Maddiston and Rumford were encompassed in the Craigend Miners’ Welfare Scheme. It was one of the most comprehensive in the area and included a golf course, an institute building, and a district nurse. The golf course was the first to get off the ground because the local committee was able to take over the 9-hole course at Craigend between California and Maddiston which had been set up by Blairlodge Academy. It officially opened on 13 May 1924. Shortly afterwards the nursing scheme began and Nurse Wishart was appointed as district nurse – her accommodation in private lodgings paid for by the Welfare Society (she was followed in 1929 by Nurse Philip). J. S. Watt of Craigend Colliery made the necessary arrangements.
Work on the building began in November 1924 on a field adjoining the old pit at Manuel Rigg and it was officially opened on 13 June 1925 by George Pate, general manager of Carron Company. The site was central to the village and neighbouring communities. It consisted of a substantial building with a spacious hall having seating for 250, a ladies room, a tennis room, a bowling room, a library, kitchen, and baths. Verandas were provided on the north and south sides. There was also a bowling green, two tennis courts and a children’s corner. Twelve acres of ground were attached for the playing of all kinds of outdoor sports, including football and cricket.
Inclusive of the golf course and the nursing service, the scheme cost a total of £3,300, and of that amount £2,900 was given in a grant through the Lanarkshire Miners’ Welfare Association, while the remainder was contributed by the miners of the district themselves. The miners of Craigend had decided in 1924 to contribute to the scheme at the rate of 2d per week towards the maintenance of the sick nursing section and for general welfare purposes. The result was that at the time of the opening of the Institute they had £400, giving them sufficient money in hand to wipe off the initial expenditure.
Some of the remaining money was used in September that year to buy a piano from Glasgow so that it could be used in concerts and dances, and at parties. The bowling club had been opened rather late in the season, as it was in the middle of June before the green was ready, and so membership had been limited to 45, but it became unlimited the following season. In February 1926 one of the rooms was fitted with two billiard tables. It was April that year before the outdoor season began and the green-keeper made the necessary preparations. A rural library opened in the Institute at Maddiston on 2 August 1926. A quoiting green was added in 1927. Things were going well and in 1933 the Craigend Miners Welfare Society recorded its largest ever membership. The premises were renovated and a new caretaker appointed.
Ongoing financial considerations and a reduction in the number of miners in the area meant that in June 1934 the Children’s Corner was handed over to Eastern No. 3 District Council free of debt, though Carron Company would only grant a lease of 21 years for the ground. That same year an appeal was made to the general public for help with the health provision, suggesting the formation of a Muiravonside Nursing Association. The Craigend Miners’ Welfare Society’s nursing provision ended. These were troublesome times for the local Institute and during the Second World War it was more or less mothballed. Coal could not be afforded to heat the rooms. In February 1941 the two full-size billiard tables (Burroughes & Watt) were sold off.
An attempt was made to revive the club after the war and in May 1946 the committee of the Maddiston Miners’ Welfare met to discuss the financial position. Mr T. Bennie, secretary, explained the position to the members and deplored the local apathy towards the Maddiston Miners Welfare. He read several letters, accompanied by accounts, from tradesmen who had done maintenance work in the hall and explained that only a regular inflow of contributions could keep the Welfare solvent. That December the committee gave the Society one last chance – if things did not improve in the following quarter they would be forced to close the Institute. In 1948 the local Society was £240 in debt. A brand new Welfare Committee was formed on 20 June that year and by the spring of 1949 the debt was cleared off. Things bumped along for a while longer and in April 1950 the Lanarkshire Area of the Miners’ Welfare Commission offered the institute as a gift to Eastern No. 3 District Council. The Council’s finances were also stretched and so it asked the County Education Committee for help with any ongoing costs, suggesting joint ownership. The Education Committee was not interested and the Council backed away from the bargain. The Welfare Committee then amalgamated first with the Old Folks Committee and later with the Gala Day Committee and functioned as the “Village and Welfare Committee.” It was then that the first children’s queen for the village was elected. The Village Committee continued until July 1951, when because of the fact that the Welfare Institute was such a liability, it was decided to reconstitute the Miners’ Welfare Society. Between then and September 1953 the sum of £203 was spent on repairs and £112 on furnishings. A billiards table was installed, activities such as drama, boxing, and a Women’s Group were sponsored. The building was said to be cleaner and more comfortable than it was under the old regime. Local pensioners got free membership and could sit at the fire, read the papers, play indoor games, listen to the wireless and chat.
Still the Craigend Miners’ Welfare Institute failed to attract enough paying members. Despite this being common knowledge in the community it still came as a surprise to them when, in August 1954, it was announced that the Institute had been sold to A Smith of Maddiston Ltd. The building was to be used as general offices, and the old bowling green and tennis courts to provide more garage and storage space for the company’s ever increasing fleet of lorries. At the same time the District Council took over the remainder of the ground as a playing field.
Falkirk Local History Society 