Arma Parpore ¢ (23-Me ) Boo Meka4) DEAN VILLAGE NEWS a x 2.”

No 117 Spring/Summer 1997 ~~ “

ceca om THE PLACE NAMES, OF Shen by Stuart’Harris . Gordon Wright Publishing (£45)

‘This is a comprehensive study of the "back", as'in Back Dean, means on the place names in the District of western side of an estate. Having Edinburgh as it was defined in 1975. previously understood Back Dean to be Stuart Harris had been working on it a group of modest buildings just outside the City the gardens of Dean House (Kirkwood’s Architect's Departmeni, waere .iS map, 18i/), 1 was surprised by Harris's duties included the naming of streets. account of it as Wester Dean, the house built by Sir Henry Nisbet in The introduction gives the background about 1681 when he was fiar of Dean. — the languages from which the names Could it really have been a gentleman’s are derived: changes in landscape and residence so close to the House of settlement; farms aad estates, the Dean built by the Nisbets in 1614? mediaval burgh and the expanding city: The appearance of "Dean" in place In the alphabetic list some myths are ames around Stockbridge is confusing, demolished (Edwin’s Burgh, Croft- but Dean Street used to lead to the an-Righ) and misunderstandings re- Dean. We learn that Dean Haugh was moved: "dam" is a mill-lade and "path" recorded as a village name from 1532 in Dean Path is a brae. and that there »was a Deanhaugh House. But Harris does not seem to That brae lea up to the House of know that there was Deanhaugh Dean where the Cemetery is now, and Cottage in our village; it stood on the to the original Dean Village, which north bank just upstream of the was replaced by Belgrave Mews. (The: footbridge until at least the 1950s. choice of "Belgrave" and of "Bucking- hain" was perhaps the height of snob- He says that Kirkbraehead was, on bish aping of London.) Roy’s map of 1753, a clachan at the modern West End junction. To judge by

