Indigo Mills at Elie (C.P. Biggam)

Following a query from Etienne Rogier about “indigo mills” at Elie, and discussion with Graham Johnston of the Elie and Earlsferry History Society, investigations were carried out as far as the evidence allowed.

The source of the information is a brief paragraph in the Practical Mechanic’s Journal, series 2, volume 8, page 231, of 1863, in an article entitled ‘Power of Wind as Applied to Flour Mills’ by J. S. of Woolwich (full name unknown). After describing a new type of windmill “on the horizontal construction”, J. S. adds this sentence: “Several mills on the horizontal construction were in use at the town of Eli [sic.], in the litigious kingdom of Fife, at the end of the last century, and were employed in grinding indigo, but they have long since been removed”. This statement was repeated by later authors but no-one supplied references to support it.

The indigo dye, technically known as indigotin, can be obtained from certain shellfish, namely, whelks, and from certain plants, usually referred to as indigo or woad, and it produces colours which are mostly blue or purple. There is a tendency to use indigo for the tropical plant which produces quantities of blue dye, and to use woad for the less productive native plant of Britain and western Europe, but this terminological distinction has never been well observed.

Mr Johnston and the History Society know of the growing and milling of flax in Elie as late as the early 19th century, and there was a cottage industry of linen weaving in Earlsferry between 1820 and 1890, but there was no record of dye production in the area.

Intrigued by the mystery of the disappearing mills, I tried to investigate further but without any real success. However, one matter caught my attention, and that was the name of a small bay at the east end of Elie, which was separated from the main bay of Earlsferry and Elie by a rocky promontory. The small bay was named Wadehaven, but the alternative names of Wadd’s Haven and Woodhaven also occurred. Although the usual explanation given was some connection with General Wade, I wondered whether there could be a connection with woad, especially as woad-workers were often called wadmen. The fact that Wadehaven is on the eastern edge of town is also significant since woad-workers were usually made to live and work away from settlements because of the smell of their product. I approached a colleague in the University of Glasgow, Carole Hough, Professor of Onomastics, and she was able to supply some more information.

To stand a chance of successfully identifying the origin of a place-name, the researcher has to find early spellings but the earliest recorded form of Wadehaven can (so far) only be dated to 1775. For this reason, and the low number of occurrences recorded of the name, Prof. Hough and I are only offering suggestions but we cannot be sure of any explanation. The prime source of information is The Place-Names of Fife, vol. 3: St Andrews and the East Neuk, by Simon Taylor with Gilbert Markus (2009), pages 280–281. Under Wood Haven, the following occurrences are listed:

Wood Haven 1775

Wadehaven 1790s

Wadd’s Haven 1790s

Wood Haven 1828 and 1855

The discussion of this name includes the following: “The first element may be Sc wood. This was certainly the view proposed by the OS Name Book in the 1850s, which stated that it was called Wood Haven because it was ‘where vessels usually discharge wood’. But the two forms from the 1790s raise doubts about this origin. If we accept the explanation… involving the personal name Wade, there may be a connection between Wood Haven… and nearby Wadeslea, a street-name at the east end of Elie burgh”.

While looking up this name for me, Prof. Hough caught sight of something interesting in The Place-Names of Fife, vol. 2: Central Fife between the Rivers Leven and Eden, by Simon Taylor and Gilbert Markus (2008), pages 473–474. In a charter in the Cartulary of Dunfermline Abbey, the boundaries of a land-grant include “and thus northwards as far as the stone which is called Woadstane (Wadestan) and thus to the place which is called Knockmadder (Knokmadyr)”. The bounds start on the south-eastern side of Largo Law. In his comments on these names, Taylor points out that closely located names with (probably) woad and madder “suggests that at around this time (the first half of the fourteenth century or earlier) this north-west corner of NBN [Newburn] was especially involved in the production of cloth-dying plants”.

