then, the place of residence is not listed in the records). Around a fifth of the births registered in the parish in the mid-18th century are listed as being in the Carnoustie estate. The stimulus that triggered the expansion of the town was undoubtedly the sudden increase in demand for linen from around 1760, caused by the population explosion of the mid-18th century. Handloom weaving was a relatively easy trade to learn and, at that time, a fairly prosperous career. In 1792 on his return from India, Major William Phillips, former valet to the Earl of Panmure, purchased Carnoustie estate from James Milne for £5,000. Phillips most likely recognised the potential of the local industry when he offered portions of the land for feu in 1797. The first person to take up a feu was Thomas Lowson, a local loom wright, who rented of land near the new road that had been recently been marked out by David Gardyne of Ravensby. Over the next few years, more and more people settled in the immediate area The venture proved profitable and Phillips sold the property in 1808 to George Kinloch for £11,000. Kinloch promoted the further growth of the village, setting up brickworks and granting loans to prospective feuers to allow them to settle and, by the mid-19th century, the population of the town had risen to more than a thousand. For many years, the village was known simply as 'the Feus'. Perhaps the first cartographic depiction of the town is from a French maritime chart of 1803, where the village is shown as 'Feux', while Thomson's 1832 map of the area shows 'the Feus' as being a number of properties, largely concentrated in the area to the west of the Lochty burn. Industrial history The handloom linen weaving industry dominated Carnoustie's economy through its early years. Flax was grown in considerable quantities in the area and supplemented imports from Riga and St Petersburg. The predominant occupation listed in the 1841 census and 1843 statistical account for Barry Parish is that of "Linen Hand Loom Weaver". The expansion in the linen industry supported a population increase in the Barry Parish from 796 in 1791 to 2,124 by the time of the 1841 census. Aside from the linen industry, the economy rested mainly on agriculture and fishing. Major crops of that period were cereal and vegetables; much of which was sold on