Notes on the way
through Ayrshire - 100 years
ago
The village of
PATNA stands on the Doon, which traces the east boundary of
the parish, four miles north-by-east of Straiton, and nine and a
half miles from Ayr. , It has grocery and drapery shops; a post
office, with money order and savings bank departments; Established and
United Presbyterian Churches, a public school, a smithy, and a railway
station. Population in 1871, 766; in 1881, 603. This includes 179 in Dalmellington
parish, over the bridge.
Patna 1846
PATNA, a village, in the parish of Straiton, district of Carrick, in the
county of Ayr, 7 miles (N. E. by N.) from the village of Straiton;
containing 231 inhabitants. This village, which is pleasantly situated on
the banks of the river Doon, and has been wholly rebuilt within the last
century, appears to have arisen from the opening of collieries and
lime-quarries in its immediate neighbourhood. It consists partly of
several neat and well-built houses inhabited by persons engaged in the
various trades requisite for the wants of this portion of the very
extensive parish in which it is situated, and partly of numerous cottages
for those employed in the collieries and quarries. In these about forty
persons are constantly occupied; and the average annual produce of the
pits and quarries is estimated at £1200. The coal occurs in seams of
different quality, varying in thickness from three and a half to about
eight feet. The old road leading to the village, having become impassable,
has been abandoned, and a more convenient road formed; but a still shorter
road is highly requisite for the greater facility of conveying the produce
of the lime and coal works to various parts of the parish. Coal which may
be purchased at Patna for three shillings and sixpence per ton, cannot be
delivered in the village of Straiton for less than eight shillings. A
chapel in connexion with the Established Church has been recently erected
for the accommodation of the inhabitants of this distant portion of the
parish, on a spot of ground given for that purpose, in 1836, by Mrs.
Leslie Cumming. The building, erected by subscription, is substantial, and
adapted at present for a congregation of 600 persons; and has been so
arranged as to admit of subsequent enlargement by the addition of
galleries, when circumstances may render it expedient. The members of the
Free Church have a place of worship. A school, which affords a liberal
course of instruction to sixty children, has also been established here;
and the proprietor of the estate grants to the master a salary of £11 per
annum, with a house and garden, in addition to the fees, which average
£25. About thirty-five children also attend a Sabbath school.
From: A Topographical Dictionary
of Scotland (1846)
and .co.uk