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The Anderson Memorial Hall It has not been possible so far to find an exact date for the building of the Hall, but Rev. David Frew, writing in 1909 in his History of the Parish of Urr, states that in Crocketford “The condition of things, as it appeared in 1825, was prosperous and thriving;………….The schoolmaster attended to the education of the young…….”. He also states that “though not possessed of a church of its own,…….. Crocketford has not been without a fairly regular supply of religious ordinances, a preaching station upon undenominational lines having been established in the village school, so far back as 1839”. The school, which had been built thanks to the generosity of a local landowner and benefactor, remained in use until 1912, when a new one was built and in 1922, according to an article in The Weekly Scotsman, Mr. W.J. Hay, John Knox’s House, Edinburgh, states “Lovers of ‘ Bairnies Cuddle Doon’ and the other delightful poems of Alexander Anderson, as well as those who had the privilege of meeting him during his lifetime will be glad to learn that the old schoolhouse in Crocketford which he attended as a boy has been purchased for the purpose of providing a public hall for the villagers. . . Acting on a suggestion of mine, the Trustees have decided to make the building a Memorial of its quondam pupil, who worked his way from its simple teachings to be acting librarian at the University of Edinburgh”. Brief Notes on Family, Education and Employment History Alexander Anderson was born on 30th April 1845 at Kirkconnel, the youngest of 7 children, having an older sister and 5 older brothers. His father was James, a man of many skills, who worked as a herd boy, a coal miner, a ploughman, a builder, and a gardener and it was this latter skill that took him to Crocketford to work at Brooklands House. He was also musical and wrote some poetry himself. His mother was Isabella, a motherly woman always ready with hospitality for visitors. The family moved to Brooklands Lodge when Alexander was 3 and the 1851 census shows the family members living there as James (head of household) aged 43; Isabella, wife, aged 46; Janet, daughter, aged 16 and at home; John, son, aged 13, scholar; Thomas, son, aged 11,scholar and Alexander, son, aged 5 and not at school. Alexander attended Crocketford School where he was keen on handwriting, reading and watercolour painting. Any pennies he might receive were saved up and he would walk the 9 miles to Dumfries (and back!) to buy a book he wanted. On leaving school he appears to have helped his father with gardening tasks, receiving 1/3d a day for hoeing turnips! The family returned to Kirkconnel when Alexander was 16 and he worked for 2 years in the flag quarry at Old Kello and then at Carronbridge, before beginning his 16 years of work as a surfaceman for the Glasgow and South-Western Railway Company. It was at the age of 19 that he really began writing poetry, following the death of his beloved elder brother Tom. He was persuaded to apply for the post of Assistant Librarian at the University of Edinburgh in 1880, never having been in a library before his interview, and was selected. It was a huge change from railway life but his grim determination to make a success of the job won him the affection of colleagues, students and professors alike. Ambitious to become better known in the literary world, he applied in 1885 for the post of Secretary to the Philosophical Institution and despite the fact that there were almost 200 applicants, he was successful. This new position enabled him to meet some of the prominent men and women of the literary world but he soon became dissatisfied with the work, which shut him away from ordinary readers, and he hankered to return to the library. He resigned in 1888 and returned to his old post and in 1890 was appointed Chief Librarian, a position he held until his death from cancer of the liver on 11th July 1909. He is buried along with the rest of his family in the churchyard at Kirkconnel. Summary of info. from “The Navvy in Scotland” by James E. Handley. A.A. worked for 16 years on the Glasgow and South-Western Railway. A self-educated man who taught himself French, German and Italian sufficiently well to be able to read in the original their poets and writers, he covered a fairly wide range of lyrical and narrative subjects in his verse, but his own practical knowledge of life is contained chiefly in his two volumes A Song of Labour and other Poems and Songs of the Rail. For his narrative verses of disaster and near-disasters of one kind or another he claimed to have chapter and verse for almost all of them, allowing himself only a heightening of atmosphere, but most of them have the touch of melodrama so much appreciated by the readers of the periodical in which they first appeared and in which he wrote under the pseudonym of “Surfaceman”, “I being but a humble son of toil, working with the pick and shovel on the railway”. A.A. dedicated both the above volumes to his fellow