Errol as inhabited 'mainly by weavers and operatives'; it had a post office, a branch of the Union Bank, two inns, a gasworks, two schools, a reading-room and a library. Fairs were held on the last Wednesday of July and the Saturday after the first Friday of October. In 1887 Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles described Errol, a parish with a population of 2,421 people, as 'the centre of business for a considerable part of the Carse of Gowrie' due to its chemical works and an engineering and machine-making works. The water supply for Errol was poor until 1897 when a supply was obtained from moorland above Fingask at a cost of £9,000 paid by Sir William Ogilvy Dalgleish of Errol Park. To mark this achievement, a Red Dumfries sandstone market cross with granite basins and a carved lion's head fountain topped with a Unicorn was erected, with commemorative panels, in 1900. A local landowner and farmer was the biological scientist Patrick Matthew (1790-1874) who planted a large orchard at Gourdiehill, Grange, Errol. A former student of Edinburgh University, he made scientific observations of his orchards and wrote On Naval Timber and Arboriculture in 1831 which included early descriptions of a process of natural selection. He is credited with being the first person to bring Giant Redwood seeds to the UK. The Patrick Matthew Trail was created in his memory. Errol Park The lands of Errol passed from the Hays to Sir Patrick Ogilvie in 1648 when the estate was said to have been lost in a gambling debt. Sir Thomas Blair of Balthaycock owned it in 1652 and by 1741 George Middleton, a London banker, lived there. He is thought to have built a residence in 1745, which can be seen with parklands on the Roy map of 1747–1755, but this was destroyed by fire in 1874. In 1795 John Lee Allen inherited Errol Park; his eldest son, also John Allen, married Lady Henrietta Duncan, daughter of the Earl of Camperdown. The Allens commissioned the notable A-listed Classical circular stables by John Paterson in 1811; which was extended by adding a tower in 1899 designed by Johnston and Baxter. The Allen family sold Errol Park in 1873 to Francis Molison who asked architect Alexander Johnston of Dundee to design a new house. Elizabeth Frances Molison inherited Errol Park in 1877; she was married to William Ogilvy Dalgleish. Elizabeth