Anyone know anything about Eaglesham?

[LesleyB]

Seems it started even earlier than that:
http://www.nas.gov.uk/guides/taxation.asp

Window Tax Names of householders, number of houses and number of windows in houses with seven or more windows. 1747/8-1798

[Currie]

In Parliamentary Papers there’s: “27 June 1834 An Act to enable the Trustees of Hugh Montgomerie of Skelmorlie, Earl of Eglinton, deceased, to sell a Part of the Trust Estates, in order to extinguish the Debts left by the said Earl which affect or may be made to affect the said Estates. [27th June 1834.]”

Schedule (C) to this lengthy document lists properties in the Barony of Eagleshame that may be disposed of. The table for Eaglesham Village has columns for street and number, names, and rent paid. The only streets listed are Polnoon Street, Cheapside, Montgomerie Square, Montgomerie Street, and maybe Glasgow Road.

For Montgomerie Square:
1 and 2 – John Montgomerie - £0 8s. 6⅓d.,
Wm. Young & Agnes Young - £0 8s. 6⅓d.,
Allan Burnside - £0 8s. 6⅓d.
3 – H. Montgomerie, Weaver - £0 11s. 3¼d.
4 – Stephen Montgomerie - £0 11s. 3¼d.
5 – Agnes Paterson, or Nicholson - £0 11s. 0¼d.
6 – James Gilmour - £0 10s. 11½d.
7 - John Summers - £0 10s. 9½d.
8 – Robert Montgomerie, junr. - £0 10s. 9½d.

Note: It goes on much the same for the other streets I mentioned. There are no column headings above the Eaglesham Village section. I’m not certain the numbers listed are actual house numbers as in an address but they may be. Judging from headings in other sections the names are tenants or possessors. The rental frequency isn’t stated. ⅓ is actually expressed as 4/12.

I’m not sure if that’s any use but if anyone wants a copy of the schedule, now, but not later, I may be able to convert it into something sendable by email. Just send me a PM with an email address.

All the best,
Alan

[kennethm]

These threads are quite fascinating. It's interesting to build up a picture about what life was like, what folk did for a living and what must have been a strong community spirit in those days. And farming, land occupation and postal services too... I'm sure things can't have been easy especially when you see families crammed in to small houses.

Gilmour Street would have finished (or more correctly started) on the edge of the village where the fields began then becoming Strathaven Road. It struck me after reading Russell's post that Gilmour Street may actually have been called Glasgow Road at one time. I'm sure that Gilmour Street will commemorate the Gilmours who purchased Eaglesham Estate in 1844 hence the 1834 reference to Glasgow Road. Today, at the other end of the village, Gilmour Street becomes Glasgow Road. Back to the Montgomerie Street end of the village; a new schoolhouse was built in 1901, followed by houses from the 1950s but these are actually in Strathaven Road although at first glance on a map, they may appear to be in Gilmour Street.

A look at John Ainslie's Map of Eaglesham from 1789 shows the houses in Cheapside Street and Montgomerie Square had already been built, Montgomery Street up to the Wee Gallery in this photo at:

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1792493

and Polnoon Street roughly to the same length. This building would have been in the Window Tax period. There's a description of the tax on a Wiki page states:

When the window tax was introduced, it consisted of two parts: a flat-rate house tax of 2 shillings per house and a variable tax for the number of windows above ten windows. Properties with between ten and twenty windows paid a total of four shillings, and those above twenty windows paid eight shillings. The number of windows that incurred tax was changed to seven in 1766 and eight in 1825. The flat-rate tax was changed to a variable rate, dependent on the property value, in 1778. People who were ineligible for church or poor rates, for reasons of poverty, were exempt from the window tax. Window tax was relatively unintrusive and easy to assess. The bigger the house, the more windows it was likely to have, and the more tax the occupants would pay. Nevertheless, the tax was unpopular, because it was seen by some as a tax on "light and air".

Best wishes,

Ken

[Currie]

Eaglesham made the National News in 1796 when the following was reported in the Telegraph (London), on Wednesday, September 14.

Edinburgh, Sept.10.
A bean stalk was last week pulled at Eaglesham, which measured nine feet eight inches, and had twenty-one rows of pods on it. The crops of pease and beans this season are in general very productive.

Alan

[sheilajim]

Allan- They might have been crowded but at least they had large beans to eat.

Ken- Imagine having to pay a tax on windows. How ridiculous can you get.

Currie- I notice that most of the original inhabitants of Montgomery Square are named Montgomerie. There is also one Gilmore. Could the Square and the streets be named after them?

[kennethm]

Hi Sheila,

Taxes - somethings haven't changed! Wonder if the authorities taxed beans when they found out about the bean stalk?

There seemed to be a few Montgomeries living in Montgomery Street and Square but actually Montgomery Square and Montgomery Street which was once originally known as South Street commemorates the Montgomeries, the Earls of Eglinton and later Earls of Winton who owned Eaglesham Estate for seven centuries. Gilmour Street which was once known as Glasgow Road commemorates the Gilmours who purchased Eaglesham Estate in 1844.

Inicdentally nearby is Cheapside Street. The name ‘Cheapside’ is of Saxon origin: ‘cheap’ meaning ‘a market’ is from ‘ceapan’ meaning to ‘buy’. Cheapside is derived from ceapside or marketplace. I reckon that the weekly markets were held in the village common beside Cheapside Street. Alexander, 8th Earl of Eglinton obtained by an Act of Parliament in 1672 for "ane yeirlie fair and weiklie mercat at the Kirktoun of Eagleshame".

By the way folks, you may be interested in know about Scotland's Landscape. It's a web-site hosted by BBC Scotland which lets you "explore your favourite locations and discover the human impact on places near you with our ever growing archive of landscapes across Scotland". Eaglesham is featured along with many other places. Here's the link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/landscapes/

I'm going out to the garden to enjoy the lovely summer weather

Ken

[Alan SHARP]

Greetings from NZ

To Eaglesham historian Kenneth, the RUSSELL/SHARP descendants say thanks for your prompt replies to our questions, and especially the one about Woodhouse. When we stated that Wm RUSSEL’S documents, here in New Zealand, said that William was born in 1834 at Woodhouse, Eaglesham Scotland, and would that description have any relevance today, we were not expecting an immediate PM reply including a photo of Woodhouse farm, a period map, and leasing and rent details, including ‘horse tax’ records. As well as finding Woodhouse on the map supplied, we also found Carrot, but not Troch, other names in the old documents. Thank you Kenneth.

Alan SHARP.

[kennethm]

Greetings Alan,

I haven't heard of Troch before and unfortunately there's nothing by that name that I can see on maps of Renfrewshire even going back to the late 18th Century. I've a book, Placenames of Scotland by J.B. Johnston that indicates that the name droch or troch is Gaelic meaning 'bad' or 'dangerous'. Trochry (Dunkeld) is a hybrid placename between troch and rigg (ridge, furrow or hill-ridge) but sadly nothing around Eaglesham. Can't think of any similar names that Troch could be a corruption or abbreviation for.

Best wishes,

Ken

[kennethm]

Greetings all,

The recently formed Eaglesham and Waterfoot Community Development Trust has decided that their first project is to develop a heritage trail in Eaglesham. The Trust envisage creating a dozen information panels providing historical information and images for residents and visitors explaining the history of the Village together with leaflets. Should be exciting - the Trust hope to complete the trail in the summer of 2011.

Kenneth

[sheilajim]

Hi Ken

That is great news! Thanks for sharing it with us. Hopefully this will help with the preservation of Eaglesham.




P.S. Just noticed today how I typed the title of this thread. Anoyone for Anyone.