Luffness, more maps and more history.

Luffness the mill, the map and the remains.

The Seventeenth Century

For Scotland the seventeenth century was a time of much tragedy and transformation as it progressed from the medieval to the modern. This period of change is our starting point for a journey through the ages using maps¹ as our guide and the Luffness Mill area as our focus.

The first person we meet in this century is the mysterious Timothy Pont (1564- 1614). He produced the first detailed maps of Scotland². We know very little about his life but his maps went on to form the basis of the fifth volume of Joan Blaeu's first world atlas.

Joan Blaeu (c. 1599-1673) Lothian and Linlitquo published 1654.

The Dutch printers Joan Blaeu and his father Willem set out to beat their rivals by printing a monumental atlas of the world. They were supplied with cartographic and topographic information about particular countries through their many collaberators across Europe. In the case of Scotland, this was Sir John Scot of Scotstarvit who sent Blaeu, Pont's maps of Scotland. However not all were in a good enough state to be printed directly but required further information and more detail to be added. This was done by Robert Gordon of Straloch (1580-1661) and his son James Gordon of Rothiemay (c.1615-1686)³.

Luffness is depicted in the atlas on a map titled 'Lothian and Linlitquo' (illustration 1). Here we can see the old castles of the area depicted with fences or walls around them and although Luffness, Dirleton and Balencrief still have either castles or tower houses the one at 'Ervistoun' no longer exists. Ervistoun is probably Elvingston near Gladsmuir. The house that exists on the site now dates to 1837 but no physical evidence has been found for the earlier building which is thought to have dated to the medieval period⁴.

One odd touch is the row of red buildings stretching along the coast from Luffness.

Illustration 1: Joan Blaeu Lothian and Linlitquo published 1654.

The Hydrographicall mappe of Forth from the entry to ye Queens-ferry

An imprint of a map from 1683 by John Adair (ca. 1650-1722) shows Luffness with the interesting spelling of 'Lovenesse' (illustration 2). This is also the first time that I have seen a map that labels Aberlady Bay as 'hadington port'. Aberlady was indeed the port for the county town of Haddington until the trade moved to road or rail. Another first for this map is the attempt at showing topography of the area in depicting Gullane Hill.

Illustration 2: The Hydrographicall mappe of Forth from the entry to ye Queens-ferry / authore J. Adair. Imprint:[1683]

These 'Hydrographicall' maps were made to encourage foreign trade by reducing the losses to shipping that had often occurred on the Scottish coast. The maps were partly paid for by a tonnage levy placed on shipping although the funds from this proved insufficient for the completion of the maps⁵.

The hand drawn manuscript version of John Adair's 1682 map (illustration 3) shows the presence of mills which are indicated by the star symbol. This is the earliest cartographic evidence for the presence of a mill at Luffness. On an engraved version of 1736 (illustration 4) the mills are named and the word 'Peffer' makes it's first appearance.

Illustration 3: John Adair Map 1682, showing the Port of Haddington. The star symbol represents the location of a mill. This is the earliest evidence for the presence of a mill at Luffness.

Illustration 4: A map of East Lothian survey'd by J. Adair. Imprint: [Edinburgh : Cooper, ca. 1736]

Roads and Roy

Although the previous maps show the basic lay out of the area they would have proved quite limited if they were used as a tool for overland navigation. There just isn't the detail or accuracy required. However this was to change when the requirement for a map of Scotland that could be used by the military to quell any unrest in the hearts of restless natives. This came in the form of Roy's Military Survey of Scotland. The lowlands were surveyed between 1752-55.

Here for the first time are roads and field boundaries (illustration 5).

Illustration 5: Roy's Military Survey of Scotland, 1747-55

William Forrest and the county map.

The county maps were the most detailed portrayal of the landscape prior to the Ordance Survey. They were often at large scales of one and two miles to the inch, showing natural features such as relief, rivers, woodland and coastlines. A range of human settlements are shown and named for the first time, including many isolated farms and hamlets. The map also includes the name and title of the landowner. In the case of Luffness we can see that it is Colonel Hope. The Hope family bought Luffness in 1739⁶.

Illustration 6: William Forrest's Map of Haddingtonshire 1799

On William Forrest's 1799 map of Haddingtonshire (illustration 6) we see for the first time the 'Marle Loch'. The Marl was a calcium rich soil which was dug and spread on the surrounding fields in an attempt to make the soil less acidic and thereby increase fertility. The marl would have been dug in the winter and left for the frost to break it down before being harrowed in come the spring time. The practice ended with the wide spread use of artificial fertilisers. This resulted in the unused pits filling with water.

