The village of Rigside began life as a overspill housing estate for the adjacent village of Douglas Water, which itself began life as a small mining community, also known as Ponfeigh, in the county of Lanark. There were only a few cottages provided by the local drift mine owners to the miners as tied accommodation. However the miners were worked hard with long hours underground in waist deep water and this prompted the miners to strike in 1837 for more pay, but this request was rejected and the miners and their families were evicted. The mine owners advertised for people to replace them and the adverts were answered by weavers from Lanark and Irish labourers, but when they saw they were taking work from people who were also losing their homes they packed up and left.
Years later the village was to prosper from a large mine being opened by the Coltness Iron & Coal Company which became known as the Douglas Colliery where due to the excellent quality of coal, including the celebrated Rigside cannel coal, jobs were assured for many years.
All in all, over the years the village was host to a bowling green, tennis courts, a village green, swing park, quoiting green, butchers, bakers, Co-Operative grocery store, drapers, cobblers, abattoir, hairdressers, pub and other small shops. There was also the railway station taking you to Lanark in one direction and Ayr or Glasgow the other. The village also had its own band which went on to win many competitions, and football club; many of the footballers who played for Douglas Water Thistle went onto play for Rangers and Celtic.
There were many houses in the village but the village grew at such a rate that they began developing housing in Rigside. As the council began demolishing the houses in Douglas Water, due to subsidence caused by mining work underneath, and developing more houses in Rigside, the village began slowly disappearing. The school children were moved to a newly built school in Rigside, and when the pit closed in 1967 the bands, clubs, football teams, shops and railway disappeared as people scattered to Ayrshire, Fife, Lothian and England seeking work. Most of those houses and streets in Douglas Water are gone, only a handful of houses are left, and the same seems to be happening in Rigside, with the council demolishing houses as the population falls.
The published coordinates will take you to a small parking area, from where you can look down on Rigside, but Douglas Water village is hidden from view; you can't see the former Douglas Colliery but you can see the former Broken Cross surface mine. Developed by Scottish Coal, the Broken Cross mine began operations in 2001, and the original plans for a wind energy development here were submitted by them in 2012. Upon liquidation of Scottish Coal in 2013, the Broken Cross land and intellectual property were acquired by Hargreaves as part of a package of land and operational sites across Scotland’s coalfields. Hargreaves, in conjunction with South Lanarkshire Council, developed a restoration scheme for Broken Cross based on a small amount of coal extraction and implementation of restoration bond monies. Brockwell Energy was established in 2017 as a subsidiary of Hargreaves, to develop and operate energy generation assets, in October 2018, Pioneer Point Partners acquired Brockwell in partnership with global investment firm Davidson Kempner. Brockwell Energy remain fully committed to developing a wind energy project at Broken Cross.
Stage 1 is a telegraph pole, almost exactly opposite the parking area on the other side of the road; the branded marks on the pole give information about the owner, size of the pole, and the year that it was installed. Use the numbers represented by A,B,C and D to work out the coordinates for the next stage, the Geochecker will provide instructions on what to do next.
Given that E = (D-1), F = (A+1), G = (A-C), H = (B+1); you will find Stage 2 at N 55 EB.GFH W 003 DB.BCF
The Geochecker will show instructions how to reach the Final Location
