces of lades and paths on the Johnstone side of the river. These are the remains of Johnstone’s public washing green, dating back to the founding of the town in the 1780s. Along the riverbank run two parallel lades and various overflows, tunnels and sluices. Apart from their use by Johnstone’s residents for washing and bleaching, the lades have a bigger story.

From the early 1780s, during the development of Johnstone as a planned town, six water powered cotton mills were built, one mill each on the Floors and Peokland Burn, and four bigger mills on the Black Cart. In 1782 George Houston of Johnstone sold the old grain mill at Johnstone Bridge to Paisley textile merchant Robert Corse. On the site, Corse built the first of Johnstone’s cotton mills, the ‘Old’ mill, later known as Paton’s mill. Corse’s mansion still survives in Mansionhouse Road, Paisley, but his mill, the oldest surviving cotton mill in Scotland, burnt down in 2010.

In 1784, landowner George Houston built his own mill, Johnstone’s second cotton mill, further downstream from Corse’s mill, at the foot of Collier Street. The water power for Houston’s Laigh mill was supplied by a lade which continued from the tailrace or outflow from Corse’s mill, passing under a special arch in Johnstone Bridge. Corse also had ‘the liberty to cut a tail lade through the washing green laid off by Houston for his feuars at Johnstone’.

The water wheels in both mills were backshot, meaning the water fell on their upstream surfaces, turning them in a counter-clockwise direction. Houston’s mill had only half the fall of Corse’s wheel, and consequently half the power. Shortly after Houston’s mill was completed, Corse decided to double the size of his mill. To increase the fall of water, needed to provide the extra power for his mill extension, Corse deepened his wheel pit. Unfortunately this reduced the fall of water at Houston’s mill downstream, and thereby also reduced the power at Houston’s mill. If Houston tried to raise the water back to its original level, it flooded back into Corse’s mill, slowing his wheel.

Houston had boobed. By giving Corse the best site, with the biggest fall, he had not only compromised the power at his own mill, but damaged his pride. The problem resulted in years of legal dispute, ending up in the Court of Session in Edinburgh. George Meikle, the leading millwright in Scotland, was hired. His family were involved in numerous schemes, from designing new machinery for waulk mills and bleachfields to the deepening of the Clyde. The Meikle family were to water power what James Watt was to steam power.

George Meikle acted as arbitrator between Corse and Houston, carrying out experiments to manage the water supply between the two mills. By 1797 both mill owners agreed to adopt Meikle’s ingenious system, using one dam, two lades and various sluices, tunnels and ‘wasters’ (overflows) which would satisfy both mill owners. The whole scheme survives on plans and descriptions which are held in the national archives. Although today the site is overgrown, most of the scheme can still be seen from Morrison’s bridge. The curving dam on the Black Cart also survives.

Bleaching dam, from ‘Morrison’s bridge’

Meikle’s solution allowed the clever management of 28 tons of water per minute to operate both mills. Just as importantly, it allowed the women of Johnstone to continue to wash and bleach their clothes by the side of the lades.

The scheme was landscaped many years ago as a small park, but more recently there have been plans to raze it. Hopefully its importance can be recognised and it can be properly recorded and preserved as part of Johnstone’s heritage.

Denniston Motte

Medieval Mottes in Strathgryffe

Mottes were mounds, usually artificially constructed, with a defensive wooden or stone castle tower built on the flat top. They were introduced into Scotland by Norman settlers in the twelfth century. The best examples in the Gryffe area are Denniston Motte and Castle Hill Motte (alternatively designated as Ranfurly Motte) which is situated on Old Ranfurly Golf Course. Both would have been topped by towers.

Denniston Motte is a strange looking grass covered mound, 4 metres high, and appears incongruous in the surrounding terrain. It is situated to the south of the B788 and can be seen from the cycle path from Bridge of Weir to Kilmacolm.

The site was partially excavated in the nineteenth century and revealed four rows of rough boulders a metre below the surface at the summit. This was regarded as possible evidence of stone foundations of a structure. Later, evidence of the motte’s occupation and use in the early medieval period was corroborated when a sherd of twelfth or thirteenth century white gritty pottery was found on the south side of the mound.

