House

A resource pack for teachers and students

This Resource Pack is one of a series offering an introduction to local history while fulfilling National Curriculum targets across a number of subject areas. It has been designed for the 5-14 age range and mixed abilities.

Contents

1. History 2. Summary 3. Glossary 4. Timeline 5. Curriculum Targets 6. Activities 7. Further Investigations

1. A Brief History of

To 1170: De Quincy was Ker’s primary residence, especially The earliest records of ownership the painted ceiling which was uncovered regarding Prestongrange are associated during renovations in 1962 and with the De Quincy family and the subsequently removed to Merchiston. Cistercian monks of Newbattle Abbey The ceiling is dated 1581, when Mark near Dalkeith. Ker was owner of the property. It is difficult to judge whether an existing 1170-1587: Newbattle Abbey building was modified or whether a new A charter dated 1170 records an property was built, but variations in agreement to lease the lands to the window shape and different floor levels abbey, but these early records refer to suggest that an existing building was land rather than buildings: the charter incorporated into an extended residence makes no mention of a dwelling house for the Ker family. and implies that only agricultural On his father’s death in 1584, Mark buildings occupied the land. Ker’s son, also Mark, was confirmed in Prestongrange was worked for his right to the Newbattle lands by King agriculture, coal and the salt extracted James I and VI. In 1587 the king issued from the waters of the Forth by the a charter granting Mark Ker the younger monks of Newbattle until the and his heirs the title to the lands of Reformation in the mid-sixteenth Newbattle monastery and the baronies of century. Newbattle and Prestongrange. He was given the title Lord Newbattle and in 1547- c1609: Ker 1606 was created Earl of Lothian. On After his appointment as Commendator his death in 1609, his estate was worth of Newbattle Abbey in 1547, Mark Ker almost £37,000. Although his wife, controlled the land of Prestongrange. Margaret Maxwell, is recorded as having His appointment as Abbot in 1557 died at Prestongrange in 1617, their son extended his control to the disposal of Robert, 2nd Earl of Lothian, did not these lands. continue the family’s involvement with Mark Ker’s career as a churchman was the estate, probably due to the crippling essentially a secular one. As burden of debt resulting from the effort Commendator, he had little involvement to maintain a noble lifestyle. In 1624, he in the religious life of the Abbey and, killed himself at Newbattle, having sold though a priest and not yet married to off the Prestongrange Estate some years Helen Leslie, he was already a father. It before. is at this stage that the earliest evidence of a house at Prestongrange emerges. There is some evidence that this house C1609-1745: Morison information is available about Little recorded information survives Prestongrange, possibly because his about the early years of the Morison public duties made it difficult for him to family’s ownership of Prestongrange. spend time at his new estate. John Morison and his wife, Katherine References in his letters include mention Preston, were succeeded by their second of the fitting up of a nursery by his wife, son, Alexander who enjoyed a Grizel Millar, as well as the employment distinguished career as an advocate and of workmen in the house, possibly to later as a Lord of Session with the title install a new plaster ceiling. He also Lord Prestongrange. Alexander died at displayed some interest in industrial Prestongrange in 1631 when the estate development, particularly the repair of passed to his son, another Alexander, Morison’s Haven harbour and he was also Lord Prestongrange. His mother, also instrumental in promoting the Helenora Mauld, survived her husband development of the pottery industry in by 34 years, until 1665. Most surviving . At this time, a woman’s records of this period concern the property passed to her husband on her borrowing and lending of money. There marriage, and William Grant had four is little information concerning the house daughters and no sons. To ensure and grounds of the Prestongrange Estate. ownership of the estate remained with William Morison, Alexander’s son, the Grant family, the estate was subject inherited Prestongrange, probably in to an entail. This meant that none of 1684. He was a successful and wealthy Grant’s daughters would inherit. landowner. However, his circumstances Instead, ownership would pass to the deteriorated after the death of Janet eldest male child of any one of the Rochheid, his wife, in 1716 and by 1734, daughters. His eldest daughter Janet, his property was sequestrated, taken over