Hi I've heard the Mechanics Arms hotel used to be called Mitchell's does anyone know more about the previous ownership of that pub? Are there records somewhere we could order do you think? and where from. Thanks so much, wonderful story On 04/07/2010 7:28 PM, CandROverson wrote: > Hi Mary and Tammy > > I think I have probably mentioned before that I was brought up in Gilmerton. > I lived there as a child in the 1950s. If I remember correctly, the old > village consisted of one main street (Drum Street, I think) with a > blacksmith's and a line of shops, including a pub on a corner and two roads > leading off the main street. One road contained Gilmerton Parish Church > (now closed, I believe) and the other had a wonderful fish and chip shop. By > the 1950s there were number of new housing schemes surrounding the village. > > I have just had a look at the Google map of Gilmerton. Travelling south > (away from Edinburgh) down Drum Street, I see the old village hall is still > there on the corner of Drum Street and Ferniehill Drive (I used to learn > Scottish country dancing there!). But a Bingo Hall now stands where the > blacksmith's once stood. If you carry on up Drum Street still in a southern > direction, on your left you will see a Kwik Serve, then a Mr Man's (whatever > that is). An electrical shop owned by a man called Mr Tomes stood where > Kwik Serve is now and there used to be a fish shop where Mr Man's is now. > It was family-owned and at the moment I can't remember the name of the > family but I think they were an old Gilmerton family. All I remember is that > he was called Alan and I used to love watching him filleting the fish. The > next shop along which is now called Studio 45, was known by us as "Mrs > Tait's". This again was a family-owned shop which sold groceries, veg, cakes > and sweets. I think the Taits were an old Gilmerton family and wonder if > they were connected to the 'William Tait' who was a neighbour of Mrs > Mitchell. The Mechanic Arms is opposite 'Studio 45'. I can't remember what > it was called when I was a child, or even if it was a pub. The street to the > right, leading off Drum Street, is called Ravenscroft Street, and is one of > the roads I mentioned in my opening para. Gilmerton Church was/is on this > road, about 200 yards up on the right. > > See: http://tiny.cc/i4hul > > Thanks for giving me an excuse to walk down memory lane! > > > Rhoda > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Mary Guler"<mlmguler@yahoo.com> > To:<midlothian@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Sunday, July 04, 2010 9:17 PM > Subject: [MIDLOTHIAN] Pub in Gilmerton, 1820 > > > We have found that our Mitchell gggg grandparents, Robert Mitchell and > Elizabeth Weir Mitchell owned a Pub in Gilmerton. Their home included the > both the pub and a grocery store, and was on what, at the time, was > "Gilmerton" Highway? We got this information from a newspaper article in the > Edinburgh Advertiser referencing a court case(1821) in which Elizabeth > Mitchell was asked to give a deposition to the court related to an attempted > murder on the road near the pub. The deposition mentions that Mrs. > Mitchell's husband, was a cattle broker and a publican, and that Mrs > Mitchell served a neighbor, William Tait, who came into the pub along with 2 > men unknown to her. She described the men as best she could, and said they > both had rifles with them. One of the two men was subsequently charged with > attempted murder. > > This story was the first we had heard that Robert Mitchell was a publican, > and now have interest in knowing if the site still stands. By the time of > the 1841 census, Elizabeth Weir Mitchell is widowed and living in Edinburgh, > so the pub was no longer in the family's possession (we suspect). We posed > the question to a Gilmerton site on the internet, and someone said that the > pub now called "the Mechanic's Arms". was known in the 1950's as "Mitchell's > Pub". I don't know if the pub owned by Mitchell's in the 1820s would/could > retain the name for about 125 years without Mitchell ownership, so I don't > know if this is the pub they owned. > > Is there a way to find records of land ownership in Gilmerton in 1820, > without having an actual address to research? > > A complication of this is that we have been unable to find either the birth > record or the death record of our Robert Mitchell. We would think that if > there were land owned, that there would be either a will, or some records of > land transactions after his death. We have been unsuccessful at finding > anything like that. We had always thought that he was a cattle broker, and > never considered that there might be a death record that referred to him as > a publican, so we will go through the potential death records again, looking > for a Robert Mitchell with that occupation. > > Any and all suggestions welcomed! > > Mary Mitchell Guler and Tammy Mitchell > Cape Coral, FL and Chilliwack, BC > > > > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MIDLOTHIAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

Tammy I had a google search last night, and found a number of interesting references. The Mechanics Arms is at No 36 Drum Street, which is a C-Listed building, which was built about 1800. The old Gilmerton village is now a preservation area. The third link below is a paper on the preservation area. Unfortunately the annexes mentioned in the paper, which included old maps of the area, are not attached to the online copy. The first link is a mention in the Scotsman newspaper to Mitchell's Pub in 1950s' Gilmerton (see the comment below the article). The second link is an old engraving of Drum Street, Gilmerton. http://sport.scotsman.com/bt-cups/Rugby-Promotion-still-the-big.6258373.jp http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/0_a/0_around_edinburgh_-_gilmerton_drum_street_looking_nw_sepia_engraving.htm http://download.edinburgh.gov.uk/caca/CACAGilmerton.pdf Rhoda ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tammy Mitchell" <ancestry@ripandrevmedia.ca> To: <midlothian@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, July 05, 2010 2:47 PM Subject: Re: [MIDLOTHIAN] Pub in Gilmerton, 1820 > Hi > > I've heard the Mechanics Arms hotel used to be called Mitchell's > does anyone know more about the previous ownership of that pub? > > Are there records somewhere we could order do you think? and where from. >