The Dean Tavern - A Gothenburg Experiment

No reference was made to the new premises in the Dean Committee minute book between 8 March 1910, when the estimates were accepted, and 28 April 1911, when the annual accounts were presented final costs detailed. There is a single reference in the Dalkeith Advertiser of June 2nd 1910, "Though the work of erecting the new "Gothenburg" on a site to the rear of the Dean Tavern is proceeding apace it is expected the premises will not be ready for about four months yet." We must presume the new Dean opened at the beginning of October 1910. There are two reasons for this lack of information. One is that the officials of the Lothian Coal Co. (Mr. Callender, company secretary, and Mr. Mac-Kay, general manager) supervised the work and took all necessary decisions without reference to the committee. The other reason is that the committee was determined not to advertise the Dean directly as that might be seen to be enncouraging drinking, although they were happy to see any project funded by the Dean receive maximum publicity and did not mind the Dean being referred to then.

The Committee had accumulated £3,500 by 1911 and were able to pay all the bills for the building of the new Dean without borrowing. It cost £3,000 plus £600 paid to the Whltehlll and Newbattle Building Co. for their three houses (the old Dean) which were demolished.

The new public bar was large and spacious with a horseshoe bar. Three arched pillars supported the roof in the centre of the room. Controversy has often raged in the Dean about the distance from the back wall to the centre of the pillars. It is claimed that it is 24 feet, the same width as goal posts, but there are arguments yet about that. Upstairs, there was a temperance bar, which had its own separate entrance. The other downstairs rooms included a jug bar, a committee room and a private room for meetings and small functions. The mam door into the public bar was at the far end from the temperance door, which looked as it it was the main entrance. There was a side door into the bar from Dean Park but it was never much used. All the downstairs walls in the new Dean were tiled with green glazed tiles up to about eight teet trom the ground.

One of the earliest functions held in the private room was the Newtongrange Shopkeeper's Dance on March 30th 1911. A company of 40 enjoyed a tea dance with games until the early hours.

This table shows the turnover of the Dean Tavern from 1910 to 1920.

In 1912 the Lothian Coal Co. began paying the the miner's wages weekly rather than fortnightly and this led at once to an increased turnover, "...weekly pays seem to be making the men spend more on drink." (Dean Minute Book) Higher wages were responsible for the increase in 1913-1914.

During the early years of the First World War the Government became concerned about the effect heavy drinking mi^ht be having in the main industrial areas, and licensing hours were controlled under the Defence of the Realm Act in 1915. Pubs had been allowed open all day between 8 am. and 10 pm. until 1914, when the opening time allowed was put forward to 10 am. After 1915 the permitted licensing hours in central Scotland and some other places were reduced to five each day. The Dean Tavern henceforth opened only from 12 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the evening for sales of alcohol. This obviously affected sales (as it was meant to) and so did the heavy taxes the Government was imposing on beer and spirits during the war. However, the Dean remained open outside these hours for the sale of non-alcoholic drinks (tea, coffee and Bovril) in the upstair:- temperance department.

The largest increase in turnover in the Dean's history occured in 1919-20 due to the exceptionally high wages the men were taking home in that year (15/- a shift minimum - compared to 7/- in 1914).

There was a change in the type of draught beer sold in the Dean in 1916. Strong beer had long been popular but due to greatly increased wartime liquour duties and higher raw material costs the price of a pint had risen to 8d. Beer bought at the jug bar was the same price but half the strength and so double the quantity was supplied. In the summer of 1916 two sample barrels of light ale were ordered to see how they would go. At 6d. a pint, light beer was immediately popular and sales of heavy beer dwindled to such an extent that no more was ordered. Whisky and rum cost 8d. or 9d. (lOd. for special) a gill. A nip was half a gill. By 1918 beer of all kinds was in short supply and individual publicans had their own systems of rationing. Jim Barton remembers, "There were no treatin' durin' the First War. Ah couldnae take you a pint and yon couldnae take me a pint - individual only. Ye daurnae gaun intae company wi geein' each other drink."

Working hours for the bar staff were long. The waiters started at 9 a.m. and spent the morning clearing up, washing bottles and bottling beer. They were allowed a break from 4 p.m. - 6 p.m. "if work permitted" and finished at 10 p.m. From 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. only the temperance bar was open but, in October 1915, the committee decided to close the temperance bar outside licensing hours, as the takings were only I/- a day at most. This meant the staff could get home an hour earlier.