It is considered possible that the motte belonged to Hugh de Danielstoun, a knight whose name appeared on the Ragman Roll in 1296. (The 1296 Ragman Roll was signed at Berwick by most of the prominent Scottish landowners to swear allegiance to Edward I after his victory at the Battle of Dunbar.) Later use of the site as some kind of meeting place was indicated by the discovery of a 15th – 16th century bronze or copper jetton or counting piece, found in a sheep scrape on the north side of the motte.

Castle Hill Motte on Old Ranfurly Golf Course is more widely known and is regarded as the best example of a motte in Renfrewshire. The mound itself is not man-made. It sits on the edge of a five metre high north-facing natural scarp and is surrounded on the other sides by a rock-cut man-made ditch three to four metres wide and up to one metre in depth. Finds from Castle Hill Motte, including Samian pottery (Roman), a bronze key, green glazed pottery, bones, charcoal and whitening material were displayed at the Palace of History Exhibition in Glasgow in 1911.

Further information can be found in Renfrewshire, A Scottish County’s Hidden Past by Derek Alexander and Gordon McCrae and in RLHF Journal, Vol. 4.

A Village Co-op (Kilbarchan)

Older residents in Kilbarchan will remember with some nostalgia the Kilbarchan Co-operative Society. Its shops were the equivalent of a supermarket on the doorstep. Unlike modern supermarket stores, the various departments, all conveniently within walking distance, were situated throughout the village. The ‘High Co’ was in New Street, the ‘Low Co’ was in Low Barholm and the dairy, the butcher’s shop and the drapery were in High Barholm, where the present-day co-op convenience store is situated. The ‘Low Co’ and the ‘High Co’ stocked a wide range of groceries. While the customer waited, dried goods were carefully weighed and supplied in brown paper bags. Butter, taken from a wooden barrel, was carefully weighed and shaped with wooden butter pats into useable small blocks. The co-operative shops afforded a relaxed and sociable atmosphere where village customers and shopkeepers could pass the time of day and catch up with local affairs and gossip.

The co-operative movement began in Rochdale in 1844 when the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, with a membership of thirty tradesmen, including ten local weavers, set up a consumer co-operative grocery store where consumers were paid a patronage dividend. The movement rapidly spread. Ten years later there were almost one thousand co-operatives in Britain. But how did it begin in Kilbarchan?

An early non-dividend co-operative was run in Kilbarchan by village Chartists in the 1850s, but this was not run on Rochdale lines and was short-lived. In 1872 Kilbarchan Co-operative Society, run on the Rochdale principles, was started in a weaving shop in New Street. A few years later another co-operative was established at 36 High Barholm, but it soon got into financial difficulties and was taken over by the New Street co-operative in the 1880s. By 1899 the Kilbarchan Co-operative Society was thriving with two grocery shops in the village – a central store at No.4 New Street, run by Robert Hart and a branch at No.1 Low Barholm, run by John Miller.

In the nineteenth century the Co-operative was regarded not just as a retail outlet but, officially in Parliamentary Papers, also as a Friendly Society. As well as paying dividends, Kilbarchan Co-operative Society organised annual excursions for its members. In 1885 the excursion to Ardrossan was accompanied by Kilbarchan Instrumental Brass Band. Another excursion went to Rothesay. In 1886 Malcolm Neil, a prominent co-operator in Kilbarchan, was elected as a director of the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society. However, Malcolm Neil is better remembered as one of the joint pursuers in the famous Kilbarchan Right-of Way case.

Kilbarchan Co-operative Society continued to prosper. In 1904, the society bought 1216 square yards of ground bounded by Well Strand from Richard Hunter of Glentyan Estate. A new two storey building was erected on the site in High Barholm. By 1910 this building, with four flats in the upper storey, housed the co-operative’s Fleshing Department run by David Murphy and its Drapery and Boot Department run by Christina Gibson. Also, a co-operative Coal Department, run by Colin Lind, had been established at Milliken Park Station. All this was in addition to the New Street and Low Barholm grocery stores. By 1912 further expansion added a dairy in the High Barholm building. The administration of the business was run by a committee of local men who acted as president, secretary and treasurer.

