Woolfords and Tarbrax

[2Harriet]

Hi, Two places I would like to have photos of but am not sure where they are. Hopefully, someone will know.
1 is Tarbrax Mission Church where my mother was married and played the organ there on Sundays.

2 is 28 New Woolfords, Midlothian where my mother was born in 1923. When trying to identify the actual dwelling I am confused by the Old or New Woolfords and Woolford's cottages. Can anyone help please? Cobbinshaw loch was nearby.

I was up there at Tarbrax quick tour today and saw 2 churches, recently converted into homes but did not know which one it was. Not far away, I saw a row of houses called Woolfords...was that "new" Woolfords but there were not as many as 28 dwellings re the address being 28 New Woolfords??   Grateful for any clarification, Thanks, folks.

[MonicaL]

Hi Harriet

A little here on the background to Woolford housing www.scottishshale.co.uk/places/company-housing/woolfords-cottages/ Includes some maps and photos.

Monica

[MonicaL]

Have you had a look at the Valuation Rolls on www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk?

Searching the 1925 VRs, just put New Wolfords in 'Place'. This brings up 95 entries. Likely some housing will be multi occupancy with more that done family living in the property. Just quickly glancing through the index, I can see up to no. 46 listed on the index.

Might be an idea to have a look at the images on SP? There are 4 pages showing, so at 2 units per page, will cost 8 units to view the entire listing for New Wolfords.

Monica

[2Harriet]

Hi Monica, Thanks I never thought of SP so will have a look thanks. I have looked up the other links to Shale mining and didnt find anything to help me pinpoint the actual house so I will head of to SP to see what they have , thanks again.

[2Harriet]

The valuation roll for 1925 confirms the address I want to find as being 28 New Woolfords, Cobbinshaw, where mum was born, can anyone tell me if this still exists today please and where?

[KirstyG]

On the basis of information from this page
http://www.forthdistrict.co.uk/villages-history/woolfords/woolfords-history.html
I think the house you want is probably on one of the later blocks if no more than 8 houses to a block were built.

The National Library of Scotland has some very useful map overlays.

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17&lat=55.79664&lon=-3.58728&layers=170&b=1

Also using google street view you can see some house numbers (number 21 and 22 have signs up on the road side of the house). On the basis of that I think number 28 might be the middle house of the third block as you go north.

Hope this helps.

Kirsty

[Forfarian]

There's also https://hesportal.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Viewer/index.html?appid=18d2608ac1284066ba3927312710d16d which shows house numbers - you will need to zoom in quite some way to see them.

[2Harriet]

Well that's my mother's birth place found thanks to you all for clarifying that.

 Conclusion is that the row of houses which has the current sign "Woolfords" in 2021 is the  same "New" Woolfords in 1923 on mums birth cert and appears on maps also as Woolfords cottages. I could not believe that there were 28 never mind 40+ houses in that row...they must be tiny inside! Thank you all.

I will now see if I can use those very helpful links you suggested to find the Tarbrax mission Church as it was known in 1945.