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, known as Ponfeigh, pronounced locally as "Ponfeeth", meaning the ford across the burn used by the deer. 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 Loudon Pond was once the place where the village held its May Day celebrations, annual Gala, and football games but again, due to subsidence, they moved the gatherings to the new football ground at the other end of the village. Loudon Pond is now a Community Nature Reserve, managed by a small group of volunteers who are always looking for new committee members and workday volunteers to help to preserve and improve this hidden gem. This cache has been placed by the Loudon Pond volunteers, please visit the reserve and you can contact them on Facebook "Making Rigside Greener Group" page or by emailing greenerrigside@gmail.com if you want to join them or help in any way.
The cache is placed near the Douglas Water bridge, which was demolished at the end of 2019 and South Lanarkshire Council say that it will be rebuilt by September 2021. The most recent structure was installed mid-20th century to overbridge the original twin span masonry arch bridge over the Douglas Water watercourse. The masonry arch bridge had fallen into a state of disrepair due to settlement of its central pier, and was subject to a gross vehicle weight restriction of 10 tonnes; it suffered structural failure in April 2016, and since then it had been closed to pedestrians and vehicles. The structure provided an important local transportation link between the villages of Rigside and Douglas Water to the east and Eastertown Road to the west.
You would have overlooked Ponfeigh Station from GZ; it was a single platform station with a passing loop. The platform was on the west side of the line with a small timber building in Caledonian style, the goods yard was in the 'V' of the junction, with a goods shed and loading bank which was approached from the north, and there was a signal box at the north end of the platform. The Douglas Colliery branch came off from the north end of the station, this opened around 1898 and ran parallel to, but at a higher level to the east, than the main line continuing to Muitkirk from Lanark. The railway beyond Ponfeigh to Muirkirk closed in 1964, the signal box was closed in 1966, although the line remained open for the colliery. Douglas Colliery closed in 1967 and was completely abandoned in 1968 and with this the railway closed. The station site remained intact, without buildings, for many years but has now been cleared. The station was called Ponfeigh because Douglas Water was developed later, after the Douglas Colliery was built, which explains why the station has the wrong name.
The Douglaswater Bridge has been rebuilt and is now open, but please do NOT park any closer to the bridge than the Loudon Pond car park, or in Douglas Water village where there is plenty of room to park where the houses have been demolished. The cache is now a magnetic nano, attached to the new Armco, please bring your own pen and tweezers, and please make sure the cache is replaced EXACTLY where you found it so that it can't be seen by potential muggles.