Search for lost mining villages of West Lothian
The Courier and our friends at West Lothian Local History Library have teamed up to help readers take a trip down Memory Lane.
We will be featuring regular photos and details from West Lothian’s past.
This week we tell the story of West Lothian’s lost villages.
West Lothian has a surprising number of these communities which grew from nothing, flourished for a time then disappeared. Most of them were artificially-created communities: villages which were built for one specific purpose. When mining vanished the villages were lost.
There are as many as 20 lost villages in West Lothian. Some were remote villages like East Benhar and South Cobbinshaw, which developed a rich community life. Others were hamlets built on the outskirts of existing towns. Some were merely rows of houses in the countryside, with none of the community facilities you would expect to find in a proper village.
West Lothian’s lost villages (showing the number of houses in 1917, where known) were: Cappers (30), Deans and Starlaw (66), Durhamtoun (73), East Benhar (105), Gavieside (92), Hermand Rows, Kingscavil (128), Leven-seat, Mid Breich (44), Mossend (140), Niddry (96), North Cobbinshaw, Oakbank (165), Paulville (67), South Cobbinshaw, Starlaw (30), Westerton (41), Woodend (64), Woodmuir and Blinkbonny.
All of West Lothian’s lost villages were mining villages, built by coal or shale companies to house their workforce. All of them were built within the 55 years between 1855 and 1910.
From the mid-19th century mining technology improved and it became possible to drain and ventilate deep and extensive mines. These new mines needed large workforces of several hundred men.
The mines had to be sunk where the coal or shale was so it was up to the mining companies to build houses for their workers. County authorities did not have powers to regulate the location and standard of these new villages. Adequate drainage, water supply and roads were seldom provided, as the village would be needed only for the lifetime of the pit.
The mining companies built the miners’ houses of the cheapest available material, usually brick.
Instead of rubbish bins communal open brick enclosures (ashpits) were provided.
“All sorts of filth, liquid and solid are deposited therein. In hot, still weather such ashpits may prove very offensive even at a distance of 60 feet or more.”
Most of the houses were two-roomed – room and kitchen – and box beds were the norm. If there were no coal cellars the coal was stored under the bed and this encouraged cockroaches and vermin.
There was no indoor water supply – there were wells in the street.
All of the houses in West Lothian’s lost villages were tied houses so if a miner lost his job he also lost his house. This meant many miners were afraid to complain about poor housing in case they lost their jobs.
However, some mining companies took their responsibilities more seriously. Pumpherston Oil Company tried to build decent houses and to improve those of other companies that they took over.
But it was not until local councils were given powers to force the mining companies to improve conditions that anything could be done to help the worst villages.
When the local mines closed the workforce had to move. If the mining company had no further need of the houses they were demolished and the village was lost.