The Portland Arms
Established 27th February 1849
Here follows an extract of a property search sheet from the County of Ayr
Piece of ground measuring 28 falls with houses thereon at Crosshouse bounded on the North by the Turnpike Road from Kilmarnock to Irvine Parish of Kilmaurs”
The building known as The Portland Arms , built in 1849 from freestone.
From the front of the building on Kilmarnock Road, to the rear boundary wall with the school and within the boundaries on either side with No18 and No28 Kilmarnock road, there are 32 separate title deeds.
On the ground floor to the rear of the building was a collection of buildings and an area of ground which became known as McChristies Loan.
|
Year
|
Owner
|
Innkeeper
|
|
1849
|
John McChristie Coal Cutter & Others
|
Patrick Dunlop
|
|
1879
|
John McChristie Coal Cutter & Others
|
William Howie
|
|
1897
|
Alexander McChristie apprentice Dentist & others
|
William Howie
|
|
1897
|
James Blair, Walter Forbes and Alexander Walker Wine & Spirit Merchants
|
William Howie
|
|
1901
|
James Blair, Walter Forbes and Alexander Walker Wine & Spirit Merchants
|
Samuel Kilpatrick
|
|
1904
|
James Blair, Walter Forbes and Alexander Walker Wine & Spirit Merchants
|
Hugh Smith
|
|
1913
|
James Blair, Walter Forbes and Alexander Walker Wine & Spirit Merchants
|
Archibald Torrance
|
|
Sir Alexander Walker was the Grandson of Johnny Walker
|
|
1923
|
William Rankin & Son Wine Merchant
|
John Owen
|
|
1926
|
William Rankin & Son Wine Merchant
|
Ruben Keast
|
|
1928
|
Catherine Shaw or Laird Wine Merchant
|
Ruben Keast
|
|
1936
|
Joseph Neilson Publican
|
Joseph Neilson
|
|
A Picture of the Neilson Family hangs on this wall along with a picture of the wife of Joseph Neilson
|
|
1946
|
William Patterson Publican
|
William Paterson
|
|
1947
|
Frederick Dean Wine & Spirit Merchant
|
Frederick Dean
|
|
1975
|
F. Dean Jnr and R. J Dean Wine & Spirit Merchants
|
Frederick Dean Jnr
|
|
1986
|
D.A and N MacDonald Publicans & Wine & Spirits Merchants
|
Donald McDonald
|
|
2002
|
Neil McDonald
|
Neil McDonald
|
|
2007
|
Alan Brown
|
Alan Brown
|
| 
| |
James Neilson was born in 1864 in the mining village of Newtongrange, in the parish of Newbattle, Midlothian, the ninth child of Joseph Neilson and his wife Helen Brown. James remained in the village all his life and like his father and most of his brothers, became a coal miner, latterly in the large Lady Victoria Colliery in the village. In 1887, he married Anne or Annie Briggs, the daughter of Charles Briggs and his wife Jane Davidson. James and Annie had six children, Jane or Jeanie, born c1889, Joseph, born 1890, Helen, born 1893, Charles, born c1895, Ann, born c1897 and Margaret Briggs, born 1899. James was very musical and became the bandmaster of the Newtongrange Silver Band, as well as playing the violin in a small group. It was in 1906 while he was on his way to Edinburgh for an evening engagement with the group, that James was tragically killed. He had taken a short cut to the local railway station by way of the viaduct over the Esk Gorge, and because of the bad weather, did not hear a train appoaching and was knocked down. He died later of multiple injuries in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, aged only 42. He is buried in Newbattle Old Cemetery near his parents and is commemorated by a gravestone. Following this tragedy for the family, they left Newtongrange and moved to the small village of Blackridge in West Lothian, where Annie's brother Robert Briggs was the publican at the West Craigs Inn.
Of James and Annie's children, Jeanie married Alexander (Sandy) Dunsmore, a miner, in 1915, They lived in Blackridge and had at least five children. Joseph (Joe) started work as a coal miner, but in 1921 he was a barman, probably working for his future father-in-law, Robert Laird, who had acquired the West Craigs Inn from Joe's uncle, Robert Briggs. Joe was again working as a miner in 1922, but shortly afterwards he left the village, and moved to Ayrshire, where he ran the Portland Arms in the village of Crosshouse near Kilmarnock. Joe married Annie Laird and they had two children. After retiring, Joe and Annie returned to Blackridge, where Annie died in 1957 and Joe in 1972
|
|