The lime quarry would probably provided lime was for building mortar, limewash, lime plaster or mixed with clay as a binder. However, apart from prestige structures such as churches, castles and bridges, most buildings would not have been of stone but of timber or wattle, reeds, and thatch, and coated or infilled with various combinations of clay and lime⁷.

Let us take a closer look at Luffness Mill which is now detailed on the map for the first time (illustration 7). The map shows us the orrentation of the mill pond and how it was fed by two 'mill lades' and a 'tail race' which allowed the spent water from the mill wheel to flow to the Peffer. The mill dam was constructed to raise the water level in the pond and provide a motive force for the wheel. Sluices would have controled the flow of water into the mill lades.

Illustration 7: Luffness Mill in detail on William Forrest's Map of Haddingtonshire 1799

Ordnance Survey.

The progress towards a more detailed accurate map of Britain was made more of a certainty with the foundation of the Ordnance Survey in 1791. The primary triangulation of Scotland started in 1814 but it wasn't until 1859 that most of the Scottish lowlands were complete⁸. We really get the most detail yet with the production of the first comprehensive topographic survey of Scotland at the six-inch to the mile scale (illustration 8).

Illustration 8: Ordnance Survey Haddingtonshire, Sheet 4 Survey date: 1853 Publication date: 1854

These wind blown bents are not the well manicured fairways of today which are lush in their out of season verdant pop-up-sprinklered pampering. No, these slopes will have to wait another 40 years before the foundation of Luffness Golf Club.

However there is evidence of another sport and that is curling. The rectangular object to the left of the foot brdge is a curling pond. This feature can be seen to this day although any curling has long since ceased. It is described n the Aberlady Bay Local Nature Reserve Annual Report 2009/10 as '….an old man-made pool that has been colonised by a wide variety of marshland plants. It features a number of scarce species, some of which are rare elsewhere on the Reserve, which contribute towards making the area unique in the context of the rest of the site.'. I suppose that climate change has made outdoor curling a dim and distant memory almost to the point of incrdulity that it ever actually happened.

On the map, we can follow the old path up the hill to the site of many ancient finds that is Gala Law. Here we see that a Whinstone Quarry is in operation. Whinstone is a quarrying name for any hard dark rock such as the igneous rock basalt. Basalt was porved in the past to be chemically identical to lava⁹. It is generally used for road stone or dry stone walls.

If we come down the road the first buildings we come to are Luffness Mill. Let us take a closer look (illustration 9).

Illustration 9: Ordnance Survey Haddingtonshire, Sheet 4 Survey date: 1853 Publication date: 1854

Here we can see the sluices which would have controlled the water level. There are some remains of sluices in the woods to the south of the map and the course of the old 'Mill Lead' can still be seen.

Illustration 10: Some remains of a sluice where the original southern sluice was located.

Illustration 11: The remains of the southern mill lead as photographed in 2013.

The 1854 map labels Luffness Mill as a 'Saw Mill' and given it's location you would believe it to be water driven. At this stage it would look like the mill at Luffness was a water driven saw mill. The round building beside it is listed by Historic Scotland as a 'kiln' and they describe it thus;

'1820-30. Detached circular kiln. Random rubble, walls, circa 10ft high with arched draw vent at ground to W now blocked, window opening close under eaves to E. Inside walls taper to ground. Polygonal pantiles to roof, ventilator missing. Formerly used to dry timber for a sawmill (OS Map 1854) which was probably located to the S. Currently in poor condition. Similar in form to Seton Mill Kiln, Tranent parish.'¹⁰.

Having spent a lot of time in the kiln as a child I find it hard to see how they would have fitted much wood inside, never mind how they would have got it in there in the first place.

What would have been much more use on an estate would have been a kiln to dry grain. It would have been essential to dry the corn before milling it, especially in Scotland's damp climate. The kiln does look very much like those at Seton Mill (illustration 10) or Preston Mill (illustration 11), both of which were corn mills.

Illustration 12: John R Hume View from SW showing part of WNW and SSW fronts of mill with kiln in background SC710583 Copyright RCAHMS

Illustration 13: William Notman View of Seton Mill, East Lothian. DP075659 Copyright

Now have a look an an old postcard image of Luffness Mill (illustration 12). I find the similarities between the corn mill kilns and the wood drying kiln at Luffness to be quite supportive of my theory that Luffness' real purpose was for drying grain.

