MILTON-of-BALGONIE, a village (considerable) and quoad
sacra parish, in the parish of Markinch,
district of Kirkcaldy, county of Fife; containing, with
the villages of Balcurvie, Haugh-Mill, Burns, and Windygates,
1408 Inhabitants, of whom 592 are in the village
of Milton, li mile (E. S. E.) from Markinch. The village
takes its name from the extensive mills around which it
has arisen; it is situated on the river Leven, and consists
of neat substantial cottages inhabited chiefly by persons
employed in the mills. Since 1S36 it has greatly increased
in extent and population. The mills for the
spinning of flax and tow are the property of Messrs.
Baxter and Stewart, and form a spacious structure,
occupying three sides of a quadrangle 160 feet in length
and 140 feet in width. Two sides of the quadrangle
comprise the buildings for the machinery, which is propelled
by the water of the Leven; and the third side
contains three spacious warehouses, above which are
heckling rooms. In detached situations are a warehouse
capable of holding 200 tons of flax, a smithy, gas-works
from which the factory is lighted, and stabling. The
total cost of raw materials consumed in a late year was
£25,000; the quantity manufactured was 475 tons of
flax, imported from the Baltic, Archangel, Holland,
France, and Ireland. The number of persons generally
emploj'ed is about 270, of whom 120 are women and
fifty children. The finer yarns spun here are sold in
the adjoining districts, or exported to France; the
heavier are manufactured into canvass, sacking, and
other articles, chiefly for the London market. This
latter branch of the establishment is at present carried
on at Dundee, but will be soon removed to this place,
when the number of persons employed in the concern
will be augmented by an addition of 100 men and fifty
women. In the east end of the district is the Haugh
spinning-mill, a very extensive factory; also the Cameron
distillery, one of the largest works of this description in
Scotland. The Balgonie bleachfield, the property of
Messrs. William Russell and Company, was established
for the bleaching of linen yarns: the works, which are
situated on the banks of the Leven, afford employment
to about seventy, persons, and the quantity of yarn annually
averages 480 tons. Milton quoad sacra parish is
about three miles and a half in length, and nearly three
miles in breadth, comprising an area of eight square
miles. The church was erected in 1836, at an expense
of £850, of which £140 were a grant from the funds of
the General Assembly, and the remainder raised by subscription;
it is a neat building containing 625 sittings.
There are week-day and Sabbath schools in the village
and in Balcurvie. Balgonie Castle, in the neighbourhood
of Milton village, an ancient seat of the Earls of
Leven, is of considerable strength, and supposed to be
an erection of the twelfth century: its architecture is
still very entire; the court-yard is 108 feet by sixty-five
feet, and the tower on the north side is eighty feet in
height.