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The Original Dean
The premises occupied by the Dean Tavern were numbered
1,2 and 3 Dean Park, three recently-built terraced houses.
No 1 was the manager's house. Nos. 2 and 3 had been converted
into a public house by the Lothian Coal Co. at a cost of
£400 and furnishing it cost another £147. The
Committee paid the normal rent for each house (7/- a week)
and were charged 5% interest on the reconstruction costs
until the final repayment was made to the Coal Co. directors
in 1908, Mrs. Preston remembers, "It wis like an auld-fashioned
shop wi' windaes either side. It wis richt auld-fashioned."
The public bar took up most of the ground floor. The bar
counter was against one wall and the place was heated with
a coal fire. The jug bar was at the side of the building
and had its own door. Upstairs was temperance bar where
tea, coffee and Bovril were served.
Licensing hours were from eight in the morning until ten
at night. Weekends were always the busiest. The men at the
pit worked an eleven day fortnight and were paid every second
Friday. That was Pay Friday and that night and the following
idle day, Pay Saturday, were exceptionally busy.
There were three full time staff - the manager, a barman
and a pot boy - with an extra man on at weekends. Andrew
Aikman, the manager, had previously worked at the pit but
he had lost a leg in an accident and had retired with a
pension from the Lothian Coal Co. He got £2 a week,
a free house and free coal. Mr. Anderson had sole charge
of the till and the clerk, Mr. Gilmour, checked the till
at least once a day. Mr. Anderson bought a dog to guard
the Dean and was allowed £1 a year for its food. He
also had £5 a year towards the expence of hiring a
pony.
The second man was paid 21/- a week, increasing gradually
to 32/-, and the boy began at 8/- a week increasing to 16/-.
At the first meeting, on October 10th. 1899, the Committee
decided to place orders for three grades of whisky from
Andrew Usher, a fine quality whisky from Crabbies, bitter
ale from Murray of Duddingston, sweet ale and stout from
Mclvin of Edinburgh, aereated water from Woolleys of Dalkeith
and wines, from Andrew Usher. From time to time, other breweries
sought orders from the Dean and Mr. Callender (Lothian Coal
Co. secretary) made it clear they they would only deal with
firms buying coal from Newbattle Colliery. Small orders
for bitter beer were placed with McEwans and McLennan and
Urquart of Dalkeith in 1904. McEwans beer failed to please
and the order was stopped and tit-for-tat, McEwans stopped
their coal order.
There were many complaints relayed to the Committee through
Mr. Pryde and Mr. Taylor, the workmen's representatives,
about the quality of the beer in summertime. The beer was
getting too warm and "going off' so a cold cellar was
built in the back garden to remedy this. It was said that
the Abbey Inn served a better pint and Mr. Hood compared
a pint of their beer with a pint of the Dean's but his comments
were not recorded. A request was made by the customers for
Younger's beer instead of Murrays but nothing was done about
it.
The Dean Committee closed the Tavern on certain public
occasions and on New Year's Day. It was closed on the day
of the funeral of Queen Victoria and also the on the coronation
day of her son, King Edward VII, in i902. The village celebrated
Coronation Day in the Public Park and the entertainment
included the Lothian Brass Band and a cycle parade. The
Committee decided to close the Dean on the Friday night
before Coronation Day, "as the men might get drunk
and not be fit for work on the Saturday."
More accomodation tor drinkers was created in the Dean
early on by erecting a partition upstairs and halving the
area of the temperance room. Drink was sent up on a hoist.
The public bar was draughty and difficult to heat and the
Committee made several attempts to remedy this. The open
fire was replaced first \Mth a stove in 1902 and then with
a system of hot water pipes in 1906 and that seemed to be
fairly satisfactory. The old bar was taken out that ^e.ir
and a new horseshoe bar installed. A lot of money was spent
in the first ten years of the Dean trying to improve the
place but the premises were never really suitable for a
public house.
The first complete financial year of the Dean's operation
(1900-1901) showed a profit of £340, after paying
the court case expenses of £151. The second year (1901-1902)
the total income from the sale of drink was £3,070
and the profit was £407. Mr. Archibald Hood, chairman
of the Lothian Coal Co., gave a glowing report on the Dean's
progress to the thirteenth general meeting of the company
on January 27th, 1902. He said that the directors "were
considering the advisability of building a concert and lecture
hall, recreation and reading rooms and library at Newbattle.