Countess of Hyndford, took over by the lords of session to pay his debts. management of the the estate on his As a result, details of the Prestongrange death in 1764, but no details of the house house are recorded in documents relating are recorded during her ownership. to William Morison’s goods, titles and items of value included within the 1818-1956: Grant-Suttie policies, or lands, of the Prestongrange Janet Grant died in 1818. Since she left estate. It is evident from these no children of her own, the estate documents that Prestongrange House passed, by means of the entail, to James was a comfortably furnished home, Suttie, the eldest son of her sister Agnes. typical of a gentleman’s residence of the On inheriting the estate, James took the period. name Sir James Grant-Suttie of Prestongrange and Balgone. 1745-1818: Grant At this time, estate revenue increased In 1745, the baronies of Prestongrange dramatically, thanks to the expansion of and Dolphinston were purchased by industrial activity on the estate. Much of William Grant, a well respected this increased income was used to establishment figure, whose life is convert Prestongrange House from a documented in some detail. In his later typical country house into a building of years, as a Lord of Session, he took the significant architectural interest. Sir title Lord Prestongrange. However, little George Grant-Suttie, son of Sir James, appears to have inherited the estate Lady Susan Harriet Innes-Ker, mother of before his father’s death in 1836, a short the second Sir George, 7th Baronet, time after his marriage in 1829 to Lady remained closely involved in the local Harriet Charteris. Sir George engaged area. However Sir George himself did William Playfair, one of the foremost not live locally and left the estate Scottish architects of his day, to management to his lawyers. undertake a radical programme of After Lady Susan’s death in 1909, the improvements. The fact that one of house was uninhabited for a number of ’s most prominent architects years, although its gardens and orchards was willing to undertake this work, were let separately. The Inland Revenue together with surviving records of the Survey of 1912-1914 describes a cost of these alterations, clearly indicate substantial property, with numerous the status and affluence of the Grant- public rooms and bedrooms, plus attics. Suttie family at this period. Outbuildings included stables, Sir George retained ownership from coachhouses, a boiler house, cow byres approximately 1830 until his death in and additional accommodation. But the 1878 and although his interest in the nearby colliery and lack of estate diminished in his later years, for modernisation inside were not attractive much of that time Prestongrange House to potential tenants until, in1924, its was his main residence. gardens and other grounds were re- His heir and eldest son, James, died very designed to form a golf course and the shortly after his father, leaving an eight house became home to its present year old son, another George. This had occupant, the Royal Golf serious implications for the estate. Club. Thanks to a second entail, the value of the estate was divided between a number 1956-2002: CISWO/Musselburgh of people, at a time when revenue from Miners’ Charitable Society coal was shrinking. This signalled the On the sale of the property and grounds start of a decline in the fortunes of by the Grant-Suttie family in 1956, Prestongrange House. ownership passed to the Coal Industry & Playfair’s improvements are recorded in Social Welfare Organisation (CISWO), his finished designs and legal documents on behalf of the Musselburgh Miners’ arising from the existence of the entail Charitable Society. This was part of adds some further background. A total CISWO’s commitment to the provision of 212 drawings record the addition of a of leisure amenities for local people, north tower during the early 1830s, especially miners. However, the house followed by an eastern lodge and continued to deteriorate until the early gateway in 1837, a range of offices and 1960s, when extensive restoration was stables in 1845 and a final series of undertaken, along with the addition of an works, begun in 1850, on a massive extension in contemporary style. This tower at the westward end of the house. addition was the last radical Although the interior was modernised restructuring of the property before the and equipped with all necessary end of the 20th century. comforts. Playfair’s designs are In 1997, on the death of the 8th Baronet, modelled on the external appearance of the baronial title and remaining lands an original Scottish tower house. were acquired by Dr. Gordon Prestoungrange, who maintains a close interest in the former baronial home and its associated lands.

