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Scotland (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Scotland => Fife => Topic started by: humanracer on Saturday 18 October 14 19:20 BST (UK)
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Many thanks
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If you go to the National Library of Scotland maps website, then click on "Series Maps", you will get access to old large-scale Ordnance Survey maps of Scotland. The maps have a slider bar which allows you to compare the old map with modern maps or even satellite images. Try the earliest six inches to a mile map first.
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Hello humanracer,
Backbraes was on a minor road in the Teasses area, south of Ceres. As per GR2's post, you'll find it on National Library of Scotland (NLS) website: http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/
Find a place: Either type Teasses, Fife, KY8 in the Gazetteer/NG Ref: box, or County: Fife. Parish: Ceres in the boxes below that.
Map overlay:
1. Select a category: Choose Scotland rather than Great Britain.
2. Select a map/map series: OS 25 Inch, 1892-1905 gives the best view. Zoom in and it looks like a row of 5 cottages and a farm steading.
Use < > at bottom left to change to satellite view. Doesn't appear to be any buildings there now, just a stand of trees.
I love this website & use it often to find farms around the Fife/Kinross area. Interesting to see how areas change using different maps & satellite view. I recently found Four Lairds Land near Cupar after years of searching old maps. Like Backbraes, from the satellite view, there's just a small stand of trees in the corner of a field, no buildings. However, in both cases there's a lot of shadow from trees, so could possibly be ruins there still.
Hope you find Backbraes.
Regards, Dod.
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Thanks Dod, found it using NLS but there does not seem to be anything there any more.
My great great grandfather worked in the lime mill in the Teasses Estate.
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Backbraes is now Bankhead of Teases Farm, just off the road coming out of Ceres - postcode = KY15 5PP
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Hello Sheena-Ann,
Ordnance Survey Maps from the 1" 1843-82 up to the more recent 1" 7th Series 1955-61 all show Bankhead & Backbraes as 2 separate places. As you say, Bankhead lies south of Teassesmill, Ceres on the left-hand side of road. Backbraes is further south on the right-hand. Fleecefaulds lies roughly half way between Bankhead & Backbraes on the right-hand side, while Windygates Farm lies just south of Backbraes but on the left-hand.
OS Map 25" 1892-1905 shows the most detail. That shows a row of 5 cottages with front gardens bordering the road. To the left of the cottages, standing slightly further back from the road, is a larger, U-shaped building with the open end of the U facing away from the road. Looks like a typical Scottish farm steading & row of 'cottar houses'.
This looks like a quiet, rural area now, but at one time it would have been a different story. Old maps show several quarries and a lime kilns, complete with underground works, between Bankhead & Backbraes. There would have been people & carts coming & going. Noise, dust etc. Winter roads like a quagmire. Great fun! :)
http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/
Type: Teasses, Fife KY8, UK. in the Gazetteer / NG Ref: box.
Regards, Dod.
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Hello, I found this thread while searching about my family history, my great granddad also lived in Backbreas cottage and was a lime minor, I wonder if this is the same place? is name was William Gourlay and his wife was Helen Gourlay (MacIntosh) she was born 1842 had 5/6 children.
Does anyone know if Backbraes cottage would have been there?
Thanks
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"does anyone know where Backbraes is now in Ceres Fife?"
Humanracer,
Can you give details please of who/when relating to the address as many place names have changed over the years i.e. many ways of trying to trace the location & what it's named now i.e.. names/dates can be very significant in the search?
Annie
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I'm very behind the curve on this one, but only just joined Roots as I explore the history of Teasses (where I now live).
Backbraes were worker's cottages (described as Cottar's Cottages on the 19th C. maps we have in the archive of the Mansion). They were situated where the car park for Fleecefaulds Meadow is now and were destroyed in mid-20th. maybe as late as early '70s. The stone from the cottages was used to create the junction at Higham Toll on the road from Peat Inn to Cameron.
Bankhead of Teasses is a separate property to the north of Fleecefaulds Meadow.
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Following description found on ScotlandsPlaces - Ordnance Survey Name Books / Fife and
Kinross-shire OS Name Books, 1853-1855 / Volume 17. Parish of Ceres.
Name: Backbraes. Authority for these modes of spelling: Thos. Henderson, Teasses. Robert
Cairns, Teasses Lime Work. John Lessels, Woodtop.
Name: Backbrae. Authority: Co. Map.
Situation: About 1 mile S.E. from Cassindilly.
Description: This is a row of Cottages on the road side West of Teasses Grounds, occupied by the
farm servants of R.S. Christie Esq. of Teasses, to whom the Cottages belong.
Nothing of these cottages to be seen at the road side now. Google Maps has marked the area as Fleecefaulds Meadow Nature Reserve, although the image, taken in June 2009, doesn't yet show the Car Park, unless it sits back slightly and screened from the road by trees.
Regards, Dod.
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https://www.geograph.org.uk/gridref/NO4008