Dutchman’s Creek – the story of a cottage on the South Esk

With thanks to Inez Visser of Musselburgh, we are pleased to share the wonderful story of her grandfather, who lived in the 1950s in a former coachman’s cottage on the Dalhousie Estate in the Cockpen area.

With thanks to Inez Visser of Musselburgh, we are pleased to share the wonderful story of her grandfather, who lived in the 1950s in a former coachman’s cottage on the Dalhousie Estate in the Cockpen area.

You can read 3 newspaper clippings that help to tell the story here:

“That’s where the captain drops anchor” 1955

“It’s rather quiet around Cockpen”

“A dream is shattered” 1957

Biography of Capt. Jan Eltjes Visser and Jane Anne Pennet of “Dutchman’s Creek”, located  on the South Esk next to old Cockpen Church  

Captain Jan Etjes Visser was born on the small Dutch Friesian island of Schiermonikoog in 1892.  Although a tiny island the size of Eigg it had a small nautical college and by the start of the First World War Jan Eltjes already had his Third Officer’s ticket.  In 1915 he was Third Officer on board the SS Katwijk, which was torpedoed; fortunately the crew survived as they were able to seek safety on board the light ship Noord Hinder.

Jan Eltjes married Ida Klazina Teensma also of Schiermonikoog in 1918 and together they had four sons.  He continued with his nautical studies, returning to the island college to study and be assessed for each grade and by the time of the Second World War he was Captain of the SS Reggestroom of the Holland West Africa Line.  In May 1940 the Nazis invaded the Netherlands and his ship, like many others, was cordoned off on the North Coast of France.  Capt. Visser then navigated Reggestroom  bit by bit back to Bordeaux.  By June in the ensuing crisis at the invasion of France he was commanded to take 400 refugees to England and on route while docked at Le Verdon another 100 refugees were boarded.  They survived an aerial attack in Le Verdon and a couple of days later arrived safely in Falmouth where their ‘cargo’ of refugees of many European nationalities were discharged.

Documents of the ensuing war years are not in the family records but it seems that SS Reggestroom assigned to a British flag rather than be surrendered to the Nazis.  Capt. Visser’s eldest son died tragically in 1939 in a ship’s fire on board the MS Jagersfontein and in 1943 his wife Ida Klazina died; his surviving three sons were looked after by family members in the Netherlands during the final years of the war.   In April 1944 and now residing in Edinburgh, Capt. Visser married Jane Anne Pennet,  she is recorded as  having the catering licence for Nicholson’s restaurant and in June 1945 she and her new Dutch husband bought Nicholson’s restaurant for £1000.

Not much is known of Jane Anne Pennet, she was from Mull and a native Gaelic speaker and had two brothers and sister.  Her brother Louis Pennet was station manager of Queen Street Station, Glasgow up to the early 1960’s.   There is no documentary evidence tying up the time that she sold the restaurant but by the time her step son, Jeppe Ino,  married in 1951 she owned a guest house in East Hermitage Place, Leith.

After the war Capt. Visser continued to skipper ships of the HWAL, meanwhile his youngest son, Jeppe Ino, was brought to Edinburgh to study at the Leith Nautical College.  By the early 1950’s Capt. Visser was given the prestigious contract of sourcing a small vessel to be recommissioned as a presidential yacht for the then President of Liberia, William Tubman.  Capt. Visser was, for a short while, skipper of the vessel renamed “ MY President James Roye”  but the onset of a heart condition in 1952 forced early retirement.

At this point the couple bought the small piece of land and the derelict cottage on the Dalhousie Estate on the South Shore of the river as it passes the castle and they set about restoring the cottage and reinvigorating the garden.  They called their new home “Dutchman’s Creek” and on June 11, 1955 a centre piece article was written about them in the People’s Journal.  Just two years later their idyllic life started to fall apart quite literally as the cottage was undermined by blasting which shook huge cracks into the walls.

Capt. Visser died in May 1958.  The land was bought by the National Coal Board, the cottage was demolished and the NCB used the land as a mine bing.  Jane Anne Pennet returned to East Hermitage Place, Leith and died in 1963.

For many years the remains of Dutchman’s Creek sat low next to the huge smouldering pile of coal slag but now the land has recovered with natural reseeded woodland and is a woodland gem which can be walked through.

