10 Montgomerie Terrace, Skelmorlie
Pictures:
Photos: 1. Aerial photo from the West. Source: McEwan Fraser Legal [1]. 2. 1910 Ordinance Survey Map [2]. 3. Aerial photo from East. Source: McEwan Fraser Legal [1]. 4. Photo from the northeast of the house and outbuilding. Source- ND with permission. 5. Pea Ridge gates and pillars. Source: ND.
| Owners | Dates | Alterations |
|---|---|---|
| The Earl of Eglinton & Winton | Pre 1869 | Landowner |
| Messrs Robert & Richard Watson | 1869 – 1870 | Feu contract agreed for 4 plots |
| Mr & Mrs William Watson | 1870 – 1919 | Plot Purchased. House Built. North gable and outhouse added. |
| Mrs Margaret M Guthrie | 1919 – 1927 | |
| Mr James Balderston Whyte | 1927 – 1932 | |
| Mr & Mrs Thomas Stirling | 1932 – 1962 | |
| Dr & Mrs Alan Lyell | 1962 – 2006 |
About the House:
Pea Ridge is an attractive Victorian villa situated on the west side of Montgomerie Terrace between The Old Manse (to the north) and Oakhill (to the south), with stunning views over the Firth of Clyde towards Bute and Arran. [1][2]
The land (4 acres 27.45 poles) on which Oakhill, Pea Ridge, The Old Manse, and Birchbank were subsequently built was originally feued to Robert and Richard Watson, in October 1869, by the Earl of Eglinton and Winton. [3]
In 1870, William Watson, Robert and Richard’s older half-brother, purchased the southernmost half of the feu for £25. William split his half of the land into two further plots, building Oakhill on the southernmost plot and Pea Ridge on the northernmost plot. [3]
Author’s Note: We haven’t identified Pea Ridge’s architect, but he likely used his brothers Richard and Robert to build the house, as they’d already constructed their own and other houses in the village.
Evolution of Pea Ridge
Pea Ridge is constructed from red stugged sandstone with ashlar dressings. It has a grey slate roof with one remaining chimney. We believe that the gable to the north and the current two-storey standalone outhouse were a very early extension to Pea Ridge, possibly early 1880s. The standalone two-storey outhouse in the middle, which was most likely built as a laundry and servant’s quarters, was originally joined to the north gable by a single-story wall which would have protected the comings and goings from the west should the family be in the garden. [1][4]
The two-storey outhouse to the north was likely a stable (ground floor south end) and a workshop or tack room (ground floor north end). A ladder ran from the latter up to the loft/first floor. [4]
The front door of Pea Ridge sits to the seaward side of the house and is accessed today through a modern, semi-glazed vestibule that opens into an entrance hall. The original vestibule has been replaced at least once, but the main door has always been to the West, and the carriage/driveway would likely have swept round the front of the house from one gateway to the other, to allow guests and family to disembark straight into the formal rooms of the house. [4]
1. Living room double doors with original dining room sliding doors in the background. 2. Living Room rosework. 3. Hallway cornicing. Source: ND April 2024.
Off to the right through double doors is what would have been the drawing room/parlour, which retains its original bay window, working shutters, ornate cornicing, rose work, and an open fireplace. Off to the left is an open plan dining room again with decorative cornicing, ceiling rose, and a matching fireplace. At the far end of the room, there’s a doorway which would have opened onto the kitchen (north gable) once it was added. [1][4]
Author’s note: It is highly likely that the dining room and the drawing room, which both have double door frames, would originally have had sliding doors (into the doorframe), so that the two public rooms could be fully open but also made smaller and more intimate when appropriate.
