9
Village Of Catrine
When Aiton wrote his "General View of the Agriculture of the County of Ayr," at the beginning of the present century, he did not confine himself strictly to agricultural matters, but had a word to say in passing as to the towns and villages and the customs of the people. His picture of village life is far from an attractive one. The houses were small and mean and unpleasant in every way; there were no gardens in front but frequently heaps of rotting rubbish, or hay stacks, peat stacks and dilapidated coal houses. Sometimes it needed considerable skill for a stranger to reach the door of the house through all the accumulations of years of untidiness, which lay in front of it. If anyone cares to read the "Cottagers of Glenburnie" now-a-days, he may see in that once popular booklet a picture of village life pretty much as Aiton depicts it in Ayrshire in the beginning of this century. But although the condemnation is sweeping and general, Aiton individualises a few places for special remark. Some of the villages and towns he says are "despicable"; for others he uses the word "tolerable"; while of some he says "they have a confused and shabby aspect"; and of the few he considers the "handsomest," it is pleasant to notice that Sorn and Catrine come first. The villages that share the honours with those in the parish of Sorn are Straiton, Galston, Dalrymple, Kirkmichael, Dundonald and Kirkoswald. One matter that may have helped the villages of Sorn and Catrine to the honourable position which they occupied in Aiton's list, was the fact that they are both comparatively modern. When a town or village has the growth of centuries, and of styles of architecture and phases of thought and custom as variable as the periods through which it has existed, it cannot have the regularity of plan (however picturesque it may be), or nicety of detail which is characteristic of more rapid growth. The further back we go we find the cottages of the people the more squalid. The village of Sorn or Dalgain was built by the proprietor of Dalgain to accommodate his work people. Catrine is little more than a century old. Up till 1786 there were only a miller and a blacksmith settled there.
Catrine is situated on the north bank of the River Ayr, in the western extremity of the parish of Sorn, about two miles from the village of Sorn and about the same distance from Mauchline, which is the nearest railway station. It's situation is an exceedingly fine one and with considerable climatic advantages. It is sheltered on every side by sloping hills and wooded pasturelands, and few places in the same latitude and so far from the sea have such a genial climate. The village is regularly built, clean and bright looking, and through the midst of the wide principal street, runs the tail-water of the mill, or by-wash from the mill wheel. About the centre of the village is a large square of 300 feet where the tall, red-stone, many-storeyed cotton mill has stood for over a hundred years. The houses are chiefly of two storeys, slated and built on a uniform plan. The Ayr, which is here particularly beautiful, flows past the village and through the estate of Ballochmyle close by. It is also the motive power of the great wheel of the cotton works. But Catrine is synchronous with the cotton works, and the history of the cotton works is the history of Catrine.
Toward the close of last century the cotton trade received a great impetus by the invention of Arkwright's Throstle Spinning Frame. Up till the last quarter of the eighteenth century spinning was a purely domestic industry and almost entirely in the hands of women. In Lancashire and the great weaving centres every cottage had its spinning-wheel, and the women span the lint or wool in their own homes. About the middle of last century cotton began to be more used, the warp being of linen and the weft of cotton. As the weavers had to supply the weft for themselves spinsters had more work to do than they could well undertake. A spinning jenny was invented in 1765 by James Hargreaves, but unfortunately was not patented. Ignorance was rife and the weavers and spinsters looked upon Hargreave's machine as a direct intervention with the ways of Providence. Riots ensued, and all the machines were broken. In 1769 came Arkwright's invention, which was patented, and although rioting still broke out at intervals against the machinery, it had come to stay; the cotton industry began its flourishing career, and trade generally, instead of languishing with plethora of hands, as had been predicted, entered upon a brisker era. In 1787, while the great cotton industry was still almost in its infancy, Mr Alexander of Ballochmyle, who was proprietor of Catrine, and Mr Dale of Glasgow, built a twist mill in Catrine (where the advantages in the way of water-power were obvious), with a fall of water from the dam-head, to where it returned to the river, of forty-six feet. They built a large mill containing 5240 spindles. The same fall of water drove a jeanie-factory and a corn-mill, and it was proposed that by-and-by a wauk or fulling mill should be erected on the same strearn. Such a large work necessitated a corresponding number of workers, and a village sprang up like a mushroom. Mr Alexander of Ballochmyle, as proprietor of the ground, laid it off according to his own plan. The village he made of oblong form, with the large square in the middle, in the centre of which stood the mill, and streets led off from the square, east, south and west. The access to the village was from the north and south, and the river was spanned by a wooden footbridge only. Carts and carriages had to cross by a ford, which in time of flood became impassable The principal street was made sixty six feet wide, with the clear water from the mill running down the centre, and crossed by wooden bridges. Mr Alexander also built many of the houses, and bound all those who took feus in that street to build houses two storeys in height and to slate them. There were thirty feuars in the village. When the village was commenced, and for several years later, the rate of feuing for a house and garden was fourpence per fall, but in 1789 it was raised to sixpence. The feus are perpetual, or, as the legal documents say, "as long as trees grow and rivers run." The houses were built of the tenement description, where often a whole family occupied a single apartment. Even enlightened gentlemen like Mr Alexander evidently did not think, in those days, that one apartment was too little for the accommodation of a whole family- a room, sixteen feet by fourteen, let at thirty shillings, or finished in a superior style, at two pounds annually. Such a room was sleeping, eating and living room for an indefinite number of people and is, unfortunately, too often so to this day.
