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©2012
Stenhouse Community Council
Website maintained by Iain Donaldson
Last Updated: January 2012
Click on the areas below to read about the history of our local area. There's a lot to tell so we've only included some information below.
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We need your help! We'd really like to hear from anyone who has any pictures or recollections of the local area that you'd like to share. |
Click on an area below for more information |
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An old hamlet which now forms a western suburb of Edinburgh, Stenhouse lies at the western end of Gorgie Road 2½ miles (4 km) southwest of the city centre. The old village lies in a loop of the Water of Leith to the south of Gorgie Road around the 16th-century mansion of Stenhouse in Stenhouse Mill Lane. The former Stenhouse Stadium, which was used for football and later greyhound racing, was also located here.
The Stenhouse street names in Saughton are derived from Stenhope, a family living there in 1511. Extract taken from "The Place names of Edinburgh", a book written by Stuart Harris.
The old Stenhope House (Stenhouse Castle) was built 1623 probably by one of the Stenhope family who held the land of Stennap Milnes or Stenhouse Mills from 1511 to 1621 and which was located a few yards further up the Water of Leith.
The following streets are named from Stenhope Mills Village, a small community where Stenhouse Mill Lane is today.
STENHOUSE AVENUE / AVENUE W / COTTAGES / CRESCENT / CROSS / DRIVE / GARDENS / GARDENS N / GROVE / PLACE E / PLACE W / ROAD / STREET E / STREET W / TERRACE
Stenhouse Stadium
Civil Service Strollers Football Club is a senior football team from Edinburgh, Scotland currently playing in the East of Scotland Football League.
Founded in 1908 under the name Edinburgh Civil Service Football Club, their first ground was the Stenhouse Stadium, which later became a venue for greyhound racing, before moving to Pinkhill Stadium in the 1920s. They moved to the Edinburgh Area Civil Service Sports Association in Muirhouse in 1957 where they continue to play their home games today.
Stenhouse Primary School
Stenhouse Primary School is a non-denominational, co-educational school providing education for children from Nursery to P7.
As seen from Saughton Mains Street
Built in 1930, Stenhouse School is a sound, functional building with small but well proportioned and attractive classrooms, all with a southern exposure. Between the two wings of the school lies an attractive courtyard with grassy areas, tables and benches.
The courtyard has also been planted with a herb garden and an area for growing vegetables. These are cultivated by children, under staff direction, and money raised from selling the produce helps to fund the gardening.
To find out more visit Stenhouse Primary School website.
SAUGHTON MAINS
A suburb of Edinburgh, Saughton Mains lies 3 miles (5 km) southwest of the city centre and principally comprises public housing. HM Prison Edinburgh lies on the southern margin of the district and is known as Saughton Prison. The 17th C. Saughton Hall was bought by Edinburgh Corporation in 1900, but demolished in 1952 and the site now forms Saughton Park. Old Saughton House suffered a similar fate, removed to make was for Broomhouse Primary School in Broomhouse Crescent.
(© Gazetteer for Scotland, 1995 - 2007)
Plaque commemorating the Improvement Works in conjunction with Saughton Mains Residents Association (SMRA), 2001-2005
"Saugh" means "The Willow Tree" and the reference is to the willows by the Water of Leith. The name "Saughtonhall" is appropriate for the area in which they are situated. "Saughton" names are further west and are more likely derived from the house of "Old Saughton". The house was situated where Broomhouse Primary School now is to the west of Saughton Road and to the north of Calder Road.
The following streets are named from Saughton Mains Farm formerly situated immediately to the south of St. Salvador's Church in Saughton Mains Street:-
SAUGHTON MAINS AVENUE / BANK / COTTAGES / DRIVE / GARDENS / GROVE / LOAN / PARK / PLACE / STREET / TERRACE
Saughton Road and Saughton Road North were formerly called Saughton Station Road. Name derives from the old mansion house of Saughton Hall, home for centuries of the Baird family. The garden and, in particular, the rose garden of Saughton Public Park were the grounds of the old house.
Saughton Park (including Saughtonhall Mansion House)
The park and Saughtonhall Mansion House were purchased in 1900 by the Corporation from Sir William Baird Tuke, and in 1908 Saughton park became the site of the great Scottish National Exhibition.
During WWII the formal gardens were turned into onion beds as Saughton helped to dig for victory. The house, which had earlier been turned into an asylum for the mentally ill, housed ‘Land Girls’.
The house was eventually burned to the ground in a controlled fire due to it being riddled with dry rot.
Located in Stenhouse Mill Crescent, Edinburgh, to the south of Gorgie Road, Stenhouse Mansion lies 2½ miles (4 km) southwest of the city centre. An F-plan mansion built by the Stanhope family not long after they were rented land here by Holyrood Abbey in 1511. The property passed to Edinburgh Burgess and merchant Patrick Ellis, who extended the original house to the south in 1623. His initials, arms and the often used inscription 'Blissit Be God For Al His Gifts' appears over the door. The house was saved from ruin by being given to the National Trust for Scotland in 1937 by the Greyhound Racing Trust, and was restored by Iain Lindsay 1937-39 and 1962-65. The house now serves as the conservation centre for Historic Scotland.
Historic Scotland's Conservation Centre (HSCC) at 3 Stenhousemill Lane leads the field in all aspects of practical and preventative conservation for the built environment in Scotland. Conservators specialise in stone, easel paintings, wall paintings, environmental monitoring and the analysis of historic decorative schemes.
| 1908 Scottish National Exhibition, Edinburgh |
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The Scottish National Exhibition in Saughton Park ran for six months and was opened on 1st May by Prince Arthur of Connaught, and was closed on Saturday 31st October by Sir Robert Cranston, Chairman of the Executive Committee. Nearly 3.5 million people visited the Exhibition!
The exhibition included the Machinery Hall, Fine Arts Galleries, Music and Conference Hall, and Amusement Park.
In return for housing the event at Saughton Park, Edinburgh was to secure from the Exhibition aurthorities a permanent winter-garden, a bandstand and a ferro-concrete bridge over the Water of Leith.
Reproduced with acknowledgement to Peter Stubbs www.edinphoto.org.uk
WHITSON
Following the pattern of naming streets after Lord Provosts at that time (Hutchison, Chessar, Sleigh and Stevenson) the following streets were named after Sir Thomas Barnaby Whitson, Lord Provost 1926-1929:-
View of Whitson Road looking towards Murrayfield Stadium
Note: Cape Whitson, South Orkneys and Whitson Bay, Spitzbergen are also named after him.
The Edinburgh Room, based at the Central Library on George IV Bridge, was originally named the Edinburgh Historical and Topographical Library. It was formally opened in the Central Library's loft on 14 July 1932 by the Lord Provost, Sir Thomas Whitson.
