The volunteers at Bannockburn House, near Stirling, recently pieced together historical clues which resulted in us making the link between the 17th century mansion house and two well known oil paintings on display at the Summerlee Museum of Industrial Life in Coatbridge.
Bannockburn House volunteers are working to restore this beautiful 17th century mansion since it was saved from dereliction by a community buy out in 2017. We are trying to find out about the previous occupants of the house, to honour its past and bring new life into the building.
It was while looking into the Mitchell family, who lived in Bannockburn House from 1910-1960, and their connections to the prominent Rankin family in Airdrie, that the link to Summerlee was found. James Mitchell, a Sheriff Substitute for Stirling, and his wife Anne Rankin, bought the house and left it in trust to their daughter Miss Annie Mitchell, who lived there until the house was sold.
Starting with the Auction catalogue of ‘furniture and plenishings’ from the 1960 house sale, we tracked down the solicitor records for the family Trust, to the archives of the North Lanarkshire Heritage Centre in Motherwell. These included the Trust ‘Sederunt book’, containing details of the administration of the Trust and management of estate assets. We also found a 1958 insurance inventory of the house contents which listed two oil paintings by John Levack, that match with the paintings at Summerlee – ‘The Rankin Family’ and ‘The Curlers at Rawyards’. A letter to the Provost of Airdrie discussed the donation of the paintings prior to the house sale.
In the meantime, we took a trip to Summerlee to view the ‘Curlers at Rawywards’ painting, having read the excellent description of the painting by Bob Cowan in his Curling History Blog (http://curlinghistory.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-curlers-at-rawyards.html), and recognising some of the key participants in the curling game as being relatives of the Mitchells.
It was very exciting to find that ‘The ‘Rankin Family’ portrait at Summerlee also had name plaques on the picture frame, listing the individual family members. This identified the little girl on the far left of the painting as Anne Rankin/Mrs James Mitchell – Miss Annie Mitchell’s mother and the future owner of Bannockburn House.
So we now have evidence of the ownership of the paintings by the Mitchell family, and an image of the family, including Anne Rankin’s father JT Rankin, who was Provost of Airdrie at the time. He is probably responsible for commissioning both paintings – in the Curlers at Rawyards painting he is the central figure in bright red.
This also solves the question for Summerlee of where the paintings had come from. The original records of donation may have been misplaced, meaning their provenance was unknown until the documents were found in the archives.
In the displays at Summerlee we can see what life would have been like for industrial workers, and the harsh living conditions that they endured. Many of the grand houses of this era have sadly lapsed into ruin, but at Bannockburn House we can still see how the other half lived, and what it was like to be born with the advantages of a wealthy industrialist family, reflecting the social history of the time. More of the story of the Mitchells and the two paintings can be found here, at the Bannockburn House website.
Bannockburn House is now owned by the local community. The Bannockburn House Trust completed the biggest community buyout in the UK, when they purchased the house in 2017. The house and garden are slowly being restored by a large dedicated group of volunteers. For a more personal insight into the history of the house, book one of the historical tours on the Bannockburn website to learn more about the fascinating 400 year history of one of Scotland’s hidden gems. www.bannockburnhouse.scot