$ Kincaid’s map of 1784 and Kirkwood’s between the Dean and the River of 1817, this settlement extended a Almond (a pre-Celtic name). short distance along the west side of the future Queensferry Street. According to is not so old: it comes from a Harris, the brae is the one up from St word for "water" in a Celtic language. Cuthbert’s Kirk. Yet I wonder whether Harris says that what we now call Bell’s people living in the Brae is named "Water of Leith" on Village did not think rather of the maps before 1852. Kirkwood (1817) and steeper brae on their side of the ridge. Knox (1821) do give that impression, Kirkwood shows Kirkbraehead Toll but I cannot believe that it was the (not mentioned by Harris) on the sharp name of the brae. Ainslie (1804) and corner between Bell’s Brae and what is Knox print "Drumsheugh" on part of the now Belford Road; and when Cabbie main road. Ainslie also prints Kirkbrae- Stewart extended his house after 1890, head on the road; Kincaid (1784) put it he adopted the name Kirkbrae House, among buildings. Surely all of these in deference to the role of Bell’s Brae were names for areas. Maps dated 1759, as the road from the village to St 1766 and 1822 show clearly that Water Cuthbert’s. (Basil Skinner: The House of Leith was the village. My own on the Bridge, 1982). impression is that names were often Drumsheugh Toll, less clearly placed used to describe where people lived on a 1759 mas, may have been an rather than for streets. You lived “at the alternative name for Kiskbraehed Toll. damside", for example. By 1852 Drumsheugh Toll was a short Explaining Damside, Harris says that distance down Belford Road, where a Damhead was at the head of the dam, later building has kept the name. where sluices controlled the flow of water from the river, in this case at the Harris tells us that Lord Moray’s estate cauld (weir) above the Village. I don’t of Drumsheugh was originally think "damhead" is a_ specific place "Meldrum’s heuch" (land on a_ rocky name here. Meg Lee told me that her height}, which had its own mill near the mother would say the boys were playing town’s common mills, possibly on the "up at the damheid". Note the use of site of Greenland Mill. He shows that "the". She might just as readily have "Drumsheugh" was transferred to the said they were playing “doon the other side of the main road, where it waterside.” was applied to two different houses in That, by the way, was the only local what is now Lynedoch Place Lane term I could find for the path to before being used in street names. Stockbridge. At my suggestion, the path That lane was once part of the main was labelled St Bernard’s Path for a road to Queensferry, the line of which while, but The Dene was adopted in was changed in other places too 1989. (See also The Trows.) On the 1852 O S map Hawthorn Bank There is an article on Roman roads. was the building which is now 30,31,32 Harris deduces that there was a Belford Road. Harris suggests that the crossroads at Back Dean and a river name was only later used for an area. crossing "somewhere near Bell’s Mills". This seems unlikely. The very name Discussing Belford, he says there is suggests that it was primarily the name nothing to indicate that there was a of an area. A_ tradition about ‘a ford at Bell’s Mills. However, there Covenanter’s thorn’, he says, does not have been considerable changes in belong there but on the haugh above ground levels; if you look over the Bell’s Mills. (Another myth!) bridge on the downstream side of the bridge, you can see what must be the Baxters’ Tolbooth (at the foot of Bell’s original level, and Lawrence Walker Brae) has been left out. Harris lists assures me that there was a ford: when other buildings which have disappeared, a deep pit was dug at Bell’s Mills he for example, Mar’s Mill and Jericho, saw layers of road-metal below the level but not Sclate Mill. (I cannot at of even the earliest bridge. The Romans present say exactly where it was.) could have used that ford. Sclate=slate. Since a slate house meant The sloping ground opposite Bell’s a house with a slate roof, | suspect that Mills (Douglas Crescent Gardens) was this mill was notable in its time for not called Bells Braes. Lawrence Walker being thatched. mainie:as thet Bell’s Bice (leading Whisky Raw survived into the present down to the Village) was so named century on the steep slope above the because it led to Bell’s Mills. However, new part of Damside. Harris mentions Harris has found sixteenth-century only a Whisky Row in Leith, which was references to Bells at the Water of notable for the number of dealers in Leith as well as at Bell’s Mills. wines and spirits rather than the Moreover, a map of 1759 shows the number of drinkers! road past Coates as the only road to Bell’s Mills. That was called Bell’s Another omission is The Cauldron, the Loan or Coates Bauks (Palmerston wooded bank (and/or the pool?) behind Place and Douglas Gardens). the Gallery of Modern Art. (The various forms of this name were In his foreword, Stuart Harris wrote: discussed in DVN 111.) Under Much remains to be investigated, and Windmill Brae Harris quotes the trad- one aim in writing this book has been ition that the old mill had been used for to encourage further local studies. milling whins to feed stock. In corres- I hoped to discuss with him the omis- pondence with me, he would not accept sions and possible errors. I would have that it was really a whin mill. (See challenged him to provide evidence that _ discussion in DVN 111.) there was ever an ornamental well in Well Court. But, sadly, he died in MILLIONS February. However, his publisher, The Water of Leith Conservation Trust Gordon Wright, will welcome comments has been granted £2.5 million by the and corrections, which could be Millennium Commission. incorporated into a second edition. The Walkway from to Leith will be completed and upgraded. It is Don’t let my criticisms put you off. This estimated that 250,000 visitors a year is a fascinating volume. If you are at all will be attracted, which his will appal curious about place names you will some residents, who think there are al- want to consult it at least, and you may ready too many! well decide like me to buy a copy, even The river corridor will be landscaped at £45. Then tell me about my mistakes! and wildlife habitats improved, particul- Dorothy Forrester. arly for otters and bats. The home of the Trust, a former school at , is to be developed as an education and A CHEERFUL CEMETERY visitor centre. The improving spirit of the age has We welcome the proposal to instal evinced itself in nothing more agreeably lights on between the Village and than in the reformation of our last Stockbridge. The Dean Bridge and St homes. The contrast between the Bernard’s Bridge may be flood-lit. (St loathsome town churchyards and the Bernard’s Well too?) At St Bernard’s spacious, pure and breezy cemeteries is Bridge there is to be a ramp allowing creditable both to the taste and to the wheel-chair users to reach the upper feelings of the age. (Lord Cockburn) path. At present, if you go past the Cockburn’s friend and fellow judge, Well on the lower level, there is no way Lord Jeffrey, took a walk with his wife through; that is to be remedied and it is one evening in the , hoped to carry out some habitat man- which was resonant with blackbirds and agement and re-planting on the bank looked invitingly peaceful and cheerful. opposite the Well. (Views of the Well I rather think I must have a freehold would be improved by some felling on there. the near side!) He was buried there a few weeks later Matching funding has been secured in 1850. So was Lord Cockburn, in from Edinburgh Council and others, 1854. bringing the total to £5 million. The Since their time the Cemetery has be- work will begin in the autumn and and come the last resting place of many take four years. It will create 90 con- other interesting people and has acquir- struction jobs and, in conjunction with ed a remarkable collection of monu- Lothian & Edinburgh Enterprise Limit- ments. There will be a guided walk on ed, lead to 200 training opportunities Wednesday May 28 at 7 pm. for the long-term unemployed. DEAN DISTILLERY Morton’s refrigerator and two patent Sunbury Distillery (DVN 116) was condensers. Next door the spirit store not the only one. Dean Distillery in had a vat holding 2,600 gallons. Miller Row is described in The The visitors retraced their steps to Whisky Distilleries of the United reach the engine house with its 15 Kingdom by Alfred Barnard (1887). horse-power engine, a centrifugal It was in a range of buildings erected pump for the wash, and a steam on the solid rock, rising abruptly boiler 28 feet long and 6 feet in from the Water of Leith. . . .The diameter. The chimney stack was on works, which were formerly corn the other side of the river (i.e. on mills, are of ancient date. West Mill), the flue being carried James Johnston of Glenpatrick Distil- across the stream on a bridge "exact- lery, Paisley', acquired all the build- ly over the waterfall". ings in Miller Row in 1881 and There were seven bonded ware- converted them into a distillery by houses, all built in the solid rock, the following year. It covered 1% with 2,500 casks of whisky. It was acres of ground, with barley lofts pure malt, and the average annual (140 feet long and 30 feet broad) and output was about 73,000 gallons. five malting floors of the same Adjacent to the warehouses were a dimensions. Adjacent was the kiln, 35 small cooperage, offices, stables, peat feet square, which communicated sheds, and clerks’ office. with the malt deposit, a lofty building On the 1894 Ordnance Survey map holding 18,000 quarters of malt. the only building marked "Dean Access to the mill buildings was up a Distillery" is the six-storey "Jericho", by circular stone staircase. The top floor the site of which is occupied was occupied by the mill (a pair of RMJM’s offices. It was labelled metal rollers for crushing the malt); "Malthouse" on the 1877 map, before it the next floor below was the grist Johnston set up his distillery; so loft, below this the mash house, and seems likely that his five malting adjoining it the tun room. Barnard floors were there. But Barnard’s the details the mash tun, the brewing description makes it clear that the tanks, the underback, the five hand- distillery occupied buildings on "rising some washbacks and the wash charg- other side of Miller Row, er, noting that all the work was abruptly from the Water of Leith". carried on by gravitation. If the malting floors, kiln and malt side The still house, which seems to have deposit were on the right-hand been separate, contained two old pot of Miller Row as one goes down, the stills (brought from Paisley?), two apparently separate “mill buildings’ the low-wines and feints chargers and could be Lindsay's Mill (where one spirit receiver. In the running millstones now stand), but the boiler in the range room, besides the safe, there were a house must have been

