IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Balmain Street, MONTROSE, DD10 8BG

Built in 1850, this delightful building is listed, category C(S) and details are at: http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/sc-38166-14-south-esk-street-former-melville-missi#.V4IKtTU5t8E Some of the information therein is at odds with the Places of Worship in Scotland website at: http://www.scottishchurches.org.uk/sites/site/id/9466/name/Melville+Mission+Hall%2C+Montrose+Montrose+Tayside

Doorway detail of this delightful building is listed, category C(S) and details are at: http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/sc-38166-14-south-esk-street-former-melville-missi#.V4IKtTU5t8E Some of the information therein is at odds with the Places of Worship in Scotland website at: http://www.scottishchurches.org.uk/sites/site/id/9466/name/Melville+Mission+Hall%2C+Montrose+Montrose+Tayside

This delightful bank building dates from 1900 and is listed, category B, with details at: http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/sc-38098-14-and-15-castle-place-#.V4J0mDU5t8E

Castle Stead is reputedly the birthplace of James Graham, (1612 - 21 May 1650), the 1st Marquess of Montrose. His diaries record that he bought two golf clubs ‘in Montrois’ for 24 shillings to play golf with his brother in law, Sir John Colquhoun on the 9th November 1629, which was the day before his wedding at Kinnaird Castle. Both James Graham and his bride, Magdalena Carnegie, were aged 17 when they married. James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose is known as the Great Montrose. As a man of many facets and abilities, he was a nobleman, a poet, a soldier and later viceroy and captain general of Scotland. He was a brilliant, battle commander and tactician and he fought a number of spectacular campaigns which identified him as one of the great military commanders of his age and perhaps of any age. At first, he joined the Covenanters in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, but he subsequently changed sides and supported the Royalists and King Charles I. Ultimately, he shared the same gruesome fate as King Charles 1 by being decapitated. After the Restoration, King Charles II paid for a lavish funeral in 1661, when Montrose’s reputation was changed from traitor to that of martyr. Around 1810, Nicholas Carnegie bought Castle Stead from James Graham, the 4th Duke of Montrose, (1799 – 1874), who was the great-grandson of the Great Montrose. Nicholas Carnegie, HEICS, had a tenuous family connection to David Scott, Chairman of the East India Company through his mother, Susan Carnegie. This slight connection was critical to his military career in India where he gained the rank of Major-General and commanded the Bengal Artillery. A plaque on one of the entrance pillars outside Castle Stead informs the reader that this was the site of the 12th century Montrose Castle which was destroyed in 1297. The assertion that this is the site of Montrose Castle is disputed, however, as there is little or no archaeological evidence to support this view. At present, the Category B Listed Building of Castle Stead, at 3 and 4 Castle Place, serves as Montrose Job Centre. In addition to Castle Stead, the photo also shows the nearby statue of the Great Montrose. This statue was unveiled by James Graham, 8th Duke of Montrose, on the 4th August 2000, to mark the 350th anniversary of the execution of the 1st Marquess, in 1650, at the Mercat Cross in Edinburgh.

The buildings on the left are all Category B listed. The red sandstone building on the right is the Category A listed [http://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/LB38051] Public Library [http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1061740].

This was viewed from the junction with Balmain Street.

Judging by the windows in this first- and second-floor, No 18 consists of two two-storey dwellings, both accessed by the black door below the panel with the circular feature. For a short time around 1881, one of the two was the home of John William Fenton (1828-1890), who became an Army bandmaster, was posted with his regiment to Japan in 1868. He was asked by Japanese naval bandsmen to teach them, and a year or so later composed the first version of the tune for the Japanese national anthem, 'Kimi ga Yo', based on a Japanese poem selected for the purpose by Captain Ōyama Iwao. When his regiment left Japan in 1871, Fenton stayed on for a further six years as instructor to the bands of the Japanese Navy and later the Imperial Court.

The red shop front is 16 George Street, and above it is part of 18 George Street, which is reached through the black door to the left of No 16.