Articles of Interest
- Gala Anecdotes (2003 Gala Programme)
- A History of Lauriston Castle (2004 Gala Programme)
- From “Memories of Silverknowes & Davidson's Mains” (2007 Gala Programme)
Gala Anecdotes
The Davidson's Mains and Cramond Children's Gala Day was instituted in 1932 and has been held every year except for the war years between 1940 and 1944. Up until 1936 it was held in Rugby Park, now Corbiehill Crescent, when it was moved to the park due to the building of houses there.
The court consists of a queen, who until 1975 was the top girl or dux of the local school (alternating between Davidson's Mains and Cramond), and was attended by “maids of honour and courtiers”. Children in the court were chosen on academic merit but this was not always a fair method. A girl from Cramond became queen automatically as she was the only girl in the class!! Another year a Davidson's Mains girl who had only moved into the area 6 months previously became queen due to coming top of the class in the 11 plus exam. There was a lot of pressure on school children at this time as the result in this exam was the deciding factor as to which school children attended for secondary education. This selection process continued up until the advent of comprehensive education in 1975. As there was no longer a “top girl” the rules were changed so that the gala queen was the girl with the longest unbroken residency in the parish. Children in the district were admitted to the Gala free and received a “goodie” bag filled with a bun, a cold pie, perhaps an apple pie and a drink of juice. This was enough for our “tea” as events at the Gala often carried on into the early evening when held in the park. The cost of entry in 1932 was 6d for adults and 2d for children living outside the parishes of Davidson's Mains and Cramond. The first raffle prize was a live pig donated by a Mr. Peter Thomson! The present buyers of raffle tickets must be glad that donated gifts are now more sophisticated! A Carriage and Pair were hired to take the queen from her home to the park at a cost of 30 shillings. Mr. Whiteford and Mr. Laidlaw provided their cars for the maids of honour while the courtiers had to walk. The courtiers walked in the parade while the gala was held in the Park. In 1933 two carriages were hired for the queen and maids of honour while the boys still had to walk! This tradition continued until the Gala was transferred to the grounds of Lauriston Castle in the late 1980's and the courtiers were allowed to ride in cars!! While the girls have always enjoyed dressing up for their day many of the boys hated their costumes. As so few boys were prepared to dress up in costumes during the 1980's their outfits were changed to kilts in 1989 which is far more popular.
Events on Gala Day have not changed very much over the years. We still have the crowning ceremony, the races, fancy dress competition, football competition and stalls selling all sorts of things. In the early days there were also competitions for the best dressed working horse, a ploughmen's race, a tug of war for men and a band race for the bandsmen who took part in the Gala parade.
Mr. Whiteford provided a cup for the Best Dress Working Horse. Silverknowes was still farmland in early days of the gala and the area was essentially a rural community. With the advent of the motor vehicle and the demise of horses it was then decided to award the Whiteford Cup to the winners of the football competition between the two primary schools of Davidson’s Mains and Cramond. In the 1970's and 80's there were fairground shows in the park but this eventually had to be stopped due to the “waltzer” attracting many youths to the park, which eventually caused trouble. However, in 193 the Gala committee discussed the problem of mischievous youths in the village and suggested that they attend the local scout troop to learn discipline! It was suggested that a lack of parental concern contributed to this mischief! Weather has always been a worry for the organisers of the Gala. The first committee took out wet weather insurance in 1933 with Eagle Star for £5.11s. In 1937 the committee considered asking people to guarantee funds for the Gala should they have a wet day. The Gala has never been cancelled due to inclement weather and a local hall used to be booked in case the crowning ceremony had to be held indoors but this never happened.
For the 60th anniversary in 1992, efforts were made to track down the former gala queens and invite as many of them as possible to the Gala ceremony. When it was discovered that the first queen, Aileen Stephen, who had emigrated to America, would be in Edinburgh at that time she was asked to perform the crowning ceremony. She was delighted to do so and this was a memorable day for Aileen and her family and a special one for the gala.
Article kindly written for the Gala Programme by Charlotte Cowe.
A History of Lauriston Castle
Lauriston Castle was first recorded, as a royal farm, in 1290, in the Exchequer Rolls. In 1330 a charter was granted, to John Tennand, of "The lands of Laureston".
Throughout the 15th and early 16th Centuries the medieval tower, east of the present building, belonged to a family called Lawreston de Laureston, then Lowranston of Lowranston. In 1544 it was destroyed by the Earl of Hereford, under instruction from Henry VII during "the Rough Wooing". By 1590 it had been rebuilt and was jointly owned by Forrester of Corstorphine and Napier of Edinbellie and Merchiston. John Napier, son of Alexander Napier and Elizabeth Mowbray, best known for his explanation of logarithms (published in 1614) was succeeded by John Cant of St Giles Grange.
By 1643 the lands of Lawriston had passed to Thomas Rig of Aithernie in Fife who sold the property, in 1656, to Robert Dalgleish, Solicitor in Scotland to Charles I, a brother of William Dalgleish, Minister of Cramond Kirk.
The Castle and grounds were sold, in 1683, to William Law, an Edinburgh goldsmith. His son, John, was Lauriston's most remarkable owner with a career of financial brilliance ending in dramatic ruin. He instigated the fiduciary issue in France, the basis of all modern finance (issuing paper money based on land values - an idea rejected by Queen Anne but accepted by the bankrupt court of Louis XV), inaugurated the "Mississippi Scheme" and ultimately died in poverty in Venice in 1729. During their ownership none of the Law family lived at Lauriston and in 1823 sold the lands of Lauriston to Thomas Allan, an Edinburgh banker and proprietor of the Caledonian Mercury, a local newspaper. Allan was a distinguished mineralogist (allanite is named after him). He extended the Castle from its original tower house under the skilled guidance of the famous architect William Burn (who also built the parapet on Cramond Kirk tower).
