Tour Scotland wee video of old photographs of Penicuik, a town and former burgh in Midlothian situated on the west bank of the River North Esk. It lies on the A701 road midway between Edinburgh and Peebles, east of the Pentland Hills. The site of Penicuik was home to the paper mill established by Agnes Campbell in 1709. Around 1770, the arrival of the Cowan family, and their expansion of the paper mill, led to the need for homes for their workers. The hamlet of Penicuik was expanded as a planned town. Papermaking is thought to have started in the area around 1709. The best firm evidence of early paper making lies in the parish cemetery, where the grave of Thomas Rutherford, dated 1735, describes him as " papermaker ". There were at least two established paper mills in the town. In the mid 18th century Charles Cowan, originally a grocer in Leith, established the Cowan Valleyfield Mills. In 1796, Cowan brought in his son, Alexander Cowan, to manage the mill. An adjacent corn mill was purchased in 1803, becoming known as Bank Mill after he converted it to produce the paper on which banknotes were printed. The Valleyfield Mills were used as a prisoner of war camp, mainly for French prisoners, from March 1811 until September 1814, often referred to as the Napoleonic War but more correctly at this period being the Peninsula War. Cargill Gilston Knott, was born on 30 June 1856 in Penicuik. He was a Scottish physicist and mathematician who was a pioneer in seismological research. He spent his early career in Japan. He later became a Fellow of the Royal Society, Secretary of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and President of the Scottish Meteorological Society. He died at his home at 42 Upper Gray Street, Newington, Edinburgh, on 26 October 1922.