1. Dining room cornice 2. Stairway stained-glass window 3. Pantry. Source: ND April 2024.
Back in the entrance hall, up three stairs, is a perpendicular corridor extending both left and right. In the middle is the staircase to the first floor, which has decorative wrought iron balusters and an oak, over-the-post, handrail. Halfway up the staircase is a beautiful leaded window. [1][4]
Staying on the downstairs level. Several rooms open off the perpendicular corridor, including what was probably once the kitchen and larder, and latterly (after the early addition of the north gable) an office or morning room. There is also a small room which still has its original wall units. This was most likely the pantry, where the silver, glass, and china would be kept. At the north end of the corridor, there’s a door into what is today the kitchen and utility, and when the north gable was added, the kitchen and scullery. [1][4]
Upstairs, there are six bedrooms. In the original footprint, there were 4 bedrooms and a bathroom, and down 3 steps at the north, a further two bedrooms and a shower room. All the bedrooms would originally have had fireplaces, but only two of these remain today. [1][4]
Author’s note: A strip of land on the south side of the garden was walled and sold off in August 2013 (marked in green) by the then-owners.
Source: Land Registry
Author’s note: The current owners who purchased the property in 2019 have returned the house to its original name, Pea Ridge.
2. Owners of Pea Ridge
Robert & Richard Watson (1869 -1870)
Robert, his wife Margaret & L to R – Harry, William & Richard.
Robert Watson (1835 – 1909) was born at Ashcraig in November 1835 and became a joiner and ironmonger. At around 20 years old, he married Margaret Pettigrew Mountain from Prestonpans. [5]
In the early years of their marriage, they lived in Glasgow, where their sons Henry (Harry) and William were born. By the time of the 1861 census, they had returned to Skelmorlie, living at 4 Eglinton Place, where their third son, Richard, was born in 1865. [5]
The three boys followed in their father’s footsteps and became joiners. Later, the family moved to Partridgefield in Upper Skelmorlie, a house they are believed to have built themselves. Robert’s sons are thought to have remained unmarried. [5]
Richard Watson (1838 – 1914) Richard Watson, Robert’s younger brother, was born in 1838, also in Ashcraig. On leaving school, he worked alongside his brother as a joiner and ironmonger. [5]
Richard Watson outside the shop at Eglinton Place. Now Chinese takeaway.
He married Jane Anderson McCrae from Carradale. The newlyweds decided to emigrate to North America, but their journey took a dramatic turn when their boat sank in the St. Lawrence River. They were rescued separately and, for a while, neither knew the other had survived. Once they were reunited, they returned home and went on to have nine children. [5]
It was in 1869 that Richard and his brother bought the land on which Pea Ridge stands today, and in 1870 when they sold it to their brother William. [3]
Richard’s children. The eldest died, aged 13 and is missing from the photo.
After the death of his younger brother George, Richard stepped in to help his father with his grocery business. When his father died two years later, Richard inherited the business and became a full-time grocer in the lower village. [5]
Author’s note: His shop was on the corner of Eglinton Place where the Chinese kitchen is today.
Jane’s brother, John McCrae, was a well-known civil engineer who worked on significant projects like the Suez Canal, Glasgow’s and Dundee’s tramway systems, and the entire Edinburgh tram system.
Richard’s eldest son, Henry, followed in his uncle’s footsteps and trained as a civil engineer. He worked on the Canadian Pacific Railway before returning to Skelmorlie upon retirement. Henry never married. [5]
Mr & Mrs William Watson (1870 – 1917)
William Watson was born in 1826 at Ashcraig Cottage, Skelmorlie. His father, Henry Watson, was a landscape gardener who’d come to Skelmorlie in 1820 to lay out the grounds of Ashcraig, the estate of Andrew D. Campbell. [5][6]
William’s mother was Margaret Hamilton, who we believe came from Glasgow, where she met Henry. The couple married in 1820, and Margaret went on to give birth to 5 children: Margaret (1821), John (1822), Elizabeth(1824), William (1826), and Maria (1828). Sadly, Margaret died shortly after her youngest daughter Maria was born, and when William was only two.[5][6]
Source: Skelmorlie Villas – Henry Watson First Family.
