History
A Short History
Stanley a Perthshire village is in Auchtergaven, Kinclaven and Redgorton parishes, on the right bank of the winding Tay. Auchtergaven and Redgorton Parishes are divided by the burn at the bottom of the Airntully road that runs down the west side of Perth Road and is piped over the railway line at the end of James Street and flows underneath the village green to the Well Brae. A small area of the Parish of Kinclaven is at the north end of the village.
Stanley owes its origin to extensive cotton mills erected in 1785 by Sir Richard Arkwright (1732-1793). It is recorded in 1784 ground was feued at Stanley from the Duke of Atholl to build a mill for spinning cotton and soon after a village was erected upon a regular plan for accommodating the people to be employed in the Mill. At that time only a few families dwelt near Stanley and excepting the land within the enclosures of Stanley House (Built by Lord Nairn) most of the area was almost in a state of nature. The turnpike road from Perth to Dunkeld was just then completed, the cross-country roads or paths being excessively bad and in winter almost impassable.
Manufactures
The first place is given to Stanley Cotton Mills consisting of spinning and weaving mills propelled by seven water wheels equal to 200 HP, the fall of water being 16 feet and the water supply being so abundant on occasions as to stop the Works.
Work at the Cotton Mills began at half past five in the mornings and ended at seven in the evenings with the intermission of an hour and a half for meals.
On Saturday work ended at three o’clock in the afternoons. Children began work at quarter-to-ten in the mornings and ended at three o’clock in the afternoons that they may then attend school.
Stanley Chapel
Soon after the erection of the Cotton Mills the Company employed a Preacher to do duty on Sundays in the School House.
In 1828 the Proprietors of the Mill petitioned for a Church built for more than £3000 standing within the verge of the parish of Redgorton; an elegant building surmounted by a tower 85 feet high with sittings for 1150 persons. The Company provided the Minister with a house and a garden in addition to a stipend of £150.
There is a Sabbath School attended by between three or four hundred of the young people. The Tower Church was raised to quoad sacra status in 1877.
Education
The Stanley Company maintains a large School at their own expense providing a Teacher with a house and garden and a salary of £20 per annum, besides furnishing a spacious School Room.
Charitable Institutions
he Benevolent Society of Stanley was instituted in 1831 for the purpose of assisting poor people and is supported by voluntary contributions. The total disbursement then was approximately £60 per annum averaging about one shilling per week. Coal, clothes, food and medicines are given to the necessitous according to circumstances.
Police
The Police of Stanley are very efficient and ill-behaved persons when found out are forthwith discharged from the Mill. By this means there is not a more orderly or a more respectable manufacturing population in the Empire than the inhabitants of Stanley.
The Queen's Visit and Other Poems
The Queen’s visit refers to the era of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1842. An Arch was erected for the occasion at the junction of the Stanley and Dunkeld roads by the Proprietors of Stanley Mills. 2000 of the villagers walked down in a Procession to the Arch and two Bands of Music belonging to the village accompanied them to view the Royal cortege.
The Thistle Brig, a short distance below Stanley consists of a trap dyke crossing the Tay and said to have at one time spanned the river with its gigantic basaltic columns providing suitable supports for a “brig of tree”. By this route the Danes were crossing the Tay before the Battle of Luncarty and one of their number is said to have trampled on a Scottish thistle, cried out and betrayed their approach to the bridge sentinels. This incident gave rise to the adoption of the thistle as the badge of Scotland. The basaltic columns were removed in modern times (written mid 19th century) to enable rafts of wood to get down the river – an unhappy end to the legend.
Stanley House* to the east of the village was an ancient mansion dating from the first half of the 15th century. It was once a seat of the Lords Nairne and has memories of the Jacobite third lord who escaped from its dining room after the ’45 rebellion. (See the Stanley Steeple Poem for more information on the Poems page).
* So named about the beginning of the 18th century after Lady Amelia Sophia Stanley, daughter of the Earl and the famous Countess of Derby, and herself Marchioness of Athole. Her fourth son Lord William Murray in 1683 succeeded his father in law as the second Lord Nairne (note the difference in spelling in Athole and Nairne).
Fun Fact
There is also a Stanley in Co Durham, Derby, West Yorkshire, Falkland Islands and Hong Kong.
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