Rows1913

Thomas McKerrel and James Brown of the Ayrshire Miners' Union visited Connel Park on the 13th November 1913 and 'found most of the rows in a miserably dirty condition, due to bad or ill-kept drainage and to unpaved fronts and backs'.

Their report on housing conditions provide some harrowing statistics.

A total of 1374 inhabitants lived in 317 homes, a collection of one or two-apartments houses each with a kitchen and scullery. Typical room dimensions were of the order of 12 feet by 9 feet in the older rows to 12 feet by 11 feet in the newer rows. Rents for single apartments ranged from 1s 10d to 2s per week and from 2s 9d to 4s per week for double apartments.

The most disturbing statistic however is that associated with the provision of sanitation facilities. The Long Row, Old and New Football Row, Old Low Boig Row, High Boig Row, Bankbrae Row (right-hand side) and the Honeymoon Row were home to 864 people . These rows were provided with a total of 40 dry-closets (i.e. 22 people to to one dry-closet) many of which had no doors and were situated alongside the open ash-pits used for dumping the other household rubbish.

Signs of improvement in the refurbished Store Row and the newly built Bankbrae Row (left hand-side) where a water-closet was provided for every two apartments. Whilst, in the newly built Railway Terrace described as a 'better class of house' each of the 34 houses had a water-closet.

Ayrshire Miners' Row 1913 , Ayrshire Archaeological and Natural History Society (1979)