Biography compiled by Inez Visser, granddaughter of Capt. Jan Eltjes Visser and step granddaughter of Jane Anne Pennet  (20/11/2020)

Pollution on the Esks: a story over 200 years

Countless letters to newspapers, initiatives, court cases, commissions and proposals for sewers have been put forward in that time.

The history of Esk pollution goes back nearly 200 years. Countless letters to newspapers, initiatives, court cases, commissions and proposals for sewers have been put forward in that time, yet incidents like that recent report are their legacy.

The 1866 North Esk Pollution case – brought by the Duke of Buccleuch, Viscount Melville, and Drummond of Hawthornden against six paper mill owners – accused the mill owners of being the primary source of pollution. But the evidence led in the case made it clear that coal mining (largely owned and financed by the heritable landowners) and domestic sewage were at least equal as sources of nuisance.

It may seem incredible that pollution of the Esk received almost as much notice at the 1866 meeting of The British Association for the Advancement of Science as Darwin’s recently published Origin of Species.

In the below document are two articles from 1931, which resonate with these still unresolved issues.

North Esk pollution in 1931

The Lasswade Churchyards

Lasswade has three churchyards clustered close together. The oldest dates back to the 13th century.

On the side of the hill above the village of Lasswade lie the three Lasswade churchyards. Two gateways give access to the two old churchyards, the centre gate access to the former manse. Immediately opposite, the new graveyard has striking early 20^th century decorative wrought-iron entrance gates with flowers, square pavilions on both sides with flanking quadrant walls.

The first old churchyard access by the left gate contains the site of the 18^th century church of which no trace remains. The church, in cruciform plan, was designed by the architect Robert Adam.

John Clerk of Eldin (1728-1812), the seventh son of Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, lived nearby at Eldin. Clerk married Susannah, the younger sister of the architect Robert Adam. Clerk’s aim in living at Eldin was to allow himself the opportunity to pursue artistic and scientific pursuits. An accomplished draughtsman, he was illustrator to Sir John Hutton, the founder of modern geology. Clerk, however, is best known for his Essay on Naval Tactics (1782) which he worked out with model boats on the high pond at Penicuik House. Some of the models survive at Penicuik. Lord Nelson is said to have studied Nelson’s tactics and employed them in the battle of Trafalgar through directing the attack from a position to windward which follows Clerk’s proposals. Lord Cockburn said of him “an interesting and delightful old man; full of the peculiarities that distinguished the whole family –  talent, caprice, obstinacy, worth, kindness and oddity, equally fond of a joke and an argument.”

The second of the two older churchyards, entered via the right-hand gateway, dates from the 13^th century. The medieval church’s site is now marked only by a few stones. The churchyard itself possesses many notable gravestones and three remaining burial aisles from the old, church. The first aisle is that of the poet William Drummond of Hawthornden, a bronze relief portrait of him over the door. The inscription is:

Here Damon lies,

whose songs did sometimes grace

The murmuring Esk.

May roses shade the place!

Drummond is one of the sixteen poets whose heads appear on the Scott Monument in Edinburgh’s Princes Street.

The next aisle is that of the Clerks of Eldin. Round the corner the Melville enclosure holds the graves of seven Viscounts Melville.

Against the north wall a late 18^th century gravestone depicting two mining surveyors.

Charles Kennington is buried in the Old Lasswade Churchyard. Young Kennington and his colleague Charles Jenner took an afternoon off to go to the Musselburgh races. Unfortunately they omitted to agree this arrangement with the management of the drapers shop in Waterloo Place where they worked. They found themselves, on their return, without employment. In 1838 they rented a property at the corner of Princes Street and South St David’s Street and opened their own business –  Kennington and Jenner. Kennington however retired well before Jenner who continued to build up the much loved department store.

The Maiden Castle, Midlothian

This account is an extended version of the text on the display board at the site.

Location and Site                                       Grid reference NT 286644

Maiden Castle is located in the valley of the North Esk, in Midlothian, upstream from the small village of Polton, which is between the small towns of Bonnyrigg and Loanhead; the village of Roslin lies to the south-west. The site can be approached by a walk of no more than 1km from Polton, with more slopes, or a walk of nearly 2km from Roslin, with fewer slopes.

Maiden Castle occupies part of the meander core of the North Esk where the river has cut down, or become incised, to create steep slopes in several places.

An outline map of the Maiden Castle can be seen here.