By 1975, more than a century after the founding of the Kilbarchan Co-operative Society, the shops in High Barholm and New Street, under the ownership of Paisley Co-operative Manufacturing Society, were still serving the village, but the ‘Low Co’ had closed.

Two Castles – One Name: Johnstone or Easter Cochrane Tower

The three-storey stone tower which lies in Johnstone Castle housing estate is one of the few surviving castles in Renfrewshire. It is also the most confusing. To understand it, we need to ignore modern place names and go back 400 years to two estates, Johnstone and Cochrane, one on each side of the Black Cart Water.

The first estate, on the north side of the Black Cart, in Kilbarchan Parish, was what we will call ‘Old’ Johnstone estate. Old Johnstone was traditionally owned by the Wallace family. They had one of the biggest castles in Renfrewshire, which is sketched on Timothy Pont’s surveys in the 1580s. In the early 1600s, Old Johnstone was purchased by a branch of the Houstons of Houston, who became the Houstons of Johnstone. They became important in Kilbarchan parish and had a family aisle in Kilbarchan Kirk.

The second estate lies on the south side of the Black Cart, in the Abbey Parish, known as Cochrane Estate. In the early 1500s, Cochrane was split into Easter and Wester Cochrane. The part of interest to us is Easter Cochrane, which included the lands of Quarrelton, Hag, Greenend and Cartside. At its heart was a tower house called Easter Cochrane. By the late seventeenth century, Easter Cochrane was owned by an old Renfrewshire family, the Porterfields, who sold it to the Houstons of Johnstone. This made the Houstons owners of estates on both sides of the Black Cart in this area. In 1730 ‘Old’ Johnstone was purchased by McDowall of Castle Semple, on behalf of his friend James Milliken, a sugar planter about to return from the Caribbean. On his return, Milliken demolished the old castle of Johnstone, building Milliken House nearby, and renaming the lands north of the Cart as Milliken Estate, after himself.

Thereafter, George Houston of Johnstone concentrated his efforts on his remaining estate of Easter Cochrane, south of the Black Cart, which was rich in coal and lime. Easter Cochrane tower became Houston’s residence, and adopted the ‘Johnstone’ name, effectively switching the name ‘Johnstone Castle’ from the north to the south of the Black Cart, from the great castle which had stood on what was now Milliken estate, to the more modest tower which survives at Easter Cochrane. The switch of the Johnstone name from the north to the south of the Black Cart was reinforced when Houston of Johnstone commenced the planned town of Johnstone on Easter Cochrane land from the 1780s.

The earliest sketch of Easter Cochrane tower was on Pont’s survey of the 1580s. By the 1730s, John Watt showed it as a central tower with two wings, a walled garden to the rear, and a long tree lined avenue heading north. To the south was the steading or fermtoun of Quarrelton. The tower was surrounded by coal and lime pits, and a reservoir on the Craigbog Burn, which powered a water powered engine to drain the mines. By the 1770s, Houston had converted this engine from water to steam power and the reservoir became an ornamental pond, then disappeared.

The house was altered and extended several times, including alterations in 1812 possibly by architect James Gillespie Graham. By the Victorian period, the old tower had turned into a grand castellated mansion, which retained the ‘Johnstone Castle’ name. The surrounding area became landscaped parkland, with only the numerous old coal pits to hint at the source of Houston’s wealth. Careful study of surviving photos of the mansion reveals the old tower still embedded in its heart. By the 1940s, the castle was in the centre of an army camp, surrounded by rows of corrugated huts. The camp had various uses, initially holding Polish soldiers, then as a prison of war camp, and finally as housing for returning British servicemen. By the 1950s the mansion was in ruins and demolished. The part comprising the old tower was saved, leaving it as it stands today, but with the ‘wrong’ name.

The story doesn’t end with this tower. A short distance to the west stands a prominent hillock, ringed by old estate paths, now hidden by woods. In the 1730s this mound was named ‘Castle Hill’ – perhaps the predecessor of Johnstone Castle, alias Easter Cochrane?