For the first few years of the Dean the staff changed very little. Only two employees left in the first twelve years but by 1911 it was becoming difficult to find and keep a good pot boy because of the long hours. An advert in The Scotsman and the Evening Dispatch in October 1915 brought only two replies. One boy was invited for an interview but he never turned up. Similar difficulties were found in the Committee's efforts to employ a third barman in 1912. The first man engaged stayed only a week and five others were employed in the next two years for varying periods. The wages were 28/- a week.

The waiters were expected to look smart. Jim Barton: "Ye hud yer long white apron on. We bocht oor ain aprons, tain them hame an washed them. Ye hud tae wear a collar an' tie." No smoking or drinking was allowed on duty. An anonymous letter writer once accused the waiters of smoking at work and this led to a severe warning by the Committee.

On December 31st. 1915 the manager of the Dean Tavern, John Hood, was tragically knocked down by a bus near the police station and died as a result of his injuries. He had worked at the Dean since it opened in 1899, beginning as pot boy. He became second man in 1904 and was promoted to manager at the age of 22 on the death of Andrew Anderspn in 1907. Mrs, Hood was given two weeks wages (£5) and £150 by the Committee and was allowed the remain in her house for six months. It was suggested she might get £1 a week until she had recovered her health and was able to work. The balance could then be invested for her or used for business.

John Purves, who had been second man since 1908, was appointed as manager in John Hood's place.

The directors of the Lothian Coal Co. had planned, since the opening of the bowling green in 1902, to build a hall, recreation rooms, reading room and library in Newtongrange but sagging profits at the Dean Tavern had delayed the project until 1910. By then profits from the Dean were well over £1,000 a year and still rising. Despite being committed to the expense of building a new public house the Dean Committee decided to go ahead with plans for an Institute but on a reduced scale. It had been estimated that £5,000 - £6,000 would be needed to build a hall with recreation rooms, etc. This was too much, so the hall was cut out, thus halving the cost. The money was to be borrowed from the Lothian Coal Co. at 5% interest and repaid when the new Dean Tavern was paid for.The Committee was expending a lot of money at this time on the basis of future profits, which could not be guaranteed. It was made clear that no committee member could be responsible for any debt incurred. The Dean sales in fact dropped back a bit in 1910-, as wages had dropped to 30% below those of 1907. Nevertheless, the Dean Committee continued with its programme of building, erecting a football pavilion at Easthouses and a Band Hall at Newtongrange both in 1911.

The Institute was ceremoniously opened on the Saturday afternoon of April 20th 1911 by James Hood, managing director of the Lothian Coal Co. The silver band played through the streets beforehand and 500 of the Newtongrange residents turned up to watch the proceedings. The Dalkeith Advertiser began a long and admiring report thus - "Of the many benefits conferred on the community of Newtongrange from the profits accruing from the Dean Tavern, the local public house conducted on the Gothenburg principle, none will probably be more appreciated than the Newbattle Institute."

The Institute was brick-built and harled, with red sandstone dressings. It was described as being in the 'English renaissance' style and stood on the Main Street in the Dean Park district of the village. Inside there was included a billiard room with three tables. Round three sides of this room there was a raised platform with settees on it and there was room for other games in an adjoining alcove. The reading room had eight long tables with racks of newspapers along one wall. There were shelves to hold a thousand books for the lending library and small tables for games or reading. Other facilities included a temperance refreshment room, a kitchen and lavatories. There was also a house for the caretaker, Mr. Kinnaird.

Mr. Hood, in his opening speech, acknowledged that other mining villages had built Institutes before they had in Newtongrange but he thought their facilities were unsurpassed. Membership was Id. a fortnight and he hoped everyone would join. The Institute was to be managed by a committee of ten - five officials of the Coal Company (including the manager director, the Chairman and the secretary) and five workmen elected at a public meeting.

The Institute was very popular and there was great demand for use of the billiard tables, especially. The reading room was well used but it proved impossible to play dominoes quietly and avoid aggravating the readers. In March 1914 an extension to the Institute was opened with ample space for billiards, a separate games room (giving peace in the reading room), a smoking room. The cost was £2,500 and it was borrowed as usual from the directors of the Lothian Coal Company.