workers and many of the verses extol the virtues of the engine, but he widens the scope by writing of the progress by steam on land and sea and invites his mates to view the industrial wonders of the age with the words: Come, fling for a moment, my fellows, The pick and the shovel aside, And rise from the moil of our ten hours toil With a heart beating high with pride. O fellows, but this is a wondrous age, When science with faith in her eyes, Springs up in her thirst from this planet of ours To the stars in front of the skies. There is a pleasing little conversation-piece between the engine and himself in the verses: “What the Engine Says” in which he reminds the locomotive that while it folls along “swift and strong” and “fumes and whistles ‘Get out of my way’” he as a surfaceman keeps the road smooth for it: So you see You must pay a little respect to me I keep the rail Tight and firm with chair and key Fasten the joints as firm as may be So that your pathway may not fail. In 1880 A.A. obtained the post of assistant librarian at Edinburgh University through the good offices of his friends, who hoped to see a fresh flowering of his poetry in the atmosphere and leisure of his new post, but in this they were disappointed. In the volume of later poems collected after his death by a friend there are fewer than half a dozen on the old theme of the railway, but one of them on a train disaster caused by the mistake of a signalman evokes the reflection: O ye of this nineteenth century time Who holds low dividends as a crime Listen. So long as a twelve-hours strain Rests like a load of lead on the brain, With its ringing of bells and rolling of wheels, Drawing of levers until one feels The hand grow numb with a nerveless touch, And the handles shake and slip in the clutch So long will ye have pointsmen to say, “Drew the wrong lever! Take me away!” Though much of his work is pedestrian and conditioned by the journal for which he wrote, in hymning the praises of progress through steam he entered a new field of poetic enterprise. A review in the contemporary Sheffield Telegraph declared that “Although the product of a Scotchman, Songs of the Rail are remarkable for the purity and polish of their English. Alexander Anderson has found romance on the rails, poetry in the permanent way, ballads in ballast. He is the Homer of the Iron Horse, the Milton of a machine, the lyrist of locomotion. He sings the dignity of labour in a manner that has a sterling ring with it, an earnest, manly vigour that stirs the soul of the most apathetic reader. The tragic occurrences on the line give him themes for narratives of melting tenderness. ‘Jim’s Whistle’, ‘Rid of his Engine’, ‘Behind Time’, ‘Blood on the Wheel’, and ‘Nottman’ are notable instances of his success as a pathetic writer. ‘The Cuckoo’, ‘The Violet’, and ‘The Dead Lark’ are efforts of a different style, and give the ‘Surfaceman’ a place among pastoral poets. Mr Anderson has given the world a book that will win the admiration of all discriminating readers; a book that is likely to be honoured with a success of many editions; a book that will excite the public appetite for more work from the same robust pen.” From “The Life-History of Alexander Anderson (“Surfaceman”) by David Cuthbertson (Late Sub-Librarian University Library, Edinburgh) The Scotsman in its review of Songs of the Rail says: “From out the railway cutting, from his labour on the ‘four-feet way’, has come a singer with the daring to play minstrel to a machine, to celebrate an iron hero. Such an undertaking would at first sight seem unpromising and unprecedented, did we not remember that a tool, if not a machine, has divided with man the honours of the best epics…. There is no evading the impetuosity and enthusiasm, no escape for the reader from the swift current of the poet’s imagination….for life is always thrown into splendid dramatic relief and dignity of interest by the juxtaposition of death. On the whole, however, he seems to have worked this vein quite sufficiently, and he will, therefore, find it the part of literary prudence to select in future themes of another class.”The latter part of this criticism was followed by “Surfaceman” and added to the delight of his many readers. Anderson, Alexander [1875], The Two Angels and Other Poems. By Alexander Anderson ... with an Introductory Sketch by Rev. George Gilfillan (London; Edinburgh; Glasgow: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.; John Menzies, 1875) [AnderA,TwoAAOP]. Anderson, Alexander [1878], Songs of the Rail: By Alexander Anderson (London; Edinburgh: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.; John Menzies, 1878) [AnderA,SongsOT]. Anderson, Alexander [1879], Ballads and Sonnets. By Alexander Anderson. ("Surfaceman") (London: Macmillan, 1879) [AnderA,BallaAS]. Anderson, Alexander [1912], Later Poems of Alexander Anderson, "Surfaceman": Edited with a Biographical Sketch, by Alexander Brown: A New Edition (Glasgow; Dalbeattie: Fraser, Asher & Co., 1912) [AnderA,LaterPO].
Site produced by Richard Hopkins

