This area was at the heart of the developing town in the pre – railway era with dwellings spreading along the lanes towards Cowgate and the East Common, with weavers’ cottages extending down Nelson Street towards the Garpit Links. The town was expanding and along with the formation of the new coast road to Newport in 1830, the development of Castle Street and the spread of properties up the hill by Reform Street, is illustrated by the Scotscraig  map of 1831. The disruption within the established church in 1843 and the arrival of the railway in 1848, both had a major influence on the physical and social character of the developing community. This is illustrated on the 1855 OS map of the area which also included the new Gas Works. The industrialisation which followed in the 1860s brought the development of Donaldson’s major Sawmill operation, which further radically changed the area. The post-railway era and the subsequent changes to the industrial landscape through the closure of the sawmill and cessation of commercial harbour traffic, has seen this area mainly redeveloped for residential use.

Schooling was described in the Statistical Account of that year by Rev. W. Nicholson, noted a doubling of the population of the parish from that of 875 to 1680. He reports that “Beside the parish school, there are two private schools, one of which is taught by a female, and is chiefly attended by girls.… besides the ordinary branches of education taught at the parish school, navigation, French, and Latin, are taught.… There are always five bursars or free scholars at the parish school, whose education is provided for by investment of a sum of money by the late William Dalgleish, Esq. of Scotscraig, ………The heritor and the minister of the parish have the power of appointing to the benefit, which is restricted to boys.”