When you drive from Newton Stewart and through Wigtown, take the A714 to Kirkinner. Before you reach the village of Kirkinner, first you arrive at Braehead, the neighbouring hamlet that sits, as the name suggests at the head of the brae. This is a steep bank that overlooks the land of Baldoon which leads down to Wigton Bay, below the River Bladnoch. Braehead overlooked Baldoon.
In an 1872 birth certificate for Andrew McKie it stated that he was born in Newton Cottage, Braehead. A year later, his brother Alexander, was born in Newton Cottage, O’Baldoon.
My wife’s great grandfather, John McKie, was born and bred in this area in 1847 and he settled into Newton Cottage where he and his wife, Agnes McKean, raised six children. Before John could celebrate the first birthday of his youngest child, or even get to see Robert, he was found in the harbour of Port William, about seven miles away across the Machars, in December 1879. He had drowned and the circumstances were unknown. John had marked out a career as a stonemason and he was a contractor. There were no reports of his death, neither the coroner’s report nor the newspapers, and so it is left to the imagination to understand the why and how. Both records show that he drowned in the harbour.
The tragedy of this story is that Agnes was left with a family of six to bring up, which she did heroically and each of her children went on to lead successful lives in different parts of Britain. She could not have done this without the help of the parochial board who administered the Poor Law relief to those in need in the parish. Agnes received, initially, seven shillings per week from the parish. Records show that she was ‘partially destitute’ and so as each child grew up and became able to earn an income, this weekly allowance diminished until in 1891, Agnes was struck off the register.
When you approach Braehead there is an incline that brings you to the first property in the hamlet on the left-hand side. It is called Newton Cottage and was the home of the McKie family. It is a small and narrow cottage. It accommodated Agnes who in the 1891 Census return was described as a dressmaker. She would have been working from home and caring for her six children as they grew up in possibly only two or three rooms at most. I discovered the cottage by accident because the cottage name was on a stone plaque facing me as I drove by. I stopped in a layby and walked back to the building where the owner was working on his car. I explained my interest and he told me that he had recently bought the cottage. The selling point for him was the view over Baldoon and the Wigtown Bay. What he might not have known was that below, at the bottom of the brae, no longer visible after its closure and removal decades before, was the route of an old railway line that led a short way along to what was Kirkinner railway station.
This was the grandly named “The Wigtownshire Railway”, a branch line from Newton Stewart down to Whithorn, which was the most southerly rail-served village in Scotland. It was built in 1877 when Agnes and John McKie would have been raising their first four children, including Andrew, my wife’s grandfather. I have a romantic vision of them playing on the brae and waving to the steam trains travelling to and from their terminii, in a similar way to that of The Railway Children. However, this railway line was not to bring someone back to them, but it would serve to take them, as young adults, to places far from this hamlet to other places that would enable them to create lives away from the isolated agricultural jobs that would have been all that was available at that time.
Map of the Wigtownshire Railway and the six stations that it served. Also, the route of the steam packet from Garlieston to the Isle of Man. (from The Railway Atlas of Scotland, David Spaven)
The Railway Atlas of Scotland by David Spaven (Edinburgh 2015) offers insight into the history of this little branch line.
There was already a short branch line that led from Millisle to Garlieston Harbour. This was completed in 1876. The relevance of the Garlieston connection was that it was the nearest Scottish port to the Isle of Man, although it was disadvantaged by being a tidal port. With the arrival of the Wigtownshire Railway a new era of railway excursions was created enabling passengers to buy a ticket to connect with a day trip to the Isle of Man.
The Wigtownshire Railway remained in operation until 1950 when rail traffic to Whithorn ceased, although there was still freight traffic to Garlieston until 1963 when that too ceased under the Beeching cuts.
The McKie children grew up during the development of the Wigtownshire Railway. The older children would have watched the navvies laying the track and then seen the first steam trains to roll along the railway.
There were six children: Louisa b.1870, Andrew b.1872, Alexander b. 1873, John b.1875, William b.1877, Robert b. 1879. The railway opened in 1877.
The children would all have grown up with this new infrastructure, including the Kirkinner Railway Station, its sidings and bridges and freight traffic that was now increasing as the Whithorn peninsula began to open and become accessible.
Section of OS Map showing the railway cutting beneath Braehead and Kirkinner Station (courtesy of National Library of Scotland)
Much more importantly, the railway was offering opportunity that would change the children’s lives for ever.
When their father died in 1879, Agnes, their mother, had to step in as the sole parent. She had the support of the Church board, and she was self-sufficient enough to also earn an income as a dressmaker. As each of her children grew up, they would have left school at 15 and immediately earned an income that would have gone to their mother.
