Robert Williamson
Epithet: Creator of Laxey Glen gardens (1840-1927)
Record type: Biographies
Biography: From ‘New Manx Worthies’ (2006):
On 1st January 1840, Robert Williamson was born in Old Laxey to Scottish parents Grace and James Williamson. He was the third child of the family of four - one girl and three boys - and the first to be born in the Isle of Man. His parents had left Ayrshire for the Island in the 1830s, and carried on a general business in the premises where, until 1993, the Old Laxey Post Office and grocery store were located.
Robert attended the village school for his education in the three Rs and on leaving was apprenticed to Mr Corlett, a cabinet maker in Ramsey. He found lodgings with Mrs Jane Corkill and her family in St Paul's Square. On completion of his apprenticeship in 1861 he returned to Old Laxey, and assisted in the running of the family business until 1866. He then decided to open a general store on his own account in Upper Laxey - a busy place commercially, due to the operation of the mining industry.
His first premises were in a small dwelling house on the New Road which is now part of the Glen House residential home. This was to be his home for the next 40 years and all his living children were born there.
In 1868 Robert Williamson purchased the house from Captain Richard Rowe, together with land on the north side of Glen Roy river which had been called the 'Red Moorland'. Over many years, he was to transform this gorse and bracken-covered wilderness into Laxey Glen Gardens, developing it as a popular holiday resort renowned throughout the British Isles. The laying-out of the grounds was placed in the hands of skilled gardeners, but the conception and development were largely the product of Robert's own ideas, together with observations made during his holiday visits to Switzerland and other parts of the continent. The gardens became his best-loved enterprise, providing employment for many villagers and being an attraction to thousands of visitors each summer. They could enjoy the wooded ramblage with fine specimen trees - both native and exotic - colourful flowerbeds, bandstands and a dance floor and restaurant. The restaurant was supplied with fresh produce from the kitchen garden and Robert's own bakehouse, butchery and grocery shops. Visitors were accommodated in the newly-built hotel at the entrance to the gardens.
This particular development for the tourist industry in the latter part of the nineteenth century depended very much upon the prosperity of Robert's other businesses. During the 20 years from the opening of his first shop, he transferred his grocery business to the building in New Road now occupied by the Laxey and Lonan Commissioners. The bakehouse and butchery departments were situated on land at the junction of Mines Road and New Road, and a slaughterhouse was located beside the Laxey river where the Glen Moor housing estate has more recently been built. In 1896, when the Manx Electric Railway Company wished to bring the terminus of the Snaefell line from Baldhoon down to the present railway station, Robert built a new bakehouse in the quarry at Rencell, opposite his bakery shop. Later, in 1900, he erected a new grocery store in front of the bakehouse, and the old building was used as offices, newsagent and boots store, with an aerated waters factory in the basement opening out onto Lower Rencell Hill. Robert also had a wholesale business and retail shops on Prospect Hill and in Athol Street, Douglas, in the years from 1890 to his death in 1927.
He had a vision of Laxey as a popular holiday resort and bought land at South Cape and on the beach - Croit Corns and Croit Fanny respectively - and sold plots for the erection of buildings suitable for visitors. He also built houses on Sunnycroft, Ramsey Road, in partnership with his nephew Robert Corlett, mainly for his own immediate family and a valued employee. His own mansion in the style of a Swiss chalet was built on the Sunnycroft site in 1906.
In addition to his business activities, Robert Williamson took a keen interest in village and Island affairs, being a member of the original board of Laxey Village Commissioners. He was both member and secretary of the first elected School Board of Lonan and in 1891 represented the people of Garff in the House of Keys. It is recorded that although he was a silent member, he worked long and hard for the people of his constituency. He resisted a further term of office and concentrated his energy on the Laxey Village Commissioners, where he was instrumental in securing a piped water supply for the villagers.
In 1924, when he was 84, he caused a sensation when he bought the properties of the Great Laxey Mines which had closed two years previously. He was concerned that the village would be decimated if its principal industry was to cease. The mines were reopened and, in spite of a world-wide depression in the industry, managed to continue working until their final closure in 1929. Unfortunately, this latest venture of Robert's was at the expense of his own family, who assisted him in all of his enterprises. After his death in 1927, the Laxey Glen Gardens continued to be run by the family as a tourist attraction until the outbreak of World War II.
Robert was married three times. In 1864 at Lonan Parish Church he married Eunice Caine from Baldwin; she died in 1865, giving birth to twin daughters who both died within six months. In 1867, in Liverpool, he married Mary Fraser. They had nine living children, but Mary died in 1887. In 1890, in Perth, he married Agnes Morton and they had five children. Agnes died in 1946.
Brought up as a boy in the Old Laxey Primitive Methodist Sunday School (now the Salvation Army Hall), he later became a teacher of a young men's class. Robert was always interested in religious work and had very broad sympathies; a member of St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, he was also devoted to the Minorca Methodist Church and Sunday School established on Minorca Hill. This building is now the chapel.
An employee and friend said at the time of his death, 'He was a born director of affairs; possessed of a clear brain, shrewd and far seeing. A man of strictly temperate life and sound health, prompt, methodical, of regular habits and tastes'. For someone with few educational advantages, he appears to have had an endless supply of ideas and energy which was expended for the benefit of his fellows and earned from them much love and respect.'
Somewhat belatedly, Laxey Heritage Trust erected a plaque in tribute to Robert Williamson at the entrance to the Glen Gardens. This was unveiled by his granddaughter Beryl Crompton in the presence of Sir Charles Henry Kerruish, MHK for Garff and chairman of Laxey Heritage Trust, on 10th September 1989. The wording reads :
Robert Williamson 1840 - 1927
A visionary who contributed to the
industry and beauty of this village.
His creation of a garden in the setting
of this glen is a perpetual
memory to his talent.
"A garden is a lovesome thing
God wot"
T.E. Brown.
Robert Williamson died at Sunnycroft on 11th March 1927 at the age of 87, and is buried in Lonan Churchyard together with his wives Mary and Agnes and several of his children.
Biography written by Beryl Crompton (granddaughter).
(With thanks to Culture Vannin as publishers of the book: Kelly, Dollin (general editor), ‘New Manx Worthies’, Manx Heritage Foundation/Culture Vannin, 2006, pp.462-4.)
Culture Vannin
#NMW
Gender: Male
Date of birth: 1 January 1840
Date of death: 11 November 1927