Comrie of Old

Comrie of Old

Drove leaving Comrie

Looking at the Parish of Comrie in the 1792/93 Account, we note that the staple industry is linen yarn  " of which a great quantity is spun and sold each year. With the money which this yarn brings,most of the farmers pay a great part of their rents.This yarn sells at about 2/4 d per spindle " (i.e. about 11 pence in present currency ). Very much a cottage industry, the small farmers or cottars produced a variety of cloths to suit their needs. The lint was spun into a yarn and from that a cloth was produced . The finer cloth was made into men and women's shirts whilst the coarser was turned into " sailors jackets and trousers ". Comrie in the 18th century was a Highland village unlike its near neighbour Crieff some seven miles to the east . The women of the Parish produced a great quantity of  " plaiden cloth " and a considerable quantity of tartan from which they made plaids and hose . The Account tells us these products were partly for home use and partly for the market .

The second Account in 1844 relates that  " the manufacture of cotton and woollen cloth is carried on in the Parish. The hand loom cotton weavers are employed by houses in Glasgow and Perth. During the winter months ,136 hand loom weavers are employed and of these only one tenth are employed during the three months of winter . The remaining 120 may , on an average , earn 1/- ( one shilling or five pence decimal ) per day, for 280 days in the year , that is deducting 30 days in the harvest, and Sundays and other occasional vacant days , sixty five . Of these there are about 50 heads of families who have each good gardens , and a patch of potatoes , and a pig , which may  add about  £ 4/10/0 ( £4.50 decimal ) to each family's income . The only woollen manufacture is carried on at the River Lednock , in the village of Comrie . Eleven men and eight children are employed at the mill , and five persons are employed out of doors. "

Shortly after this picture of what was an apparently thriving industry things changed rapidly. The day of the cottage industry was over as more and more factories in the industrial belt sprang up undercutting prices and offering steady , regular employment . As with other parts of the Highlands emigration denuded the glens of their industrious occupants. Many Comrie people sailed for Canada.