Extracts from the writings of Craig Mair

The following are extracts from the writings of the local Historian Craig Mair in his publication “Bridge of Allan a History” as they refer to Cornton.

…As it had been in prehistoric times, the area was almost certainly still one of good agricultural land and must have been scattered with farming settlements. During the 9th century the mouldboard plough first appeared and transformed the farming of heavy clay soils so it was very probable that crops probably oats, barley or pease were grown on the lower land around Allan water and the Forth. The place name Cornton (or Corn Town) appears in records by 1220 and there is no reason to suppose that the same land was not already producing cereal crops much earlier. By the 15th century virtually every Cornton tenant was paying their rent in wheat, barley and oats in what seems to have been a long established arrangement…

… Around 1210 a new church was created at Kincardine, the documentation for which was witnessed by “Ysaac Michaele clerico persona de Logyn” – the first actual name of a priest at Logie. Then according to the notebook of William Troup, there survives another undated document (but from around 1227) concerning: –

…The tides of Atherlai and Corntun, Regarding the dispute between the Logie and Atherai, with the cause depending between the nuns of North Berwick on the one part and the monks of Dunfermline on the other as to the tithes of the grain fish and mills of Atherey and Corntun…

The monks of Dunfermline shall without objection and trouble pay to the nuns of North Berwick yearly at Pasch (Easter) 3 chalders of oatmeal from the tithes of Corntun, in the town of Cornton, by the hands of the minister serving for the time in the Church of Stirling… The nuns shall without objection and trouble have the whole tithes of the mill or multure of Atherey and of Corntun, with the whole sequels of the foresaid mill, and there shall remain in possession of the foresaid monks safely and peaceably from all claims and question all the types of the grain and fish both of Atherey and Corntun towards the West from the head of the Causey to the point next to the hospital…

In other words, this document clarified which parts of the Airthrey – Cornton area were to be tithed to Dunfermline and which to North Berwick.

…The fertile lands of Cornton (also Corntown or corntoun) meanwhile lay between Airthrey and the river Forth and stretched from the mouth of the Allan water to Stirling Bridge. The Cornton lands also appear to have been Crown property and seem to have been a separate barony or estate. In 1387 Thomas Fraser of Cornton appeared as a witness on a document concerning the Bishop of Aberdeen, while in January 1388 Hugh Fraser, described as the Lord of Corntown, witnessed a charter being given by king Robert II to John Fraser of Forglen near Turriff.It is not clear how the Frasers, traditionally associated with Aberdeenshire, came at such an early date to have rented lands near Stirling, but during the 1440s King James II corrected this by taking back is Cornton Lands giving instead more lands around Aberdeen…

… Another indicator of the royal connection may be seen at Cornton. In 1467 there seems to have been great poverty locally so, in exchange for mowing and winnowing of the meadow of Cornton the King gave his Cornton tenants an allowance of four bolls of wheat, 4 bolls of barley, addition barley to use for malt (ie. with which to make beer), permission to use a boat to fish on the Forth and a payment of 20 shillings. This royal support seems to have occurred several more times during the following decades…