The earliest trace of habitation in the district is a small plot of land, approximately 400 yds by 150 yds (365 by 135 metres) situated between the Foulshiels Burn and the dismantled railway which ran from Addiewell Junction to Foulshiels Colliery.   The ground belongs to Foulshiels Farm and is interesting because the 'Run rigs' or 'Lazy beds' of early farming practices, pre 1700, are still easily seen.  The 'Rigs' are approximately 7 yards (6.4 metres) wide and spaced about 1 yard apart.   They all run at 90° to the burn following the slope of the land, thus creating natural drainage in rather wet soil.   An area of such dimensions would have produced a very substantial crop depending on what sort of season had occurred.  The main crops grown would have been barley and kale with the addition of potatoes in later years.

On Armstrong's map of 1773 a dwelling called Holehouseburn is shown.  It is likely that this could have been the major building in the area and may well have been fortified by the amount of stone with which it had been constructed.   It is later referred to as Easter Holehouseburn as opposed to the existing farm which was first named Wester Holehouseburn.   On Thomson's map of 1820 the first one is simply referred to as the 'Old House' and its ruins can still be seen as a few large dressed stones approximately half way between the present farm and its eastern neighbour Stoneheap.   The big house was dismantled in the 1840's and most of the stone was used to construct the railway bridge across the Fauldhouse road.

Wester Holehouseburn was obviously the farm belonging to the Old House and the original building is in use today as a tractor and machine shed.   It was certainly built in the days of the window tax around 1691 as were several other farms in the district, as the windows are mere slits and were probably unglazed.   The more recent house was built in the mid 1800's and is typical of the period.  In recent years it has been farmed by the Ford family.

Burnhead was originally a single storey house build by the Waddell's as a manse for Longridge Kirk.  The second floor was added around 1923 and during the last few years has been extensively restructured and completely modernised.

Bridge End Farm cottages are among the oldest in the valley and it was there that the Black family settled in 1710 when it was known as Liltie co-Kee.  This delightful but almost absurd name was changed to the present one about 1870 and it has had at least two extensions added.

Stoneheap is another old farm and again the original house exists as an outbuilding.  The new house of two storeys is another typical 18th century farmhouse dating from the 1790's.   It was farmed until 1992 by the Johnston family but is now on the market as part of the new experimental lowland crofting scheme.

Bents Farm is referred to on a tombstone in Whitburn churchyard from the mid 18th century and was an important covenanting centre in the 1660's.   It lay empty for some 70 years until 1898 when it was taken over by a Mr John Russell.   It has since been farmed by the Thomson family from about 1920.   In its courtyard there is a small building which is probably one of the three cottages listed in the early records as Bents Cottage.

Crofthead House was by far the most impressive and grandiose house in the district and was built by the Waddell's at the height of their prosperity as coal masters in the latter part of the 19th century.  It's vast walled kitchen garden was situated down the slope on the flat ground beside the Breich Burn, possibly on the site of a former croft at the foot of the hill and so the new house was called Crofthead.  At the turn of the 19th century the family employed no less than seven gardeners in addition to all the house servants.   It remained in the hands of the Waddell's until 1919 when the 'Bents Estates' were taken over by United Collieries and it was then divided into two separate houses for the managers of the pits at Foulshiels and Loganlea, Thomas Allan and Thomas Linton.  It then acquired its local name of the 'Managers' or more colloquially the 'Manny's'   For some unknown and unaccountable reason it was allowed to fall into disrepair after Nationalisation of the coal industry in 1948 and was sadly demolished in the early 1950's, leaving only a few stones to mark the site of this once impressive mansion house.  'Braes' would appear to have been a very small croft as shown on the map of 1773 on or near where the walled garden for Crofthead was later sited.   There is no other record of it and no evidence of it has been found.  Possibly all the stones from it were used to build the wall round the garden.  The track to this croft must certainly have passed by Crofthead going up to the main road at what is now Cannop Crescent.

Mansegrove was another single storey farm cottage with 16 acres of land situated about 800 yards north of Bents Station and about 200 yards east of the Hens Nest Road to East Whitburn.   It is shown on the map of 1773 as Manscroft but by 1820 had been changed to Mansgrove.   The house remained until about 1933 when the last was purchased by a neighbouring farmer and now only the outline of it is marked by the base of its walls.   It is of coincidental interest that in 1868 it was owned by a Reverend Dr. James Maitland of Kells Manse in New Galloway.   This Reverend gentleman however is not related to his modern namesake from Livingston who is a past Moderator of the Presbytery of West Lothian and who has preached in Stoneyburn on several occasions.   At the death of the first Dr. Maitland the house passed into the ownership of his three spinster daughters, Frances, Mary and Jane Agnes, the latter surviving until 1940, but as far as is known none of them ever lived in the house.

Stoneyburn House was originally the second most important house after Easter Holehouseburn and was certainly in existence before 1797 when its feu was chartered in favour of James Waddell from Sir William Cunnynghame, Bart.   The house, of two storeys, has since had two major additions to it over the years and was, by the late 1800's, the home of the Coalmaster of Stoneyburn Colliery, Alexander Waddell.   There are rumours that there was once a convent in either the old house or possibly even in an earlier house on the same site and also of an underground tunnel from the house down to the burn, but so far neither of these have been substantiated.

