Description

1852 power loom linen weaving factory, ashlar and squared rubble-built. Slate roofs, Windows multi-paned sash and case, mostly now blocked.

1. 4-storey 13-bay triple-pedimented Palladian frontage, pedimented sections slightly advanced and defined by quoins. 3-bay gables with die finials (one missing). Central arched entrance. Rear very plain and with few windows. Ground floor weaving shed adjoined to E (demolished 1998).

Interior fireproof iron frame of two rows of columns carrying cast iron beams and brick arched ceilings. Wrought iron roof. Two ashlar stairs with iron handrails at top.

2. Long 2-storey wing with end gable stack, served as lodge, office mechanics shop and preparing depts, with boiler house and drying room nearest river. This has a tall square chimney with Doric base supporting a circular brick shaft. Top cornice missing.

3. Beam Engine house, large 4-part window in W gable with die finial. N elevation adjoined weaving shed. Interior part cast iron grid mezzanine at level of beam of beam engine, ceiling hook for hoisting beam, cast iron stair.

4. Wall to River Brothock pierced at regular intervals by cast iron brackets and surrounds for line shaft bevel gearing. Weaving shed kingpost roofs removed 1998.

Statement of Interest

Andrew Lowson (1813-1897 a "striking and loveable person") was by 1864 easily the most important manufacturer in Arbroath, having twice the horse power at his disposal and twice as many employees as the nearest competitor. Following Lowson's death, and injudicious overseas investments by his sons, all eight of his mills were put up for sale. In 1905 only one of the six mills was at work, and in 1948 the firm wound up.

Thereafter Baltic Works had a new lease of life as a whisky bond that ceased c.1990.

In Angus the surviving fireproof mills are (2003) one in Brechin (East Mill, 1837), and three in Arbroath, (Baltic, 1852, and Alma Works 1857, and Brothock Mill/ Arbroath Herald, later part built c1890). The form of roof and advanced quoined bays suggest familiarity with the Alexander Thread Mill, Duke Street Glasgow, by the architect Charles Wilson (1849) and Tay Works and Edward Street Mill, Dundee (both 1851).

Upgraded B to A, October 2003.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17571784

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)