Illustration 14: Old postcard of Luffness Mill

Illustration 15: The kiln at Luffness Mill in 1985

Illustration 16: The kiln in 1989 showing a blocked vent at the bottom between the logs

In fact by 1854 water powered 34 corn and meal mills in East Lothian¹¹. The vassals held the land by feudal tenure and as such had to bring their corn to the mill of the landowner in an act called 'thirling'. Here the grain would be ground and measured for taxation purposes with a cut going to the landowner and some to the miller. Practically every landowner had a mill and I suggest that perhaps the purpose of the mill was changed to a saw mill when the act of thirling was abolished in 1799.

Into the 20^th Century

The finely detailed maps of 1892 (illustration 13) and 1907 (illustration 14) show the mill pond as no longer being fed from the Peffer and the only label on the buildings of what is now called Luffness Mill Cottages is 'Saw Mill'.

A saw mill, with a large circular saw was in existence up until the end of the 20^th century. This was in one of the single story buildings adjoining the cottages and not in a separate building as is depicted on the map. The saw was powered by diesel which would have been more economic to run then the up keep of the water mill complex. Perhaps it was partly for this reason that the water driven mill was demolished.

Illustration 17: OS 25 inch survey 1892 Haddingtonshire sheet 4 detail of Luffness mill race no longer shown at the Peffer.

Illustration 18: OS 25 inch survey 1907 Haddingtonshire sheet 4 Detail Luffness Saw Mill

We can see from an aerial photograph of 1945 (illustration 15) that the mill pond looks like it is overgrown but there is not enough resolution to make out distinct buildings. However, by 1965 the mill pond is distinctly overgrown and the mill demolished (illustration 16).

Illustration 19: Air Photo Mosaics of Scotland, 1944-1950

Illustration 20: 1965 1:2500 Ordnance Survey map

The area of the mill pond that was nearest the cottages was used as a dump for waste from Luffness estate during the latter half of the twentieth century. The water that flowed into the hollow that was the pond still had to drain out over the road and into the Peffer through what was left of the tail race. This was eventually piped under the gardens of the cottages. However when the tide was high the brackish water would flow up the pipe and flood the cottage front garden.

LUFFNESS MILL, EVENING

Patrick William Adam RSA (1854-1929)

Adam was born in Edinburgh. He settled in North Berwick in 1908 and spent the rest of his life there recording the interiors of local society households. Adam died at North Berwick on 27th December 1929, aged 75.

1All of the maps come from the National Library of Scotland unless otherwise stated.

2 http://maps.nls.uk/pont/history/history-over.html

3 http://maps.nls.uk/pont/bio/elusive

4http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/290622/details/tranent+elvingston/

5 Geography, Science and National Identity: Scotland Since 1520 By Charles W. J. Withers. Page 91

6http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/55029/details/luffness+house/

7 http://www.bgs.ac.uk/mendips/aggregates/history/limeburning.html

8Fleet, C. and Withers, C.,Ordnance Survey Maps - Six-inch 1st edition, Scotland, 1843-1882: A Scottish paper landscape. National Library of Scotland.(http://maps.nls.uk/os/6inch/os_info1.html).

9 http://www.lindahall.org/events_exhib/exhibit/exhibits/vulcan/56_large.shtml

10 http://data.historic-scotland.gov.uk/pls/htmldb/f?p=2200:15:0::::BUILDING:6559

11 http://www.eastlothianmuseums.org/exhibitions/tranent/houses/Ai280.htm

Everyone loves a map but where did they come from?

An introduction to Scottish maps and map making

Most good journeys start with a map¹, but first we should consider where the maps came from and what limits there are to using them to interpret the landscape of today.

This introduction should not be considered as exhaustive or definitive but consider it a source of discussion, enlightenment or an entertaining distraction.

Early Maps

The earliest² map of Scotland is from a book called Geography by the polymath Claudius Ptolemy (c. AD 90 – c. AD 168) who was a Greek-Roman citizen of Egypt. His book discusses the geographic knowledge of the Greco-Roman world. Unfortunately there are no surviving contemporary copies of the book and the map illustrated here is from a 17^th century copy (Illustration 1).

Illustration 1: The Ptolemy map is the earliest known depiction of Scotland in a map.

The main thing is that it is recognisable as what we would consider to be a map. Although not great on detail or accuracy compared to the maps of today, he showed great skill in tackling the problem of projecting the curved world on to a flat surface. This attempt at portraying the world with a degree of geographical accuracy was not continued in the coming years.

