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THE MID STEEPLE OF DUMFRIES
In 1703 the magistrates of Dumfries decided to build a new town house. This was to act as a repository for the burgh records and the town’s arms and ammunition, a prison, and a council chamber. (The council eventually decided to meet elsewhere).
At the end of the 18th century, the ground floor housed the weigh house and the town guard house. On the first floor were the meeting rooms and council offices. This was also the part used as the court house.
The Mid Steeple was also used as a prison and there may have been prison cells on the second floor. There could have been more cells on the ground floor – in the part which juts out on the northern side and which is now occupied by a shoe repairer’s shop.
The Mid Steeple is a prominent feature of present day Dumfries. It is a sandstone building with a spire and steeple. The main entrance is at first floor level, reached by an external staircase.
THE BRIDGEND OF DUMFRIES
The Bridgend was a village on the western side of the River Nith. Although just on the other side of the river the magistrates of Dumfries had no authority there as it was beyond the burgh boundaries and in another county. This fact resulted in many Dumfries criminals fleeing across the river and taking refuge in the Bridgend, which was sometimes compared with the London Alsatia – that no go area and haunt of criminals mentioned by Sir Walter Scott in the Fortunes of Nigel.
This view was given credence by an oft quoted statement by the London magistrate Sir John Fielding who stated that his constables could pursue a criminal the length and breadth of Britain unless he found refuge in the Gorbals of Glasgow or the Bridgend of Dumfries.
But the Dumfries citizens found a way of turning the Bridgend to their advantage. They often used it as a dumping ground for their own incorrigible criminals, who would be tied to a cart, driven over Devorgilla Bridge, and released in the Bridgend.
In his The History of Dumfries (first published 1867) William McDowall describes the position regarding the position of the Bridgend. He considered Fielding's statement to be exaggerated as there were times when the authorities could enter and search the Bridgend. But once there, they experienced other difficulties. Under the Bridgend was a labyrinth of cellars and tunnels, a perfect hiding place for any refugee. There are even rumours that there was a tunnel under the Nith.
These cellars were useful in another way too. Illicit whisky distilling was one of the industries of the Bridgend, and the network of underground cellars provided an ideal place for it.
But apart from these illegal activities, the Bridgend was in many ways, just an ordinary village with many people living there and working at perfectly normal occupations. And living conditions in the Bridgend were better than many in the more respectable Dumfries just over the river. Dumfries had wide streets such as the High Street and Irish Street with their fine town houses. But in between these streets were the closes with their windowless hovels built back to back. The cramped closes were a magnet for germs and disease. By contrast the Bridgend had wide streets backing onto green fields. True there were perhaps too many inns, taverns and dung-heaps. But then the latter applied to many places in Scotland in the 18th century – and not just the Bridgend of Dumfries.
Many retired smugglers took up residence in the Bridgend, also many gypsies who were tired of the open road and who wanted to settle down. McDowall mentions one gypsy in particular – a Ryes Aitken who, at one time, more or less ruled the Bridgend. Unfortunately I have not been able to find a reference to him anywhere else.
McDowall also mentions a little pamphlet by a Mr Forsyth, Reminiscences of Maxwellton. This booklet is at present in the Ewart Libray, Dumfries and gives a useful picture.
The three dimensional map of Dumfries at the time of Burns in the Burns Centre gives a good impression of the Bridgend at the end of the eighteenth century.
DEVORGILLA BRIDGE AND THE OLD BRIDGE HOUSE
This is the oldest bridge over the River Nith. It was built in the 13th century by the Lady Devorgilla and it is still standing. It is a substantial red sandstone bridge with six arches, although originally it probably had at least nine. In the 18th century tolls were levied on cattle being driven across.
Devorgilla was the mother of John Balliol who reigned as King of Scotland for a short time after Edward I of England said that he had the best claim to the Scottish throne. Devorgilla also founded the Cistercian monastery at New Abbey. Also Greyfriars Abbey, Dumfries and Balliol College Oxford
At the western side of the Bridge is the oldest house in Dumfries – the Old Bridge House – a red sandstone building which dates from the 17th century. It has had various occupants and uses but in the 18th century it was an inn. It is now a museum.
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