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Early Drinking Houses in Newbattle Parish
The minister of Newbattle parish, Rev. John Thomson, wrote
in 1839, "There are five public, or rather dram houses
in the parish; and their effects upon the lower orders of
society are of the most demoralising nature. There were
lately more, but they were fortunately suppressed, and the
writer is most anxious to have them still farther reduced."
The five dram-houses were kept by William Stevenson, Newbattle;
James Buchan, Easthouses; Widow Drylaw, Stobhill and Mrs
Watt, Peaseflatt Mains. Mr. Stevenson was proprietor of
the Dambrig Inn at Newbattle where the legendary Camp Meg's
funeral wake took place in 1827.(Camp Meg was a strange
old lady, a skilled horse doctor, who lived in an isolated
cottage of the Camp Hill above Newbattle.) It was always
said that much drunken revelry took place on that occasion
but the undertaker's son, John Romans, denied it, saying
that his father would not have tolerated it nor would the
publican, Mr. Stevenson, "a man who was an elder of
the kirk session for upwwards of thirty years, and who would
permit no drunkenness.'' As was the custom then, Camp Meg
being on the poor roll, the church paid for refreshments
after the funeral, i.e. whisky and shortbread.
There were four public houses in Newbattle village at the
beginning of the nineteenth century. Besides the Dambrig,
there was the Sign of the Sun Inn. The Sign of the Sun building
still stands, opposite the Abbey gates. It dates from 1697
and had also been a brewery. The sun was the symbol used
by the Marquis of Lothian's family.
Another public house licence was granted to George Liddell
at Parkfoot, Newbattle, in 1840 but that was withdrawn in
1857. The number of licences in Easthouses was the subject
of a letter to the Marquis of Lothian from his factor. "I
am sorry the Minister (Mr. Thomson) here has given a new
Certificate of Character to Mitchell at Easthouses, which
is a primary step to obtain the whisky licence; in consequence
of this it will occasion me some considerable trouble to
put a stop to it. He is perfectly aware there are besides
three Public Houses in that village. I hope however to get
it suppressed by the Justices at the general meeting."
The minister referred to by Mr. McGill Rae was the same
Mr. Thomson who spoke out so severely against the number
of public houses in the parish a few years later. Mr Mitchell
did get his licence and that made four public houses in
Easthouses for a time.
The J.P.s were keen to suppress licences in Midlothian
in an attempt to curb drinking and drunkenness and two of
the Easthouses pubs were closed in 1829 and another (Mitchell's)
in 1831. The remaining one was run by the Buchan family
(who were also farmers) until 1860. Thereafter, there was
no pub at Easthouses until 1946 when Andrew Aikman opened
the Barley Bree.
Though public house licences were generally being suppressed,
licences for inns on turnpike roads were being granted.
An inn was built beside the main road from Edinburgh to
Selkirk near Dalhousie Mains by the Marquis of Lothian beside
the main road from Edinburgh to Selkirk near Dalhousie Mains.
It was called the Lothian Bridge Inn and it keep their horses
overnight or they could rent a horse and exchange it for
a fresh mount at another inn further along the road.
Between 1838 and 1847, the Royal Mail coach from Edinburgh
to London travelled past the Lothian Bridge Inn twice daily
in each direction but it never stopped. It stopped only
at the White Hart Inn, Dalkeith, which was the post office
for Newbattle parish, the next stop was at Fushiebridge
Inn where the first change of horses took place. This was
also a post office. The roads were crowded with traffic
but the stage coach was supreme. Speed was all important
and at the height of the coaching boom London could be reached
from Edinburgh in under thirty hours.
The innkeeper at Lothian Bridge from the beginning was
John Stobbs. He was also the blacksmith at Lothian Bridge
and after he died this business passed into the hands of
the Kirkwood family who were reknowned agricultural implement
makers. John Stobbs was succeeded as innkeeper by his widow,
Annes. She retired in 1867 and went to live with her daughter,
a minister's wife in Newton Stewart.
By this time the heyday of coaching was long past. The
railways took over the long-distance journeys from the coaches
and the licensing courts began to suppress inn licences.
The Lothian Bridge Inn was closed by the Marquis of Lothian
in 1867 when Mrs. Stobbs left. For two years there were
no licensed premises in Newbattle Parish. In 1869 two grocers
at opposite ends of the parish (at Whitehill and Hunterfield)
were granted licences to sell ale arid porter.
