Mid
Briech Rows
coordinates:
Location:
55°51'44.80"N 3°35'32.42"W
location: on farm track
off B7015, about 2 miles West of Livingston, West Lothian
former parish: Livingston
current
status:
site cleared c.1965?, now rough ground.
date
constructed: c1890 in association with New Hermand
Oil Works.
owner/builder: New Hermand
Oil Co, Pumpherston Oil Co. from c 1903
"...twelve
house consist of room, kitchen, attic, scullery with boiler,
sink and w.c. Coal cellars and dust-bins are provided. Rental
4/- per week. There are 17 houses consisting of one room
and kitchen, with scullery and boiler, and eight one-apartment
houses with scullery. Rent for the former, 2/9, and the
latter, 2/1 per week, inclusive of rates. For the latter
25 houses, privies only are provided, and three ashpits.
The kitchen floors of these 25 houses are made of cement.
The size of the kitchens os 17ft. x 14ft. and the rooms
are of the same dimensions. There are no drying greens,
but poles are put up for the ropes. The houses are owned
by the Pumpherston Oil Company. There are forty-three houses
in Breich, occupied by 224 persons."
Theodore
K. Irvine, Report on the Housing Conditions in the Scottish
Shale Field, 1914.
Site
of Midbriech Rows, looking N.E. October 2009
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