The cottage at 115 Fisher Street has a cabinet on the front wall containing a barometer, used to aid the forecasting of weather when Broughty Ferry sustained a sizeable fishing fleet.
The placement of the barometer was petitioned by local fisherman George Bell. His campaign was successful, leading to the barometer being initially loaned on a trial in 1859 and was recorded in the local press at the time:
Government Barometer For The Broughty Ferry Fishermen
Lord Duncan's application to the Meterological Department of the Admiralty and board of Trade has, much to the credit of the department, been attended with complete success. All who admire the brave and hardy fishermen around our coasts will be gratified to think that they are to have, in a first class barometer, a friend to warn them when the storm is coming on. Should the instrument prove, as we have no doubt it will, a perfectly reliable instrument, some means might, we think, be adopted for making it as available for the fishermen out at sea as for those at the village. Whenever the fall of quicksilver is so marked as to indicate the approach of a severe storm, a signal should be hoisted at the village, in such a manner as to be seen and understood by the fishers outside. The following letter is received by Lord Duncan
Board Of Trade (and Admiralty)
Meterological Department, 25th May 1859
The delivery of the Barometer was arranged by Robert Fitzroy who had founded what we now refer to as the Met office only five years before. In the same year as the barometer arrived Fitzroy developed a daily weather record and began working towards properly forecasting weather. The first public weather forecast was published in July 1861 but was halted shortly after his death only four years later. Public demand saw them restarted in 1879 but in the meantime mariners such as those at Broughty Ferry had to rely on local knowledge and of course...their barometer!
