A vision of Britain through time
A vision of Britain from 1801 to now.
Including maps, statistical trends and historical descriptions.
A vision of Britain through time
A vision of Britain from 1801 to now.
Including maps, statistical trends and historical descriptions.
Stanley, a Perthshire village in Auchtergaven and Redgorton parishes, on the right bank of the winding Tay, 5 furlongs S by W of Stanley Junction on the Caledonian railway (1847), this being 8 ½ miles SE of Dunkeld, 8 5/8 SW of Coupar-Angus, and 7 ¼ N by W of Perth. It owes its origin to extensive cotton-mills, erected in 1785 under the auspices of the celebrated Arkwright; and it has shared the fluctuating fortunes of these mills, which were stopped from 1814 to 1823, and then acquired by Dennistoun, Buchanan, & Co., who spent £160, 000 on their improvement, and employed 1200 workers. The cotton famine of 1862 occasioned another stoppage, but since 1876 the works have greatly revived under the new and able management of Col. Sandeman. They are driven by water-power, brought from the Tay with a fall of 25 feet, and led to the mills by a tunnel 800 feet long. The situation of Stanley, on a considerable elevation above the river, is pleasant and salubrious. There are two places of worship in the town - the one Established, the other Free. The former, a large and handsome edifice, with 1150 sittings, was erected in 1828 at a cost of over £5000, and was raised to quoad sacra status in 1877. Its tower, 85 feet high, forms a conspicuous object to the view of the surrounding country. A public hall, with accommodation for 200 persons, was built in 1880; and Stanley besides has a post office, with money order, savings' bank, and telegraph departments, gas-works (for the mills only), a public library, and a public school. Stanley House, * to the E of the village, is an ancient mansion dating from the first half of the 15th century, but greatly altered during the last hundred years. Sheltered to the N by a crescent-shaped hill, which rises 135 feet above the Tay, it stands on a beautiful haugh, surrounded by grand old trees, including a broad beech avenue. It was once a seat of the Lords Nairne, and has memories of the Jacobite third lord, who escaped from its dining-room after the '45; whilst `Lady Nairne's Tea-House' still crowns the top of the hill. At Stanley House, too, John Leech drew for Punch ` Mr Briggs landing his first salmon.' The present proprietor, Col. Francis Stewart Sandeman, is a grand-nephew of the poetess, Lady Nairne. Pop. of village (1841) 1945, (1851) 1769, (1861) 1274, (1871) 932, (1881) 1030, of whom 596 were females, and 797 were in Redgorton parish; of q. s. parish (1881) 1276, of whom 856 were in Auchtergaven, 98 in Kinclaven, and 322 in Redgorton. Houses in village (1881) 275 occupied, 27 vacant, 2 building.—Ord. Sur., sh. 48, 1868. See also Campsie, Inchbervie, Auchtergaven, and pp. 511-516 of Thos. Hunter's Woods and Estates of Perthshire (Perth, 1883).
* So named, about the beginning of the 18th century, after Lady Amelia Sophia Stanley, daughter of the Earl and the famous Countess of Derby. and herself Marchioness of Athole. Her fourth son. Lord William Murray, in 1683 succeeded his father-in-law as second Lord Nairne.
(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)
| Linked entities: | |
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| Feature Description: | "a Perthshire village" (ADL Feature Type: "populated places") |
| Administrative units: | Perthshire ScoCnty |
| Place: | Stanley |
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