William’s father remarried in April 1833. Henry’s new wife was Robison McLean, an Ayrshire native. She took on Margaret’s five children and gave birth to a further four, including Robert and Richard, mentioned in the preceding section. [5][6]
William trained as a shipbuilding engineer after attending the local school at Meigle. William, being ‘something of an adventurer’, emigrated to the Caribbean around 1850, aged 24, where he was employed as a civil engineer and sometimes a ship’s captain. [5][7][8][9]
In the mid-1850s, he moved to Louisiana, and by 1860, he was part owner of a sawmill and a coal and steamboat business in Baton Rouge. [7]
When the American Civil War broke out, William joined the Confederate Army despite being opposed to Secession (the South breaking away from the North). [7]
Over the next four years, he made quite a name for himself, firstly in the Confederate Army as a sergeant and latterly, after being wounded and discharged, when he became a blockade runner, captaining and part owning a small schooner, the SS Rob Roy. [7]
More details of William Watson’s exploits in the American South and as a Blockade runner can be found by selecting the link. [7]
At the end of the Civil War (1865), William returned to Scotland, then aged 37. Initially, he moved to Glasgow, where he built a house at 127 Argyle Street (near St Enoch Square). [7]
In April 1871, he married Helen Milligan, the thirty-two-year-old daughter of Robert Milligan, a master baker, then deceased, and Mary (McKerrow) Milligan, also by then deceased. The wedding was held at his house in Argyle Street and was witnessed by William’s half-sister Jessie Watson, then 25, and his nephew Peter Watson. [5][6]
William and Helen had 3 children, all born at Pea Ridge. [6]
Source: Skelmorlie Villas – Henry Watson and Family
William’s business thrived. In 1878, he took over the Ladyburn Boiler works in Greenock and in August 1882, the Greenock Advertiser reported that Watson had launched the ‘Talisman’, a 160-ton iron screw steamer which was sold to a Glasgow fish merchant. [7]
William had learned much about business practices from his time in America, and when the construction of a railway line damaged his property, he sued and was awarded £22,937 for prejudice to his business, the equivalent of over £1.5 m today. [7]
Unsurprisingly, Margaret Mitchell is believed to have based her character Rhett Butler in ‘Gone with the Wind’ on William Watson.
William Watson: Life in the Confederate Army
William Watson: The Adventures of a Blockade Runner; or, Trade in Time of War
In his retirement, William settled in Skelmorlie, where he remained a trustee of the Parish Church. He wrote two books recording his adventures and giving his impressions of life in the southern states at his Pea Ridge villa. ‘Life in the Confederate Army: Being the Observations and Experiences of an Alien in the South during the American Civil War’ was published in 1887. This was followed in 1892 by ‘The Adventures of a Blockade Runner or Trade in Time of War’. [5] [6] [7] [10]
When ‘Life in the Confederate Army’ was first published, the Boston Sunday Herald proclaimed it
“The best story of the Southern side yet written. It has been reserved for an unknown and comparatively unlettered writer—a British civil engineer—to furnish a better account of the condition of the South at the time of the secession, and a better sketch of life in the Confederate Army than has hitherto been written by anyone.”
They went on to write
“In many ways, however, Watson was atypical of the citizens of the world who bore arms for the South. He wasn’t a professional soldier, nor a mercenary, and he confessed that he ‘never was a very strong sympathizer with the South’ and ‘was much opposed to the secession movement and would have done anything I could to have prevented it’. Nevertheless, Watson’s service to the Confederacy was both loyal and courageous, and his year with the 3rd Louisiana Infantry, whilst uncommonly colourful, was also fraught with hardship and danger.” [7]
By 1895, William had built and was living in a new house, Beechgrove on Eglinton Terrace, possibly named after the final resting place of many Confederate soldiers in Tennessee. He still owned Oakhill, which he was renting to a Mrs Francis Ann Service or Spalding, and Pea Ridge, which he was rentinof many Confederate soldiers.g to a Patrick Graham, Accountant. By 1905, he’d sold Oakhill but continued to rent out Pea Ridge, by that time to a George Bell Murray, Inspector R.N. He and his family were still at Beechgrove. [7] [8] [11]
William died in 1906, just before his eightieth birthday. He was survived by his wife, Helen, and his children. [6]
Pea Ridge was not sold until 1919. It’s believed that this was because William assigned Pea Ridge and its grounds to Helen on their marriage in 1871 for ‘all the days and years of her lifetime’.
