RootsChat.Com

Hello,

I have a birth cert in my research which is from the late 1940s and gives the location of birth as "Battery Buildings, Stornoway".  Just wondering if anyone can tell me a little more about this location, particularly where it was?

From bits and pieces, mainly hearsay from various sources, I gather that they were down by the harbour somewhere and that by this time they may have been converted into some kind of accomodation of some description? It would be nice to know exactly what they were being used for at this time.

I also believe that they are no longer there but if anyone could tell me the exact location of where they once stood, that would be great - I've looked at a few old maps but to no avail.

Does anyone have any further information on this location?

Thanks
Alan

Charlie,

Rose Hall Terrace was on Rumblingwell in Dunfermline, right next to the old primary school. I looked at a few old maps from the NLS collection and managed to find one from the 1890s which actually mentions it by name:

http://maps.nls.uk/os/25inch-2nd-and-later/view/?jp2=82882035#jp2=82882035&zoom=5&lat=4943&lon=7315&layers=BT

Note that on this old map there is only a block of four terraced buildings, but further houses were built later which you can see appearing on subsequent maps. I'm not sure which, if any, of the subsequent houses would use the Rose Hall Terrace address and which would just use Rumblingwell. Although it looks like the Rose Hall Terrace address maybe isn't used anymore, you can actually see that the house immediately to the west of the school to this day still has an old Rose Hall Terrace sign on its outside wall - if you're not near the area, you can actually see it clearly on the streetview section of Google maps:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=rose+hall+terrace,+Dunfermline&hl=en&ll=56.078622,-3.484254&spn=0.000012,0.009602&sll=56.078586,-3.484061&sspn=0.004353,0.009602&t=m&z=17&layer=c&cbll=56.078573,-3.484066&panoid=qJXBMAlJU16t8-kmOin-Eg&cbp=12,0.45,,1,-7.99

Hope that's of some interest.

Cheers,
Alan

Hi folks,

A few suggestions there - I've not had any luck tracing the marriage as yet but I shall persevere, armed with a few more possibilities.

Thank you all for your input.

Alan

I believe the poorhouse and hospital were together in the same location here, so I would say that one of these is as good as the other, but it certainly seems most likely. Dunfermline jail was also next to the poorhouse but that sounds a little more extreme...

There is a nice map on the National Library of Scotland's website which shows the area at roughly the time you are talking about (from late 30s, early 40s):

http://maps.nls.uk/os/25inch-2nd-and-later/view/?jp2=82882158#jp2=82882158&zoom=5&lat=2606&lon=6726&layers=BT

The front wall of the jail is all that remains of it, but it's useful as a marker - the houses that currently stand immediately to the west of the jail wall number into the 50s, while the current Leys Park Care Home (just a little bit below the Nurses Home shown on this map I think) is number 80. I would therefore imagine that number 64 was indeed part of the poorhouse/hospital, some parts of which are still standing, as highlighted in the link Monica posted.

Fiona, that would be great - I will send the details in a private message. Thank you.