Ordnance Survey large scale Scottish town plans, 1847-1895
PETERHEAD (surveyed in 1868)
Peterhead sits on a
headland, and extends round a rocky bay, on the Buchan coast, thirty-two miles
north-east of Aberdeen. Its name is an abbreviation of 'St Peter's headland',
and was taken from a church dedicated to St Peter that was built on the shores
of the same bay in the twelfth or thirteenth century. This, and two castles,
Ravenscraig and Inverugie, built next to the River Ugie a mile or two north of
the church, were the earliest significant settlements in the area. Around 1380,
Sir John de Keith, owner of Inverugie Castle, founded a fishing village called
Keithinch on the most south-easterly point of the headland, and this eventually
became known as 'fishertown of Peterhead'. The town was created a burgh of
barony and given a charter allowing a harbour to be built in 1587, and in 1593
was elevated to royal burgh status, despite having a population of less than
100. Peterhead prospered in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
establishing trading links with Holland and gaining a reputation as a leading
exporter of cured fish. The size and depth of the original harbour limited
Peterhead's potential as a fishing port, however, and in 1773-5 the new South
Harbour was constructed, followed in 1818-22 by the North Harbour. A small
textile industry enhanced the town's economy, but white fishing, herring
fishing and whaling were the principal sources of Peterhead's prosperity in the
early-nineteenth century, and by the 1850s Peterhead was Britain's premier whaling
port. In 1831 the population of the burgh was measured at 5,512, and this
figure is likely to have been greater by the time of survey.
Due to the piecemeal
nature of its growth, and the geographical limitations of its setting, the
centre of Peterhead appears less regular than the centres of many planned
Scottish burghs. In Keithinch, the oldest part of the town (sheet
XXIII.&.18), streetnames like Shiprow and Ship Street reflect the fact that
this was originally purely a fishing village, while Castle Street was probably
the route between the village and Inverugie Castle. The burghal centre of
Peterhead, built west of Keithinch, and connected to it by a narrow isthmus,
reflects the town's growth as a more significant trading centre in the late-sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries. The main thoroughfare, Broad Street, leads towards
the harbours, and is a wide, open area where markets could be held (sheet
XXIII.7.17). Peterhead's town house is at the west end of Broad Street, while
the parish church is a little further west. The streets to the immediate
north-west of the centre are laid out in a more formal, gridiron pattern,
suggesting this area of the town was built in the eighteenth or nineteenth
centuries.
The Statistical Account of 1845 and Imperial Gazetteer of Scotland (1857)
both make the point that manufacturing in mid-nineteenth century Peterhead was
very limited. The town contained a brewery, a brickworks, a dyeworks, a gas
works, and a carding and spinning mill, and sea-kelp was gathered to be
processed into manure and cattle-feed. The wool, weaving and thread-making
industries had declined significantly by the time of the survey, and a
distillery that had formerly been open in the town had closed. The major
manufactures in the town were all concerned with the local fishing and whaling
industries, including shipbuilding and rope-making. Peterhead's importance as a
port, as well as its function as a market town for the surrounding farmland,
ensured that it enjoyed healthy trade. The principal imports into Peterhead
were timber, salt, flour, lime, wool, iron and groceries, and the principal
exports from the town were fish, whale and seal meat, oil, pork, butter,
cheese, eggs, grain, meal and granite. A market was held in the town every
Friday, and fairs were held twice a year, in May and November.
The countryside
around Peterhead was generally good mixed farmland, and the Statistical Account of 1845 records that
over 90% of the parish was in cultivation, with a little additional land being
given over to tree planting. Various improvements had been carried out in the
years prior to the Statistical Account,
including improving drainage, liming soil and properly enclosing and sheltering
fields. The staple crops grown were bear, oats, potatoes and turnips. The
cattle raised in the area were mainly polled Buchan cows, although Teeswater
shorthorns had been introduced and were crossed with the Buchan breed. Small
numbers of pigs and sheep were farmed, but the area was mainly cattle-farming
country. The horses used in the area were also of a breed native to Buchan. The
sea off the Peterhead coast was a far more important factor in the town's
livelihood. The success of the whaling industry fluctuated greatly, with Peterhead
crews catching as many as 268 whales in 1823, but only 23 by 1830.
Nevertheless, the whaling fleet in Peterhead continued to grow, from 11 whaling
boats in 1836 to 27 in 1855. Peterhead's herring fleet also expanded over this
period, from 262 boats in 1836, to 842 in 1855. The other fish caught in large
numbers in Peterhead waters were cod, ling, haddock and whiting. In addition to
farming and fishing, the quarrying of granite was also an important industry in
the hinterland of Peterhead, and large quarries existed at Stirlinghill,
Salthousehead and Blackhill.
The parish church
that stood in Peterhead at the time of the survey (sheet XXIII.7.16) had been
built in 1808, and could hold a congregation of almost 2,000. A second Church
of Scotland church was opened in the parish in 1834. Other denominations
represented in mid-nineteenth century Peterhead included Episcopalians,
Independents, Methodists and the United Associate Congregation.
When the 1845 Statistical Account was written,
Peterhead's parish school was still taught in a room in the town house, as it
had been for more than forty years previously, but the existing parish
schoolmaster had applied to have a new schoolhouse erected. It is not clear
from the Imperial Gazetteer of Scotland
(1857) whether a purpose-built school had yet been opened. Other schools in the
town in the 1850s included 'a town school, a Lancasterian school, two ladies'
schools, and eight ordinary private schools' (Wilson 1857).
Peterhead's town
house was built on three floors, the ground floor holding shops, the first
containing the parish school, and the second divided into offices concerned
with civic business. In the mid-nineteenth century, the town contained branches
of the Commercial Bank, Union Bank, City of Glasgow Bank, Aberdeen Town and
County Bank and North of Scotland Bank. The merchants and tradesmen of the town
each had their own society.
In the 1850s Peterhead was quite well-served with cultural
and social amenities. A public subscription library was founded in 1808, and
another smaller public library, Peterhead Mechanics' Library, opened in 1836.
The town also boasted a public reading room and a news room. The Peterhead
Association for Science, Literature and the Arts, which had its own museum, was
founded in 1835 and gave occasional lectures. Other societies included a
gardeners' society, a farmers' society, a masonic lodge and 'a variety of
philanthropic and religious institutions' (Wilson, 1857). Peterhead also had a
public billiard-room, and a suite of hot and cold public baths.
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/