Below – 3 x spigot and socket water pipes with ‘runic’ type symbols scratched into the tiles at either end.
The exact reason for the symbols is unknown.
Photo source – Historic Environment Scotland – It is believed these are medieval examples of clay water pipes and were found at Glen Luce Abbey.
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(Note – SBH – Some of the sentence construction and grammar makes reading the following a little difficult at times but hopefully, it is understandable). 02/05/1849 – North British Agriculturist – Improvements suggested in brick making. (Mr Thomas Dean writes). You will oblige me by inserting in your valuable journal the following few remarks on…
Below – 1852 – 1853 – Toxsidehill Brick and Tile Works, Toxside. 1862 – Toxside Tileworks, Gorebridge. A Thomson. 11/01/1862 – Farmers Gazette – An article on land improvement with references to Toxside Estate … Stones and lime were convenient, and the clay of Toxside hill afforded suitable materials for the manufacture of pipe-tiles and collars…
08/12/1840 – Liverpool Standard – On an improved method of constructing and stoking the furnaces of tile kilns. (By Mr James Taylor, Moorfield Tileworks, Kilmarnock, actor to the Duke of Portland.) Mr Taylor’s original paper on the manufacturing of drain tiles (for which the society’s gold medal was awarded) will be found in vol. xii….
Below – 25/11/1841 – Fife Herald – Article on tile draining in Ayrshire. Old drainage ‘tubes’ were manufactured at the Drongan Pottery. From an article entitled ” Statistics of Tile Draining,” published in the Ayr Observer, we select the following facts and inferences, which, for brevity’s sake, are thrown into our own language. So far…
Below – 30/10/1841 – Carlisle Journal – Article on land draining in Ayrshire. Early drain ‘tubes’ were made at Drongan Pottery. The article describes various methods for creating a drain and states that in 1841, Ayrshire could boast 54 tileworks. . . Below – 30/12/1846 – Dumfries and Galloway Standard – Article on land draining…
Below – January 1842 – Farmers Magazine – Lord James Hay visits Baldovan House, Dundee explains the process for making his concrete land tiles. Lord Hay appears to have resided at Seaton House, Aberdeen. . . . 1843 – Dublin Review – The paper reproduces the 1842 Farmers Magazine article and goes on to explain…
Below – 1845 – Agriculture in Scotland (page 276). 21/02/1852 – Carlisle Patriot – Scotch bankrupts – From the Edinburgh Gazette of 13/02/1852 – John Weatherstone, contractor, corn dealer, coal merchant and grocer residing at Spylaw Tileworks near Kelso. Below – 1859 – Map showing Spylaw Farm and Tilework Cottage which may have been the…
A brick tax was first proposed in 1756 but was rejected and again in 1778. However, at the end of the War of American Independence in 1784, a tax on bricks and tiles was introduced by Mr Pitt to cover the cost of the war. Originally the charges were 2s. 6d. per 1000 for bricks, plain…
References to Scottish drainage and sanitary improvement. 1823 – James Smith – (3 January 1789, Glasgow–10 June 1850, Kingencleuch near Mauchline, age 61) was a Scottish inventor whose inventions include a reaping machine, a subsoil plough and the first endless chain of flats for carding. Smith’s father, a self-made Glasgow businessman, died when he was two months…
