There is something about a name that just seems to draw you to it. Peter Nicol is one of them. It is simple to say, read and look at. It has no middle name, which is slightly unusual for someone born in Scotland in the middle of the 19th Century. It would have been quite the done thing to carry a maternal surname as a middle name. Peter Nicol had none of this. He was pure and simple, Peter Nicol. As memorable almost as an actor’s name and therefore probably memorable to all who worked with him and knew him in the town that he lived in.
I have previously written about Peter in a post about his agricultural background in Aberdeenshire. Today I am plotting his life via the Census returns from when he was born until before he died.
Peter was born in 1851 in the parish of Tarland, Aberdeenshire to a family used to agricultural labour. Men and women were hired for farm work at Hiring Fairs. Here they negotiated and bartered their working lives away for six months at a time. In the 1861 Census return both Peter and his younger brother Alexander were described as Scholars. The Nicol family were living on an estate called Corrachree and their address simply reads ‘Back o’ the Hill, Corrachree’. Peter was aged 10 years and during and shortly after the next ten years his whole world would change for ever.
By the time Peter was 20 in 1871 he had left home and was living a short distance away in Strachan, close to Banchory on the River Dee. He had possibly negotiated a place on a farm at a Hiring Fair and was working as a Farm Servant on Gateside Farm in Strachan. It was run by the Sim family, John Sim was employing three farm hands and a boy on a large farm. Also working and living there was Elizabeth Tevendale, a Domestic Servant. It was a busy farm house and home to five of the Sim children. Peter and his two colleagues would probably have been living in a bothy attached to the farm and receiving his board in the main house. He became friendly with Elizabeth.
Segment of 1871 Census return for Peter Nicol living and working on Gateside Farm in Strachan, Aberdeenshire. Elizabeth Tevendale is listed above him, she became his wife two years later. Note the scratchiness of the enumerators handwriting. (Census 1871, Peter Nicol. Crown Copyright, National Records of Scotland)
Map of Strachan with Gateside Farm marked with a red dot . (Ordnance Survey map reproduced with permission from National Libraries of Scotland)
Within two years of this Census return, Peter had left Aberdeenshire to live and work in Ayrshre. He was living in Howgate, Kilwinning where he was probably lodging while working as a Miner in the iron ore industry that the Glengarnock valley of Ayrshire became famous for. There is no longer any mining, neither iron ore nor coal, being undertaken in Ayrshire now but at the time Peter was working there, there were many pits dotted about the Stevenston and Irvine area. What brought him to Ayrshire could only be the big move to urbanisation during the late 18th Century and the railways made it so much easier to travel from one part of Scotland to another in search of improved employment.
In 1873 Peter journeyed back to Aberdeenshire to marry the woman he had fallen in love with. Elizabeth Tevandale was waiting for him and they got married at Dalbrake, another farmstead in Strachan. Elizabeth’s Father was a Shoemaker in Banchory. They were married in December 1873 and then moved to Ayrshire where they lived and brought up a very large family and worked and died, in Stevenston.
The following seven years were spent setting up home and settling into new work, at the Nobel Dynamite Factory that had just recently opened on the Ardeer peninsular that juts out from Stevenston and reaches to the River Garnock at Irvine.
It was a magnet for employment. Although its name was Nobel Industries Limited, everyone called it the Dynamite Factory or Nobels Dynamite Factory. At its peak of productivity it employed more than 13000 people and even had a spur of the local railway from Glasgow to Irvine that enabled two trains per day to bring employees onto the site.
It is here that Peter and Elizabeth worked and brought up their family. They were living in Seaside Cottages, just down the road from the Ardeer School House. The 1881 Census return now showed that they then had two children, James aged 2 and Peter aged 7 months.