of buildings? which extended along Robert Matthew was a distinguished the riverside upstream of the mill as civil servant, having been Chief Arch- far as the old stone bridge, for it is itect and Planning Officer at the De- from those buildings that the flue* partment of Health for and crosses the river to the chimney of culminating in his role as Chief Arch- West Mill on the O.S. map of 1894 itect to the London County Council (not exactly over the waterfall). from 1945 to 1953. Likewise his partner Perhaps the bonded warehouses, Stirrat Johnson-Marshall had devoted cooperage etc. were on the other side much of his life to the public domain. of Miller Row, the site of RMJM’s The impact of these two backgrounds garage. on the expanding business was inevit- ably a social architecture servicing ' Elma Munro: Miller Row reconstruction and growth in health, in Dean Village News No 72. education, housing and public buildings. 2 They were demolished in 1931, Robert Matthew had been not only when part at least was referred to as President of the RIBA but also Presid- a granary. See DVNews No 107. ent of the International Union of * | have heard that children used to Architects and of the Commonwealth crawl through it.. Association of Architects. His inter- national interests were mirrored in the RMIM Susiness which now operates inter- In January there was an exhibition in nationally with offices in the United the Architecture Department of the Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Bangkok University of Edinburgh to celebrate 40 and Manila. years of Robert Matthew Johnson- However, the exhibition focused on Marshall, the practice founded by Sir their work in Scotland, from the key Robert Matthew, Professor of Archi- projects in the evolution of the practice tecture from 1953-1968. He established to their current work: the first civilian a new department which pioneered a airport at (1956), Firhill widening of the curriculum from an arts School (1960), Cockenzie Power Station biased perspective to a broader skill (1968), the Royal Commonwealth Pool base, and established units for planning (1969), Stirling University (1971), and for architectural research. This Distillers’ House (1984), the Scottish broadening of the architect’s education Office at Victoria Quay (1995) and took root in the practice itself, which is current plans for a Millennium Arena multi-disciplinary and to this day trades in Glasgow and for the revitalisation of as architects, civil and structural engin- the Usher Hall. eers, building services engineers, land- (Derived from The University of scape architects, space planners and Edinburgh Bulletin , 16 January 1997.) interior designers.

