RootsChat.Com
Scotland (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Scotland => West Lothian (Linlithgowshire) => Topic started by: nvb272 on Tuesday 26 April 11 13:36 BST (UK)
-
My gt grandfather was born in East Benhar in 1885, was this a village ? or an area , i'm trying to find it's location.
-
http://www.murrayofstanhope.com/petermurrayblackburn.htm
east benhar
sylvia
-
W Benhar Rd, Harthill, Shotts, North Lanarkshire ML7, UK
Benhar Rd, Shotts, North Lanarkshire ML7, UK
Benhar Pl, Glasgow, Glasgow City G33 3, UK
google maps
-
My gt grandfather was born in East Benhar in 1885, was this a village ? or an area , i'm trying to find its location.
You can find East Benhar marked on some older maps at http://maps.nls.uk/index.html - choose Series Maps of Scotland, then Six-inch to the mile 1st Edition, and zoom in until you find Fauldhouse. East Benhar was about a mile north-north-west of Fauldhouse.
It looks as if any buildings there have gone and the area has been mostly planted with trees
http://www.geograph.org.uk/gridref/NS9161
-
Just a little bit more to what has been added already. Was your g grandfather born into a coal mining family. There is a refence here to a Wester and Easter Benhar www.scottishmining.co.uk/403.html.
Monica :)
Added: Photo here of Castle Row, East Benhar www.wlfhs.org.uk/fauld8.htm
-
My Grandmother was born in East Benhur. You can find it on an ordenance survey map but it is basically a field.
-
Hi katlady2106
Welcome to RootsChat :)
Monica
-
hi ! indeed east benhar was real but alas no longer it is a couple of miles from where i am sitting it is in the middle of the moors but it is quite easy for anyone to find as the ground still bears the mark of the houses a miners row about a mile east of pedens stone and i will tell you more if you want to contact me as i am blind i think it would be best if you emailed me as i find this site not very good for blind people who use screen readers so i will work out out how to get my email to you. i know person who is still alive who was born there i will try and help or put you in touch with the area history group as i am part of another group but know members for that area
terry
-
I took a trip in that direction last week, and went up to where the colliery was at East Benhar. I don't think I would describe it as a field. The whole area is uneven where holes were dug and heaps of spoil dumped. It certainly hasn't been cultivated since the coal mines closed, apart from some plantations of trees. If it were not for the rough grasses and self-seeded trees, it would look like a waste land. There's a prominent bing (spoil heap) which I climbed to admire a superb panoramic view to Edinburgh in the east, the Pentland Hills to the south, Duntilland to the north-west and Cairnpapple Hill and the Knock above Bathgate in the north-east.
There are various ruins around the foot of the bing but they are all built of brick, so they're not original houses. I expect all those have long gone. The land is wet, acid and boggy, and being on the top of Fauldhouse Moor it is pretty exposed. It would not have been an easy place to make a living from farming, and impossible of course once they started coal mining.
Unfortunately I spent too much time on top of that bing and didn't have time to look at West Benhar as well.
Some photographs at http://www.geograph.org.uk/gridref/NS9161 and http://www.geograph.org.uk/gridref/NS9162
-
that bing was an iron stone mine known as balbalkie bing and is in lanarkshire as the county boundry is the fauldhose road to the east! and east and east benhan if i remember correctly is a little bit to the south and on the west side of bing is the remains of pit workings and buildings and the old railway line is in between the bing and east benhar. the only person i can think of who was born and grew up in east benhar and is still living is an miss (*) whom i last heard of was in redmill nursing home or tippethill nursing home in whitburn but if she is ok she could tell lots
terry and g d usher
Added: Details of living people, or people who may still be living, should not be included on posts on RootsChat to protect their identity. Thank you.
-
Thanks, Terry. I have been poring over the old Ordnance Survey maps of the area to see what was where, and I have to admit to finding it very confusing because of all the changes there have been. I was also a bit nervous of rambling all over the place because the maps show pits and shafts, and it would be easy to fall into one hidden in the long grass.
