Muirkirk-born Archibald Brown moved to New Cumnock and by 1841, at the age of 28 years, he was farming Meikle Westland on the lower reaches of the Polshill Burn (also known as Garepool Burn) close to where it flowed into the River Nith. Married late in life , his second son Archie (junior), was born at New Cumnock in 1863 and went on to run his own engineering firm in Liverpool [12].  Proud of his New Cumnock roots he would travel from Liverpool to attend the Annual School Fellows' Reunion and was one of the noted familiar faces that attended the gathering in 1897. George Sanderson explains that 'before leaving New Cumnock he had unsuccessfully tried to manufacture ornamemtal tile, the big wheel used for puddling clay can still be seen' [10].

The remains of the big wheel, or water wheel can be found in the upper reaches of the Garepool Burn, close to the clay deposits, (north of the site of the Antimony mines). The wheel carries the name 'Archie Brown & Co., Engineers, 14 Barton St,. Liverpool'. Nearby is the remains of the gearing that would have driven the paddle mixer to liquefy the clay that was then pumped down the hill to Meikle Westland. In this palstic state the clay was coloured and shaped to the required design before being fired in the kiln; nothing now reamins of the Tile Works other than the drying floor [1].

The Nithsdale Tile Works are shown on the OS Map of 1922, but not on the corresponding one of twenty years earlier.