Helen didn’t return to live at Pea Ridge, instead, she moved to Glasgow and continued to rent Pea Ridge to George Murray for some, if not all, of the intervening period. Helen died in Glasgow in 1914. [11][12]
Author’s Note: By the time the house was sold, it had been renamed Craigallion. [3][12]
Miss Margaret M Guthrie (1919 – 1927)
William’s Trustees sold Pea Ridge to Margaret Maxwell Guthrie, residing at Cote How Cottage, Rydal, Ambleside. [3]
We learn from the 1920 & 1925 Skelmorlie valuation rolls that Margaret did not necessarily live at Craigallion/Pea Ridge as she continued to give her address as Cote How Cottage in Rydal. We also learn that Charlotte C. Guthrie, widow, is renting and living in the house. [11]
Author’s Note: Could this be a sister-in-law?
We’ve been unable to find any records for Miss Margaret or Mrs Charlotte Guthrie in the Scottish statutory records, but a general internet search did find the following,
“Miss Best & Miss Guthrie, both maiden ladies, rented 2 Cote How Cottages”.
The article describes the period around 1925 and supports the theory that Margaret Guthrie probably never made Craigallion (Pea Ridge) her primary home. [13]
In April 1927, Margaret Maxwell Guthrie sold Craigallion (Pea Ridge) to James Balderston Whyte, an architect from Glasgow. [3]
James Balderston Whyte (1927 – 1932)
James Balderston Whyte was born on 5 April 1882, in Dublin, Ireland, the son of Robert Alexander Whyte, builder, and Anna Clark Balderston. [14][15]
In 1891, we find James, aged 10 living in the 10-room house “Ardmillan’ in Blackhall, Paisley with his mother Annabella C Whyte (head of household and living off independent means), his brother John B Whyte(22), an accountant (also born in Ireland) and his sister Maggie W Whyte (16). We can find no record of his father in 1891. [14][15]
James was articled to Macwhannell & Rogerson of Glasgow in 1898, studying at Paisley School of Design, Glasgow & West of Scotland Technical College and Glasgow School of Art (1898-99). On completion of his apprenticeship in 1904, he was placed in charge of Macwhannell & Rogerson’s branch office in Barrhead, where he oversaw the construction of the Renfrewshire Combination Poorhouse, Neilston Parish School, and made the second award-winning competition designs for Dalziel Parish Combination Poorhouse. [14]
In 1906, James set up practice at 121 Bath Street, Glasgow, in partnership with William Gordon Galloway (born 1880), who had likewise been articled to Macwhannell & Rogerson and had studied at Glasgow School of Art and Technical College. James and William were admitted to the Royal Institute of British Architects in March 1911. [14]
At the time of the 1911 census, James (30), an architect, was still living with his mother Anna C Whyte (Head of Household), at ‘Ardmillan’ in Blackhall, Paisley. By this time, she was 68. Also living with them is housekeeper Elizabeth Wilson, aged 68. [16]
In 1914, James married Margaret Heys, then 26, whose father, Robert Heys, was a calico printer, and her mother was Margaret Fulton. The couple got married in the Clark town hall in Paisley. [15]
In 1921, we find James, 41, and Margaret, 33, at Highridge, Hunter’s Quay in Dunoon. Staying with them is Euphemia Wilson, aged 33, a domestic housemaid. There do not appear to be any children. [16]
In 1927, James purchased Craigallion (Pea Ridge) in Skelmorlie, where he and his wife lived for the next 5 years, before selling. [3]
James Balderston Whyte died in Claremont Drive in Glasgow in 1946 when he was 65, although his usual residence was Garelochhead. Margaret died in 1956, aged 68, in Grosvenor Crescent in Glasgow. By this time, she had remarried. [3][15]
Mr & Mrs Thomas Stirling (1932 -1962)
Thomas Stirling (Jr.) was born in June 1867 in Alloa, Clackmannanshire, to Thomas Stirling (Sr.) and Marion (Graham) Stirling (Sr.). [17]
In 1871, we learn from the census that the family lived in a 2-room cottage in Binnie’s Row, Cambusnethan, near Wishaw. His father was a rail engine driver and was 36, his mother was also 36. There were 5 children: Archibald (12), James (10), Marion (Jr) (6), Thomas (Jr)(4), and John(2). [18]