A considerable sum of money would be required for this purpose
but the directors believed the financial difficulty could
be got over by borrowing the money and applying the profits
of the Dean Tavern to the payment of the interest and gradual
extinction of the debt. Some of the directors had expressed
their willingness to advance money for such a good object
on the security of the aforesaid profits. They hoped by
providing such means of healthy recreation to form counter
attractions to those of the public house. "(Dalkeith
Advertiser: 25 September 1902)
Towards the end of 1902, however, sales of alcohol at the
Dean Tavern fell and remained fairly poor for three or four
years. No further mention was made of a hall until 1907.
Various possible reasons for the falling trade were explored
by the Committee. The Abbey Inn had a gramophone which was
an attraction and some said Mr. Lumsden at the Abbey Inn
served a better pint. There was also a bazaar on Mr. Roman's
land and that was another attraction. But the main reason
was undoubtedly the reduction in pay at the colliery. The
daily minimum wage had come down from 8/- in 1900 to 5/9
in October 1902 and then to 5/6 in June 1903. The population
of the village was growing rapidly but drink sales remained
static. Wage rates remained low until 1907 when they rose
to 7/6 a day. Sales at the Dean improved dramatically from
£3,000 in 1905-1906 to £5,404 in 1908-1909.
Profits more than doubled in those same years from £415
to £992.
It had always been the declared intention of the Lothian
Coal Co. to provide a bowling green for Newtongrange from
the profits of-the Dean and, in the summer of 1900, part
of field on the north side of the railway line, near the
Dean Oil Works, was obtained from the Marquis of Lothian.
The worker's representatives on the Committee wanted the
lease to be held by Trustees but the coal company directors
decided that the lease should be in the names of the chairman
(Mr. A. Hood), the general manager (Mr. J. Hood) and the
company secretary (Mr. Callen-der) and their successors
in office.
A greenkeeper, Mr. Rae, was appointed and he was to be
given a free house, £1 a week during the season and
employment in the pit during the winter. The first year's
subscription was set as 5/- and Mr. Callender drafted a
set of rules to be approved when there were enough members
to hold a meeting. The rules included: no swearing; no gambling;
no betting in the pavilion or on the green; and no sales
of, or consumption of, alcohol.
The opening ceremony of the bowling green took place on
the evening of 29th May 1902. The Lothian Brass Band assembled
on the platform roof of the pavilion and played a selection
of tunes for 150 invited guests prior to the opening. Hundreds
of villagers, mostly men and children, gathered at the entrance
to the green to watch the proceedings. Numerous speeches
were made by the attending dignatories, including the local
ministers, Mr. Carrick and Mr. Hardie, who had both opposed
the Dean Tavern licensing application. Mr. Hardie was a
total abstainer but Mr. Carrick was not. It is said his
horse never passes the Justinless Inn and knew its own way
home!
Archibald Hood, chairman of the Coal Co., declared the
green open and played the first bowl. "The company
were photographed," reported the Dalkeith Advertiser,
"in front of the pavilion by Mr. Wallace, Dalkeith,
and the Committee also had to face the camera. A liberal
supply of refreshments (non-alcoholic) were handed round,
and what with the band playing and the sun shining the afternoon
passed away very enjoyably. The green was well filled with
bowlers until dusk." Mr. Hood was presented with a
silver jack on a stand as a memento of the occasion.
Most of the profits from the first few years of the Dean
Tavern were set aside to pay for the bowling green and it
was not until 1904 that the final payment was made. In May
1901, the brass band applied to the Dean for £80 to
buy new instruments. The committee offered to contribute
£30, Mr. Callender promised £25 on behali of
the Lothian Coal Co. and the band was left to raise the
other £25. At the same time, the Committee decided
to improve the public park. It was levelled, a base of ashes
and redd put down and six inches of topsoil applied. The
park was supposed to be for the children but it was only
five acres and also contained a cricket pitch. There were
complaints that the park was "monopolised" by
the cricketers and conversely that the children damaged
the pitch. Newtongrange Star, the local junior football
team, had their own pitch, Victoria Park, next to the public
park.
The Dean Committee paid for a six foot high brick wall
around the public park in 1904 and agreed to a seven foot
high wall being built around Victoria Park. In fact, only
two sides of the wall round the pitch were built at first,
owing to a shortage of bricks. The massive housebuilding
programme in the village at this time was the top priority.