Maiden Castle was probably a late Bronze Age or Iron Age site and, if so, would have been occupied for a time between about 1000BC and 200AD. It would have been one of many sites throughout Midlothian and East Lothian. The only visible remains today are two low mounds with an intervening ditch, which can be seen as you approach the site from a north-westerly direction. The outer bank is very short, but the inner one can be seen curving round for several metres. It is easy to walk over these low mounds without realising that they are the ramparts, as they are inconspicuous compared with the slopes which have been negotiated in order to reach the site.

Records

The only records of Maiden Castle are four reports by inspectors from the Royal Commision on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (rcahms) who visited the site in 1927, 1954, 1956 and 1983. These reports are very short, only one extends to two paragraphs. Each of these reports stresses the defensive role of the site. The following vocabulary is used, with the year of the report indicated.:

motte and bailey 1927

defensive works 1927, 1954

castle and keep 1954

fortress 1954 (quoted from NSA of Scotland 1845)

ramparts and ditch 1956

earthwork 1956

ditch and outer bank 1983.

Some of this vocabulary is open to question. Despite its name, Maiden Castle is not a castle, or even a keep, in the way we usually understand these words for medieval structure like Craigmillar Castle (284709) or the keep at Crichton Castle (380611). It is possible that the inspector in 1954 mistook the old quarry, which lies to the east of the ramparts, for Maiden Castle. The use of the word fortress also conjures up visions of a much grander structure than existed here. The 1954 report appears to have been influenced by the NSA of 1845 which it quotes  as follows, “Nothing now remains of this fortress but parts of the foundations which are still visible in some parts”, and then goes on to conclude that this supports “the theory that such a building existed here”. No mention is made of the quarry in this, or the preceding report. The small cliff face can give the impression of being an earth retaining wall of a an old building, but it is natural, or in situ, stone. The sandstone blocks which are lying around were the last to be quarried but were never moved. For identification of the quarry we must await the 1956 report. There are no remains of a building at this site.

It is difficult to understand why the claim was made that there was a motte and bailey here. The motte and Bailey is a simple defensive structure which was probably introduced into Britain after the Norman conquest. King David I (reigned 1124-53) had strong associations with the Norman court as his sister married the Conqueror’s son, who became Henry I. David endeavoured to extend royal control by inviting local and Norman lords to take up estates. They were expected to build a motte and bailey for defence and residential purposes. A motte is a large mound of earth, which would be round or oval in shape and flat on top. It would have required a great deal of labour to build, but servile labour was usually available. It would have had a palisade at the top or bottom, or both. The bailey, or area of ground around the motte, would also have been surrounded by a palisade. The motte and bailey were a statement of Norman authority and superiority.

It is impossible to find any structure at Maiden Castle which could be interpreted as the remains of a motte and bailey. Whilst motte and bailey strucrures can be found in various parts of Scotland, none are recorded in RCAHMS’ catalogue for the Lothians.The reason suggested for this is that is that the Lothians were the most developed part of the realm and that servile labour had already been commuted to wage labour. This made the construction of a motte and bailey too expensive. The local Lord may as well employ  stonemasons and build a proper castle. A good example of a motte can be found on the golf course at Carnwath; this apparently had no bailey. Other baileys are likely to have been destroyed by now and the land built on or cultivated.

Another feature at the site, near to the quarry, is a man made trench. Its purpose is open to conjecture.

Hillforts and Homesteads

The preceding comments on the reports by inspectors from RCAHMS, as well as the actual site, raise the question to what extent Maiden Castle was built for defence, if at all.

The term “hillfort” has entered the popular imagination from the early days of antiquarian studies with reference to all Iron Age sites. This is partly a consequence of its valid use for large forts like Maiden Castle in Dorset and on Eildon Hill North, near Melrose (NT 554328). This attitude is partly a response to the interpretation of history,which saw the Romans as part of the classical, literate and civilised world. Consequently the indigenous people who lived here prior to the arrival of the Romans were regarded as uncivilised. They were barbarians who were always fighting each other and who therefore had to live behind defences. This attitude led to practically every Iron Age site being called a hillfort. Work in recent decades has seriously questioned this view.