In September 2006, Renfrewshire Local History Forum carried out a small excavation at Johnstone Castle as part of Scottish Archaeology Month and Renfrewshire Doors Open Day.

Johnstone Castle excavation 2006

Midtown Limekiln, Howwood

Lime has been used since early times for mortar, harling and plaster. From the second half of the 18th century, as advances were made in agriculture, lime was also in great demand as a fertiliser. The land around Howwood and Corseford contained seams of coal and lime. This provided the raw materials needed for the lime industry.

A partnership between the Houstons of Johnstone and McDowalls of Castle Semple established large scale lime works at Corseford in 1775. This important site had a limestone quarry and adjacent coal mines. Two types of limekilns – clamp kilns and draw kilns – were used in the West of Scotland at this time. The Houstons’ lime works favoured clamp kilns as these were more economical to build. A clamp kiln was simply a u-shaped hollow dug into the hillside. Alternate layers of lime and coal were kept burning together in the clamp kilns for about two weeks to produce powdered lime. Lime works operated at Corseford for over one hundred years until 1886, when the Corseford Coal and Limestone Pits closed.

Midtown Limekiln, Howwood

The other type of kiln, the draw kiln, was a substantial stone built structure. Although draw kilns were common in Renfrewshire in the nineteenth century, today the Midtown Draw Kiln, near the Skiff Woods above Howwood, is the only upstanding draw kiln in Renfrewshire.

The draw kiln was a more sophisticated type of kiln although the method of production was in not radically different. Alternate layers of coal and lime were burned on the top of the structure. The fire was kept burning continuously for a whole season. Because the fire was above ground level, the burnt lime dropped down into a draw hole where it could be collected with relative ease. The draw kiln had the advantage over the clamp kiln because batches of lime could be produced and collected for distribution every two days.

Interior of Midtown Limekiln

Midtown Limekiln was built into the edge of a large limestone quarry and mine, and has three draw holes enclosed within an arched chamber. The arched chamber was large enough to accommodate a horse and cart, allowing the lime worker shelter from the elements when drawing off the lime and when loading the lime on to carts for distribution.

The work force at Corseford’s clamp kilns worked out in the open in all weathers and the workers must often have been cold, wet and very filthy! It would seem preferable to have been a lime worker at the Midtown Draw Kiln with its more sophisticated method of production and its shelter for at least some of the working day.

Further information can be obtained in articles by Stuart Nisbet in Renfrewshire Local History Forum Journals, Vols. 9 and 10.

Paisley

The following article was written by the thirteen year old grandson of our Vice-President. It is completely his own work. We were so impressed by Aidan’s research skills that we felt his article on the history of Paisley merited publication. It is gratifying that the younger generation are showing a keen interest in local history research.

Paisley
By Aidan Shearer

Paisley is the largest town in Renfrewshire. It is situated on the northern edge of the Gleniffer Braes. Sitting on the banks of the White Cart Water it feeds into the River Clyde. The name Paisley may come from the Brythonic Passeleg ‘basilica’ meaning ‘major church’ recalling an early undocumented importance.

It is believed that Saint Mirin founded a community on this site in the 7th Century. Long after his death a shrine to him was made and the abbey became a popular destination for pilgrims. In 1163 Walter Fitz Alan (first High Steward of Scotland) issued a charter for a priory on his land in Paisley. Around 13 monks came down from the Cluniac priory in Shropshire to found the community. It was made an abbey around 1219. In 1307 Edward I of England had the abbey burned down and it was rebuilt later in the 14th Century. William Wallace is believed to have been educated in the Abbey when he was a boy. Robert II was born in or near to the Abbey . Marjorie Bruce (mother of Robert II), all six High Stewards of Scotland and the wives of Robert II and III are all buried there. Robert ll died at Dundonald Castle in 1390 and buried at Scone Abbey.

Saint Mirin was born in 565. He was an Irish monk and was also known as Mirren of Benchor (Bangor) Merinus, Merryn and Meadhran. His feast day is celebrated on 15th September. When he was a young boy his mother took him to Bangor Abbey in the north east of Ireland where he was placed under the care of St Comgall. When St. Regulus had made himself known in St Andrews he appointed many men to go and bring the gospel to Scotland and one of them was St Mirin.