The following extract from the "Statistical Account," published a hundred years ago, or about ten years after the erection of the mills, may be of interest.
"Three hundred and one persons) old and young, are just now employed (1796) in carding, roving and in spinning, with an overseer and two clerks; clock-makers, smiths, millwrights and other mechanics amount to fifteen more. The women who pick cotton in their own houses are at present 226 ; in all belonging to the twist mill, 445. Of these 118 are under 12 years of age, 128 are between twelve and twenty, and 200 are above twenty years of age The total amount of wages paid from October, 1795, to October, 1796, is £3,193 stg. ; and as far as can be ascertained the average quantity of cotton spun weekly is 2260 lbs. In the year 1790 the same Company built a jeanie factory, which contains 76 jeanies, the motive power for which was derived from the tail-water of the twist mill. Here 200 persons, including an overseer, 2 clerks, and mechanics find constant employment, besides 55 women who pick cotton in their own houses. Forty-three are under twelve years of age; 72 from twelve to twenty; the rest are above twenty years of age. The wages per week are about £80 sterling."
We see from the above quotation that a total sum of £4000 was paid annually in wages in the new mills of Catrine and 700 people were directly supported by them, not including wives of workmen, aged people and young children. Such an influx of money and work must have had a most beneficial effect on the district. Farmers would find a ready market for their produce and many tradesmen must have been employed even in raising houses for such a number of people. Children were not admitted into the mills under nine years of age; which was a very humane regulation for those days. Weaving was carried on in the village, but that industry was then in its infancy. A hundred handlooms were erected and the weavers were supplied with work from the cotton manufactories in Paisley or Glasgow, which seems like a carrying of coals to Newcastle. The yarn spun in Catrine was sent to Glasgow weekly by the Company 's carrier. The population of Catrine amounted at that time to 1350 souls, a diminution during the three years previous of 250. It is difficult to say why the people had left, unless that the novelty had worn off and some of the newcomers went back among their old friends. It was not for want of work, for the Company had work and to spare, and the houses remained empty, waiting in vain for new occupants. So, instead of machinery driving workmen off the field, it had only increased the demand for skilled labour. Besides those employed in the cotton manufacture, the population included the usual tradesmen and shop keepers necessary in every community.
The mill-workers were a very healthy class. Inoculation for smallpox was the rule and not the exception. The different apartments in the mills were kept as clean and as free from dust as possible. Mr. Alexander also introduced a scheme of farming on a small scale, which possibly, by taking the workers into the open air, had a beneficial effect upon their health as well as teaching them thrifty habits. Mr. Alexander let each year from fifteen to twenty-five acres of ground to the villagers, for which they paid him from fourpence to sixpence a fall, according to the quality of the ground. There they planted potatoes and other vegetables, and a spirit of emulation sprang up as to whose ground would be the most fruitful and free from weeds. Mr. Alexander made small enclosures also, in the vicinity of the village, for those who kept cows. This was found advantageous both to the villagers and to the proprietor. He also built a brewery in the village and let it to a Kilmarnock man, and although it has changed hands more than once it is still a flourishing concern. It was an attempt to introduce malt liquor instead of the more fiery whisky. This plan succeeded fairly well, as far as consumption of beer was in the question, for 500 boIls of malt were brewed annually. Nothing is known about the consumpt of whisky; whether it decreased in favour by reason of the charms of its milder rival, or if both were used instead of one! We must remember that tea was an expensive luxury at that time, considered effeminate, and tending to make those who indulged in it weak and delicate. In some quarters the farmers, and even Town Councils, banded themselves together to discourage its use by all means in their power, and took a vow, as teetotalers do now regarding strong drink, to abstain from the use of the stimulating and insinuating beverage. The people of Catrine at that time were practically vegetarians. Potatoes and cheese, a most nourishing diet, formed the staple dinner in many a family, and for breakfast and supper there were porridge and milk, oat-cakes, eggs, and butter; a much more wholesome and healthful bill of fare than the constant tea-drinking which obtains in many a home of the same class now-a-days.
A chapel-of-ease, which still remains, was built in 1703. Out of the population of 1350, about 300 were Anti-Burghers and Burgh-Seceders, who trudged many miles each Sunday to attend divine service in their respective churches in Cumnock and Auchinleck. The schoolmaster engaged by the Company had a free house and the small salary of £15 sterling. For that he taught the children employed in the works from seven till nine o'clock in the evenings. He had an assistant for the mill children, whose salary was only £5, but as he was a junior clerk in the mill, his duties as schoolmaster were only secondary to his position as clerk. The schoolmaster had day pupils also, whose fees doubled his salary. The scholars met in the school on Sunday mornings, were catechised by the teachers, and marched to church, where they sat in rows under the vigilant eyes of the schoolmaster and his assistant. The teachers of those days found their post no sinecure, and the scholars, even in church, were not free from the dread of a tingling box on the ears, or a resounding whack on their young shoulders.
Back to Books & Chapters
Back to Sorn Home Page
Back to Catrine home page