The Anderson Memorial Hall

It has not been possible so far to find an exact date for the building of the Hall, but Rev. David Frew, writing in 1909 in his History of the Parish of Urr, states that in Crocketford “The condition of things, as it appeared in 1825, was prosperous and thriving;………….The schoolmaster attended to the education of the young…….”. He also states that “though not possessed of a church of its own,…….. Crocketford has not been without a fairly regular supply of religious ordinances, a preaching station upon undenominational lines having been established in the village school, so far back as 1839”.

The school, which had been built thanks to the generosity of a local landowner and benefactor, remained in use until 1912, when a new one was built and in 1922, according to an article in The Weekly Scotsman, Mr. W.J. Hay, John Knox’s House, Edinburgh, states “Lovers of ‘ Bairnies Cuddle Doon’ and the other delightful poems of Alexander Anderson, as well as those who had the privilege of meeting him during his lifetime will be glad to learn that the old schoolhouse in Crocketford which he attended as a boy has been purchased for the purpose of providing a public hall for the villagers. . . Acting on a suggestion of mine, the Trustees have decided to make the building a Memorial of its quondam pupil, who worked his way from its simple teachings to be acting librarian at the University of Edinburgh”.

Brief Notes on Family, Education and Employment History
Alexander Anderson was born on 30th April 1845 at Kirkconnel, the youngest of 7 children, having an older sister and 5 older brothers. His father was James, a man of many skills, who worked as a herd boy, a coal miner, a ploughman, a builder, and a gardener and it was this latter skill that took him to Crocketford to work at Brooklands House. He was also musical and wrote some poetry himself. His mother was Isabella, a motherly woman always ready with hospitality for visitors.

The family moved to Brooklands Lodge when Alexander was 3 and the 1851 census shows the family members living there as James (head of household) aged 43; Isabella, wife, aged 46; Janet, daughter, aged 16 and at home; John, son, aged 13, scholar; Thomas, son, aged 11,scholar and Alexander, son, aged 5 and not at school.
Alexander attended Crocketford School where he was keen on handwriting, reading and watercolour painting. Any pennies he might receive were saved up and he would walk the 9 miles to Dumfries (and back!) to buy a book he wanted. On leaving school he appears to have helped his father with gardening tasks, receiving 1/3d a day for hoeing turnips!

The family returned to Kirkconnel when Alexander was 16 and he worked for 2 years in the flag quarry at Old Kello and then at Carronbridge, before beginning his 16 years of work as a surfaceman for the Glasgow and South-Western Railway Company. It was at the age of 19 that he really began writing poetry, following the death of his beloved elder brother Tom.

He was persuaded to apply for the post of Assistant Librarian at the University of Edinburgh in 1880, never having been in a library before his interview, and was selected. It was a huge change from railway life but his grim determination to make a success of the job won him the affection of colleagues, students and professors alike. Ambitious to become better known in the literary world, he applied in 1885 for the post of Secretary to the Philosophical Institution and despite the fact that there were almost 200 applicants, he was successful. This new position enabled him to meet some of the prominent men and women of the literary world but he soon became dissatisfied with the work, which shut him away from ordinary readers, and he hankered to return to the library. He resigned in 1888 and returned to his old post and in 1890 was appointed Chief Librarian, a position he held until his death from cancer of the liver on 11th July 1909. He is buried along with the rest of his family in the churchyard at Kirkconnel.

Summary of info. from “The Navvy in Scotland” by James E. Handley.
A.A. worked for 16 years on the Glasgow and South-Western Railway. A self-educated man who taught himself French, German and Italian sufficiently well to be able to read in the original their poets and writers, he covered a fairly wide range of lyrical and narrative subjects in his verse, but his own practical knowledge of life is contained chiefly in his two volumes A Song of Labour and other Poems and Songs of the Rail.
For his narrative verses of disaster and near-disasters of one kind or another he claimed to have chapter and verse for almost all of them, allowing himself only a heightening of atmosphere, but most of them have the touch of melodrama so much appreciated by the readers of the periodical in which they first appeared and in which he wrote under the pseudonym of “Surfaceman”, “I being but a humble son of toil, working with the pick and shovel on the railway”.
A.A. dedicated both the above volumes to his fellow workers and many of the verses extol the virtues of the engine, but he widens the scope by writing of the progress by steam on land and sea and invites his mates to view the industrial wonders of the age with the words:

Come, fling for a moment, my fellows,
The pick and the shovel aside,
And rise from the moil of our ten hours toil
With a heart beating high with pride.