Peter had a job as a Private Police Officer. My understanding is that until the government decided to take responsibility for overseeing the security of munition factories, Nobel’s factory had to provide their own policing. Peter would have had the responsibility of ensuring that the strict rules on what was taken onto the site were adhered to. For example, matches and lighters and anything that would cause ignition was completely forbidden. This factory was ideal employment for non-smokers and those who did smoke would have been fairly desperate at the end of their shift.
By 1891 the Nicol family had expanded. They were living at 303 Dynamite Road and consisted of Peter and Elizabeth with their six children. James aged 12 and Peter 10, George aged 8 and Elizabeth 5, Jane aged 3 and Elspeth 6 months. Peter had now become a Magazine Keeper. There was an enormous industry for explosives. Dynamite was the key element for efficient mining and the demand from all over the world meant that there was a lot of shipping coming in and out of the Irvine harbour to import raw material and export the boxes of dynamite. Huge magazines had to be built and a miniature railway was set up on the Ardeer site to enable the safe transport of the explosives. The magazines would have been structured in such a way that they would contain any accidental explosions and probably covered in turf. So, Peter was employed to ensure the safekeeping of one of these and the delivery and outgoings of the orders for shipping out.
The Nicol family had moved by the time of the 1901 Census return and were living in housing that the Nobel factory had built specifically for their employees. Known as Nobel Villas they housed many families and there is an excellent account of life here on this site.
Peter and his family were in number 234. James who at this point would be 22 years old and young Peter 20, had both left home. The household then consisted of Elizabeth aged 15 and George 18, Jane aged 13 and Elspeth 10. They had been joined by two new siblings, Edward aged 8 and Andrew 5.
Andrew was my wife’s Grandfather and she has memories of him and his wife when they lived in her family home in Gloucester during the 1950’s and 60’s.
Peter was still a Magazine Keeper. The older children were Scholars but George was an Apprenticed Engineer.
Looking at the entry above the Nicol family there is an interesting household. The head of the house is an Engineer at the Dynamite Factory and he and his wife have three children, a Visitor staying over from Kilmarnock, a young Domestic Servant aged 17 and a Monthly Nurse. This last I am presuming has arrived to assist with the birth of a new baby because she is not related. A Monthly Nurse was employed to assist a mother with the delivery and first few weeks of a baby’s arrival.
The Census return for 1911 is a much clearer document and has expanded to offer more information. It is a two page spread and the enumerator has a clearer handwriting. All the entries for the addresses following the Nicol family have workers at what has now been called ‘Explosives Factory’. The Nicol family have moved to ‘Lucknow Cottages’ in Dynamite Road at Number 223. Peter, still a Magazine Keeper and Elizabeth have now said goodbye to George who would by now be 28 years old and young Elizabeth who would be 25 years old, but they still had Edward aged 18 and Andrew 15, Jane aged 22 and Elspeth 20.
Edward was described as an Electrical Engineer at the Explosives Factory (note that he is not an Apprentice so must have qualified recently) and Andrew was working as a Grocer’s Assistant. Jane had no occupation listed but Elspeth is a School Teacher (Training).
Again, my eyes go down the page and I spot an interesting household. At number 227 is ‘Nobel House’ and here lived the Works Manager of the Explosives Factory. He and his wife had two children and five servants, including a Housemaid, Cook Tablemaid, Kitchenmaid and Nurse.
The final Census return that I can access is that of 1921. Peter had now moved to 44 Lundholm Road which borders the Explosives Factory site. He was now retired with several decades of loyal service to the Nobel factory. Sadly his wife had died in 1919. However, living with him at Lundholm Road were Elspeth aged 30 and now a qualified School Teacher, Edward aged 28 and his wife Catherine 26, with their son aged 14 months.
I am finishing this post with a photo in the possession of my wife. Here is Peter and his wife Elizabeth in studio portrait.
It is difficult to date this photograph but I would hazard a guess at 1910 or thereabouts. As studio portraits go it feels static. However I can see a warmth in the eyes. A couple with so much life experience and no account of their lives other than official records.
In future posts I shall start tracing the lives of their children.