Cunninghamhead
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| Cunninghamhead | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| OS grid reference: | NS376419 |
| Statistics | |
| Population: | Unknown |
| Administration | |
| Council area: | North Ayrshire |
| Constituent country: | Scotland |
| Sovereign state: | United Kingdom |
| Other | |
| Police force: | Strathclyde Police |
| Lieutenancy area: | Ayrshire and Arran |
| Former county: | Ayrshire |
| Post office and telephone | |
| Post town: | KILMARNOCK |
| Postal district: | KA3 |
| Dialling code: | 01294 |
| Politics | |
| Scottish Parliament: | Cunninghame North |
| UK Parliament: | North Ayrshire and Arran |
| European Parliament: | Scotland |
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Cunninghamhead is a hamlet in North Ayrshire, Scotland.
Contents |
[edit] Cunninghamhead and the mills on the Annick Water
The area is recorded as far back as far back as Pont's / Blaeu's map of 1654 where it is listed as Kunghamhead with a water mill situated nearby. The mill appears on Armstrong's map of 1775. This relatively large mill still exists today as a private house. One of the millers here was a cousin of the Smiths of Coldstream Mill and he taught them the milling craft (Griffith 2004). A track from the mill ran to Byres Farm and thus to the main road (Bartholomew 1912). The leat for the mill ran from a dam on the other side of the 'river loop', then behind the miller's dwelling to finally run under the road to enter the mill site. It is said locally that the dam was removed after the closure of the mill by the anglers who lost salmon to poachers gaffing them as they lept over it. The leat has been filled in. The course of the lane has changed, once running directly in front of the miller's house. The miller's house is particularly well constructed and ornamented, being owned, like the mill, by the Cunninghamhead Estate until sold after the death of the Kerr sisters. Just across the Annick Bridge is located a dwelling called Tail on Aitken's 1829 map. An area of well established and biodiverse woodland is present, together with a privet hedge, however no sign of a dwelling is visible. This wood contains a very large specimen of a Poplar, a rare tree in Ayrshire.
Downstream from the mill was a Sawmill fed from a lade which took its water from a dam built on a natural dyke across the Annick. These dykes, bands of especially hard rock, are found at several points crossing the river and many were exploited as the basis for dams, such as also occurred at Dalgarven Mill on the River Garnock. The course and position of most of these dykes is well known as they were a major consideration in the exploitation of coal. Nothing remains of the sawmill other than a vague indication of the lade and the exit onto the river. It had a right-angle turn on its lade, which is a very unusual feature. The point at which the lade changes direction may have been the site of the old mill marked on the 1832 map, but not afterwards, and the lade was then later reused for the sawmill.
[edit] Crossroads
The 1860 OS map shows the Crossroads hamlet to only consist of the school, toll house and Dykehead farm with a few other buildings, probably 'butt and bens' and cothouses occupied by farm and other labourers. This hamlet does seems to have been called Crossroads and the name Cunninghamhead only referred at this time to the estate and mansion. Aitken's 1829 map confirms that the name Crossroads as does Railton's of 1856, whilst the 1923 OS map seems to call the hamlet site Dykehead, which is the farm name. Dykehead may refer to a dyke or dike as has been described crossing the river relatively nearby, especially as Dykehead is marked on Pont's 1654 map at a time when very few stone hedges or dykes existed. The Wallace family were blacksmiths for several generations, living and working at Crossroads in the 19th century. They are buried at the Dreghorn parish churchyard.
The statistical report refers to the hamlet as Cunninghamhead railway station in around 1875. Dykehead Smithy was located at the bend of the road before the crossroads on the Kilmaurs road end side. A quaint method of tying up the skirt at the front in a knot or from below with string to prevent it getting dirty in the fields, called 'Breeking the Cotte', literally 'making a skirt into trousers' was a habit of women working on the farms in this area according to Milligan.
[edit] References
- Aitken, John (1829). Survey of the Parishes of Cunningham. Pub. Beith.
- Griffith, Roger (2004). The History of Coldstream Mill, Beith, Ayrshire. Held by the North Ayrshire Resource Centre, Ardrossan.
[edit] See also
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