Between the park and the football pitch ran a path connecting
Abbeyland arid Monkswood and this got the name Lover's Lane
as the high walls created seclusion. Before building the
wall the wooden cricket pavilion had to be temporarily removed
but in the move it was damaged so the Dean built a new brick
pavilion for the cricketers and laid a new pitch for them.
A miniature rifle club was formed in Newtongrange in 1908
and a shooting range, 90 feet long and 9 feet wide, was
built alongside the cricket pavilion. "The range is
equipped with automatic travelling wire targets, and the
firing bench is so constructed as to permit of shooting
iri the prone, kneeling or standing positions. The targets
and firing benches are finely lit by means of the bland
incandescent gas burners. The bullets strike on a steel
plate at the rear of the range, and immediately drop into
a box. It is computed that the cost of fitting and equipping
the range will exceed £60 and the money will be furnished
out of the profits of the local Gothenburg Public House."
(Dalkeith Advertiser: 31st December 1908.) There was also
to be an outdoor range at the old quarry at Masterton.
On the other side of the cricket pavilion from the rifle
range a pigeon house was later built for the Homing Society
so they could store their pigeon baskets. The Dean committee
also provided a shed for storing quoits at Easthouses and
a football pavilion, also at Easthouses, in 1911.
There had been complaints about whippets being trained
on the road and on Newbattle Golf Course so the Dean made
a track for them in Victoria Park. Whippet racing was a
popular sport and races were regularly held in a field at
Lingerwood Farm. There was a man who had a dog called 'Beer
Or No Beer.' There was beer if it won - no beer if it lost.
Thereafter, Newtongrange being a place prone to nicknames,
they called the man 'Beer Or No Beer.'
In 1904, the Dean sold 29 gallons of brandy; 224 gallons
of rum, gin and whisky; 332 barrels of bitter ales; 145
barrels of sweet ales and stouts; 2,656 dozen bottles of
bottled ale; 708 dozen bottles of aereated waters; and 102
dozen bottles of wine. Whisky was very cheap in comparison
to beer and a lot was drunk, some of it raw spirits as there
were no laws about a minimum age for whisky. The government
increased the tax on spirits in 1909 and this had an immediate
affect on sales. The cheapest whisky sold at the Dean which
had previously cost 1/3 a half bottle but was increased
to 1/8. After seven months the committee discovered that
they had miscalculated the effect of the tax and had been
carving too much. The new price was 1/6.
The Committee was seeking other reasons for falling whisky
sales at the Dean and were informed that Ballantyne's whisky
van from Edinburgh was going round the village and doing
good business. Some people thought that Ballantyne's whisky
was better than the Dean's and Mr. Taylor was delegated
to get a bottle to sample. He brought three bottles of Ballantyne's
to the next meeting, priced at 2/6, 3/- and 3/6, according
to grade. Mr. Pryde thought the 3/- whisky was the best.
The committee then put a little of each whisky in a tin
to see how well it would burn. The 3/6 whisky burned the
best, but the 2/6 whisky wouldn't burn at all unless mixed
with the others. The Dean's cheapest whisky was 3/- (6d.
more than Ballantyne's cheapest) and their three other grades
were sold at 3/-, 3/6 and 4/-. At the next Committee meeting
the members sampled whisky from the Abbey Inn, Rosewell
Public House, Ballantyne's cart and the Dean Tavern. The
Dean's whisky was thought to be "not so good"
as the others and no more was to be ordered trom Usher's
until they brought it up to their usual standard.
The Committee rebuked the Dalkeith brewers, McLennan and
Urquart, on one occasion. It was reported that the brewery
was selling barrels of beer "direct to Poles"
in the village. The Dean Committee instructed McLennan and
Urquart to cease this practice and to only accept orders
made directlv through the Dean.
Goths were deliberately designed to be austere places in
order to discourage drinking, and entertainment of any kind
was strictly forbidden. Dominoes were allowed in the Dean
at first but they were soon banned as they could be "an
inducement tor men to enter the public house." The
Dean did not give their customers a. tree drink at New Year,
which was the custom in other pubs. It was thought to be
"against the spirit of the Dean." Some Committee
members wanted to buy a gramophone for the Dean Tavern -
the Abbey Inn had one and it was drawing away customers
- but the Chief Constable was against the idea.
