In 1776 Charles Cowan, originally a grocer in Leith, established the Cowan Valleyfield Mills. In 1796, Cowan brought in his son, Alexander Cowan, to manage the mill. An adjacent corn mill was purchased in 1803, becoming known as Bank Mill after he converted it to produce the paper on which banknotes were printed. The Valleyfield Mills were used as a prisoner-of-war camp (mainly for French prisoners) from March 1811 until September 1814, often referred to as the Napoleonic War but more correctly at this period being the Peninsular War. In 1830 Cowan erected a monument (designed by Thomas Hamilton) to memory of 309 prisoners who died here to the north side of the mills. Apart from a small mill chapel and school, today the monument is all that survives and the mills themselves have gone. Only the road names (Waterloo Bank, Cowan Bank etc.) now echo this part of the town's history.