Poor quality coal miner's houses adjacent to Woolfords Colliery. Leased for a period by the Pumpherston Oil Company, prior to construction of new housing at Woolfords village.
Evidence presented to the Royal Commission on Housing Conditions on 25th March 1914 stated:
"This property belongs to a farmer, Hamilton by name, but is rented through the Pumpherston Company. There are twenty houses built on the but-and-ben principle, back to back, but occupied as single-apartment houses. Thus, two families use the same doorway. The houses are rented weekly at 1s. 3d. There are also twelve double houses rented at 2s. 6d. Water is supplied by one stand-pipe surrounded by a filthy gutter. Sanitary accommodation consists of eight dry-closets and four middens, which are in a deplorable state. There are no coal-houses or washhouses. These are miserable hovels."
Valuation rolls of 1895 record 14 houses at "Newbiggin", Woolfords - its unclear whether this relates to Old Woolfords
OS maps show three rows, two with six houses each and a third with ten back-to-back houses, making a total of 22 houses.