Though entertainment was forbidden inside the Dean, it
was sometimes lively outside. Mrs. Preston remembers, when
she was a little girl, seeing people dancing outside the
Dean on Pay Fridays, "The band was there and a melodeon,
tae. Young yins and auld yins - a' dancin'. Oh, they had
a grand time!" This was about 1905. Entertainment of
another kind could sometimes be seen OK a Saturday night.
Boys would gather outside the Dean a little before closing
time to see if there were going to be any fights. Jim Reid
recalls "Ah've seen quite a few fights, but no' the
dirt an muck they fight now. They just had a fair fight.
No religion, Orangemen against Catholics, or the like. Ah
had an uncle about six feet tall an' he felled a few in
his time." Thing's could get out of hand, though. Two
men were arrested in the park in 1914 whilst "engaged
in a most savage fight surrounded by 100 spectators"
(Dalkeith Advertiser). They were each fined 7/6 or five
days in jail.
The 'Dean Corner' was the regular village meeting place
and the Independent Labour Party met there on Tuesday evenings.
It is certain that no hall belonging to the Lothian Coal
Co. would have been made available to them. Sandy Gardmer,
a popular figure in the village, was chairman. He had been
quite friendly with Mungo Mackay. the pit manager, until
he started up a branch of the Independent Labour Party in
Newtongrange but Mr. MacKay fell out with him over that.
A regular and exciting event in the mining villages of
the distnct was the arrival of the travelling gaff or theatre.
In a temporary building of canvas and wood, popular plays
were performed to enthusiastic audiences. In 1909 a Mr.
Snape had put up his gaff behind the Abbey Inn on land belonging
to Mr. Romans. Mr. Snape had been going around the Newtongrange
shopkeepers seeking prizes for a poetry competition as publicity
for his gaff. Word had to to Rev. Hardie, the Free Church
minister, that the Dean Tavern, in association with the
gaff, was giving away bottles of whisky for a poem written
about the Dean. He wrote to the committee demanding an explanation.
John Hood, the manager was sent for and explained that he
had offered to give Mr. Snape 2/6 as a prize from his own
pocket. He was instructed to withdraw his offer and that
was that.
Rev. Hardie had been a firm opponent of the granting of
the Dean licence in the first place. He had once before
written to the committee as he had seen a drunk being ejected
from the Dean as he passed one day. There were other problems
with drunks. The man who was employed on Pay Fridays to
keep out drunks was injured one night, having been attacked
by a drunk. He was off his work for more than a week and
the Dean paid him 35/6 to compensate for his lost wages.
But that kind of incident doesn't seem to have been common.
Each year the Dean got a special licence to sell drink
at the Easthouses Games. These were professional games with
cash prizes for athletic events, cycle races, whippet racing,
quoiting and five-a-side football. Crowds of two or three
thousand attended these games. In 1908 the Dean's takings
at the Easthouses Games were £53 - 5/- and the Committee
gave a donation of £6 to the games committee plus
an extra £1 for cleaning up the corks, broken glass,
etc. left lying about on the field. The Newtongrange Games
were on similar lines and were organised as a fundraising
venture by the Brass Band Committee. The Easthouses Games
continued until 1915 and were revived briefly in 1931 as
amateur games. The Newtongrange Games finished up in 1914
and were never resumed after the war.
What with the rapidly increasing population of the village
and relatively high wages, especially in 1907, business
at the Dean flourished. The committee discussed an extension
to the premises in May 1909 and Mr. Hood agreed to get plans
drawn up. The following extract is from the minutes of 21st.
September 1909. "The question of increased accommodation
in connection with the Dean Tavern was taken into consideration
and the chairman stated that Mr. Callender and he had considered
this matter very carefully and had come to the conclusion
that the present building, which had been altered before
to meet the requirements of the increased population could
not be satisfactorily altered again and that it would be
better to erect an entirely new one. He proposed that a
new building be put up immediately behind the present one
and that when the new one was ready the present one should
be taken down and the ground occupied by it made into an
open space or shrubbery before the new building."
Plans for the new Dean had already been drawn up in anticipation
of the committee's approval and the architect, Mr. Hardie,
was present to explain them in detail. The plans were subsequently
passed by the Licensing Board, estimates were sought and
were laid before the committee in March 1910. The main contracts
went to builders William Black (£937), joiners, Steven
and Stoddart (£556) and plumbers, William Thorburn
(£470).
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