Ten years later, the family had moved to nearby railway cottages, in Morningside, still in the parish of Cambusnethan. Thomas(Sr) was still an engine driver, and Archibald had joined his father in the same occupation. James was not at home, but Marion (Sr.), Marion (Jr.), Thomas(Jr.), and John were. In addition, there were 3 further children, Robert (9), Agnes (7), and William (4). [18]
Ten years later, the family was living on Queen Street, Kirkintilloch. Thomas (Sr.) was 56 and still a railway engine driver. Marion (Sr.) was also 56. Thomas (Jr.) was 24 and a railway engine stoker. Marion(Jr.) was 26 and had become Mrs Turnbull. The 3 younger children, Robert, Agnes, and William, were still at home with Robert (19) working on the railway and William (14) an apprentice iron foundry worker. Marion Turnbull’s two daughters, Marion(4) and Jane(2), were also present. [18]
Two years later, in 1893, Thomas (Jr.), then 26 and a mercantile clerk, married Robina Wilson Kyle (27), who was a schoolteacher. Robina’s parents, Robert and Jane (Keely) Kyle, were from Strathaven, where her father was an Inspector of the poor. [17]
In 1895, Robina gave birth to a daughter, Ida Graham Stirling. We believe she was an only child. [17]
By 1911, Thomas (Jr.) (43), Robina (44), and their daughter Ida (15) were living in an 8-room house in Alloa. Thomas had progressed to a wool buyer, and the family had a domestic servant living with them, Christine Dickson (26). [18]
Ten years later, the family was still living in Alloa. Thomas was 54 and a manufacturer of both wool and worsted yarns. Robina, his wife, was a year older, and Ida, their daughter, was 26. The domestic servant was Annie Dickson (22), presumably Christine’s younger sister. [18]
In March 1932, Thomas Stirling, a retired manufacturer of Hadley, Walberton, Sussex, purchased Craigallion (Pea Ridge). He, his wife Robina, and their daughter Ida lived at Craigallion until 1941 when Thomas died. He was 74. [3][17]
Robina and Ida continued to live in Craigallion. Robina died in 1953, aged 84 years, and whilst Ida then inherited the house, she only stayed a further 9 years when she sold to Dr Alan Lyell. [3][17]
It’s not clear where Ida lived next, but when she died in 1976, aged 80, she lived in East Neuk. [17]
Dr Alan Lyell, (1962 – 2007)
Alan Lyell was born in India in 1917, during the First World War, where his father, Alfred Lyell, was a Major in the Royal Garhwal Rifles, an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. [19][20][21]
His mother, Dorothy (Foy) Lyell, died shortly after Alan’s birth. As an only child, his father arranged for others to care for him, first in India, then in the UK. He was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and studied medicine at St Thomas’s Hospital in London during WW2. [19][21][23]
In 1942, when he was 26, he married Rachael Alison Ballingal, aged 29, a nurse with the VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment), a voluntary unit of civilians providing nursing care for military personnel in WW1 and WW2. Rachael’s father was Robert Ballingal, a retired Estate Factor, her mother was Helen (Nicoll) Ballingal. The wedding took place in St John’s Episcopal Church in Edinburgh. The couple went on to have two children Brian and Bridget known as Biddy. [19][20]
After qualifying, that same year, i.e., 1942, Alan worked as a house physician at the Woking War Hospital. He then served in the RAMC (Regimental Army Medical Corps) as medical officer to the 11th Battalion, the Durham Light Infantry, with the Allied forces in Normandy. In 1944, he was invalided out of the army, having been struck by “friendly fire”. [21][22]
After recovery, he started training in dermatology at St Thomas’s Hospital, London, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, and then the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh. [21][22]
Dr Alan Lyell. Source: British Association of Dermatologists.
