Lodging Houses of Elbow Lane 1900s

 Elaine Corbett

Link to the Cumnock History Group page

Detail showing the De’ils Elbow

In researching the life of Francis Carter it became clear that his was not the only boarding house in Elbow Lane. An extract from John Strawhorn’s New History of Cumnock.

The condition of them came under the scrutiny of the Burgh because of the outbreaks of Typhoid, and the general state of cleanliness that should be maintained with such a large number of people and the provision of sanitation that they required for good health. Around 1890, laws were passed intended to regulate the standards of lodging houses in the UK and the Burgh was tasked with their policing. Piped water had been supplied, and connections were made to sewers, but there was no obligation for any resident to connect a flushing lavatory unless there was a complaint of nuisance.

The eight lodging houses above were researched through the 1901 census. None of the lodgers appear to have stayed in the Cumnock area for very long. 

There remains many unanswered questions about these places; 

Did the lady of the house provide meals? If so, they would have to be high in calories to sustain the hard physical labour that her lodgers undertook at the mine.

Where did the returning miners get a bath? There was no provision at the pit head, and home baths would need a lot of hot water for all the menfolk. The houses in Old Cumnock would have had piped water by the 1860s but whether this included flushing lavatories is yet another question. The Sanitation Inspector notes in his report found on the Francis Carter post how the ash pits were in somewhat of a poor state.

The miners rows, as reported in 1913, had shared privies. Often several households shared one facility, and it seems to have usually been in a disgusting condition according to our modern niceties. Was it much the same in Elbow Lane?

Looking at the profiles of the people staying in the lodging houses, it becomes apparant that these people were very much an itinerant workforce. Few, if any seem to have set down roots. They were also predominantly single men, some getting on in years, and came from far and wide - and some as far as Auchinleck! (See individual posts for details)

1901 saw a lot of disparity in the miners’ wages across all parts of Britain, and it is easy to assume that these workmen felt no loyalty to a particular region, and would leave for better wages elsewhere either at home in the UK, or abroad.