If woad had been grown locally in the medieval period, it is possible that, when such a crop was no longer viable (because of the import of exotic indigo) people turned to importing indigo themselves to continue an activity with which they were familiar. However, much of this is speculation.

 

Postscript

It has been the conventional wisdom that Wadehaven and Wadeslea were ascribed to General Wade.  The General spent some time in Elie post 1745 and was reputed to have lived in a house which over looks the Harbour but with all his other duties in Scotland he cannot have lived in this house for very long.   It is documented that the bay which bears the names of Woodhaven or Wadehaven (otherwise Ruby Bay) was surveyed by the General with a view to finding a deep water anchorage for ships of war.  But if that is the accurate ascription of the name it seems strange that the bay suddenly acquired a name from someone who had surveyed it.  The alternative suggestion is that it was called Woodhaven on the basis that it was where reputedly ships discharged cargoes of timber.  Again this is a plausible explanation but it seems strange that the timber should have been discharged in a bay rather than at the actual harbour which forms the western edge of Woodhaven bay.  Prior to 1860 or so the harbour had a tidal causeway to it but that did not seem to prevent other ships from loading and discharging at the actual harbour.  Again its seems strange that a corruption of Woodhaven should have been Wadehaven and vice versa.

Wadeslea is the area of ground lying to the east of the older parts of Elie.  In 1950 it was surveyed and social housing built on it.  The first ascertainable mention of the area seems to have been in an ordnance survey map of  the late 19^th century which was after the arrival of the railway line. Prior to that, the maps did not ascribe a name to this area of ground.  It may have been that it was common folklore that gave a  name to the field as was often the way in these days.  If that is accurate why the use of “Wade” ?  Was it part of the General’s fiefdom  ?  It is strange if it was since it is a good  quarter of a mile away from his known residence.  Further why should it bear the name of Wade’s field (lea)  He was not apparently  noted as a farmer.  Wadeslea itself is not adjacent to Wadehaven bay.  The suggestion must be that it was called Wadeslea or Woadslea or Waddslea by virtue of woad having been grown on the land.  If that is a possible interpretation then it make logical sense the bay would have been properly called Woadhaven or Wadhaven and it is but a short corruption to Wadehaven.  So if the bay was named after woad that begs the question as to whether the windmills referred to in the Journal of 1863 might have been alongside this Bay.  There is another possible reason to ascribe the mills to that area. The bay itself is very exposed to the prevailing south westerly winds and rises steeply from the sandy beach. Kite surfers have used the updraft from this Bay as a powerful take off point.  The wind therefore would be easily be  expected to be able to drive any horizontal windmills that might have been on the  rising ground beside the Bay.  There is one further adminicle.  To the  east of the Toft there was a linen/flax/lint mill driven by the overflow from Kilconquhar Loch which discharges into the Toft.  There was a thriving industry of weaving especially in Earlsferry between last 1820s and 1890s and about twenty such looms in Elie.  There would therefore have been a ready market not only for the product of the mill but also the dye that woad and woad mills could produce.

This is of course speculation and based on guesswork but it is suggested that the logic tends to suggest that  both Wadeslea and Wadehaven bay may have had associations with woad and woad mills.

(Nov 16)

