The History of Montrose and its Surrounding Parishes

Publications

Montrose Basin Heritage Society has produced three books on the history of the Montrose Basin area. These are miscellanies of local history - the topics selected and presented by individual members of the group. The books can usually be bought through bookshops, local libraries, museums or heritage outlets. They can also be supplied by the MBHS by post (within the UK).

For retailers or prospective buyers outside the UK, please contact the MBHS directly to check on availability, terms and delivery costs involved.

Vikings to Victorians: Eye-witnesses to Montrose History (2012)

The latest book on the local history of Montrose by MBHS, gives a new view of the town's past. The focus of the book is on first hand, eye-witness accounts of events at home, and some abroad, related to the history of Montrose. It covers a thousand years from 900 to 1900AD, and tells us how our ancestors lived, and how their lives compare with ours today, making use of diaries, travelogues, accounts, letters, court and church records, newspapers, obituaries and poems.

Many incidents, well-known or unfamiliar, hilarious or tragic, are recounted - the return to Scotland of William Wallace in 1302, landing at Montrose after exile; what it was like to live in Montrose in the aftermath of the plague in 1644; or during the occupation of the staunchly Jacobite town by the Duke of Cumberland's Royalist army in 1745, a few months before the battle of Culloden. Not all of what is written is necessarily polite - people have always been biased, contrary, misinformed, or had political axes to grind. The story is all the more interesting as a result, and presents a pageant of Montrose life over the centuries.

It contains something for all tastes, excellent either for dipping into or reading from cover to cover. The book has been written by members of Montrose Basin Heritage Society. This is the third book on local history produced by the group, following on the success of their earlier books Ebb and Flow and Flowing Past. Launching Ebb and Flow, Professor Tom Devine, the well-known Scottish historian, described the book as '... an extraordinary mosaic of local culture'.

Flowing Past: More Montrose Basin History (2008)

• Taming the Esks: The History of local bridges: Duncan Macdonald
• The History of the Montrose to Ferryden Ferry: Hew Blair-Imrie
• A Portrait of the Rossie Estate & its Owners: Amanda Briant-Evans
• Dun: A Recipe for Death: Forbes Inglis
• Designs on Old Montrose: An historic Landscape: Anne Hardcastle
• The Performing Arts in Montrose: Neil Jones
• The Medieval Paniter Panels: Hilary White
• The River South Esk: Following the Course of History: Ann Wyllie

Ebb and Flow: Aspects Of The History Of Montrose Basin (2004)

• Setting the Scene: Hilary White
• Time Line: Linda Fraser
• Place-names around the Basin: Duncan Macdonald
• Montrose Basin in Prehistory: Hilary White
• The Romans in Montrose: Hilary White
• John Erskine: Reformer: Forbes Inglis
• West Indian Fortunes at Langley Park: A Briant-Evans
• Salmon Fishing at Montrose Basin: Duncan Macdonald
• Mussel Cultivation at Montrose: Duncan Macdonald
• The Geology of Montrose Basin: Graeme King

To order by post: MBHS P.O. Box 7179, Montrose, DD10 8WU