O fellows, but this is a wondrous age,
When science with faith in her eyes,
Springs up in her thirst from this planet of ours
To the stars in front of the skies.

There is a pleasing little conversation-piece between the engine and himself in the verses: “What the Engine Says” in which he reminds the locomotive that while it folls along “swift and strong” and “fumes and whistles ‘Get out of my way’” he as a surfaceman keeps the road smooth for it:

So you see

You must pay a little respect to me

I keep the rail

Tight and firm with chair and key

Fasten the joints as firm as may be

So that your pathway may not fail.

In 1880 A.A. obtained the post of assistant librarian at Edinburgh University through the good offices of his friends, who hoped to see a fresh flowering of his poetry in the atmosphere and leisure of his new post, but in this they were disappointed. In the volume of later poems collected after his death by a friend there are fewer than half a dozen on the old theme of the railway, but one of them on a train disaster caused by the mistake of a signalman evokes the reflection:

O ye of this nineteenth century time

Who holds low dividends as a crime

Listen. So long as a twelve-hours strain

Rests like a load of lead on the brain,

With its ringing of bells and rolling of wheels,

Drawing of levers until one feels

The hand grow numb with a nerveless touch,

And the handles shake and slip in the clutch

So long will ye have pointsmen to say,

“Drew the wrong lever! Take me away!”

Though much of his work is pedestrian and conditioned by the journal for which he wrote, in hymning the praises of progress through steam he entered a new field of poetic enterprise. A review in the contemporary Sheffield Telegraph declared that “Although the product of a Scotchman, Songs of the Rail are remarkable for the purity and polish of their English. Alexander Anderson has found romance on the rails, poetry in the permanent way, ballads in ballast. He is the Homer of the Iron Horse, the Milton of a machine, the lyrist of locomotion.

He sings the dignity of labour in a manner that has a sterling ring with it, an earnest, manly vigour that stirs the soul of the most apathetic reader. The tragic occurrences on the line give him themes for narratives of melting tenderness. ‘Jim’s Whistle’, ‘Rid of his Engine’, ‘Behind Time’, ‘Blood on the Wheel’, and ‘Nottman’ are notable instances of his success as a pathetic writer. ‘The Cuckoo’, ‘The Violet’, and ‘The Dead Lark’ are efforts of a different style, and give the ‘Surfaceman’ a place among pastoral poets. Mr Anderson has given the world a book that will win the admiration of all discriminating readers; a book that is likely to be honoured with a success of many editions; a book that will excite the public appetite for more work from the same robust pen.”

From “The Life-History of Alexander Anderson (“Surfaceman”) by David Cuthbertson (Late Sub-Librarian University Library, Edinburgh)

The Scotsman in its review of Songs of the Rail says: “From out the railway cutting, from his labour on the ‘four-feet way’, has come a singer with the daring to play minstrel to a machine, to celebrate an iron hero. Such an undertaking would at first sight seem unpromising and unprecedented, did we not remember that a tool, if not a machine, has divided with man the honours of the best epics…. There is no evading the impetuosity and enthusiasm, no escape for the reader from the swift current of the poet’s imagination….for life is always thrown into splendid dramatic relief and dignity of interest by the juxtaposition of death. On the whole, however, he seems to have worked this vein quite sufficiently, and he will, therefore, find it the part of literary prudence to select in future themes of another class.”The latter part of this criticism was followed by “Surfaceman” and added to the delight of his many readers.

Anderson, Alexander [1875], The Two Angels and Other Poems. By Alexander Anderson ... with an Introductory Sketch by Rev. George Gilfillan (London; Edinburgh; Glasgow: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.; John Menzies, 1875) [AnderA,TwoAAOP]. Anderson, Alexander [1878], Songs of the Rail: By Alexander Anderson (London; Edinburgh: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.; John Menzies, 1878) [AnderA,SongsOT]. Anderson, Alexander [1879], Ballads and Sonnets. By Alexander Anderson. ("Surfaceman") (London: Macmillan, 1879) [AnderA,BallaAS]. Anderson, Alexander [1912], Later Poems of Alexander Anderson, "Surfaceman": Edited with a Biographical Sketch, by Alexander Brown: A New Edition (Glasgow; Dalbeattie: Fraser, Asher & Co., 1912) [AnderA,LaterPO].

Site produced by Richard Hopkins