A Brick, a Beach and The Bridge

A Brick to Nowhere...

The Whitehill Brick, do tell me more Mr Smith I hear you say (probably in my own head but I'm long past the point of wondering if this is madness or not)

Yes, the Whitehill Brick. Indeed. Locals will know that there is no such place around this neck of the woods. But wait, what about Whitehill Welfare FC who play their home matches at Rosewell in MIdlothian? 

Rosewell is a colliery village established by Archibald Hood, mining engineer and entrepreneur, who developed the Whitehill Colliery from 1856.

In 1890 he amalgamated his company with the mining interests of the Marquess of Lothian to form the Lothian Coal Company.The colliery was named after Whitehill House to the east. 

On 1 January 1947 the National Coal Board took over the Whitehill colliery from the Lothian Coal Company, when mines in Britain were nationalised. The colliery had 3 deep shafts and one surface mine. It reached peak production in 1950, but closed in 1961. Like most collieries it had its own brick works. The Whitehill Brickworks was in operation from1890’s – 1950’s. In 1952 they were awarded a prize as the best-kept brickworks in Scotland. And at its peak the plant produced 58,000 bricks daily.

As if all that wasn't enough here's an excerpt from "Coal" a Journal of the Scottish mining industry..

In 1770 a group of miners at Whitehill colliery. Midlothian, near Edinburgh, broke their bonds. Serfs by law, as were all Scottish miners in those days, they were the property of the coalmaster. If the pit was sold they were part and parcel of the price. Even sons and daughters were bound to the pit and its owner. In return the coalmaster was obliged to maintain his serf in sickness or old age, even to the provision of a coffin at his funeral. Not prepared to wait for their coffins the Whitehill serfs deserted, but were traced to Glasgow and sent back under escort.


Before leaving Glasgow they were given a dram of whisky each to ‘put them in a good humour.’ To their disgust the cost of the whisky was added to the bill of expenditure (£18) which they had to repay in weekly instalments. 


Apart from that...I dropped Ruby off at her fella's so she could head over to Glasgow, thought about heading home but went for a wee brick hunt instead and then came home to hear Mrs Smith's tales of Skype calls with Hollywood, unexpected cheques from foreign sales of her TV stuff and options for Audible Books. Celebrating with steak and red wine. Salmon fishcakes for me.