2. Summary

Early records The Grant (later Grant-Suttie) In 1170, the De Quincy family family, owned Prestongrange until gave Prestongrange Estate to the 1956. They converted the house monks of Newbattle Abbey, who from a home into a mansion. owned the land until the William Playfair: ’s Reformation in the 16th century. architect These early records make no Playfair, a prominent architect, mention of any house. was responsible for rebuilding Mark Ker: last abbot of much of Prestongrange House. Newbattle Much has been altered, but the By 1557, Mark Ker, abbot of house and estate we see today, Newbattle, had taken control of the with its gateways, its walls and its Prestongrange estate. The painted towers, is still Playfair’s vision of ceiling dated 1581, proves that a a Scottish tower house modernised house existed at this time. The inside to 19th century standards of Ker family were close friends of comfort. King James I & VI. In 1587, Mark Leisure: a new concept Ker’s son, also Mark, was granted The history of Prestongrange the baronies of Newbattle and House is a lesson in social change. Prestongrange and in 1606, was As trade in coal and other goods created Earl of Lothian. shrank during the 20th century, the Life at court was expensive. In house deteriorated along with the 1606, Robert Ker killed himself family fortunes. In 1924, the rather than face his debtors. He house and land were taken over by had already sold Prestongrange to the Royal Musselburgh Golf Club. the Morison family, who, in their In 1956 it was bought by CISWO turn, gave up the estate as a result (Coal Industry & Social Welfare of debt. Organisation) who added a modern Two hundred years of the Grant extension in the early 1960s. family Old and new In 1745, William Grant, Lord In 1997, the title of Baron Advocate, bought the land and Prestongrange was acquired by Dr. titles of Prestongrange. On his Gordon Prestoungrange death, he left the estate ‘entailed’,

3. Glossary

Estate The highest officer of the law in The land surrounding a large house Scotland Monk Entail A member of a religious At one time, ownership of a community woman’s property passed to her Abbey husband when she married. An A large church built for the entail meant that a daughter could religious services of a community not inherit her father’s property of monks and so neither could her husband. Reformation Instead, the property would go to The establishment of the Protestant the first son born to any daughter. church in Scotland Abbot Mansion The leader of a community of A very large house monks Architect Barony A person who designs buildings The land held by a baron, a Prominent member of the Scottish nobility An important, well-known person Earl Imposing One of the highest ranks of the Very impressive in appearance Scottish nobility Tower House Court A house built tall and square, with The place where the king or queen small windows so that it is easy to lives and meets with their nobles defend from attack Debtor Deteriorate Someone who owes money To get worse, or to decay Lord Advocate

4. Timeline

1150s - Charter grants the Cistercian monks of Newbattle Abbey by Seyer de Quincy, Earl of Winchester to establish a coalworks and quarry between Whytrig Burn and the boundaries of Pinkie and Inveresk. 1308 - Act of Parliament forbids the use of coal in London due to smoke and fumes. Coal is used to heat large monastic and nobles’ houses in Scotland whilst being associated with trade and industry. 1300s - James V allows construction of Acheson’s (now Morrison’s) Haven. The Abbey is granted the right to transport coal from the workings beside the River Esk for shipment in small boats. Packhorses make the return journey with salt and with goods traded for the salt and coal shipped at the harbour. 1450s- Accessible supplied of coal diminish while demand for coal increases. 1500s - Scottish coal output is approximately 40,000 tons, but still from small scale workings. However, 6 tons of coal were needed to produce one ton of salt (salt was very profitable). 1609 - Export of coal forbidden. 1606 - Law reduces colliers to a form of slavery (serfdom). 1700 - Annual output of coal c4 million tons 1705 - Thomas Newcomen patents the steam engine. 1707 - Union of the Parliaments of Scotland and England sees the decline of the Prestonpans salt industry. 1722 - Tranent and Cockenzie Waggonway laid. 1741 - Evidence of the use of horse gins at Prestongrange. 1743 - Morrison’s Haven harbour ceases trading. 1746 - Mining temporarily ceases at Prestongrange due to flooding. 1780 - James Watt successfully modifies Newcomen’s design. 1800 - Total coal output for Britain is 10 million tons 1812 - William Murdoch perfects a method for extracting gas from coal for lighting. 1814 - Sir John Hope’s Pinkie Railway between Pinkiehill and Fisherrow is constructed. 1815 - Tranent and Cockenzie Waggonway replaces wooden rails with cast iron. 1830 - George Grant-Suttie leases land at Prestongrange to Matthias Dunn 1830 - No 1 shaft sunk, re-opening the mine after more than 65 years. 1831 - Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway (‘Innocent Railway’) constructed. 1838 - Waggon road at Prestongrange runs from pit bottom to working. Bearers replaced by wheeled rails. 1838 - Matthias Dunn gives up the lease of Prestongrange. 1840 - No. 1 shaft flooded. 1850s - Turnpike System is introduced in Scotland. 1850 - The Prestongrange Company takes over the Prestongrange lease. 1850 - Opening of the mineral railway junction links Prestongrange Colliery with the main East Coast line. 1870 - Total output of coal in Scotland is 15 million tons. 1874 - The Cornish Beam Engine is installed at Prestongrange. 1878 - The Mining Institute of Scotland is established. 1893 - The Prestongrange Company fails. 1895 - The first mechanical washer for cleaning coal in Scotland is installed at Prestongrange. 1900 - 439 employed at Prestongrange Pit: 61 above ground and 378 below. 1905 - The Cornish Beam Engine has its pumping capacity improved. 1910 - 873 employed at Prestongrange: 153 above and 720 below (including many Irish immigrants). 1910 - An electric turbine pump is installed to pump water from Prestongrange. 1913 - Total coal output for Scotland 42 million tons. 1915 - total coal output for Scotland 35.25 million tons. 1945 - Total coal output for Scotland less than 20 million tons. 1946-7 - Nationalisation. The government takes over the coal mines. 1962 - Prestongrange Pit closes.

