St Quivox 1846

QUIVOX, ST., a parish, in the district of Kyle, county of Ayr, 2 miles (N. E.) from Ayr; containing, with the village of Whiteletts, and the late quoad sacra district of Wallacetown, 6055 inhabitants. This place, anciently written St. Kevoch, and subsequently St. Evox, appears to have derived that name from a female saint who flourished in the reign of Malcolm II., and who is supposed to have founded some religious establishment here of which the history is unknown.

The parish is about five miles in length and about three miles broad; it is bounded on the south by the river Ayr, and comprises 5000 acres, of which, with the exception of 250 woodland and plantations, the whole is arable and pasture. The surface is partly flat, but rises towards the eastern extremity, and is there broken into irregular eminences: the Ayr abounds with yellow trout, and there are numerous springs affording an ample supply of excellent water. The soil in the lower parts is light and sandy, interspersed with patches of moss and clay; and in the higher lands, a stiff retentive clay. The crops are, wheat, oats, barley, potatoes, and turnips; the system of agriculture is in a highly improved state, and the rotation plan generally practised; the lands are well drained and fenced, and the farm-buildings substantial and commodious. A dairy-farm is well managed on the lands of Shields; eighty milch cows are kept, and large quantities of butter of good quality are sent to the Edinburgh and Glasgow markets. The cattle are mostly a cross with the short-horned breed, and considerable numbers are fattened for the butcher, and at an early age attain a great weight: the sheep that are kept are chiefly of the Highland or Galloway breed. The woods consist of every variety of forest-tree; and the plantations, which are of various ages, are in a flourishing state. The rateable annual value of St. Quivox is £10,974.

The substratum of the parish is mostly of the coal formation. There are two seams of coal, the uppermost of which is about four feet in thickness, and of a light and friable quality; while the lower, which lies at a depth of twenty fathoms, and is about the same in thickness, is of harder texture, and more of the quality of splint. The upper seam, having been worked for more than fifty years, is nearly exhausted, but the lower, which has been opened only within the few last years, is in full operation: three pits are now wrought, and the coal is conveyed by a railroad to the harbour of Ayr. Freestone is also quarried in several parts, and the produce arising from the collieries and quarries together is estimated at £3405 per annum.

The mansion-houses of Auchencruive and Craigie are spacious and handsome residences, finely situated on the banks of the Ayr, in tastefully disposed demesnes embellished with thriving plantations; and the gardens and pleasure-grounds of the former are much admired. The nearest town is Ayr, to which the parish forms a kind of suburb, and where the farmers obtain a market for their agricultural produce, and a port for the shipping of that of the mines and quarries.

St. Quivox is in the presbytery of Ayr and synod of Glasgow and Ayr, and patronage of the Oswald family: the minister's stipend is about £250, with a manse, and the glebe is valued at £8 per annum. The church, an ancient structure situated nearly in the centre of the parish, was repaired and enlarged in 1824, and is adapted for a congregation of 450 persons. From the great increase of the parish by the erection of the villages of Wallacetown and Content, a chapel was built at the former place by subscription in 1835, affording accommodation to 900 persons; and in the year following, that village for ecclesiastical purposes was erected into a separate parish. At Wallacetown are also an episcopal chapel, places of worship for members of the United Secession, Antiburghers, and Independents, and a Roman Catholic chapel.

The parochial school is well conducted: the master has a salary of £30 per annum, with £30 fees, and a house and garden; also eight bolls of meal from the Auchencruive estate. A small parochial library has been established; and the inhabitants, from their proximity to the town of Ayr, participate in all the general institutions at that place. There are several friendly societies, and also a female friendly society founded some few years since under the patronage of Lady Oswald, and which has a fund of £400 for the relief of its members. In levelling some ground near Content, several small earthen urns were found, supposed to be of Roman origin.

From:   A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland (1846)