Medieval maps.

Early maps were the creation in varying degrees of tradesmen as well as craftsmen, and of artists as much as scientific surveyors. Medieval land surveying was concerned primarily with written rather than graphic description and with valuation rather than exact measurement³. Compare the work of Ptoleomy with those of much later and you will see a more unscientific representation of the world (Illustration 2).

Illustration 2: World map c1265. This map is one of the most important surviving examples of 13th-century map-making. Jerusalem is in the centre of the map, and the whole world is looked upon by Christ who is attended by angels. This shows that medieval people looked at geography in relation to the Bible and to earth’s creation by God. But the map also shows an interest in local places: you can see the British Isles, and the rivers Thames and Severn. London is marked with a gold dot. The map was not intended, like a modern atlas, to guide someone in their travels, but to show important places in an overall prospect. http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item99816.html

One of the most realistic maps of the medieval period was by a Saint Albans monk called Matthew Paris c1250, he has the basic shape of Britain correct but with Scotland shown as an island (Illustration 3). He was perhaps the first medieval mapmaker to try to portray the actual physical appearance of the country rather than just represent the relationship between places in simple diagrams.

Illustration 3: Matthew Paris map of Britain, c.1250 Copyright © The British Library Board

By 1560 the Italians had made quite a recognisable map of Scotland (Illustration 4).

Illustration 4: Italian Map of Scotland 1560

County maps.

With one or two exceptions, there are no separate maps of the regions of Britain before Elizabethan times but from Elizabethan to mid Victorian times the county was always the basic unit of regional mapping⁴. The county maps have there own set of problems when they are used as an aid to historical detection. J B Harley states:

'County maps can seldom (if ever) be regarded as a definitive or completely up to date record of topography for the time of their production.'⁵.

The cost of the survey would have to be borne by interested parties such as the gentry and this, plus the interests of the surveyor, could influence what got included in the map and what got left out.

Since the maps of the time were often a commercial venture, there was a bias towards well populated areas which were mapped more often and in more detail than remoter areas. In fact the act of surveying and map making was an expensive business and many of the map makers ran into financial difficulties. This can lead to difficulties with dating maps of this period since it was cheaper to re-engrave an earlier map with little or no resurveying done but give the publishing date not the surveying date.

However, the county maps produced by private surveyors between 1760 and 1840 are the most detailed maps of rural areas of Scotland up until the end of the 19^th century⁶.

County maps showed perhaps for the last time, a degree of artistry (Illustration 5) and ornamentation that is not present in the maps produced today. These county maps have now found a new use as an object of art and are often seen hanging on the wall of many a country pub.

Illustration 5: William Forrest Map of Haddingtonshire 1799

Uniformity and Precision

Accurate surveying of the country required systems of very large triangles, called triangulation networks. In trigonometry and geometry, triangulation is the process of determining the location of a point by measuring angles to it from known points at either end of a fixed baseline, rather than measuring distances to the point directly. A mesh of triangles at the largest appropriate scale is established first. Points inside the triangles can all then be accurately located with reference to it.

Britain could not have a complete accurate survey of the country without a full triangulation and the cost of this could not be provided for by private subscribers, but would need to be funded by the government.

The need for uniform, accurate maps, of the whole kingdom related everywhere to one national triangulated framework, was brought into sharp focus by the seemingly unconnected events of the Jacobite Rebellion of the 1700s.

Dukes and military maps

The battle of Culloden in April 1746 highlighted the need for accurate maps. The best map available at the time was of a scale of 1 inch to 13.5 miles or 1:855360, which was too small for the detail needed by military commanders⁷.

Lieutenant Colonel David Watson put forward the proposal for a survey to the Duke of Cumberland who gained authority for it from his father George II. The King was keen to provide any assistance with the pacification of the highlands.

The responsibility for the military survey of Scotland was delegated to William Roy and was completed by 1755. Roy then promoted the idea of a complete triangulation of Britain as a basis for more accurate mapping.

Roy died in 1790 and it took the Duke of Richmond to champion the cause of the complete triangulation. The Duke was the Master General of His Majesty's Ordnance and it was he who initiated the Trigonometrical Survey which was later to become known as the Ordnance Survey. Ordnance is the department responsible for military stores and equipment, hence the rather odd title of the British National Survey Organisation⁸.