Mr. Hood was chairman of the Dean Committee until 1917 but when he was absent from meetings (as he was frequently) his place was taken by Mr. Callender, the Coal Co. secretary. Indeed, Mr. Callender took many of the decisions concerning the Dean Tavern. He continued on the Committee for six years after his retiral as secretary. He spent much of his spare time working for the good of the community and he was well liked locally. He was honorary president of the P.S.A. and vice president of the Miniature Rifle Club, a J.P., County Councillor for New-battle Parish Council for 20 years and a member of Newbattle School Board for 22 years. Mr. Callender retired from the Dean Committee in 1917. His place was taken by James Murray, his successor as company secretary. The chairman from that time on was Mungo MacKay, general manager at the pit and a man who wielded a great deal of influence in Newtongrange.

The Dean Committee undertook another large scale project before the First World War. There had been a picture house in Newtongrange since about 1912. It was on a piece of waste ground at the back of the last row of houses at Abbeyland, opposite Coo Mary's house. 'Evans V Picture Palace was a temporary sort of building with wooden walls and a canvas roof. The projection box stuck out the back to ensure "absoloute safety for the public". There was a complete change of programme every night with two shows on Saturdays - prices were 6d. 4d and 3d to sit on wooden benches. The children's matinee on Saturday afternoons cost Id or 2d but a jeely jar got you in to the Id seats and if you couldn't even scrounge a jeely jar you could "skin in" sometimes.

Word got to the Dean Committee early in 1913 that "some persons had applied for ground for a picture house in the village." They considered whether to build a picture house themselves so they could have some control over the pictures shown and agreed to do so if there was no competition. Meanwhile, plans were going ahead to build a picture house on ground belonging to Mr. Romans behind the Abbey Inn where the shows were held. Mr. Walker, tenant of the Abbey Inn, was behind the scheme but it foundered and the Dean went ahead with their own plans. The Dean Committee didn't want to run the picture house themselves and advertised for tenants before it was built. The applicants were Mr. Herman of Dalkeith Picture Palace; Mr. Wilson, who had a cinema in the Forrester's Hall, Dalkeith, Mr. Evans of Newtongrange Picture Palace and the Burntisland Picture Palace Company, whose offer of £325 a year was accepted.

The site that was chosen by Mr. Hood and Mr. Callender was at the top of the village opposite the Dean Oil Works. Three shops were to be incorporated into the building scheme, the first shops at the top end of Newtongrange.

The estimated price for the picture house, in May 1914, was £6,000 and the building was finished by the end of the year. John Lockart remembers the picture house being built when he was six or seven years old. Before that it was just a field "wi' a muckle big tree richt on the corner."

The Dalkeith Advertiser of December 17th 1914 carried the first advertisement for the Newtongrange Picture Palace with the words "Look out for opening announcement next week!" and asked for applications for the following jobs - general manager, cash girl check girls (2) and men checkers (2). There was no announcement on December 24th nor on December 31st but this notice appeared on January 7th 1915. "Newtongrange Picture Palace, nightly at 7.30 pm, Saturdays 7.00 pm and 9.00 pm, four changes of programme weekly, admission 3d, 4d, 6d and 9d, matinees Saturday at 3.00 prn admission Id." The first film to be shown was 'Out of the Depths' on Thursday and Friday, changing to 'Cinderella' on Saturday. Patrons were promised "drama, interest, latest war pictures, comic and Keystone comedies."

The final cost of building the Picture Palace was £6,440 and £5,000 was borrowed from the Lothian Coal Co. directors. The committee members, as before, emphasised that they were not personally responsible for the cost of the picture house and that the Lothian Coal Co. would have to bear the cost if the profits of the Dean were not maintained. Fortunately the profits were substantial and the full cost of the Picture Palace was paid up by the Committee in 1918, just three years after it was built.

One of the shops in the picture house building was let to a watchmaker, Andrew McGowan, one to a barber, Aubrey Hirst, and the third, on the corner of Main Street and Murderdean Road, was let to William Scott, ex-manager of the Dean Oil Works, as a fruit and confectionery shop.