Ordnance Survey large scale Scottish town plans, 1847-1895
KIRRIEMUIR (surveyed in 1861)
Kirriemuir lies
between the Strathmore valley and the foothills of the Grampian mountains in
the county of Angus, about sixteen miles north of Dundee and five miles
north-west of Forfar. It has been known variously as 'Kellymoore' and
'Killymure', and the name is believed to mean 'the great quarter', deriving
from Scots Gaelic ceathramh, an area
of land measuring about 48 acres, and mor,
Scots Gaelic for 'great' or 'big'. It is believed that the first streets in Kirriemuir
may have been planned in the twelfth or thirteenth centuries, although the town
was not granted a charter, as a burgh of barony, until 1459. By 1589 there were
records of a school in Kirriemuir, and a post office was opened in 1715. In
1861 the town's population was measured at 4,686.
The urban geography
of Kirriemuir deviates slightly from the model of a long high street, bisected
at the marketplace by secondary streets, that was common among early Scottish
burgh foundations. Instead, the heart of Kirriemuir is a short high street
ending in a public square in front of the town house (sheet XXXI.16.), with
braes and side streets converging on this compact centre from various
directions. The parish church, typically of Scottish burghs, was built near to
the heart of the town, east of the town house, and has remained on this site.
There does not appear to have been a castle within the bounds of the burgh.
The economy of
Kirriemuir in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was massively dependent
on the local linen industry. In 1841 there were over 2,000 weavers in the
parish, out of a total population of about 7,000, and by the late 1860s it has
been estimated that 8.2 million metres of cloth were produced annually in
Kirriemuir. The town developed a modest jute industry, but brown linen remained
the trademark of Kirriemuir weavers, and most weaving continued to be done on
hand looms despite the opening of two power loom factories in the nineteenth
century. Kirriemuir was also a market town for the surrounding rural areas, and
in addition to weekly produce markets and fortnightly cattle markets,
agricultural fairs were held four times a year.
Much of the land
around Kirriemuir was, by the 1850s, 'cultivated up to apparently its highest
capabilities of improvement' (Wilson, 1857). The highest yielding crops in the
area were oats, barley and turnips, and cattle and sheep were the most common
livestock. According to the Statistical
Account of 1845, the average duration of a tenant-farmer's lease around
Kirriemuir was nineteen years.
Kirriemuir has long
had the reputation of a very devout town, thanks mainly to the best-selling
stories of the Kirriemuir-born author J.M. Barrie (1860-1937), whose thinly-fictionalised
version of Kirriemuir, 'Thrums', was a stronghold of 'Auld Licht' theology. The
'Auld Lichts' were fundamentalist Calvinists, most of whom seceded from the
established Church of Scotland to join the Free Church at the Disruption of 1843.
Wilson (1857) suggests that Kirriemuir did have an unusually high proportion of
secession or dissenting churches compared to other Scottish burghs. Wilson
lists two Free Church buildings, two United Presbyterian churches, a United
Original Secession church and an Episcopalian chapel, in addition to the
Established parish church and chapel of ease.
In the mid nineteenth
century Kirriemuir had one parochial school, funded by the parish, and two
endowed schools. In addition, there were twelve non-parochial schools in the
parish, which were probably funded by school fees. The principal
non-educational institutions in Kirriemuir were the post office, branches of
the National, British Linen and City of Glasgow banks, and nine insurance
companies. In 1861, the year the town was surveyed, rail came to Kirriemuir, in
the form of a branch line linking the town to Forfar.
In 1815
Kirriemuir's Trades Hall was opened as a venue where societies could meet.
Among the societies that existed in the town in the nineteenth century were an
education society, a horticultural society, a gardeners' society and various
friendly and religious societies. A subscription library also operated in the
town, along with two other public libraries. At the time of the survey in 1861
Kirriemuir was not known for its famous sons, but since then, two or three
cultural figures of international repute have apparently been born in the town:
the aforementioned J.M. Barrie, and the original singer with the rock band
AC/DC, Bon Scott (1946-80) were undoubtedly native to Kirriemuir, and although
other sources dispute the claim, the town has also frequently been cited as the
birthplace of the actor and author David Niven (1909-83).
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/