The central and most populous part of the parish was totally
'dry'. The Marquis of Lothian refused to allow the sale
of drink on any premises belonging to him and he owned almost
all the houses. Thirsty miners had to walk about two miles
to the Justinlees Inn at Eskbank or a mile and a half in
the other direction to Newtonloan Toll, where there were
two licensed grocers. Both had been public houses until
the 1850s when stricter licensing laws had obliged them
to stop selling drink for consumption on the premises. This
led to the custom of men drinking by the roadside outside
licensed grocers. It was a widespread habit and the police
found it difficult to stop. Surreptitious drinking also
took place in certain back shops right up to recent times.
Sandy Fairlie tells of an incident that befell two brothers
from Goreb-ridge at Beveridges of Newtonloan Toll in his
lively book 'Early Coal Mining in Arniston and Newbattle'.
"For instance, might I relate the occasion when Rob
Young had an infant who died and he arranged with his brother
Sandy to carry the box, as they called it, down to Newbattle
churchyard. Well, off they set for their long walk; on reaching
Newton Loan Toll licensed grocers, they decided to have
a rest and a dram, so, placing the box on the dyke, they
settled down to have their dram, and m aybe had a few more
drams, so much so that when they again resumed their journey
they forgot all about the box, and were quite a mile down
the road when Sandy said to Rob, "Where's the box"?
"Oh", he says, "I clean forgot all about
it." On returning to the toll they recovered it unharmed
apart from the fact that it had fallen down at the back
o' the dyke. Resuming their journey and arriving at the
Kirkyard a bit late, they^ received a lecture from Auld
Wull, the gravedigger, for keeping him waiting. The unpleasantness
was soon overcome after the box had been lowered into its
resting place and the bottle produced; the dram, as it were,
gave them a sort of peace of mind."
John Romans, joiner and undertaker in Newbattle, retired
to Newton Grange Cottage, one of a handful of houses on
the seven acres he owned just north of Newton Grange village.
He decided to seek a licence for a public house in 1850
but his application was refused.
There was a brewery cart from Archibalds of Dalkeith which
delivered barrels of beer around the Newbattle district
occasionally -but mainly to farmers. They would order beer
or ale for their harvest workers who were provided with
their meals at harvest time as part of their wages. It was
standard to provide a couple of pints of beer per person
with each meal.
John Roman's son had built shops and houses on his land
at Newton Grange and one of his tenants was John Campbell,
who had a grocery at the Abbey Granary. Mr. Campbell applied
for, and was granted, a licensed grocers' certificate in
1880, the first Newton Grange licence. At the same licensing
court a Mrs. Reid who also had a grocers shop in Newton
Grange was refused a licence to sell table beer.
Dalkeith Advertiser, 1st May 1893: "OPEN-DRINKING
AT NEW-TONGRANGE. SIR, - Permit me to call attention through
your columns to what is growingly felt to be a public nuisance
and disgrace in the village of Newton Grange. There is unfortunately
a licensed grocer in the place, and in its vicinity there
gather crowds of men, young and old, every other week, who
do their drinking in the open street to the great inconvenience
of the neighbours and to the demoralisation of their children.
No later than Monday week last the scenes witnessed there
were nothing less than a disgrace to a respectable community.
It is a hardship for those disturbed by the brawling of
these revelers and heartbreaking that their children should
have to hear and witness such scenes. The best cure would
be to have the license withdrawn from the place, but, failing
this, let me appeal to those who indulge to have respect
to their neighbours' comfort and the children's weal, and
it they still feast in this ugly form, let it be in their
own homes. The moral sense of the community is recoiling
against this thing, and what is needed is that every respectable
inhabitant should shun the corner and raise a strong protest
against the practice. - Yours, &c, A VILLAGE WELL-WISHER."
There was an active temperance movement in Newton Grange
going back to 1872 when the Good Templar Lodge 'Lothian
Star' was founded. They built their own hall on land sold
to one of their members by John Romans. By then, they had
67 adult members and 97 juvenile members. Other temperance
organisations in the village included the United Free Church
Total Abstinence Society, the Independent Order of Rechabites,
the Sons of Temperance and the Band of Hope.
