On the A701 lies Penicuik (pronounced 'Pennycook no matter its spelling), a town in Midlothian, Scotland with a population of around 15,700. Located in between Edinburgh and Peebles, the settlement was built as a planned village in 1770 by Sir James Clerk of Penicuik, ending up being a burgh in 1867. Its original regional industry were its reputable paper mills, with the last of these shutting down in 2004. The town name, Penicuik, is stemmed from 'Pen Y Cog', meaning specifically, 'Hill of the Cuckoo' in Ancient British. The town does have its overseas links, and is twinned with the town of L'îsle-sur-la-Sourge in France. The first occasion of the mention of the town was in 1296. Thomas Rymer's text Foedera speaks of a 'Walter Edgar a person Penicok south of Edenburgh', and is exactly what the town's name progressed from and into today's spelling. Pennycook, another step on the ladder of Penicuik's spelling progression, appears on John Adair's map from 1862. Nevertheless, in the background of the town itself, full expansion began when the Cowan family arrived around 1770, and brought the industry of their paper mill. This brought the requirement for houses for employees, resulting in general population increasing to 1,700 by 1800. Penicuik was also used as the site of a prison camp for soldiers from the French Napoleonic wars, however in our current day, it is currently the site of a housing development. However, a monument dated back to 1830 commemorates the 309 prisoners who perished there through the years 1811-1814. For all of your home upgrades, make sure to make use of reliable experts in Penicuik to make certain of quality.