Wellhill and neighbouring Benston were two of the many properties in the parish of New Cumnock owned by the Marquis of Bute. While limestone was quarried at Benston, to improve the quality of the soil, a furnace was set up at Wellhill in the early 1800's [1], for the manufacture of tiles to improve the drainage of the land,

A valuable insight into life in a tileworks is given by Mauchline-born Adam B. Todd [2]. Although he is best remembered as one of the leading literary figures in New and Old Cumnock, as a 16 year-old in 1838 he was a "washer-off" to a tile-burner in the parish of Galston. Four o'clock starts on a Monday and Tuesday for the emptying and filling of kilns, with a penny fine imposed for being late. It was five o'clock starts the rest of the week and a seven o'clock finish with half hour breaks for breakfast and dinner. Tile-moulders were paid by the thousand and 'thus made slaves of themselves, and greater slaves of their boys, to increase their earnings, which were large from 7s 6d to 10s a day.'

Six years later Todd was engaged as a tile burner and assistant manager to Hugh Meikle at Wellhill Tileworks.
It appears clay was in the Todd family blood. An older brother managed a tileworks and limeworks, while a younger brother went to the Isle of Bute to start a new tile works, although this proved to be unsuccessful - 'the machinery incomplete and the clayfield had no proper fall for the water.' Todd's partnership with his brother-in-law in an extensive brick and tile works at Dalquharran, on Grivan Water also proved to be a loss maker.

However, the Wellhill tileworks was paying well. Todd, at a cost of £350, had erected a large new kiln, new pan rollers and installed other machinery. In the 1851 Census, Adam Todd is recorded as a Tile Manufacturer, employing 15 labourers. Living with him and his widowed mother at Wellhill Tileworks was 20 year old Hugh Harris, - a tile-maker, born in the parish of New Cumnock. Hugh, would later emigrate to Australia where he became a prosperous farmer and served as a magistrate.

In the previous census of 1841,  prior to Todd moving to Wellhill, Andrew Hodge and William Febrew and six members of his family are found at Wellhill Tileworks. 

Todd recalled a fatal injury to James McCulloch one of his best workmen. The silk napkin that he wore round his neck got caught on the shaft of the pipe-tile machinery, whirling him around violently to such an extent that he later died of his internal injuries.

In the 1861 Census, A.B. Todd, is described as a Tile Manufacturer employing 4 labourers and a farmer of 86 acres employing 2 men.  Two years later the tileworks and the nearby farm of Taiglem were taken from him, and from there he moved to Afton Bridgend for a short spell, before moving to Cumnock.

Wellhill Tile Works was later operated by J. M. Nicol, who also worked coal and limestone in the parish, as well as running the Cumnock Pottery [6 ] , where clay from Wellhill was used to fashion, the popular "Motto Ware", of  jugs, teapots, bowls and other table-ware.


The Ordnance Survey Map of 1856 [3]shows  the extent of the Wellhill Tileworks situated behind Wellhill Cottage on the back road from New Cumnock to Cumnock. The long and short linear structures are possibly drying sheds (probably with louvered walls of similar design to those at Ochiltree Tile Works [5] ) with a chimney sandwiched between them. The annular shaped object to the east could possibly be the outline of the kiln. To the west the contours of the clay-workings can be seen. 

By 1897, the name on the map has changed to that of Wellhill Brick and Tile Works, and the long linear structure is all but gone. For how long after this period the Wellhill Tile Works continued to operate is unclear. Today there is nothing to be seen in way of the structure of the work. Fragments of tiles and what looks like hard-clay deposits can be found in a clearing in the undergrowth, of rushes, heather and shrubbery.