Blackford is located in Perth and Kinross

Perth and Kinross

Perth and Kinross is one of 32 council areas in Scotland, and a Lieutenancy Area. It borders onto the Aberdeenshire, Angus, Dundee City, Fife, Clackmannanshire, Stirling, Argyll and Bute and Highland council areas. Perth is the administrative centre...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, approximately 5 miles (8 km) from the town of Auchterarder

Auchterarder

Auchterarder is a small town located north of the Ochil Hills in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, and home to the famous Gleneagles Hotel. The 1.5 mile long High Street of Auchterarder gave the town its popular name of "Lang Toon"....

. The town is located just off the A9 between Perth

Perth, Scotland

Perth is a town and former city and royal burgh in central Scotland. Located on the banks of the River Tay, it is the administrative centre of Perth and Kinross council area and the historic county town of Perthshire...

 and Stirling

Stirling

Stirling is a city and former ancient burgh in Scotland, and is at the heart of the wider Stirling council area. The city is clustered around a large fortress and medieval old-town beside the River Forth...

. It is home to Highland Spring

Highland Spring

Highland Spring is the United Kingdom's leading supplier of bottled water. It produces still and sparkling water at its factory in Blackford, Perth and Kinross, Scotland, although despite the name this area is not actually within the Scottish Highlands...

 water and the Tullibardine whisky

Whisky

Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Different grains are used for different varieties, including barley, malted barley, rye, malted rye, wheat, and corn...

 distillery.

History

Blackford was first known as a ford

Ford (crossing)

A ford is a shallow place with good footing where a river or stream may be crossed by wading or in a vehicle. A ford is mostly a natural phenomenon, in contrast to a low water crossing, which is an artificial bridge that allows crossing a river or stream when water is low.The names of many towns...

 over the Allan Water

Allan Water

The Allan Water is a river in central Scotland, United Kingdom. Rising in the Ochil Hills, it runs through Strathallan to Dunblane and Bridge of Allan before joining the River Forth....

. There is a legend that a King Magnus lost his wife Queen Helen in a storm and she is buried on a nearby hill.

Blackford became a popular stopping place especially when Scotland's first public brewery

Brewery

A brewery is a dedicated building for the making of beer, though beer can be made at home, and has been for much of beer's history. A company which makes beer is called either a brewery or a brewing company....

 was started. James VII of Scotland even stopped in Blackford while travelling to sample their ale.

The town was becoming more prosperous by the nineteenth century with manufacturing including two breweries and with a healthy agricultural sector based on wool

Wool

Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....

 and flax

Flax

Flax is a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. It is native to the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean to India and was probably first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent...

. The Scottish Central Railway

Scottish Central Railway

The Scottish Central Railway was formed in 1845 to link the Caledonian Railway near Castlecary to the Scottish Midland Junction Railway at Perth...

 built a line between Perth and Stirling with a station at Blackford in 1848.

Local manufacturing declined at the beginning of the 20th century with many people leaving the town. However, many people in the town were employed when the Gleneagles Hotel

Gleneagles Hotel

The Gleneagles Hotel is a luxury hotel near Auchterarder, Perth and Kinross, Scotland.- History :The hotel was built by the former Caledonian Railway Company and opened in 1924, originally with its own railway station...

 was opened nearby in 1924. The Tullibardine distillery was built on the site of the former Sharp's Brewery.

Carsebreck, near Blackford hosted 25 Grand Matches in curling

Curling

Curling is a sport in which players slide stones across a sheet of ice towards a target area. It is related to bowls, boule and shuffleboard. Two teams, each of four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called "rocks", across the ice curling sheet towards the house, a...

, between 1853-1935. "A piece of ground which could be flooded for the purpose of affording a safe sheet of ice" was leased from Mrs Home Drummond Stirling Moray of Abercairney, at a rental of £15 for 63 acres (254,952.2 m²) from November to February each season. The final match, on 24 December 1935, attracted 2576 competitors.