Gatehouse of Fleet

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

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Gatehouse, a town of SW Kirkcudbrightshire, on the Water of Fleet, 9 miles WNW of Kirkcudbright and 6 SE by S of Drumore, with both of which it communicates twice a day by coach. Comprising Gatehouse proper on the left bank of the river in Girthon parish, and Fleet Street suburb on the right bank in Anwoth parish, it has picturesque environs, that ascend from luxuriant valley to an amphitheatre of distant hills, and commands navigable communication 1½ mile down Fleet Water to that river's expansion into Fleet Bay or estuary, and so to Wigtown Bay and the Irish Sea. It sprang, about the middle of last century, from a single house situated at the gate of the avenue to Cally House- hence its name Gatehouse-of-Fleet-and rapidly rose to manufacturing importance, so as to have, at the beginning of the present century, four cotton factories, a fair proportion of cotton-weaving hand-looms, a wine company, a brewery, a tannery, and workshops for nearly. every class of artisans. It made a grand effort, too, by deepening Fleet Water to the sea and otherwise, to establish a great commercial trade, and seemed for a time to menace the Glasgow of the West with the energetic rivalry of a Glasgow of the South. Somewhat suddenly it suffered such arrest to further progress as has made it from 18l5 stationary or retrograde; and now its only industrial works are a bobbin and bark mill and a brewery. Still, it consists of neat and regular streets, and presents, in its main body or Gatehouse proper, a sort of miniature of the original New Town of Edinburgh, being one of the handsomest towns in Galloway, equalled indeed by very few in Scotland. It has a post office, with money order, savings' bank, insurance, and telegraph departments, branches of the Bank of Scotland and the Union Bank, offices or agencies of 6 insurance companies, 2 hotels, a handsome clocktower, a fine stone bridge across the Fleet, the parish church, a Free church, a United Presbyterian church, an English Episcopalian church, a public news-room, a public library, a gas company, a weekly market on Saturday, a cattle market on the second Saturday of every month, and hiring fairs on the Saturdays before Castle-Douglas fair. The clock-tower, of Craignair granite, built in 1871, stands at the N end of the principal street, and rises to a height of 75 feet. The bridge succeeded one of the 13th century, has twice been widened, and comprises two spacious arches. The parish church of Girthon was built in 1817, and contains 714 sittings; and another parish church, that of Anwoth (1826; 400 sittings), stands 1¾ mile Why S. The United Presbyterian church is in the Fleet Street suburb; and the Episcopalian church stands in the grounds of Cally. The improvement on the Fleet's navigation includes a canal or straight cut along the river, made at a cost of about £3000, and enables vessels of 60 tons' burden to come up to the town. The exports are principally grain, the imports principally coal and lime. The town was made a burgh of barony, by royal charter, in 1795; adopted the Police Act in l852; and is governed by a provost, 2 bailies, and 4 councillors, and by commissioners of police, with the provost at their head. A justice of peace small debt court is held on the first Saturday of every month. Four schools-Girthon, Cally, Fleetside boys', and Fleetside girls'-with respective accommodation for 149, 139, 9l, and 85 children, had (1881) an average attendance of l01, 86, 68, and 84, and grants of £96, 9s., £79, 5s., £68, 5s. 8d., and £87, 5s. 11d. The municipal constituency numbered 102 in 1882, when the annual value of real property was £2826. Pop. (1851) 1750, (1861) 1635, (1871) 1503, (1881) 1286, of .whom 337 were in Anwoth.—Ord. Sur., sh. 5, 1857.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer

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