Dalkeith Advertiser, 21 February 1895: "THE LICENSING
QUESTION AT NEWBATTLE. SIR - Public opinion in Newbattle
at present is greatly exercised c>n the subject of licensing,
and a very general cry is being raised that a certain license
should be abolished. There can be no denial that a great
number of people, unfortunately, take more strong drink
than is good for them, and thus impoverish both themselves
and their families. An effort has been made in certain quarters
in this district to remedy this evil, with, I believe, a
great amount of success. The teetotal party argue that to
stop licenses would also be to stop drinking. Possibly it
would be a certain extent, but I fear not entirely, and
by closing legitimate trade and so introduce new evils.
Nearly every person agrees that private individuals by the
operation of laws intended for the benefit of the people
as a whole. To prevent this I would suggest that if a licensed
house is to be allowed it should be conducted in such a
way that the profits would be applied to the public benefit.
Already many of the people obtain their provisions from
one or other of the co-operative stores, where the profits
are divided amongst the members. Why should a licensed shop
not be conducted on the same principles? As property in
the Newbattle is almost entirely in the hands of Marquis
of Lothian or the Lothian Coal Company, they, as landlords,
could make their own conditions, and I would suggest that
if such a scheme were adopted that a very stringent clause
be introduced in the lease binding the management to the
orderly conduct of the business, under a penalty of having
their lease cancelled at short notice by the landlord. The
committee of management could be selected in a similar way
to a co-operative store committee, and the members would
have control of the business. I do not suggest that such
a business be run for the purpose of doing a large trade,
but rather that the management, having full control, could
see as to quality, and it necessary give instructions that
certain people should not be supplied on any terms. There
should be no objection to temperance men acting on the management;
indeed they should be welcomed, and thus they would have
a voice in controlling what they considered impn.per. Any
profits from such a business could be applied to any local
scheme of usefulness, the benefits of which would be open
to all, whether members of the shop or not. Perhaps, Mr.
Editor, you might open your columns to the discussion of
such a scheme. I am, &c., NEMO"
Dalkeith Advertiser, 28 February 1895: "PUBLIC MEETING
- A public meeting called by the Newbattle kirk session
"to consider the question of a licensed house in Newton
Grange" was held in the Old School there last Thursday
evening, and there was a very large attendance of householders
and heads of families. The Rev. J.C. Carrick presided, and
all the members of session were present. A long discussion
was taken part in, and at the close a vote of those present
was taken for or against a licensed grocer, a licensed public-house,
or no license at all, when it was unanimously carried that,
in the opinion, of the meeting, the license should be done
away with altogether. A committee was appointed to take
steps to petition against the transfer and the license."
Rumours were circulating in Newton Grange in 1895 that
Mr Romans was about to let the Abbey Granary to someone
other than Mrs. Campbell, who had held the license since
her husband's death in 1880. Many of the villagers were
angered by Mr. Roman's action and supported Mrs. Campbell
but the temperance movement chose this moment to campaign
vociferously for the abolition of the licence altogether.
Mrs. Carnpbell's lease ended at Whitsun, 1895 and Mr. Romans
refused to renew it. Instead he let the shop to Alexander
Henderson, an Edinburgh man who subsequently was granted
the licence, despite strong opposition at the licensing
court meeting.
Mrs. Campbell was very angry at Mr. Roman's treatment of
her and felt she had not had a fair hearing at the licensing
court. She took the unusual stop of sending a copy of all
the letters which had passed between herself and Mr. Romans
during the previous six months to the Dalkeith Advertiser.
The entire correspondence was published, being described
as having been "supressed at the recent Licensing Court
when the licence was transferred to another."
Mr. Romans initially intimated a 50% rent increase for
the Abbey Granary, asking for £85 a year instead of
£57. He said he had frequently been offered twice
the rent Mrs. Campbell paid for a five year lease. In reply,
Mrs. Campbell stated that £57 was the maximum she
could pay as business had declined since Craig's Paper Mill
had closed and the recent miner's strike had affected trade.
She admitted that the sinking of the new shaft by the Lothian
Coal Company had helped her business but since it was finished
takings had fallen considerably.
Mr. Romans was not impressed and increased his demands.
This is an extract from his third letter: "I will agree
to grant you a lease often years of the premises, on condition
that you pay me £500 in cash at the term of Whitsun
next, the date of the new lease. I agreeing to provide and
fix in the premises one high pressure boiler with kitchen
range, a bath with hot and cold water, with all the necessary
fitments, and also a patent water closet complete."
This was clearly a preposterous demand and was firmly rejected
by Mrs. Campbell who said "I could for the same sum
build a house with all the latest improvements." She
offered £70 a year which was refused and she failed
to answer any of his final three letters, which had become
rather hostile.
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