Elvanfoot History
The history pages will be developed as information is gathered. Below is a brief outline of what there appears to have been of the village in the past. If anyone has any information or photographs of Elvanfoot in days gone by the history pages wouldn't mind having copies of them. Any contributions gratefully recieved. Please email the editor
From 16th April 1704 we have this description of Elvanfoot from an English traveller on his way from Crawfordjohn to Moffat.
" From this place I went over mighty hills, some-times being amongst the clouds, and sometimes amongst boggs (I think without seeing a house or any body but a poor sheppard's boy), to Elwin ffet,(Elvanfoot) a poor sorry place of two or three houses; and here is a rapid river that tumbles over a rocky bottom, tho' it is not deep. Of the west side of the river is a minsh-house, and another small house or rather hovell; of the east side a somewhat better house, which I tooke for the minsh-house (being told before that there was one here), but it seems was the Laird of Newtoun's house; and had it not been that his lairdship should have wanted a house, I had some thoughts of bringing it away on my back. "
So, back then there was a pub and a hovell and Newton House in Elvanfoot.
Elvanfoot in 1864
Elvanfoot was dominated by Newton House which sat on the East side of the River Clyde and overlooked the main part of the village on the other side of the river. The village consisted of three rows of cottages and another building and the school and there was a triangular village green. The Old Bridge, a three arch stone structure beside the school provided a means of crossing the river.
To the east of the village near to the junction with the Leadhills Road was Elvanbank House. Adjacent to this at the north end of the village across from the entrance to the salt depot was Elvan Tollhouse. This was one of four Toll Points around Elvanfoot. The other one on what is now the A702 was sited opposite where Elvanfoot Church now stands. There were two on the Moffat Road, one near the roundabout of the Southbound entrance to the M74, and the other where Newton Farm cottages are now.
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Newton House
Newton House ( above ) was built by Lord Newton.
This is an extract from The Upper Ward of Lanarkshire 1864
“ The hamlet of Elvanfoot, being the meeting-place of the roads from Moffat, Dumfries, and Leadhills, was, in coaching times, of some local importance – horses being changed there, and entertainment found, in Scotch phrase, for man and beast ; the railway has now changed all that, and the place has now little of the village character, except that there is a side school, and recently the old inn has been transformed into the comfortable home of the energetic young clergyman, appointed, and not too soon, to assist and succeed, the aged minister of the parish. “
This would have been written by George Vere Irving who, I believe, resided at Newton House at this time. He died in 1869.
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