Old Rome

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Old Rome
Ayrshire

Old Rome from the Old Rome Bridge
Location
Grid reference: 3920&y=6 3610&z=120 NS 392 361
Location: 55°35’26"N, 4°33’13"W
Data
Local Government
Council: South Ayrshire

Old Rome, or Old Rome Ford is a hamlet in Ayrshire, close by the River Irvine, in Dundonald parish. Old Rome may be found a mile and a half from Crosshouse and just a mile from Gatehead.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the district around Old Rome was busy with coal mining, which shaped the hamlet as a colliers' village.

The name 'Old Rome' is from the Scots word 'Room' or 'Rome' which means a rented small rented farm or croft.[1]

Location

Old Rome stands across the River Irvine from Gatehead on the main A759 road to Kilmarnock, Dundonald and Troon, with the old road to Kilmarnock by way of Earlston branching off the new Kilmarnock road.

History

Roy's map of around 1747 shows several dwellings near Fairlie at the Old Rome site, in 1807 a single row of cottages, growing to two rows by 1860 with garden areas for growing vegetables behind them.[2] Archibald Adamson records a walk through the area in 1875.[3] He mentions a neat lodge house at Fairlie, then owned by a Captain Tait and records that the Old Rome Bridge over the Irvine had recently replaced an older one. The Old Rome miners' cottages on the east side of the road are stated to be in ruins following the closure of the local coal pits and the distillery ruins were still apparent. He goes on to say that the nearby Gatehead Village was much more recent and was established around fifty years back, so around 1825, and has neither kirk, smithy, mill or market, but it does have a station.

Old Rome had a 'Mission Station' in 1837, the mother church being Dundonald.[4] A school was once located at Romeford and in 1939 the school house and school survived as dwelling houses.[5][6]

In 1793 the population was 74; by 1841 the population was 261, mostly miners, a worker at the distillery, a teacher and even two grocers; the 1851 gives 204 inhabitants with fewer miners and no whisky workers; finally 1881 gives only 31 inhabitants.[2]

The 'Romford' (1828),[7] 'Rameford', 'Room' or 'Rome Ford' was found upstream of the modern road bridge crossing the River Irvine.

The ford was a dozen or so yards up river from the bridge and until the 19th century the Old Rome farmer could point out the southern side of the ford and the flat stones of the ford substratum can still sometimes be seen.[2] A history of confusing Robert Burns handwriting of 'Forest' and 'Ford' has occurred, but 'ford' is considered more likely.[2]

The Old Rome Distillery was founded by James Fraser in 1812, it had several changes of owner, with James Mill the owner in 1829, however it had probably closed by 1848 and certainly by 1851.[8] In 1826 the name Old Rome Distillery Co is recorded. The distillery with a complex of buildings existed at the south side of the river opposite Old Rome Farm,[3] although no signs of its existence are now visible and it was very ruinous in 1875 when Adamson saw it.[9] The Dick Institute in Kilmarnock has a painting that may be of the ruinous distillery.[10]

Association with Robert Burns

Robert Burns' father William Burnes worked on the Fairlie Estate as a gardener for two years before moving to Alloway, where Robert was born.

Old Rome Forest was a house where Jean Brown,[11] Jean Armour's half-sister and therefore an aunt of Burns, lived with her husband, James Allan who was a carpenter on the Fairlie Estate. When Burns had to go into hiding as a result of James Armour's warrant for his arrest, the poet stayed at his aunt's house, addressing a letter in July 1786 to his friend John Richmond as coming from 'Old Rome Ford'. An advantage also was that the house was not far from where his poems were being printed on John Wilson's press in Kilmarnock.[2] His letter to John Richmond related his plans to emigrate to Jamaica and its even said that he had his packed trunk sent to 'Old Rome Forest' in readiness for his planned departure.

Nothing remains of the Old Rome Forest cottage, but according to Duncan M'Naught, the Kilmaurs schoolmaster and local historian, (in an article in the Burns Chronicle, 1893) the house was on the Fairlie estate and not in the village.[12] McNaught states that Fairlie House was called 'Old Rome Forest' in his day.

Collieries and Coal Pits

Old Rome and the Fairlie estate
The woodland policies and Fairlieholm from Gatehead

In the 19th century Coal pits were opened at Fairlie, Peatland, Templeton and Fortacres. The miners' rows were built at Old Rome at this time and a school and schoolhouse was opened, together with a blacksmith's. At first coal was sought where it lay at the surface in the fields, river banks, etc. and only when these were exhausted were bell pits worked. The village of Old Rome existed to provide accommodation for the miners and was abandoned when the coal available by these methods was exhausted. The last coal pits to close were Newfield and Fortacres in 1957.[13] The main pit lay behind the present Old Rome Farm buildings.

A coal pit is marked at Old Rome in 1860, behind the Old Rome Farm, with two miners rows and a school. The school buildings survive as two private houses, being the buildings on the left before the junction for Symington. Although some of the coal was sold locally much of it went to Ireland.

The Old Rome coal pit is mentioned in the novel 'A tree in the West' by Anna Blair, and relates an incident where a young boy is so terrified of being sent down to work in the mine that he runs away instead.

Outside links

References

  1. ↑ 'Room' or 'Rome'
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Ayrshire History Retrieved : 2013-11-29
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Adamson, Pages 93 – 94.
  4. ↑ Gillespie, Page 569
  5. ↑ Gillespie, Page 262
  6. ↑ Gillespie, Page 509
  7. ↑ Johnson, William Map of Ayrshire from Estate Plans (1828)
  8. ↑ Whisky Portal Retrieved : 2013-11-28
  9. ↑ Adamson, Page 94
  10. ↑ Old Rome (Cottage) Retrieved : 2013-11-28
  11. ↑ Jack, Page 149
  12. ↑ Old Rome Forest
  13. ↑ Kirk, Page 80
  • Adamson, Archibald R. (1875). Rambles Round Kilmarnock. Kilmarnock : T. Stevenston.
  • Boyle, A. M. (1996). The Ayrshire Book of Burns-Lore. Darvel : Alloway Publishing. ISBN 0-907526-71-3.
  • Groome, Francis H. (1903). Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland. London : Caxton.
  • Jack, Allan (1909). Burns & Old Rome Forest. Burns Chronicle, No. 18.
  • Johnson, William (1828). Map of Ayrshire from Estate Plans.
  • Kirk, Robert. A Pictorial History of Dundonald.
  • McNaught, Duncan (1912). Kilmaurs Parish and Burgh. Pub. A. Gardner.
  • Millar, A. H. (1885). The Castles & Mansions of Ayrshire. Reprinted The Grimsay Press. ISBN 1-84530-019-X.
  • Paterson, James (1863–66). History of the Counties of Ayr and Wigton. V.II. – Part II – Kyle. Edinburgh : J. Stillie.
  • Robertson, George (1823). A Genealogical Account of the Principal Families in Ayrshire. Irvine : A. Constable.
  • Strawhorn, John (1995). The Scotland of Robert Burns. Darvel : Alloway Publishing. ISBN 0-907526-67-5.
  • Warrack, Alexander (1982). Chambers Scots Dictionary. Chambers. ISBN 0-550-11801-2
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