Shuttle Hall, Forfar

[cristeen]

I have a Mitchell family in the 1841 census living at Shuttle Hall, Forfar. I haven't seen the original so this might be a transcription error (FindMyPast) but the name does make sense given the local trade & the Mitchells were linen hand loom weavers. I have found one reference in newspapers from 1903 regarding a theft from 'Shuttle Hall near Forfar'; other than that zilch. I have done the usual google, maps and newspaper searches and checked OS Scotland Place Names.
Anyone heard of it?

[MonicaL]

Hi Cristeen

Freecen offer the option on looking at previous/next households. This lets you get a handle of surrounding addresses (as 'walked' by the enumenator).

So, looking at surrounding address to Shuttle Hall in order you have:

South Loan
East Port
Shuttle Hall
Nursery Feus
South Street

These references should help hopefully when trying to maybe find it on a map.

Monica

[MonicaL]

Some refs here to East Port and South Street https://canmore.org.uk/site/33840/forfar-east-port

I can't see any mention on the valuation rolls to Shuttle Hall Forfar (there are other Shuttle Halls elsewhere).

More descriptions here https://scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/digital-volumes/ordnance-survey-name-books/forfarshire-angus-os-name-books-1857-1861/forfar-angus-volume-43/31 ....but again no reference to Shuttle Hall 

Monica

[Forfarian]

Have to admit that I have never heard of Shuttle Hall, even though I grew up in Forfar. High Street, East Port and West Port I know - they are on the 1822 town plan https://maps.nls.uk/view/74400029. What was South Street is now Little Causeway, and South Loan is now South Street. (Confusing, or what?) Nursery Feus will be The Nurseries - there is still a Nursery Street there.

[cristeen]

Thank you all for the replies. I am reasonably familiar with the old maps of Forfar so I recognise the streets mentioned. Looks like I will have to be content with an approximate location.

[cristeen]

I'm posting in case someone in the future wonders where Shuttle Hall because I have narrowed down the search to one block of buildings which are no longer in existence. I found the will of Alexander Mitchell who was living at Shuttle Hall in 1841. He leaves property in trust for his wife & children and describes it as follows:
"that lot of ground acquired by me
from the managers of the funds mortified for behoof of the
poor of Forfar by Disposition dated the First day of December
Eighteen hundred and fifteen marked Number four on the
plan referred to in the said Disposition lying at the
east end of the town of Forfar, part of the lands belonging
to the mortified funds of the poor of Forfar consisting of 
seven falls and thirty ells equal to ......
..... imperial measure and measuring forty feet in
front from north to south, which piece of ground extends oblique-
ly from east to west and is ascertained by march stones
fixed at the sight of the said manager and one bounded
by the Turnpike road leading from Forfar to Arbroath
on the east, the Feu acquired by William Thom residing
at Auchterforfar on the north,that which belonged to the late
John Dunbar in the west, and by Lot number five on said plan
on the south part"
On the 1841 census William Thom aged 55, a hand loom weaver is head of the household fourth from East Port Street and immediately before my Mitchell family.
I have attached an image of that area of Forfar taken from John Woods Town Plan of 1822. I believe that Shuttle Hall must have been the row of buildings opposite East Town end Toll, running towards East Port Street.
I've also attached an image from the will (dated 1st Feb 1840, registered 18th March 1850)

[MonicaL]

Great detective work there, cristeen!

Over to Forfarian's keen eye when back online....

Monica

[cristeen]

Thank you MonicaL, I love a good will! I too am interested in Forfarian's opinion on this. I wonder if the original buildings were there when Forfarian was growing up

[Forfarian]

Forfarian's "keen eye" reckons you have cracked it. The clincher would be to get hold of the plan referred to in the disposition.

I don't specifically remember the buildings there when I was growing up, though I must have passed them hundreds of times. Therefore they must have been fairly unremarkable, probably a row of two-storey red sandstone buildings that may or may not have had two flats at ground floor level and two more at first floor level. (For the benefit of any American readers who find this puzzling, in the UK the first floor of a building is one floor up from the ground floor.) If so they were probably built around the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. But that's speculation, really.

I do remember them being replaced by the present development, but I don't recall exactly when it was. In the 1990s my mother's bridge-playing friend lived in a new flat in a block there called Branderha', which faces what is marked as East Port Street on the 1822 map. So the redevelopment was probably in the 1980s.

Angus Archives may have a photograph of the old buildings - there might have been photographs, and there would almost certainly have been plans, attached to the application for planning permission to redevelop the site.