I have some connections of my own in Benhar. William McGuire (1845-1906), coal miner, married Elizabeth Barrie Storry (1853-1924) and some of their children were born at 5 West Benhar and others at 70 Benhar Colliery Houses. Another relative, Edward Meldrum, was a director of Benhar Coal Company, and yet another, Agnes Waddell, married Alexander Neilson at Benhar in 1847.
-
This is really was a village a couple of miles out of Fauldhouse. There was an open cast mine there and I recall many deep lakes which may have been entrances /shafts?
Continue on thi sroad and you arrive at Harthill. Without chencking the map, this is close to teheA/M8?
My grandfather worked there as did some of his family/children.
My mother does have a book which is available in bookshops. Within this book is a picture of a row of cottages which had small back yards where miners would wash down when home.
I'm currently tryinng to track down a photo of my grandfather - currently there are none in the family.
Surname Hutchison.
-
Saw you wre reseaching the name BLACK. That's my grandmother's maiden name. She diod live at East Benhar and then moved to Fauldhouse.
Any links?
-
My great grandfather was called Mitchell Ramsay McGinlay born 1885 father was Richard McGinlay.
-
The website posted 'murray of stanhope' has my grandparents and uncle listed. My grandfather was Peter Murray born 1903 in East Benhar, my grandmother was Alison Murray, nee Gray, and their son (one of nine children) was Joshua Murray.
Alison (Canada)
-
Murray of Stanhope, the traitor who turned Kings Evidence, by any chance?
Skoosh.
-
Hi Skoosh
I don't think Alison is making a reference or connection to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Murray_of_Broughton. Undoubtedly, from the website as linked early in this post by Sylvia, www.murrayofstanhope.com/index.htm this John has his place ::)
Monica
-
I don't know Skoosh whether my Murray of Stanhope connection was a traitor. I'll look into it and let you know.
Cheers, Alison
-
You're correct Skoosh, there does seem to be a connection to the traitor. I shall have to read further on this subject.
Cheers, Alison
-
Adds a bit of colour to the tree Alison!
Skoosh.
-
Sorry, Skoosh :P...I too should have read on.... ;)
Monica
-
Cheers Monica, a colourful character Murray, and much reviled. Doubtless he had his reasons, but an interesting addition to a anybody's tree. I'd draw the line at Irma Grese though.
-
Hi Skoosh and Monica, Evidently we don't get to choose who our ancestors were or what they did. As you say, Skoosh, adds a little colour to the tree!!
Have a great day, Alison
-
My grandfather worked there and there were cottages, he was a member of shotts mission church, then they moved harthill pentecostal, they then moved to balbairdie pit in Bathgate and he then became a crane driver at bathgate steel works, Jim McIvor was his name, he died of silicosis. I go there a lot to climb the bing, there's east benhar and west benhar. Somebody wrote on this post there's a book with pictures of the cottages and people, where can you get a copy of the book? thank you.
-
West Lothian Council's Local History Library published a booklet on called "The Lost Village of East Benhar". You could try contacting them on 01506 282491 or email sybil.cavanagh@westlothian.gov.uk to obtain a copy. There is an interesting report on the condition of the housing on the Scottish Mining website and there is a little on Canmore.
Eric
-
This is a real place, and contrary to a post that an elderly 'Miss' in a home is the only person alive from there, my mother was born there and is still alive. The whole community was moved down into Fauldhouse into council houses before the Second World War.
-
Lanarkshire Sheet IX.SE (includes: Shotts; Whitburn)
Publication date: 1899 Date revised: 1897
On this OS Sheet
-
Lanarkshire Sheet IX.SE (includes: Shotts; Whitburn)
Publication date: 1899 Date revised: 1897
http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=15&lat=55.8381&lon=-3.7274&layers=6
Slide the blue button at the bottom of the panel on the left to compare the map with the satellite view.