In his book “Iron Age Britain”, Prof. Barry Cunliffe points out that between the North York Moors and the Scottish Highlands only about 14 of approximately 1,500 sites are large enough to be called hillforts. The vast majority of sites cover less than one hectare. Maiden Castle obviously falls into this group, which is designated “homesteads”. The classification of Iron Age sites used by RCAHMS defines a homestead as having a maximum of three houses. As so little is known about Maiden Castle RCAHMS’ lower classification of “enclosure” may even be more appropriate, with its definition indicating that occupation is absent or unknown. It is conceivable that the site was not inhabited at all, but was used as a gathering centre or meeting place for people who lived around and was used for social, political, ceremonial or religious purposes.

Defence

The extent to which the site could be defended is problematic. It obviously has some defensive advantages. The incised meander and rock formations mean that it is almost surrounded by steep slopes, yet no attempt appears to have been made to enhance these advantages by defending the shortest line across the neck of the meander. Only part of the meander core was occupied.

The earth ramparts, now heavily degraded, can still be seen on the west side of the site. They would originally have been much higher, probably rising to as much as two metres above the intervening ditch, with a wooden palisade on top. Their construction would have required a great deal of labour. Both the purpose of these defences and the method of construction of the palisade are open to discussion.

Some people are of the opinion that these palisades were constructed of vertical timbers made from tree trunks. Others are of the opinion that well spaced vertical timbers would have had the intervening gaps filled with smaller timbers, like branches, laid horizontally and interwoven.

Two basic objections have been raised against the first idea of only using vertical posts. By this time much of the original forest had been cleared, consequently there may not have been sufficient timber available.  Even if trees were available questions can be asked about whether the enormous amount of labour required for felling, lopping, transporting and erecting theses timbers was available. The second type of construction therefore seems more likely, that is, with branches laid horizontally between vertical posts.

The terminology of “hillfort” and its association with “barbarians” has already been discussed. Questioning the validity of “hillfort” also includes questioning the purpose of these defences and asking if they really were built for strictly military purposes, or whether the people had  other aims. Cattle could have been brought inside at night to stop them from roaming away and also as a precaution against cattle thieving. Thieves themselves could have been deterred from entering. Defence against wild animals, like boar, may also have been necessary.

The site may have belongd to a local chief who wanted to impress his authority upon others. If this was the case he could probably have commanded more labour from people who lived nearby in “open”, or undefended houses, some of whom may have been held in a kind of client or subservient status. The Iron Age site of Chesters (380611), north of Haddington, is regarded as a good example of a site where social status was more important tham military defence. Its multiple ramparts are impressive, but it is overlooked by a hillside from which missiles could have been thrown into the site. It is neither on a hill nor is it a fort.

A further purpose of these defences would be privacy. In parts of rural tropical Africa today, compounds are still surrounded by a tall fence of woven  grass matting fixed between vertical posts. Inside, the whole area is referred to as the “house” and the individual huts as “rooms”. The fence does not offer a defence against anything more than roaming dogs or cattle, but does provide privacy. Visitors are not expected to just walk in through the narrow entrance, which can be closed at night, but to announce their arrival.

Etymology

There are several Maiden Castles in Britain, as well as physical features which use the word Maiden, but the  origin of the word remains obscure. There is no guarentee that the origin of the word is the same in every locality, or that it originated at about the same time in history in every locality. Furthermore, the spelling of the word may have changed through history. Needless to say, the subject is ripe with conjecture.

A strong contender for Maiden is that it comes from the Celtic”maithdun”, meaning a large fort, and the Maiden Castle on the coast near Arbroath (NO670420) is often used to support this idea. Unfortunately our Maiden Castle cannot be described as large compared with some others in eastern Scotland. Local people, however, may not have known of these other sites and, even if they did, thought themselves justified in a degree of exaggeration!

Another claimant for Maiden is that it is derived from the gaelic “mai dun”, which means a great hill. This may seem reasonable in some places, but it can hardly be claimed for the Maiden Castle on the North Esk without some stretch of the imagination.

A claim which contradicts the the previous two is that it is derived from “moe din”, meaning a grassy plain, which would not appear to be a good place to build a castle in the first place. The fact that these words are also supposed to mean a “virgin fort” does not inspire confidence.

There are many claimants for this idea that the fort was never taken in battle and also for the idea that maidens gathered here. Unfortunately both of these ideas require a later definition of the word maiden. Although the word appears to have already been in use by early medieval times, this is still a long time after the Iron Age and therefore does not prove that the name dates back to the origin of any such sites.

A further idea can be found in “Scottish Place Names”, by W.C.Mackenzie (1931), p.4-5.

