LOCAL HISTORY
Sketch of Alderstone House, from The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Mid Calder, by Hardy Bertram M’Call. Published 1894.
ALDERSTONE: Plague-watching duties, muster and civil war
A time-travelling resident of the Livingston area from the 15th century would recognise almost nothing if they visited today; it would be a disorientating experience. (There are some who visit from Edinburgh today who would argue the same!) On spotting Alderstone Road however they would was required, along with other vassels of the know they were in the right place. Alderstone Baron of Calder (James Sandilands) to present Road cuts through Livingston north to south, from himself at a wappinschaw held on the 4th August the roundabout on Houston Road at Deans, past I586. A wappinschaw was a “weapon-showing” the College and into Murieston. The name is - a compulsory muster of men presenting deeply rooted in the history of the area. themselves for an exhibition of arms. After the establishment of Protestantism, the government Originally an estate within the ancient Barony of was still jumpy about potential attack from Calder Comitis, Alderstone developed into one “papists” and barons were required by law to of the largest estates in the area and eventually see that every vassal was armed according to became a free barony in its own right. his rank. Peter Kinloch had to present “a horse, a Our time-travelling guest would find the lairds’ jak-speir and steil bonat, plait slewis, sword and seat, Alderstone House, tucked behind pistolet.” Klondykes in the remains of its mature parkland, Peter’s son Patrick, an advocate, inherited the about halfway between Dedridge and Livingston Village. It was renovated estate. He married in 2010 as a commercial the next year, then his premises. Here are some brother died in 1625 Scotland’s measures to control glimpses we have into and Patrick inherited his epidemics were generally well in what was the Barony of brother’s rental income advance of England’s, although Alderstone. from Howatston and still shrouded in superstition Gavieside that their father The estate boundaries and misunderstanding. had left him. Perhaps broadly encompassed the extra cash was the the tract of land from deciding factor in his Livingston Village out 1626 conversion of the old tower into Alderstone to the south west, taking in Crofthead Farm, House, a more palatial residence. A doo’cote Howatston, Over and Nether Alderston, was built around the same time and is also still in Brucefield and Gavieside, where Five Sisters Zoo is. Acquired by the Kinloch family in the mid the grounds. 1500s, it was in their hands for a few generations, Patrick and Agnes’s eldest son James was and the laird’s seat at Alderstone House was laird of Alderstone when an outbreak of plague originally a simple rectangular tower, probably hit Scotland from 1644 – 1649. Along with the build by the first Kinloch laird, Henry. lairds of Linhouse and Charlesfield, James was Henry’s son Peter was described in his will, on his on plague-watching duty at Kirk of Calder on death in 1621, “Mr Peter Kinloch of Alderstoun, Sundays and preaching days; they made sure writer and indweller in Edinburgh,” so he possibly that “no strangers nor persons suspected lived mostly in Edinburgh, at least latterly. Peter of the pestilence came within the church.” 8 | CALDERS
@KonectMagazines