It is interesting that from 1953 to 1966 the house was called Ravelston House whilst it was owned by William and Margaret Alexander who also tried to sell it to the District Council for use as a community centre.   The gatehouse, or lodge, for the Stoneyburn House was built on the main street in the early 1800's and, or course, would have housed the servant who had to open and close the gates for the Waddell's and their guests.   It is now the only unaltered building in the village and is sadly derelict having served many roles other than its primary one.   It has housed several families including some of the early colliery managers.   It has been the Chemists, the Post Office and at least five different hairdressers have used it.   Although it is of no great architectural or aesthetic value it would be nice to see if refurbished and kept as the last link with the past.*

Stoneyburn Farm also dates from the late 17th century and like others in the district the original has now become one of the outbuildings.  It was obviously the farm for the Big House being only a few yards apart.   The modern farmhouse was built in the mid-1800's and has been farmed by the Rennie family since 1960.   Very little of the land is now used for farming except for an annual hay crop and some grazing.

The census of 1871 shows that there was a cottage at the level crossing on the main street at the eastern end of the village.   This was owned by the Caledonian Railway Company and housed the crossing keeper, Joseph Wood and his family.   It was demolished in the 1950's when the Foulshiels Colliery closed.

Wallheads was a small dwelling on the north side of the road leading eastwards out of the village, roughly half way to the road junction with the Blackburn Road.   It only appears on the one map of 1773 and no trace of it remains, nor any record of it being dismantled.   The name could be a corruption of Wellheads, indicating a spring or other source of water.   This assumption could be borne out by the fact that the road often floods at this point ever after a not too heavy rainfall.   It may also have been the source of an additional water supply for the mill down the slope towards the burn.

Cuthill Farm, shown as Cuttle on the map of 1773, is yet another dating from the 1690's as it again shows the slit-like windows of the window-tax era, and is today one of the outbuildings.   The more modern house also dates from the early 1800's.   There is some debate as to how this name originated.  One suggestion is that as the road running past it used to slope steeply down to the bridge over the burn it became known as Cuthill.   Another suggestion is that it took its name from the fact it lay beside the railway cutting which went to Addiewell.

This is certainly not the case as the farm was in existence for almost 200 years before the railway.   Since the first research into its history, an over older reference to it has come to light as it is reported as early as 1540 and has the same origins as the modern spelling of Courthill, a place where outdoor courts of justice were held.

The New Mill of Breich was situated on the banks of the burn some short distance west of Cuthill Farm and the main track to it ran along from the old Breich bridge.   It was a corn mill and first appears on Thomson's map of 1820 although it is suspected from the name that there may have been an earlier mill on the site.  It was in use up to the early 1900's and was still lived in as recently as 1933.   Sadly there are no district remains to be seen and little trace of the lade supplying its water.   A supplementary supply could have come from the previously mentioned Wallheads.

My reference to the New Mill of Breich is wrong.   It was not, as stated, a grain mill.   In was, in fact, a paper mill and is clearly shown as such on an early map, with mill lade and the bleaching greens beside it.

Bents cottage was built by the North British Railway Company during the 1840's.   The first tenant was a pointsman called William Bishop.   The house was lived in by a succession of railwaymen until 1931 when it was taken over by United Collieries and tenanted by George Meikle, whose daughter Jessie was the village mid-wife for over 40 years.   She lived on in the house after her retirement until ill health caused her to leave the village and stay with a daughter.   Sadly the house fell into disrepair and was demolished in 1992.   A new house, bearing the old name, has now been built on the site.   The houses at Bents Station are first mentioned in the valuation rolls of 1885, when they were tenanted by Alex Tennant, a railway agent and William Weir, a railway servant.   They are still lived in even though the station itself was demolished in 1963.

Before leaving this chapter mention must be made of some other old properties even though they are technically outside the actual village area, some by only a few yards.

The toll-house at Fauldhouse crossroads dates from around the end of the eighteen century and was used to collect the road tolls from travellers leaving the area, if they were travelling westwards, and coming back in from the west.   Like many other tolls it ceased to operate in the late nineteenth century.

It would appear from the census of 1861 that a small hamlet of six houses existed at the crossroads.   There were six families consisting of thirty-six people living there in that year but there is no record of either families or the houses in the census of ten years later.   There may have been a couple of cottages between the toll-house and where Ridgeview Nursery now stands and there are traces of foundations across the road from there.

On Adair's map of 1691, both the dwellings of Wester and Easter Foulshiels are shown.   Middle Seat house does not appear until 1790.   It was on this estate that coal was found in sufficient quantity to merit the opening of a new mine and so the name of Fourshiels is justifiably included as it was the point from which the village was born.

Cuthill cottage was built about 1870 as a home for the pointsman on the Caledonian Railway Company's line to the well-established colliery at Loganlea.   His job was to switch the points to send the trains to either this pit, or to the later pit at Foulshiels.

Slightly further eastwards on Armstrong's map of 1773 is shown a house called Auchenhead, later called Auchenhard, as it is known today.   The original house was most probably a typical small farmhouse and at a later date, around 1830, the much larger Auchenhard House was built.   It is unique in the area as being almost in a pseudo-Georgian style, but it sadly now in a derelict state.   A newer farmhouse was also built about the same period and it, like its neighbours has been enlarged and made more modern and is farmed by the Barrie family.

There is an interesting old stone tower on Auchenhard land, down near the Breich Burn.   It stands about 30 feet high and would have afforded a good view up and down the burn before the present trees had appeared, but what its original use was can only be guessed.   It may well have been a watchtower, a fancy storage building, or simply a 'Folly' built to enhance the landscape.