Early Drinking Houses in Newbattle Parish

The minister of Newbattle parish, Rev. John Thomson, wrote in 1839, "There are five public, or rather dram houses in the parish; and their effects upon the lower orders of society are of the most demoralizing nature. There were lately more, but they were fortunately suppressed, and the writer is most anxious to have them still farther reduced."

The five dram-houses were kept by William Stevenson, Newbattle; James Buchan, Easthouses; Widow Drylaw, Stobhill and Mrs. Watt, Peaseflatt Mains. Mr. Stevenson was proprietor of the Dambrig Inn at Newbattle where the legendary Camp Meg's funeral wake took place in 1827.(Camp Meg was a strange old lady, a skilled horse doctor, who lived in an isolated cottage of the Camp Hill above Newbattle.) It was always said that much drunken revelry took place on that occasion but the undertaker's son, John Romans, denied it, saying that his father would not have tolerated it nor would the publican, Mr. Stevenson, "a man who was an elder of the Kirk session for upwards of thirty years, and who would permit no drunkenness.'' As was the custom then, Camp Meg being on the poor roll, the church paid for refreshments after the funeral, i.e. whisky and shortbread.

There were four public houses in Newbattle village at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Besides the Dambrig, there was the Sign of the Sun Inn. The Sign of the Sun building still stands, opposite the Abbey gates. It dates from 1697 and had also been a brewery. The sun was the symbol used by the Marquis of Lothian's family.
Another public house licence was granted to George Liddell at Parkfoot, Newbattle, in 1840 but that was withdrawn in 1857. The number of licences in Easthouses was the subject of a letter to the Marquis of Lothian from his factor. "I am sorry the Minister (Mr. Thomson) here has given a new Certificate of Character to Mitchell at Easthouses, which is a primary step to obtain the whisky licence; in consequence of this it will occasion me some considerable trouble to put a stop to it. He is perfectly aware there are besides three Public Houses in that village. I hope however to get it suppressed by the Justices at the general meeting."
The minister referred to by Mr. McGill Rae was the same Mr. Thomson who spoke out so severely against the number of public houses in the parish a few years later. Mr. Mitchell did get his licence and that made four public houses in Easthouses for a time.
The J.P.s were keen to suppress licences in Midlothian in an attempt to curb drinking and drunkenness and two of the Easthouses pubs were closed in 1829 and another (Mitchell's) in 1831. The remaining one was run by the Buchan family (who were also farmers) until 1860. Thereafter, there was no pub at Easthouses until 1946 when Andrew Aikman opened the Barley Bree.

Though public house licences were generally being suppressed, licences for inns on turnpike roads were being granted. An inn was built beside the main road from Edinburgh to Selkirk near Dalhousie Mains by the Marquis of Lothian beside the main road from Edinburgh to Selkirk near Dalhousie Mains. It was called the Lothian Bridge Inn and it kept their horses overnight or they could rent a horse and exchange it for a fresh mount at another inn further along the road.

Between 1838 and 1847, the Royal Mail coach from Edinburgh to London traveled past the Lothian Bridge Inn twice daily in each direction but it never stopped. It stopped only at the White Hart Inn, Dalkeith, which was the post office for Newbattle parish, the next stop was at Fushiebridge Inn where the first change of horses took place. This was also a post office. The roads were crowded with traffic but the stage coach was supreme. Speed was all important and at the height of the coaching boom London could be reached from Edinburgh in under thirty hours.

The innkeeper at Lothian Bridge from the beginning was John Stobbs. He was also the blacksmith at Lothian Bridge and after he died this business passed into the hands of the Kirkwood family who were renowned agricultural implement makers. John Stobbs was succeeded as innkeeper by his widow, Anne. She retired in 1867 and went to live with her daughter, a minister's wife in Newton Stewart.