Alan’s first consultant appointment was in Aberdeen in 1952, where he published a paper on ‘toxic epidermal necrolysis’, later known as Lyell’s disease. In 1962, he became head of the department of Dermatology at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. [21][22]
Alan purchased Craigallion (Pea Ridge) in Skelmorlie that same year. [3]
In 1980, he resigned dramatically from the NHS in a principled stand against cost-driven cuts. He also felt obliged to withdraw from his up-and-coming presidency of BAD (British Association of Dermatologists). [21][22]
After retirement, he produced a series of historical reviews and biographies. [22]
In 1993, his beloved wife Rachael died and was buried in Haylie Brae cemetery in Largs. [21]
In 2006, many of his previous work visions happened with the amalgamation of the Glasgow dermatology units and the pooling of staff resources, expertise, and facilities. Although frail, he attended the opening and heard the new unit named, the Alan Lyell Centre for Dermatology, in his honour.[23]
Pea Ridge was sold the same year and Alan died a year later in 2007 with his daughter Biddy at his side. Biddy had come from America for his 90th birthday celebrations, which would have been 2 days later. Alan was buried in Haylie Brae cemetery beside his wife after a Eucharist at St Columba’s Episcopal church in Largs. [3][21][23]
Sources and References:
[1 ]Sales Brochure for Craigallion (Pea Ridge) – McEwan Fraser Legal (Solicitors & Estate Agents) – 2019
[2] 1910 Ordinance Survey map – Skelmorlie
[3] Original Feu contract (provided by current owners) and Summary Sasine Deed
[4] Information from the current owners of Pea Ridge, 10 Montgomerie Terrace – Mr Andrew and Mrs Fiona Glen.
[5] https://www.skelmorlievillas.co.uk/people-of-local-interest/henry-watson-family/
[6] Birth, death, and marriage certificates for William Watson and Family.
[7] Scots in the American Civil War – www.acwscots.co.uk/watson.htm
[8] Celtic Confederates – www.facebook.com/546291228830523/posts/ 750277008431943/ Celtic Confederates.
[9] ‘Skelmorlie: The Story of the Parish consisting of Skelmorlie and Wemyss Bay’, Walter Smart, 1968.
[10] Issuu website: www.issuu.com/jkeeman/docs/william_watson
[11] Skelmorlie Census returns 1891,1901,1911,1921 and Valuation Rolls 1875,1885,1895,1905
[12] Document provided by current owners re William Watson’s life
[13] https://www.rydal.org.uk/rydal-in-the-past/the-village-of-rydal.html
[14] https://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/apex/r/dsa/dsa/architects/james-whyte
[15] Birth, death, and marriage certificates for James Whyte and family.
[16] 1891, 1911, and 1921 census information for James Whyte.
[17] Birth, death, and marriage certificates for Thomas Stirling and family
[18] 1871, 1881, 1891, 1911, and 1921 census information for Thomas Stirling.
[19] Birth, death, and marriage certificates for Alan Lyell and family.
[20] Wikipedia: ‘Royal Garhwal Rifles’, ‘RAMC(Regimental Army Medical Corp)’, ‘VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment)’
[21] https://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/1570.html – Alan Lyell
[22] https://cdn.bad.org.uk/uploads/2022/01/29200050/Dr-A-Lyell.pdf
[23] https://www.heraldscotland.com/default_content/12452279.alan-lyell/