5. Curriculum Target: Knowledge and understanding of people in the past

STRAND LEVEL C LEVEL D LEVEL E LEVEL F People, events and societies of Describe the diversity of lifestyles Describe some features of Explain the motives or actions Apply knowledge and significance in the past: of people in the past, eg the life of a societies, people and events of of people in particular understanding of the Developing an understanding of peasant as opposed to a landowner the past and suggest why they historical situations motives or actions of distinctive features of life in the past might be considered Explain the values or attitudes people in particular and why certain societies, people significant that characterised various historical situations and events are regarded as societies in the past and/or the values and significant Explain why particular attitudes of particular societies, people and events societies in the past to from the past are thought to be reach conclusions on of significance a given historical issue or question Change and continuity, cause and Make a comparison between present Identify important features of Demonstrate a detailed Apply knowledge and effect: and past a development that have knowledge and understanding understanding of the Developing an understanding of lifestyles/circumstances/features. changed over an extended of the main features of a process of cause and change and continuity over time and What is different? What is the period of time eg transport, particular effect to provide of cause and effect in historical same? role of women event/development/attitude detailed explanation contexts Give some reasons for differences Explain in simple terms why with regard to change and as to why a particular and for aspects of continuity these features were important continuity development/event and describe what effects they Give some reasons to explain took place and give had on people’s lives why a specific historical balanced assessment event/action/development took as to the significance place and what the specific of its consequences consequences were Time and historical sequence: Put a series of events with their Explain the meaning of the Explain the relationship Compare and Developing an understanding of dates in chronological order terms ‘bc’ and ‘ad’ between specific dates and the contrast timelines time and how events in the past Use the words ‘decade’ and Place a number of events from relevant century from a significant relate to one another in ‘millennium correctly a specific historical Name and place significant historical period in chronological sequence development on a timeline that historical periods in different parts of the crosses BC/AD divide chronological order world The nature of historical evidence: Describe ways in which people Suggest a variety of sources Suggest ways in which Describe how Developing an understanding of the remember and preserve the past, eg of information about the past society’s awareness of its own heritage and evidence variety of types of historical war memorials and suggest reasons and what use they might be to past can affect its present and can be used in both evidence and their relative why they should do this someone studying a particular future development eg positive and negative significance topic devolution in Scotland, ways eg to promote Explain the meaning of the conflict/peace in Northern social, economic or term ‘heritage’ and give some Ireland political ends examples, eg castles, literature