ANGLING thing about lampreys and bullheads. Graham Priestley, who was High Bailiff Happily, management of the brown of the Water of Leith for 13 years until trout fishery of the Water of Leith handing over that ancient office recent- involves collecting data on all the fish. ly, has written a report on the 1996 For the last three years the Honorary fishing season for the Newsletter of the Bailiffs have been assisted by scientists Water of Leith Conservation Trust. from Pitlochry who can survey chosen Water levels were low for much of the pools by electro-fishing. This involves year, and figures published by the using two eletrodes to pass an electric Scottish Environmental Protection current through the water. All the fish Agency' confirmed the Honorary in the pool are drawn to the upstream Bailiffs’ suspicion that in the last few electrode, where they are caught by years the water levels have often fallen hand-netting and can be held for count- below the agreed flow which the ing, measurement and scale sampling. compensation reservoirs are meant to (Scales reveal the age of the fish and maintain. can be used to distinguish between Although 656 permits were issued, only brown and sea trout.) 24 anglers made a catch return. The The surveys have confirmed a large average catch was two trout per visit; population of brown trout, some wild, the best was a brown trout of 21b 130z some marked stock fish, and at caught on fiy at . Redoraes ia the lower river several sea it was worrying that many of the trout trout were found. A salmon found dead and two grayling had some degree of in September at Bonnington had been cataract in their eyes. This may be due tagged in the River Wear. to a parasite or to pollution. Grayling have appeared in the last ten The fishing season is from April 1 to years, presumably introduced by anglers, September 30. Permits are issued free and their continued presence was con- of charge from the Post Offices at firmed at and at Redbraes, Balerno, , and where the catch also included flounders. and from the Recreation Eels, three-spined sticklebacks, stone Department at 17 Waterloo Place. loach, brook and river lampreys, bull- heads and minnows were recorded at ! The Forth River Purification Board three different sites. Anglers have re- has been absorbed into SEPA. ported perch and pike at , presumably escapees from the Union FISH Canal, and rainbow trout enter the river Fish are inconspicuous creatures com- from Harlaw Reservoir via the Bavelaw pared to plants, birds and mammals. A Burn. quiet walk along a burn will usually tell (From an articleby Graham Priestley in you if there are trout present, but no- Lothian Wildlife 12, December 1996)

CABLE TV DIARY

Back in 1992, when it seemed that cable Tuesday April 29th at 7.30 television would soon come to the Dean ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Village, representatives of the Associ- in Drumsheugh Toll, 3 Belford Road. ation discussed with United Artists THEN LET’S CHAT Communications how their cables might OVER A GLASS OF WINE. be installed without damage to listed buildings and with the least possible Sunday May 4th from 10.30 a.m. disruption in the streets. The flats in LET’S CLEAN UP THE RIVER Well Court could be reached from a AND ITS BANKS single entry point, using the route from the Hotel to St Bernard’s Well. followed by cables from the communal Meet at the old stone bridge. television aerial, and we hoped that there could be a similar solution for Wednesday May 28 at 7 p.m. West Mill, Baxters’ Tolbooth and THE DEAN CEMETERY: Hawthorn Buildings. A GUIDED WALK led by Dorothy Forrester. Sunbury Place was cabled, insensitively, Charge: £1.00, for DVA funds. fairly soon. From time to time we were told approximately when the Village Wednesday August 6th from 1 p.m. would be done. The periods indicated A DRIVE INTO PERTHSHIRE came and went. The latest news, from FOR PENSIONERS the company (now called “Telewest") is No Charge. that there are no plans so far to cable the Dean Village. DEAN VILLAGE ASSOCIATION Chairman: Mrs Peggy Valentine, A GRIEVANCE 31/2 Belford Road (225 8942) Vice-chairman: Ms Caroline Gerard The keeping and rearing of pigs has 6 Belford Mews. become of late an intolerable grievance. Secretary: Miss Dorothy Forrester, . . . An enquiry was made into the 13 Belford Road (226 5843) number of pig styes in Bell’s Mills, Treasurer: Mrs Sylvia Bradley, Water of Leith, Silvermills and area, 22 Lynedoch Place (225 2639) when it was ascertained that there were no fewer than 325 different styes, Subscriptions (1997-8) averaging about four pigs each. Life: £30 single, £45 double Mr Alexander Murray, Inspector of Annual: £3 single, £4.50 double Cleansing, 1847, quoted in Edinburgh Concessions: £1.50 Evening News , December 15 1962. (pensioners, students, unemployed)