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Uphall Station - Stankard Rows

Alternative names:
Randy rows
Parish:
Uphall, Linlithgowshire
Local authority:
West Lothian
Ownership:
Young's Paraffin Light & Mineral Oil Co. Ltd.
Opened:
c.1866, with an additional row built during the 1870's
Closed:
Demolished 1930's
Current status of site:
Woodland

See also Uphall Station Rows, Uphall Station - Office Rows, Uphall Station - Beechwood Cottages

stankard rows mast.jpg

Stankards Rows (often referred to as Randy Rows) was built to house workers at Uphall Oil Works. Conditions were described in evidence presented to the Royal Commission on housing conditions in 1914:

Stankards Rows consist of six double- and thirty single-apartment houses. There are no coal-cellars, washhouses, or sculleries. Ash-pits and privies exist. The ash-pits are emptied at irregular intervals, and are from 10 to 15 yards from houses. Rents are 2/5 and 1/8 per week, inclusive of local and county rates. These houses are of a very poor type.

The dwellings originally comprised of three rows each with six single-room houses and one row with twelve single room houses. A row of six two-room houses were built during the 1870's. The village became increasing overshadowed by Stankards bing and was demolished in the 1930's. A semi-detached cottage (Elmbank and Lilybank) was built to the south of the rows c.1900 and survived into the 1960's.

  • Location map
  • Detailed maps
      • uphall station key.jpg stankard1895.jpg stankard1913.jpg stankard1956.jpg stankardaerial.jpg

    Archive images

    StankardsRowArchive1.jpg

    Recent images

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  • Newspaper references

      • Sanitary Inspectors report - Six old houses of one apartment at Stankards Rows, Uphall have been demolished.

      West Lothian Courier, 4th October 1929
      .......

      In Randy Rows there was no scullery, everyone had to wash in the kitchen. The oil workers were so dirty coming from their work that they had to take off their shirts while washing. There was no "wee house", but one small yard in the centre of the Rows had to serve. This yard was for about twenty houses, every house packed with lodgers. There was a centre wall, one side for women, the other for men. It took you some time to know which was which, as there were no notices.

      My Story by Paddy the Cope", an autobiography by Patrick Gallacher, published 1939

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