Ordnance Survey

The primary triangulation of Scotland started in 1814 but it wasn't until 1859 that most of the Scottish lowlands were complete. Although the initial mapping of England and Wales had been undertaken at the one-inch scale,the growing need for detailed maps for land valuation, registration and conveyancing, agricultural improvement, mineral development, railways, together with the facts of urban expansion, lent advantage to the more detailed mapping at 24" to 26" to the mile scales. However, the successful mapping of Ireland at the six-inch scale had lead to the decision to follow this in the 1840s in Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Scotland⁹.

However accurate maps might be in trigonometrical terms, they were valueless as records of property ownership and guides to taxation without agreed names. Where a place may have more than one name or many spellings, the surveyors would consult an authority in the local populous. The 'Authority' of an individual usually followed a class or professional hierarchy. Here is an example of the detailed advice given to surveyors regarding authority and names:

'For the name of a house, farm, park or wood, or other part of an estate the owner is the best authority. For names generally the following are the best individual authorities and should be taken in the order given: Owners of property; estate agents; clergymen, postmasters and schoolmasters, if they have been some time in the district; rate collectors; borough and county surveyors; gentlemen residing in the district; Local Government Board Orders; local histories; good directories. Respectable inhabitants of some position should be consulted. Small farmers and cottagers are not to be depended on, even for the names of the places they occupy, especially as to the spelling. But a well-educated and independent occupier is, of course, a good authority'¹⁰.

Map Production

The six-inch maps of Scotland were engraved on special hammered copper, 1/10th inch thick and measuring 26.5 by 38.5 inches in extent. After scoring the sheet lines and marking the position of trigonometrical stations with fine dots, the plates were covered with wax, the outlines copied from tracings, and then cut into the plate in reverse using a graver or burin. Map engraving was a highly specialised process, and took a long time with high quality results. In time the engravers became the highest paid branch of the Survey.

A copper plate could only make about 500 impressions before re-engraving or copying by electrotyping was required.

Ordnance Survey Today

The laborious task of re-triangulating Britain was undertaken in the mid 20^th century using a new set of triangulation pillars and up to date theodolites. However this technology was responsible for laying down a firm foundation on which to build a more accurate map of Britain it was made redundant with the revolution in map making that came with digital age.

The modern Ordnance Survey map is produced by state-of-the-art satellite technology and theodolite 'total stations' with lasers to measure distances. The national network of around 100 base stations constantly transmit their GPS-observed positions to a central processing hub¹¹. The survey control network of 'trig' pillars was accurate to 20 metres over the entire length of Great Britain. Today the receivers that make up the OS Net network are coordinated to an accuracy of just 3 mm over the same area¹².

Information gathered by ground staff is complemented by an intensive programme of aerial photography which is viewed in 3D.The resulting high-definition images, which show detail as sharp as the pattern of road markings, can then be overlaid with existing map data to check where features have changed so that instant updates can be recorded.

The new information from both ground and air surveys is added to the OS MasterMap database. The result is a definitive digital picture of Britain’s geography and the largest database of its kind anywhere in the world, made up of almost half a billion features.

So now we have the most accurate maps ever produced, and this introduction may read simply as a history of improvements in accuracy over time, ending up with present day maps that are best of all. However, does this mean that the more accurate maps are 'better' maps? Perhaps for certain uses they indeed are but they don't tell us as much about the landscape of the past and the peoples relationship to it, as the old maps do. However what they do provide is an accurate (for today's standard) baseline from which to measure changes in the future or perhaps they will be dismissed by the people of the future as artistic but sort of infantile compared to the wonders of the future.

References

1All of the maps come from the National Library of Scotland unless otherwise stated.

2http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-15008220

3Harley,J. B., 1972. Maps for the Local Historian. ISBN 719908345: page 6.

4Harley,J. B., 1972. Maps for the Local Historian. ISBN 719908345: page 67.

5Harley,J. B., 1972. Maps for the Local Historian. ISBN 719908345: page 72.

6 http://maps.nls.uk/browse.html

7 Dickinson, G. B., 1969. Maps and Air Photographs. ISBN 71315425x, Page 4.

8Dickinson, G. B., 1969. Maps and Air Photographs. ISBN 71315425x,Page 45.

9Fleet, C. and Withers, C.,Ordnance Survey Maps - Six-inch 1st edition, Scotland, 1843-1882: A Scottish paper landscape. National Library of Scotland.(http://maps.nls.uk/os/6inch/os_info1.html).

10Seymour, W A (ed.) 1980.A history of the Ordnance Survey, Page 180.

11http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/about-us/our-history/index.html

12http://blog.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/?s=Thorney+Gale&x=12&y=2