The next owner in 1836 was a 'a local boy', William Ramsay Ramsay of Barnton (of stage-coach fame) who sold the Castle and policy to Lord Advocate Andrew Rutherford in 1842, keeping some of the land which obtruded into his estate. The Castle and grounds flourished during Rutherford's tenure under the careful supervision of W.H.Playfair, whose architectural skill was augmented by his ability to create beautiful gardens.
In 1855 the property was sold to Charles Halkett-Craigie-Inglis of Dunbarnie and Cramond who had, in 1849, inherited the estate of Cramond from his cousin, Lady Torphichen. He and his family enjoyed their short period of ownership during which two of his three grandsons were born at Lauriston.
He sold in 1859 to Miss Margaret Gordon Macpherson Grant of Aberlour, keeping the fields which abutted on his own Cramond estate. This left the Castle and 32 acres of land surrounded by the splendid wall we see today. Miss Macpherson Grant, interested in cattle, built the model dairy, which has become the ladies' cloakroom.
The next owner in 1871 was Thomas Macknight Crawford whose estate at Cartsburn was disappearing under the industrial expansion of Greenock.
The last private owners were William Robert Reid (of James Morison, renowned cabinet-makers) and his wife Margaret Barton, whose family had a flourishing plumbing business.
They were cultured, travelled and wealthy and by the time they bought Lauriston, owned enough beautiful artefacts to furnish the house. The garden was designed to reflect the late Victorian / Edwardian elegance of their home and, in 1926, they left the Castle to the nation of Scotland to be administered by Edinburgh Town Council, and are buried in the Lauriston Burying Ground in Cramond Kirkyard. Successive curators have been seduced by the charm of this wonderful Edwardian house and have enabled visitors to feel that the last owners have just left the rooms momentarily.....
This article has been kindly provided by Miss Jean Crichton, who was herself a maid of honour in the second Davidson's Mains Gala in 1933.
From “Memories of Silverknowes & Davidson's Mains”
The first mention of Davidson's Mains was in 1699, when it was called Muttonhol. This early mention came in prison records, where a William Aikford, who was described as a “smyth in Muttonhol” was apprehended for an unspecified misdemeanour in August 1699 and imprisoned for eight days in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh.
The name Muttonhole has long been a puzzle to which various solutions have been offered. By around 1850 the village was known as Davidson's Mains and in 1872 could boast of two dairymen, two spirit merchants, a coal merchant, a potato merchant, a baker, a tailor, a joiner, a general merchant, a smith, a builder, a cartwright, a newsagent and a carrier.
The Davidson's Mains Water Trust was formed in 1832 by the villagers, when Davidson's Mains was part of the parish of Cramond. Given permission by the proprietor of the lands of the district, pipes were laid from the water springs on Corstorphine Hill to the well; and those were carried to a few houses in the village. Prior to that the house holders had had to carry all their water for domestic purposes from the well itself, which is still at the entrance to the Park.
As well as having a large number of dairies and piggeries in the village, Davidson's Mains was also surrounded by farms and nurseries of various shapes and size. However only one farm still exists in anything like its original state. Lauriston farm was built in 1840 and has had many farmers since then. Silverknowes Farm was originally situated where the Golf Club House is now. In the late 1920's Silverknowes farm was built on the site of Burnside Cottage which was situated in the area where the Silverknowes shops are now. The farmhouse of the 1920's still remains and is currently the manse for Muirhouse Church, but it is now surrounded by houses.
In 1799 there were three schools in the Parish of Cramond. The fees for writing and English were 1s 4d the quarter; and for Arithmetic and Latin 3s. In 1885 there were six schools in the parish in connection with the Establishment. Two of these were run by female teachers, where, beside the ordinary branches of education, needlework etc. were taught. Two of the schools were in Davidson's Mains - a boys' school in the Free Church hall started in 1873 with 16 pupils and a girls' school situated at the corner of the Main Street and Cramond Road South. The first school on Corbiehill Road was built around 1882 and was only for boys although it became co-educational in 1893. A larger school was built on the present site in 1907 and the present school was erected in 1967.
The Barnton railway line opened on 1st March 1894. It left the Leith line beyond Craigleith Station to run to a terminus adjacent to Whitehouse Road behind the present Barnton Hotel. There were two stations on the line originally known as Barnton Gate and Cramond Brig but altered to Davidson's Mains and Barnton respectively in 1903. It has to be remembered that at this time Davidson's Mains was very much a country village well outside Edinburgh and had previously had to rely on a horse-bus service from Cramond for travel to the city. On the 1st February 1937 an intermediate station - House O'Hill Halt near Corbiehill Avenue - was opened between Craigleith and Davidson's Mains. On the 7th May 1951 the Barnton Branch Line was closed and promptly lifted beyond Davidson's Mains goods yard. The bridge at Davidson's Mains Station was demolished in February 1952. A single line to the goods yard was left after the local coal merchants succeeded in persuading British Rail not to lift the branch completely. A coal train ran daily in the early morning to the yard until 1st June 1960, when the line was closed. In 1868 an omnibus service was started between Princes Street to Davidson's Mains and Cramond twice a day. Thankfully the buses run more frequently today!
If you want to read more buy the book!!
Article provided by Charlotte Cowe.
© Davidson's Mains Gala Committee
Last updated : 25th November 2009