By this time the heyday of coaching was long past. The railways took over the long-distance journeys from the coaches and the licensing courts began to suppress inn licences. The Lothian Bridge Inn was closed by the Marquis of Lothian in 1867 when Mrs. Stobbs left. For two years there were no licensed premises in Newbattle Parish. In 1869 two grocers at opposite ends of the parish (at Whitehill and Hunterfield) were granted licences to sell ale arid porter.
The central and most populous part of the parish was totally 'dry'. The Marquis of Lothian refused to allow the sale of drink on any premises belonging to him and he owned almost all the houses. Thirsty miners had to walk about two miles to the Justinlees Inn at Eskbank or a mile and a half in the other direction to Newtonloan Toll, where there were two licensed grocers. Both had been public houses until the 1850s when stricter licensing laws had obliged them to stop selling drink for consumption on the premises. This led to the custom of men drinking by the roadside outside licensed grocers. It was a widespread habit and the police found it difficult to stop. Surreptitious drinking also took place in certain back shops right up to recent times.

Sandy Fairlie tells of an incident that befell two brothers from Goreb-ridge at Beveridges of Newtonloan Toll in his lively book 'Early Coal Mining in Arniston and Newbattle'. "For instance, might I relate the occasion when Rob Young had an infant who died and he arranged with his brother Sandy to carry the box, as they called it, down to Newbattle churchyard. Well, off they set for their long walk; on reaching Newton Loan Toll licensed grocers, they decided to have a rest and a dram, so, placing the box on the dyke, they settled down to have their dram, and maybe had a few more drams, so much so that when they again resumed their journey they forgot all about the box, and were quite a mile down the road when Sandy said to Rob, "Where's the box"? "Oh", he says, "I clean forgot all about it." On returning to the toll they recovered it unharmed apart from the fact that it had fallen down at the back o' the dyke. Resuming their journey and arriving at the Kirkyard a bit late, they received a lecture from Auld Wull, the gravedigger, for keeping him waiting. The unpleasantness was soon overcome after the box had been lowered into its resting place and the bottle produced; the dram, as it were, gave them a sort of peace of mind."

John Romans, joiner and undertaker in Newbattle, retired to Newton Grange Cottage, one of a handful of houses on the seven acres he owned just north of Newton Grange village. He decided to seek a licence for a public house in 1850 but his application was refused.
There was a brewery cart from Archibalds of Dalkeith which delivered barrels of beer around the Newbattle district occasionally -but mainly to farmers. They would order beer or ale for their harvest workers who were provided with their meals at harvest time as part of their wages. It was standard to provide a couple of pints of beer per person with each meal.
John Roman's son had built shops and houses on his land at Newton Grange and one of his tenants was John Campbell, who had a grocery at the Abbey Granary. Mr. Campbell applied for, and was granted, a licensed grocers' certificate in 1880, the first Newton Grange licence. At the same licensing court a Mrs. Reid who also had a grocers shop in Newton Grange was refused a licence to sell table beer.

Dalkeith Advertiser, 1st May 1893: "OPEN-DRINKING AT NEW-TONGRANGE. SIR, - Permit me to call attention through your columns to what is growingly felt to be a public nuisance and disgrace in the village of Newton Grange. There is unfortunately a licensed grocer in the place, and in its vicinity there gather crowds of men, young and old, every other week, who do their drinking in the open street to the great inconvenience of the neighbours and to the demoralization of their children. No later than Monday week last the scenes witnessed there were nothing less than a disgrace to a respectable community. It is a hardship for those disturbed by the brawling of these revelers and heartbreaking that their children should have to hear and witness such scenes. The best cure would be to have the license withdrawn from the place, but, failing this, let me appeal to those who indulge to have respect to their neighbours' comfort and the children's weal, and if they still feast in this ugly form, let it be in their own homes. The moral sense of the community is recoiling against this thing, and what is needed is that every respectable inhabitant should shun the corner and raise a strong protest against the practice. - Yours, &c, A VILLAGE WELL-WISHER."

There was an active temperance movement in Newton Grange going back to 1872 when the Good Templar Lodge 'Lothian Star' was founded. They built their own hall on land sold to one of their members by John Romans. By then, they had 67 adult members and 97 juvenile members. Other temperance organizations in the village included the United Free Church Total Abstinence Society, the Independent Order of Rechabites, the Sons of Temperance and the Band of Hope.