From roughly 1800-1850 weavers in Paisley became the foremost makers of ‘Paisley shawls’. Unique additions to their handlooms and Jacquard looms permitted them to work in five different colours when most weavers were producing shawls using only two. The design became known as the Paisley Pattern.

St. Mirren F. C. was founded in 1877: Nickname – The Buddies or the Saints: Ground – St Mirren Park: Chairman – Stewart Gilmour: Manager – Danny Lennon: Highest win – 15 – 0 against Glasgow University Trophies won: First Division – 4: Scottish Cup – 3: Challenge Cup – 1: Victory Cup -1: Anglo Scottish Cup Winners – 1: Summer Cup – 1: Epson Invitational Tournament – 1 and Renfrewshire Cup – 54

Places of Interest
Renfrewshire House – headquarters of Renfrewshire Council.
Thomas Coats Memorial Church – largest Baptist Church in Europe.
Dooslan Stane – was a meeting point for the weavers unions in the south of Paisley. It is the congregating point for the Sma’ Shot parade which takes place on the first Saturday of July.

Famous People
Archie Gemmill – Footballer: Gerard Butler – Actor: Paolo Nutini – Singer/songwriter: David Tennant – Actor: Fred Goodwin – Banker: Owen Coyle – Manager of Bolton Wanderers: Paul Gallacher – Footballer: Jamie Langfield – Footballer: Derek McInnes – Manager of Bristol City: Paul Lambert – Manager of Aston Villa.
and
Former President of the United States of America Ronald Reagan’s maternal great-great grandparents (Claude Wilson and Margaret Downey) were married in Paisley.

We are still waiting for an article from his Granny!

Robert, 3rd Lord Semple

Robert, 3rd Lord Semple, (c. 1505-1573) was known as The Great Lord Semple. He lived in unsettled, violent times and was involved in on-going local feuds, battles between Scotland and England and religious conflict within Scotland engendered by the reformation. As a young man, Robert fought in numerous skirmishes with local families. These often entailed criminal offences such as reiving, spoliation and even murder, but perpetrators as influential and powerful as the Semples were seldom called to account.

After the death of King James V in 1542, Mary, his six day old daughter, became Queen and Scotland was ruled for some years by regents. Robert Semple was a staunch supporter of the House of Stuart and frequently attended court. A Catholic by faith, he seems at times to have found it politically expedient to give some tacit support to Protestant views. In 1544 Robert had a violent skirmish with two monks in the Paisley Abbey because he wanted ‘adequate cautioners’ (verification of authenticity) for the relics and ornaments held in the St Mirin Aisle. However, this action was not regarded as untoward, apparently, for in April of the following year he was granted by charter the Bailliary of Regality of Paisley for defending the monks of Paisley Abbey from heretics and tyrants.

Another more serious incident occurred in 1550, when in a heated argument at a gathering of nobles in the house of the Regent in Edinburgh, Robert Semple, who was said to have been supporting the new religion, became so incensed that he drew his dagger and stabbed William, 3rd Lord Crichton of Sanquhar, through the heart. With help of influential friends his death sentence for this murderous offence was reduced to a contract to pay compensation to Lord Crichton’s family.

On the international scene, conflict between England and France led Henry VIII to declare war on the Scots to force a marriage between his son Edward and the infant Mary Queen of Scots. The ensuing war was known as The Rough Wooing (1543-1550). In 1547 Robert fought at the Battle of Pinkie and, despite a rescue attempt by his friends, was taken prisoner by the English.

In the 1550s Robert, now 3rd Lord Semple and a staunch supporter of Mary of Guise, decided to build a fortified tower where his family and retainers could find refuge from the threat of marauding local or government attackers. This defensive structure, known as the Peel Tower, was built on a small rocky island on Castle Semple Loch. In October, 1560, the 2nd Earl of Arran, besieged the Semple castle. Held up for a week by violent storms, the Earl eventually set up his artillery and attacked the castle. The next day, the gatehouse tower fell and the castle was surrendered on the following day. Semple’s son was taken prisoner and the Semple Castle and Peel Tower were occupied by Arran’s forces.

