Douglastown, Angus

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Douglastown
Angus

Douglastown near Forfar
Location
Grid reference: NO417473
Location: 56°36’50"N, 2°57’5"W
Data
Post town: Forfar
Postcode: DD8
Dialling code: 01307
Local Government
Council: Angus
Parliamentary
constituency:
Angus

Douglastown is a hamlet in Kinnettles in Angus, three miles south-west of Forfar.

The village takes its name from the landowner who in about 1789 provided land for James Ivory & Co. (in which Mr Douglas was a partner) to build a flax mill to spin yarn for heavy linen cloth called osnabruks (named from the town of Osnabrück in Hanover, where it was originally made). The hamlet of Douglastown was built to house the workers.

The mill used flax-spinning technology invented by John Kendrew and Thomas Porthouse of Darlington, patented in 1787. It closed in 1834.

References

  • A. J. Wardey, The linen trade: ancient and modern (1864; repr. 1967), 458 511 689-91