Cargenbridge is a village located in Dumfries and Galloway, United Kingdom southwest of Dumfries. It is in

Troqueer Troqueer is a former village and a parish in the historic county of Kirkcudbrightshire in Dumfries and Galloway on the west side of the River Nith. The eastern-side was merged with Dumfries to the east in 1929, and today eastern Troqueer is a sub ...

parish, in the historic county of

Kirkcudbrightshire Kirkcudbrightshire ( ), or the County of Kirkcudbright or the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright is one of the historic counties of Scotland, covering an area in the south-west of the country. Until 1975, Kirkcudbrightshire was an administrative count ...

Etymology

Cargenbridge takes its name from a bridge over the Cargen Water. The name dates back to at least 1753, when 'Cargen bridge croft' is recorded in the

land tax roll. ''Cargen'' itself has a number of possible

Cumbric Cumbric was a variety of the Common Brittonic language spoken during the Early Middle Ages in the ''Hen Ogledd'' or "Old North" in what is now the counties of Westmorland, Cumberland and northern Lancashire in Northern England and the souther ...

etymologies. It may be a compound formed from ''cajr'' 'enclosed, defensible site' and one of the following elements, which likely refer to an earlier name for Cargen Water: * ''gein ' (from earlier ''can ') 'white; bright, clear' * ''geint'' (from earlier ''cant'') 'a corner, an oblique angle; boundary' * gę:n (from earlier cẹin) 'fresh'. * ''gejn'' (from earlier ''ceμ-'') 'ridge' Alternatively, it may be from the root ''carreg'' 'a rock, a rocky place' + the suffix -''an''. It may also be Gaelic ''carraigín'' 'little rock'.

History

Cargenbridge is referred to as a 'village' in 1848 in the entry for 'Cargen Bridge Smithy' in the

Ordnance Survey Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was a ...

Name Book. In 1962, it is recorded that the population quadrupled following the building of 36 new local authority houses. Despite being close to Dumfries, Cargenbridge remained in

when part of

parish was taken into

Dumfriesshire Dumfriesshire or the County of Dumfries or Shire of Dumfries (''Siorrachd Dhùn Phris'' in Gaelic) is a historic county and registration county in southern Scotland. The Dumfries lieutenancy area covers a similar area to the historic county. I ...

as part of the amalgamation of the burghs of Dumfries and

Maxwelltown Maxwelltown ( gd, Ceann Drochaid, IPA: �kʰʲaun̴̪ˈt̪ɾɔxətʲ was formerly a burgh of barony and police burgh and by the time of the burgh's abolition in 1929 it was the most populous burgh in the county of Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. ...

. The extension of the boundaries of the county of Dumfriesshire over the

River Nith The River Nith ( gd, Abhainn Nid; Common Brittonic: ''Nowios'') is a river in south-west Scotland. The Nith rises in the Carsphairn hills of East Ayrshire, more precisely between Prickeny Hill and Enoch Hill, east of Dalmellington. For the ...

did not extend as far as Cargenbridge.

Curriestanes cursus Curriestanes cursus () is a large neolithic ditched enclosure on the outskirts of Dumfries, in the parish of Troqueer, Dumfries and Galloway. It is visible only from aerial photography. It is, along with Pict's Knowe, one of two scheduled monumen ...

, a large

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

monument now only visible as a crop mark, sits just above the village. It is, along with

Pict's Knowe Pict's Knowe () is a henge monument in the parish of Troqueer, Dumfries and Galloway. It is one of a small group of henge monuments around Dumfries which includes Broadlea henge near Annan. Pict's Knowe is located 4 km SW of Dumfries on a ...

, one of two

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

s in

parish.

Education

The earliest school in the vicinity of Cargenbridge was Doweel school, which opened at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The Rev. William Somervell (died 1698), minister of

parish, left money to found the school. This became Drumsleet, a

two-teacher school A two-room schoolhouse is a larger version of the one-room schoolhouse, with many of the same characteristics, providing the facility for primary and secondary education in a small community or rural area. While providing the same function as a c ...

. Both Drumsleet and the single-teacher Whinnyhill school were made redundant in 1959 when Cargenbridge secondary and primary school opened. The building, described in 1962 as a "very modern school", was opened in October by the

Earl of Galloway Earl of Galloway is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1623 for Alexander Stewart, 1st Lord Garlies, with remainder to his heirs male bearing the name and arms of Stewart. He had already been created Lord Garlies in the Peer ...

. It was designed by Eric W. Hall. The former Drumsleet school became a community centre. In 1962 the primary school had three teachers and 80 pupils and the secondary school had 14 teachers and 144 pupils. The secondary school was closed between September 1982 and September 1984. The current Cargenbridge Primary School building was opened in 2009.

References

{{Authority control Villages in Dumfries and Galloway