page_title: Industry and the Eglinton Castle estate
section_title: Miners and workers rows or villages
hierarchical_section_title: Industry and the Eglinton Castle estate / Miners and workers rows or villages
caption_attribution_description: English: The Lugton Water near Fergushill, Eglinton Country Park, Kilwinning, North Ayrshire, Scotland.
context_page_description: The Eglinton Castle estate was situated at Irvine, on the outskirts of Kilwinning, North Ayrshire, Scotland in the former district of Cunninghame. Eglinton Castle, was once home to the Montgomeries, Earls of Eglinton and chiefs of the Clan Montgomery. Eglinton Country Park now occupies part of the site.
  A dense network of mineral railway lines existed in the 19th and 20th centuries; the trackbed now being used as cycle paths in several places. A complex set of collieries, coal pits, tile works, fire-clay works and workers villages are evident from records such as OS maps. Little now remains of the buildings and railway lines, apart from at Lady Ha' Colliery, but irregular depressions in the ground, embankments, cuttings, coal bings and abandoned bridges all bear witness to what was at one time a very active coalfield with associated industries and infrastructure.
context_section_description: Miners rows were built at Bartonholm, Corsehill, Snodgrass, Blacklands, Sourlie, Dirrans, Longford, Annick Lodge, Nethermains, Shipmill, Fergushill, Doura and Benslie. Douglas records the Eglinton Iron Works village as having 1,014 occupants in 1874.
  A number of collier's, hewer's or miner's rows existed close to the various collieries and the ironworkers had a 'village' at the Blacklands and at Byrehill near Kilwinning from 1850 to the 1930s. The village had a double row of forty-two apartment houses, a cross row of fifteen similar houses, and a single row of sixty single apartment houses. Another row, called the Brick Row, had thirty-four houses in it. One store was provided.
  In 1874 Dobie records that a miner's village called Fergushill existed with a population of 531. Groome refers to the colliers village as having been established in around 1835.
  Fergushill miners' village, was owned by Messrs. Finnie & Son. It was composed of 7 rows of cottages. There were ten thatched cottages. In 1913 63 persons lived here. One room, measuring 9 feet (2.7 m) by 6 feet (1.8 m), held thirteen persons. The rows had names like Wellington and Burn. At one time there were 78 houses in the village, with a population of 363. It was demolished and nothing now remains at the site, other than North Fergushill farm.
  Benslie's miners rows, the 'Benslie Square', were made up of 57 stone built miners houses, like Fergushill, owned by A. Finnie and Son. Coalmasters. In 1913 the village was said to be 67 years old. The population was 318 in 1881. At first the houses only existed at the 'Square' and then later the village was extended towards the road which runs up passed the church. A number of coal pits were in the area as shown by the first edition OS map, one pit being close to the 'Millburn Cottage' opposite South Millburn. In 1937 most of the miner's rows were demolished and the miners were moved to the Dirrans.
  A dwelling near South Millburn was known as the South Millburn Pit House in 1871 and after the pit had closed it became known as Millburn Cottage
  Collier's rows are marked on OS maps at Corsehill, where the Eglinton Colliery school was also located.
caption: The Lugton Water from the Lugton Bridge at Fergushill, near to the old Waggonway bridge.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "NIKON", "Image Model": "E4600", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "E4600v1.1", "Image DateTime": "2007:09:14 14:25:39", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "344", "Image CustomRendered": "Normal", "Image ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "Image WhiteBalance": "Auto", "Image DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "Image FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "46", "Image SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "Image GainControl": "None", "Image Contrast": "Normal", "Image Saturation": "Normal", "Image Sharpness": "Normal", "Image SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "2192", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9363", "EXIF ExposureTime": "10/451", "EXIF FNumber": "16/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "50", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:09:14 14:25:39", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:09:14 14:25:39", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "77/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1712", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2288", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed"}