Louisa was the first to leave home. The Census returns show her living at home in 1881 at the age of ten and she was a scholar. By the year 1891 she was living in Christchurch in Dorset, and she was one of six servants who all originated from Scotland, working in a large house. They were working for George Gordon who originated in Fife but had recently returned from India. I have found only one record that tells me this. Six servants all from Scotland – Mr Gordon wanted only Scottish servants.
If Louisa had left school in around 1886 then by1891, at the age of twenty, she had found a position as a servant. How did she find a post so far away? My guess is that the Church played a role in this. I imagine that there were methods of recruitment for servants during this time. Perhaps adverts in parish magazines, or agencies that recruited in specific areas. How Louisa found her job will remain a mystery, but this was such a popular occupation, servants in households, during the 19th and early 20th Centuries that travelling these distances would have been common.
How did she get there? There are no records to tell me the story. The railway systems in Britain were now well established and although it would have been a very long journey, Louisa could now have travelled by train from Kirkinner, her home village and changed at Carlisle for London from there to Bournemouth. She would have been exhausted. This young woman aged in her late teens, leaving her small village for the first time. Leaving her mother who she had assisted in bringing up her brothers. This takes a lot of courage. The image of her being waved off by her mother at the station in Kirkinner is heartbreaking, the only daughter in her family leaving home at such a young age.
Louisa was to return, but not to Galloway. However, that is another story for the future.
Meanwhile, the next in line in the family, Andrew had left school probably a couple of years after his sister. Andrew remained at home. In the 1891 Census return Agnes was still a Dressmaker. Andrew was an Agricultural Labourer aged 19. This was one of the most labour-intensive occupations in Galloway and the Borders in Scotland. It was not a well-paid occupation, but it would have been providing for his mother and her other three children.
There is little doubt in my mind that the arrival of the railways in Wigtownshire influenced Andrew’s next step. During the next ten years and by the time he was 27 years old, Andrew had left home and arrived in Ardrossan. He was working for the railways.
Ardrossan in the late 19th Century was a significant ship building port and export hub on the West Coast of Ayrshire, just below the Firth of Clyde. Coal was the main export. It had fast been developing as a deep seaport for passengers and trade. It served ports in Belfast, Arran, Liverpool, Fleetwood and the Isle of Man. The port imported, exported and built ships to do that. All this activity needed rail infrastructure. By the time that Andrew arrived, Ardrossan was a thriving industrial port with the need for workers at every level. Transport at this time was a labour-intensive industry and employment would have been readily available. The railway companies would have offered good prospects to their workers and that included a pension.
The 1901 Census return for Scotland shows Andrew living at 7 Seton Street in Ardrossan.
Andrew was a lodger in the house of Andrew Ferguson and his wife. There is a Wigtownshire connection because Andrew Ferguson was born in Penninghame in Wigtownshire, not far from where Andrew McKie came from. I can imagine that a lot of employment opportunity came from word of mouth and that the two Andrew’s may have known one another in Wigtownshire. Or had a mutual connection who recommended Andrew McKie to the Fergusons. Andrew McKie was aged 29 in 1901 and he, like Andrew Ferguson, were Railway Goods Guards. Also lodging with them was Charles Jones who was either 21 or 24, the enumerators mark has crossed the column out in a confusing way. Charles was born in Liverpool. He was also a Railway Goods Guard.
Railway Goods Guards were an essential element of the train, protecting not only goods but also passengers who became prey to travelling conmen and tricksters. Andrew McKie would have had a good occupation at this stage of his life with prospects that he might never have had in Wigtownshire. At the age of 29 he would also probably be looking to settle permanently in Ardrossan.
Andrew McKie married Agnes Jones on 24 November 1905. Their wedding took place at 19 Seton Street, just down the road from the Ferguson’s. It was quite common to get married in a house. This was a regular marriage in Scotland and conducted according to the forms of the Church of Scotland.
Agnes Jones was recorded as living in Ardrossan. Her father, a Joiner, was deceased but a witness at her wedding was Charles Jones. My guess is that Andrew McKie and Charles Jones, previously lodgers with the Ferguson’s, all Railway Goods Guards, having become friends and introduced Andrew to Agnes. She was aged 23, ten years younger than Andrew.
They moved to Glasgow Road, Ardrossan where they lived for the rest of their lives. It was in Glasgow Road that young John McKie, my wife’s father, was born in 1921, and this story is her connection with Kirkinner.
This is a version of a previous story that has been submitted to the Dumfries and Galloway Family History Society newsletter for publication.
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