Postscript 2

General Wade and Elie

Somewhere in the annals of the History Society there is a view that the house formerly known as Archibald (or Archbold )House and also as Wade house at the corner of the Terrace and Stenton Row was at one time the home or at least the lodging place of General (later Field Marshall) George Wade – a man famous for the construction and maintenance of highways and bridges in the Highlands and also the attempted suppression of the Jacobite cause. It was said that he was wont to spy on ships in the Forth Estuary lest they be carrying Jacobites or weapons for insurrection. The association persists in three other ways. The first is the naming of the farm and then housing development between the Toft and the old station called “Wadeslea”. –the suggestion being that it is the field of General Wade. The second is the bay next along from Ruby Bay towards the lighthouse. This bay at some time was known as Woodhaven bay but also Wadehaven bay – the latter because it is alleged that General Wade surveyed it as possible deep water anchorage for the English/British war fleet – the legend goes on to suggest that it would have been the current Rosyth had Wade’s plan succeeded. The third association in similar vein is that in 1812/13 when Robert Stevenson was first commissioned by the local landowners to survey the Harbour area and make proposals for an upgrade to its facilities marked on the plan/map which he produced that the area was known as Wades Bay. Following on from that when the first ordnance survey was carried out between 1853 and 1855 very careful notes were kept of the names of places and corroboration was sought from the local population of the authenticity of these names. Now the area in question was called Woodhaven Bay in the ordnance survey reports on the basis that three or more people had advised of its name and that this was the bay into which timber boats would come to unload their cargo when the harbour by virtue of its dilapidation was problematic. The suggestion was that the wood was floated ashore from ships at anchor in these deeper waters.
It is of course significant that with the assiduous inquires made by the surveyor of the ordinance survey this did not produce an alternative of Wades(haven) Bay – not least since less than 30 years had passed since Stevenson’s Survey had referred to it as Wade’s Bay.

There is evidence that this association with Wade may be in error.

Canmore the arm of the Historic Environment Scotland suggests that Archibald House (Wade House) was built in 1754. General George Wade died in 1748 in the south of England so both dates cannot be accurate. There is no doubt that Wade did spend a long time in Scotland. There is no reference whatever to him having been in Fife in “Wade in Scotland” written by J.B. Salmond and published in 1935 which seems strange if he is said to have spent some time in Elie and it could not have been a fleeting visit if places were named after him.

Wade was made commander in chief in Scotland in 1725 but before that in 1715 he was engaged in Bath and in England in some anti Jacobite matters but so far as we know he did not venture north. It was not until 1724 that he set out to go north to Scotland just prior to his appointment and for a number of years thereafter he was heavily engaged in examining the Scottish Highlands and dealing with its problems. He was pretty busy in inverness in 1725 so watching for Jacobites from Elie did not seem to have much priority. In 1726 he was in Edinburgh and between then and 1729 he was busy looking at and constructing roads and bridges in the Highlands and there is no reference to him being in Fife. 1731 sees him in Dalwhinnie and until 1733 he was busy with the building of roads and bridges Inverness and north. Again no time for Elie and one wonders if the Jacobite threats had receded by this time thereby not requiring special vigilance. 1734 to October 1736 he was not in Scotland other than a brief examination of the Tay bridge at Aberfeldy. He was back in Scotland in 1738 but eventually between 1739 and 1740 when he relinquished his role in Scotland he did not seem to have visited. He was back training units in the army having been made a full general and in 1742 he was appointed to the Privy Council and in 1743, made a Field Marshall , and in 1744 he was in Flanders. At the outbreak of the 45 Wade was in command of an army in Newcastle and was thwarted in his attempts to prevent the southern progress of the Young Pretender which led to Wade’s replacement as chief of the army He lived his last years in Highgate and he died in 1748.

Why therefore all these references to Wadeslea, WadesBay and Wade House. I wonder if the Wade in that context is meant to be woad – wad or wade was a popular name for the plant which was grown at one time extensively in Scotland and used to acquire a deep purple/indigo dye. See Indigo Mills by Carol Biggam.
If that connection is correct them we have Wadeslea being Wades field or meadow a corruption of Woad. We have Wadehaven bay and – it might be that the indigo windmills referred to in Carol Biggam’s excellent piece supra might well have been the site of these windmills grinding indigo from woad hence wodes lea. Wade House is more difficult to ascribed to woad but it is significant that there is an alternative name for the house which might suggest that its wade/woad connection was either not felt to be important enough to mention as the name of a house or perhaps the reference to it is intended to be woad which was often considered to be an anti-social occupation using as it did human urine and somewhat noxious a process.
Romantic it may be that all these Wades refer to the great General George Wade but there is more convincing evidence to suggest is it nothing more mundane (albeit fascinating) than a reference to woad and its production.

GJ 12.2024