2009 Ruins of Dyesholm Cottage in the foreground by Jim Brown
Dyesholm Cottage – or Dysholm Cottage can be dated back to at least 1747, being shown on Roys Military Map of that year, although it is likely to be even older. The cottage sat in an isolated position out with Blantyre Parish in Cambuslang Parish, just over the boundary at the Rotten Calder River. Likely to have had a thatched roof, the cottage was made of stone and sat in an elevated position in an the middle of a field, overlooking the river gorge not far from a bend in the river. The cottage was not on the river itself.
The Blantyre lands of Bardykes were across the river. A track led down to Pattenholm Ford, a crossing point coming from Barnhill along a medieval track nicknamed, “The Path”, which likely gave its name to nearby Pathfoot. The cottage was the home of the miller or dyer (person who dyes cloth) and it is thought the former mill was once situated nearby at the bend on the river as shown on 18th Century maps. Indeed the name Dyesholm is derived from the house of the dyer. The nearby mill looked to have been gone by the 1850’s.
William Pettigrew, a master carter, married Jean Pollock 25 January 1800, [Jane Pollock’s, christened 11 July 1782, parents were Robert Pollock, the Blantyre blacksmith, and Jane Maxwell. William and Jane lived in the Dysholm (a corruption of Davisholm) cottage on the boundary of Blantyre and Cambuslang parishes, on the banks of the Rotten Calder River.
The old Parish Register says, “Out of the ruin of my life I see my great-great-great-grandfather William Pettigrew, aged 33, emerge from the door of his cottage Dysholm on a morning in January 1800 after his marriage to Jane Pollock, aged 17. William Pettigrew and his family moved up the hill from Dysholm to the family farm at Malcolmwood around 1860. Dysholm is a corruption of Davisholm. Malcolmwood is a corruption of Milcolmwood. Douglas Clark” The 1841 and 1851 Censuses have the Pettigrews still at Dyesholm. The Pettigrews moved up the hill from Dyesholm to the nearby Malcolmwood farm around 1860, perhaps prompted by the closure and demolition of the mill, which may have by then been very old. The cottage is noted as being “Dyesholm” on the 1859 map.
A poem written in 1865 by Jane Pettigrew of Malcolmwood describes Dyesholm very well. Jane’s death is recorded in Cambuslang from dysentry aged 77.
Dyesholm
Sweet Dyesholm, Sweet Dyesholm,
thy flowery haunts I love to roam,
thy woods, thy glens, thy mossy dell
Sweet Dyesholm I love thee well.
The brawling Cawder’s rapid tide,
around fertile holms doth glide,
and murmurs there in gentle tone,
I love thee well, Sweet Dyesholm.
Decked like a bride thy hawthorn fair
with grateful fragrance fills the air,
wild flowers whose colours far outvie,
the costliest gems of deepest dye.
Thy charms to me grow still more clear,
in Summer gay and Winter drear,
I’m bound to thee in fairy spell,
Sweet Dyesholm I love thee well.
Each warbling bird, each humming bee,
each flower, each shrub, each sprawling tree,
swell out the chorus loud and long
I love thee well, Sweet Dyesholm.
Jane Pettigrew, Malcolmswood. 1865
After 1860 when the Pettigrews moved out, the cottage was still habitable and the Pettigrews leased it out to subtenants in 1885. Margaret Miller or Bannatyne of Milheugh was the overall landowner and also owned Dyseholm outright. By then the land was twinned with Dicksholm. In 1895 Dyesholm and Dickholm were back being occupied by a Pettigrew family member, this time John Pettigrew.
However, the old Dyesholm Cottage soon after became derelict and was eventually ceremonially burnt down in the winter of 1903/4. By 1905, John Pettigrew was farming the land of Dyesholm and Dicksholm and the house, gone had dropped off the valuation register. It is now an insignificant ruin.
Beside it was Queen Mary’s Well where Mary Queen of Scots allegedly and quite fancifully, watered her horse before the Battle of Langside.
Pictured is the ruin of Dyesholm Cottage in 2009, by Jim Brown. In the background is the current large house “Pattenholm” on Bardykes Road.
From “Blantyre Explained” by Paul Veverka (c) 2016
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