Probable Route of Track to Former Farm

Image: © Ian Dodds Taken: 9 Sep 2021

Pre-Ordnance Survey maps were a bit of a lottery, not only due to their small scales. Whereas the OS had a duty to faithfully depict what was on the land, earlier maps only showed things that they thought you would think were important. The first 1850s OS map shows the gap between the trees as a proper road that meets a T-junction. Both left and right turns at the T-junction didn't seem to lead anywhere though, but the left turn did take you in the direction of Burngrange Croft, described at the time as being a small farm "in indifferent repair". It is still shown as a dead-end track up to the point it formerly reached the junction on maps up until at least the 1950s. I have looked at a number of maps surveyed in the early 1800s, and only one, by Thomas Sharp in 1828, shows a track here. It isn't shown as being this straight though, which is odd, but it did lead directly to a place called Muirton. Muirton is in exactly the same place as Burngrange Croft, so they are almost certainly the same place; it is unlikely that a building only 25 years old at the most would have already fallen into 'indifferent repair'. The next OS map, surveyed in the 1890s, doesn't name the old farm, and most of the property is shown as not having a roof any more.

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