Remains of the south wall of the Peel Tower today

However, in 1567 after the murder of Darnley, Queen Mary’s husband, Lord Semple changed sides. He fought against the Queen’s forces at the Battle of Carberry Hill in that year and at the Battle of Langside in 1568, when Mary was defeated and subsequently fled to England. He was appointed Commendator (the secular equivalent of Abbot) of Paisley Abbey and was a member of Regent Moray’s secret council. However, after Moray was murdered in 1570, Semple was captured by the Hamiltons and imprisoned in Argyll for a year in the custody of Lord Boyd.

Robert, the Great Lord Semple, died around 1573, most probably at Castle Semple in Lochwinnoch. Although no evidence of his burial stone exists today, a drawing of part of a complete stone (c.5 x 2 feet) which lay in Lochwinnoch Churchyard in the late 19th century shows the Semple Arms and the initials of Robert, 3rd Lord Semple and his first wife Isabel Hamilton. No date or other inscription appeared on the stone. The Great Lord Semple certainly was strong, influential and powerful and could endure hardship – but was he really ‘Great’?

Little Kaimhill Cottage

Kaimhill Cottages were built on the site of the former farm steading of West Kaimhill. Both cottages were built in a style common to the agricultural cottages in 19th century Scotland. They were situated in an acre of ground between Kaimhill and Coalbeg Farms to the north of the road from Locher Bridge to Crosslee. The main building consisted of two cottages abutting each other, with various additions built on at later dates.

The original occupant of the first cottage to be built was John Barr, late of the adjacent farm of Coalbog. Perhaps making a career change from farmer to builder, James Barr ‘seized’ (took possession of) in June, 1801, an acre of ground with the houses thereon being part of the lands of Kaimhill called Coalbog. These old farm buildings may have been deemed only suitable material for dismantling and for re-use in the construction of the improved steading buildings then being erected.

John Barr appears to have worked as a mason for some years and later became overseer at Craigends. He continued in the Cunninghames’ employ till March, 1827, when he retired to his cottage at Little Kaimhill. He died in the 1830s and was buried in Kilbarchan East Church graveyard. His wife, Mary, aged 75, still lived in the cottage in 1841.

The next occupants of the cottage in the first half of nineteenth century were coalminers. John Craig was probably employed in the coal pits being worked in conjunction with the nearby lime works by the side of the Gryffe. About 1845 John McGilchrist, a coal and lime master from Balgrogan, Campsie in Stirlingshire moved to Bridge of Weir and lived in the cottage with his wife and six children He became a local coalmaster, probably operating Kaimhill Coal and Limeworks from then until 1859, when it closed and he returned to Campsie.

The 1861 census for Kaimhill had the first notification of two cottages on the site. One cottage was of one room only and was occupied by James Livingston, a retired farmer aged 82, and his wife and son. The other cottage had two rooms and was occupied by William Woodrow, age 36, a grain miller from Kilbarchan, and his wife and family. Later James Stevenson, a carter from Kilbarchan, and his family occupied the larger cottage before moving to Barnbeth where the Stevensons of Barnbeth ran a potato merchants business from a yard in Church Street in Johnstone until 1881.

By 1881 both cottages had been extended. Hugh Wallace, a mason who had owned a building business in Hill Street, Kilmarnock in the 1860s, moved to Kaimhill in 1873. He is a likely candidate for the person who carried out at least some of the substantial changes to the cottages between 1871 and 1881. Sadly, he died in unfortunate circumstances in 1883. He was last seen in Bridge of Weir village on his way home and is supposed to have had a considerable amount of money in his possession. Some days later his body was found in the River Gryffe near a ford. As he was a prosperous man he is an unlikely candidate for suicide. Perhaps he was making his way home via the ford and lost his footing.

Later occupants of the cottage at the end of the century included George McKenzie, a painter and photographic artist, William Lee, a retired farmer, and Hugh Keith, a railway contractor, who died at Kaimhill in 1925. The cottages remained in the possession of the Keith family for another 50 odd years.