Ordnance Survey large scale Scottish town plans, 1847-1895
FORRES (surveyed in
1868)
Introduction
Forres sits on a
small tributary of the River Findhorn, beneath the Cluny and Sanquhar Hills, in
the county of Moray in north-east Scotland. The origins of the name 'Forres'
are unclear. It has been suggested that the burgh is on the site of 'Varis', a
settlement shown on Ptolemaic maps of Roman Britain from circa AD140, which
predate the first records of Scots Gaels. It has also been suggested, however,
that the name is derived from Scots Gaelic, and means 'beneath the bushes'
(from far, meaning 'below' and ras, meaning 'shrubs' or 'underwood').
Like its neighbour Elgin, Forres was one of Scotland's earliest royal burghs,
chartered by David I in either AD 1130 or 1150, and also like Elgin, its
location made it susceptible to attack during Highland-Lowland feuds, and the
town was burned by the Wolf of Badenoch in 1390. Forres passed into the control
of the Earls of Moray in the fifteenth century, and stagnated economically
until the eighteenth century, when a slow recovery began. In 1861 the burgh
population was numbered at 4,112.
Forres, like the
majority of Scotland's early planned burghs, is dominated by a long high
street. The tolbooth, which was rebuilt on the original site in the nineteenth
century, stands halfway down the High Street, presiding over a wide central
marketplace that is also typical of Scottish burghs. The parish church stands
at the west end of the High Street, overlooked by the hill where Forres's
medieval royal castle once stood. In 1806 the octagonal Nelson tower was built
on the nearby Cluny hills, and still dominates the approach to the town.
The growth of the
textile industry assisted the economic recovery of Forres in the eighteenth
century, and by the 1790s flax spinning was a significant cottage industry in
the town. However, the large scale spinning and weaving technology which
revolutionised the textile industry in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth
centuries did not reach Forres, and by the time of the Statistical Account of 1845 it was recorded that 'There are no
manufactures in Forres'. The town did, however, have a brewery, opened in the
1820s, and a gasworks, opened in 1837. The bulk of other employment was in
retail and small scale trade.
The area of Moray
around Forres was largely given over to arable and livestock farming. Cattle
farming was predominant on the land nearest to the town, as the regular demand
for dairy products from the population made this the most profitable method of
farming. Sheep were also kept in some areas of the countryside, however. The
staple crops were turnips, potatoes, wheat, barley and oats, and flour and meal
mills stood on the burn of Forres. In addition to farming, salmon fishing could
be a profitable, if unpredictable, business. The Findhorn was a noted salmon
river, and in the 1840s the fisheries in the parish of Forres were owned by
Messrs Forbes and Co. of Aberdeen.
St Lawrence's, the
parish church of Forres, has stood on the same site, on the north-west side of
the High Street, since medieval times. The Statistical
Account of 1845 notes that the church, seating 1000, was the only Church of
Scotland building in the town, but that there were 'three Dissenting chapels',
associated with the Secession Church, the Independents, and the Scotch
Episcopal Church. At this time there was no Roman Catholic place of worship in
Forres.
The Statistical Account describes six
schools for the education of boys in Forres in 1845. Two were fee-paying
schools. Three were parochial schools, funded by the local parish, and the
other was a charity school endowed by a Mr John Anderson of Glasgow. The three
parochial schools, and the charity school, all appear to have occupied the same
building, the academy, or 'Anderson's Academical Institution'. In addition to
the boys' schools, Forres contained two boarding schools for 'young ladies',
and the burgh paid small salaries to two additional women who taught local
girls.
In the 1850s Forres
contained branches of the Caledonian Bank, the National Bank and the British
Linen Company Bank, twenty-one insurance offices, a building association, a
mechanics' institute and three masonic lodges. It also had a newspaper, the Forres Gazette, which began publication
in 1837.
A subscription
library was founded in Forres at the turn of the eighteenth century, and was
managed by a president and board of directors.
By the 1850s the town also had three public connections with fine arts'
institutions, four friendly societies, a bible society and two societies
dedicated to temperance or total abstinence from alcohol. Forres had at least
one ballroom, located in the St Lawrence masonic lodge, and the eight
agricultural fairs held every year were undoubtedly important social events.
Groome,
Francis H. (ed.), 1894-5. The Ordnance
Gazetteer of Scotland; a survey of Scottish topography, statistical,
biographical, and historical, 2nd ed., (London: William Mackenzie)
Mackay,
George, 2000. Scottish Place Names
(New Lanark: Lomond)
Smith, Robert,
2001. The Making of Scotland: a
comprehensive guide to the growth of its cities, towns and villages (Edinburgh:
Canongate)
Wilson, Rev.
John Marius (ed.), 1857. The Imperial
Gazetteer of Scotland or Dictionary of Scottish Topography (Edinburgh: A.
Fullarton & Co.)
Edina Website –
Online Statistical Accounts of Scotland - http://edina.ac.uk/statacc/