Ponfeigh.....

[NellW]

I'm looking for the location of a place in Lanarkshire called Ponfeigh. I can't find it on an Ordnance survey map - the closest I can get is Ponfeigh Burn near Rigside.

Can anyone help?

Helen

[CatrionaL]

Hullo Helen

Good to have you with us on TalkingScot.

If you go to

www.old-maps.co.uk

and type in the place name Rigside, you'll see Ponfeigh just above the upper left hand side of the "pink square".

Best wishes
Catriona

m

[JustJean]

Hi Helen

My 1932 Gazetteer describes Ponfeigh as:

......colliery village wtih railroad station L.M.S. (London Midland and Scottish Railway) alt. 589 feet, Lanarkshire, near Douglas Water, 6 m. S of Lanark; pop. 1316; Telegraph Office at station

Hope this is helpful

Best wishes
Jean

[NellW]

Many thanks Catriona & Jean - managed to find it on the old map so at least I know I was in the right area.

Regards
Helen

[Ponfeigh]

I know this is long past the time you asked the question about Ponfeigh but I just found this site. I was born in Douglas Water and lived there until the age of 4 when we moved to Rigside (a mile up the road.) However, I went to school in Douglas Water since there wasn't one in Rigside at the time.

There actually has never (to my knowledge) been a village called Ponfeigh. The village is called Douglas Water and the train station was called Ponfeigh. I can still remember the stationmaster standing on the platform and calling "Ponfeigh for Douglas Water." I assume that is why you could not find it as a village.

Hae lived in America for decades now but still think of Douglas Water and Rigside as home.

[Ponfeigh]

Well, here I am again to say I was wrong about there never being a village called Ponfeigh. I found the following on a local website:

While the names of Ponfeigh and Douglas Water have been loosely used locally in relation to the village it is important to recognise that the name Douglas Water did not exist until the beginning of the twentieth century, other than as the name of the river. Ponfeigh, on the other hand, has a much earlier origin. The name is derived from the Welsh poll an fhéidh (meaning “stag’s water” or “the watering place of the deer”) thus relating to the ancient Celtic kingdom which stretched from Wales through Cumbria as far as Dumbarton. The first recorded reference occurs in 1350 in a charter granting the lands of Ponfeigh to William de Carmichael, a vassal of the Earl of Douglas.

[SarahND]

Hello Ponfeigh and welcome to Talking Scot!!
Although the author of this topic has not been on the forum for over 5 years and may not see your post, many others have joined since then and will be interested to have this topic brought to the top again and read your description of the area.

Hope you'll stick around and join in the various topics being discussed. We look forward to breaking down any genealogical brick walls you may have

All the best,
Sarah

[AndrewP]

Hi Ponfeigh,

Ponfeigh can be seen on the following map. It is shown as a cluster of buildings, possibly a hamlet, miners' rows, or a farm steading.

http://maps.nls.uk/os/view/?sid=74488614

Go to the 1 inch to the mile scale at the bottom centre of the map. Follow the railway line upwards from the bottom of the map, past Douglas, until it crosses the Douglas Water. The station is immediately NE of this point, and Ponfeigh a short distance SE from there.

All the best,

AndrewP

[Billy D]

I lived in Ponfeigh for all my pre married life. I see from the map that Ponfeigh was at what we knew as Townhead farm. There was only the farm and a couple of houses in the late forties. Douglas water was next to the station which was called Ponfeigh. It consisted of rows of coalboard two rooms and a kitchen houses. A later extension of a toilet and a coal house was added. This was the bulk of the housing, with three alcove beds. Two in the livingroom and one in the "back bedroom". There were a few streets of 4 in a block built later and a circle of semi detached wooden houses we called the 'Huts'. The village was cut in half by a raised railway line to the 'Pit'. The 'Old Raws' on one side and the 'New Raws' on the other. The village had a Welfare Hall with two full sized snooker tables in a billiard hall fully furnished for competition use. A sweet shop, a library, a fully sprung floored main hall with a cinema, a full stage with changing rooms and commercial kitchen. Out side there was a fully equipped bowling green and two tennis courts. There was a Co-oP and a primary and secondary school. The village had a fantastic football pitch with stand and home and away changing facilities with plunge baths for both teams. A fully equipped play park and a burn to get wet in . We lived a life of no money but we all new each other and were all in the same boat. There were 3 cars in the village The docs, my dads and a neighbors. We, as children had a whale of a time. We got our bogies made at the pit workshops as were our sledges. We went to the 'Sprays' at the pit once a week to supplement the 'pingle' bath in front of the fire. No hot water except for the large kettle on the fire. The men got free coal delivered if they worked in the pit, most did. I think it was 14 or 16 tons a year when you were working and 10 tons when you retired (you did not feel the cold after you retired). I will stop here. Any further info req'd just ask. BD

[Russell]

Hi Billy D

And a warm welcome to
Your detailed description took me back to my childhood in Ormiston which was mainly a mining village then although larger than your home village. Miners lived in 2 roomed houses with only cold water and a tin bath in front of the fire (a black leaded grate and oven ) My father was chauffeur/ mechanic/ ambulance driver for the coal company so we warranted a flat in a stone built house. The company director/manager had alarge house outside the village which even had its own petrol pump beside the garage !The arrival of the National Coal Board heralded pit-head baths for the miners and prefabs to re-house them in better conditions. All my memories are of happy times when all the children played together (and got into trouble together ) On a recent visit it was just a commuter dormitory for Edinburgh

Russell