Dalkeith Advertiser, 21 February 1895: "THE LICENSING QUESTION AT NEWBATTLE. SIR - Public opinion in Newbattle at present is greatly exercised on the subject of licensing, and a very general cry is being raised that a certain license should be abolished. There can be no denial that a great number of people, unfortunately, take more strong drink than is good for them, and thus impoverish both themselves and their families. An effort has been made in certain quarters in this district to remedy this evil, with, I believe, a great amount of success. The teetotaler party argue that to stop licenses would also be to stop drinking. Possibly it would be a certain extent, but I fear not entirely, and by closing legitimate trade and so introduce new evils. Nearly every person agrees that private individuals by the operation of laws intended for the benefit of the people as a whole. To prevent this I would suggest that if a licensed house is to be allowed it should be conducted in such a way that the profits would be applied to the public benefit. Already many of the people obtain their provisions from one or other of the co-operative stores, where the profits are divided amongst the members. Why should a licensed shop not be conducted on the same principles? As property in the Newbattle is almost entirely in the hands of Marquis of Lothian or the Lothian Coal Company, they, as landlords, could make their own conditions, and I would suggest that if such a scheme were adopted that a very stringent clause be introduced in the lease binding the management to the orderly conduct of the business, under a penalty of having their lease canceled at short notice by the landlord. The committee of management could be selected in a similar way to a co-operative store committee, and the members would have control of the business. I do not suggest that such a business be run for the purpose of doing a large trade, but rather that the management, having full control, could see as to quality, and it necessary give instructions that certain people should not be supplied on any terms. There should be no objection to temperance men acting on the management; indeed they should be welcomed, and thus they would have a voice in controlling what they considered impropriety. Any profits from such a business could be applied to any local scheme of usefulness, the benefits of which would be open to all, whether members of the shop or not. Perhaps, Mr. Editor, you might open your columns to the discussion of such a scheme. I am, &c., NEMO"

Dalkeith Advertiser, 28 February 1895: "PUBLIC MEETING - A public meeting called by the Newbattle Kirk Session "to consider the question of a licensed house in Newton Grange" was held in the Old School there last Thursday evening, and there was a very large attendance of householders and heads of families. The Rev. J.C. Carrick presided, and all the members of session were present. A long discussion was taken part in, and at the close a vote of those present was taken for or against a licensed grocer, a licensed public-house, or no license at all, when it was unanimously carried that, in the opinion, of the meeting, the license should be done away with altogether. A committee was appointed to take steps to petition against the transfer and the license."
Rumours were circulating in Newton Grange in 1895 that Mr. Romans was about to let the Abbey Granary to someone other than Mrs. Campbell, who had held the license since her husband's death in 1880. Many of the villagers were angered by Mr. Roman's action and supported Mrs. Campbell but the temperance movement chose this moment to campaign vociferously for the abolition of the licence altogether.

Mrs. Carnpbell's lease ended at Whitsun, 1895 and Mr. Romans refused to renew it. Instead he let the shop to Alexander Henderson, an Edinburgh man who subsequently was granted the licence, despite strong opposition at the licensing court meeting.
Mrs. Campbell was very angry at Mr. Roman's treatment of her and felt she had not had a fair hearing at the licensing court. She took the unusual stop of sending a copy of all the letters which had passed between herself and Mr. Romans during the previous six months to the Dalkeith Advertiser. The entire correspondence was published, being described as having been "suppressed at the recent Licensing Court when the licence was transferred to another."

Mr. Romans initially intimated a 50% rent increase for the Abbey Granary, asking for £85 a year instead of £57. He said he had frequently been offered twice the rent Mrs. Campbell paid for a five year lease. In reply, Mrs. Campbell stated that £57 was the maximum she could pay as business had declined since Craig's Paper Mill had closed and the recent miner's strike had affected trade. She admitted that the sinking of the new shaft by the Lothian Coal Company had helped her business but since it was finished takings had fallen considerably.
Mr. Romans was not impressed and increased his demands. This is an extract from his third letter: "I will agree to grant you a lease often years of the premises, on condition that you pay me £500 in cash at the term of Whitsun next, the date of the new lease. I am agreeing to provide and fix in the premises one high pressure boiler with kitchen range, a bath with hot and cold water, with all the necessary fitments, and also a patent water closet complete."
This was clearly a preposterous demand and was firmly rejected by Mrs. Campbell who said "I could for the same sum build a house with all the latest improvements." She offered £70 a year which was refused and she failed to answer any of his final three letters, which had become rather hostile.

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