5. Curriculum target: skills in social subjects

STRAND LEVEL C LEVEL D LEVEL E LEVEL F Preparing for tasks: Plan a sequence of activities for Plan a sequence of tasks or Plan appropriate strategies, Plan appropriate strategies, Planning tasks in a tackling an enquiry, class or procedures, adapting as resources and sequence of resources and sequence of tasks or systematic and logical homework task required tasks or procedures, adapting procedures, adapting as required way Identify a variety of as required Identify a variety of sources, Identifying appropriate Suggest relevant sources of straightforward sources from Identify a variety of sources including complex ones, from which sources of information information that might assist in which relevant information from which relevant relevant information might be a particular task might be collected information might be collected and give reasons for collected and give reasons for choice choice Carrying out tasks: Select and record specific Select and use known enquiry Select and use methods Make independent use of suitable Selecting relevant information for a given purpose methods and/or equipment to and/or equipment to access, methods and techniques to access, information and/or from a variety of sources access, select and record select and record a range of select and record information from a equipment. Observe, available in the school or local relevant information from a relevant information from a range of sources, including complex measure, find, select, community variety of straightforward variety of different types of ones record Select simple techniques to sources sources Make independent use of Processing information process/classify straightforward Select techniques to Select techniques to techniques to process/classify in a variety of ways information in a variety of ways process/classify information process/classify information information in a variety of ways, Evaluating the Distinguish in an elementary in a variety of ways eg the in a variety of ways, justifying choice usefulness and reliability way between fact and opinion, results of a questionnaire justifying choice Recognise when information is of information fact/truth and fact/fiction Make simple judgements Make judgements about what likely to be irrelevant, biased, or about usefulness/reliability of evidence is relevant/reliable, unacceptably inaccurate information/evidence eg by reference to bias, exaggeration and selective use of information Reviewing and Present findings in a report, Present findings in an Present findings in report Present an extended report (orally reporting on tasks: communicating key points organised and appropriate (orally or in writing) showing or in writing) showing a clear and Presenting findings in clearly manner clear organisation and coherent argument or analysis an appropriate and Present conclusions giving Present conclusions and appropriate specialist Present detailed conclusions, or coherent way reasons justify these with reference to vocabulary conclusions on more complex Presenting conclusions evidence Present conclusions that are issues, that are well supported by that are relevant to the well supported by reference reference to presented information purpose or issue to presented information

6. Activities

ACTIVITY 1 ACTIVITY 2 ACTIVITY 3 Can you make sense of the Prestongrange Estate had a series 1.Using junk or lego, make a jumbled words in this passage? of different owners over the Scottish fortified house. Build it Clue: If you get stuck, look in the centuries. Some of these were high, with narrow windows and Summary families, others were thick walls. There should be an ‘The HORTISY of Prestongrange organisations. Put a tick in the easy way in for times of peace and House is a lesson in CLASIO correct box: another one, more easily defended change. As trade in COLA and To 1170: De Quincy from raiders. Make enough space other goods shrank during the 20th individual organisation for the villagers who might need TRYNCEN, the house shelter, along with their sheep and deteriorated along with the family 1170:Newbattle Abbey cattle, and space for the family SNEFTORU.’ individual organisation who live in the tower all year 1547: Ker round. 1.______individual organisation 2. Why did William Playfair base 2.______C1609:Morison his design on such a building? 3.______individual organisation Answer:______4.______1745:Grant (later Grant-Suttie) ______

5.______individual organisation Why was it not necessary for Playfair to create a stout, easily 1956:CISWO/Musselburgh defended building? Miners’ Charitable Society Answer:______individual organisation ______

______

7. Further Investigations

For more information on the National Gallery image: Prestongrange Estate, especially the http://www.rampantscotland.com/edinbu Industrial Heritage Museum, try the rgh/bledin_gallery.htm following websites: Edinburgh University’s Playfair Library www.eastlothian.gov.uk/museums/index.h image: tml http://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/about/bgallery/G www.prestoungrange.org allery/eighteen/

For images from Scottish history: For an excellent history website, try: www.scran.ac.uk http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/topics/

For information on William Playfair, For a fascinating story of how an entail can together with some images of the buildings affect a family, try Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and he designed: Prejudice’. http://www2.ebs.hw.ac.uk/edweb/edc/edin burghers/william-playfair.html