“The tradition about Edinburgh Castle is that the maidens of high birth were shut up there; presumably when their menfolk went to war. And it is a well authenticated fact that in ancient Scandinavia that was a customary thing to do.”

No dates are are mentioned, but presumably early medieval times are implied, unless “ancient Scandinavia” dates further back.

Conclusion

Apart from the degraded ramparts which can be seen today, nothing is known for certain about Maiden Castle. The approximate dating of the site depends upon comparing the ramparts with other sites with those features. Within that extensive period of twelve centuries we do not know exactly when the site was occupied or for how long, or whether it was occupied intermittently. In fact we cannot be certain that anyone lived there at all, as it may only have been used for ceremonial purposes. Even the origin of the name “Maiden Castle” remains elusive.

Howard Turner  April 2010

Bilston Burn and the geology of the Lothian coal field

Our Treasurer,  Rennie Frazer, wrote this item whilst ill in hospital in 2021. Tragically he died shortly afterwards from Covid.

Our Treasurer,  Rennie Frazer, wrote this item whilst ill in hospital in 2021. Tragically he died shortly afterwards from Covid.

“My geography teacher at Portobello High School was Mr Baggaley. He was an enthusiastic exponent of the post glacial landscape of Scotland, an enthusiasm which has remained with me ever since. Solid geology was another enthusiasm, but in this case his Yorkshire origins blinded him to the respectable outcrops of Millstone Grit on the Joppa Shore, a ten-minute bus ride from the school. Instead, we were given descriptions of the Great Pennine escarpments capped by this stone.

I was recalling his lessons as I listened to an Esk Valley Trust talk on the problems caused on the South Esk by the flooding of the abandoned Bilston Glen Mine.

One of the striking aspects of the talk was the complexity of the underground geological and mining architecture, which resulted in waste water from the flooded mine emerging close to the South Esk, many miles from the mine and taking a subterranean route below the nearby North Esk.

The geological map of Edinburgh and Midlothian dates back to 1859. The map is a multi-layered plane surface, on which the coloured blocks of rock types are the most prominent feature. But the map is based on Ordnance Survey cartography, with much of that information also visible in faint print. Further geological features such as faults and strata dips are shown by symbols, so that a three-dimensional image of the structure underlying the surface landscape emerges. Where the imagination fails cross sections illustrate the continuity of bedrock strata below the surface. One cross-section follows a zig-zag path which takes in all the major geological features of Edinburgh; the Castle Rock, the volcanic vents of Arthur’s Seat, followed by a right angle turn to traverse the Lothian Coal Measures. The key to rock types is arranged by geological era, so that the map achieves the incredible feat of mapping in both three space dimensions and a fourth time dimension.

The Coal Measures were charted by detailed field work over more than a century, with outcrops along the Bilston Burn being the source of empirical data on the sequence of sediments comprising the western outcrops of the Lothian Coalfields. This sequence has been lost since the sinking of the Bilston Glen mine in the 1950’s as the waste from the mine buried the burn which is now confined to an underground culvert. Objections to the loss of a valuable scientific resource were raised in a parliamentary debate in 1952 and in minutes by scientific societies.

The National Coal Board had considered constructing an aerial ropeway from the mine to the Hewan Bog to deposit the waste there. This proposal was not followed because of the costs of construction and of acquiring the land. Had Bilston Glen continued in operation for a century, as was originally planned, then the Hewan Bog, nevertheless might have been required to accommodate the waste – but the disposal of waste over the Bilston Burn would still have obliterated an important historical source of geological information.

This significance of this loss can perhaps be gauged by the following report from the Scotsman, when the Bilston Burn excursion was both a worthwhile field trip and a local natural beauty spot.

The Scotsman; Edinburgh, Scotland, 19 Apr 1915: page 6

Members of the Edinburgh Field Naturalists’ and Microscopical Society had an excursion on Saturday to Bilston Burn, under the leadership of Mr T. Cuthbert Day. The members of the Society studied the fine sections through the lower limestone series of the carboniferous so well exposed in Bilston Burn. Particular attention was paid to the various bands of limestone, and the evidence correlating these limestones and other beds with a corresponding series between Kinghorn and Kirkcaldy on the other side of the Firth of Forth.

The loss of information at this site is readily evident today – just take a look at your OS map for the area just east of Dryden Tower (NT 275645).