Ettrick Mill, Dunsdale Road, Selkirk, Selkirk, Scottish Borders

Description

Founded 1835-6, large woollen spinning and tweed manufacturing complex comprising: (A) tall mule-spinning mill, (B) wheelhouse, (C) chimneystalk, (D) engine and boiler house, (E) 2-storey weaving mill with tower, (F) dyehouse (G) sheds NE of tall mill, (H) Bridge.

A: MILL dated 1836, doubled to NE 1850. Large symmetrical woollen spinning mill 4-storey with basement and double attic, 27-bay with central pedimented gable and 3- by 3-bay projecting gabled wings. Coursed and squared rubble with ashlar dressings, quoins, string and blocking courses.

FRONT elevation set back from street 4-storey 21-bay main range, centre bay tripartite with ground floor door (ornate wrought-iron lamp over). Attic 3-bay pediment with centre Venetian window and flanking lights inscribed MDCCCXXXVI JB ETTRICK MILL HB MDCCCL. Clock in oculus over Venetian window. Bellcote missing.

WINGS: 3-bay to yard with steep 5-storey 3-bay gables, attic oculi and gable end stacks. 8-bay side elevations.

REAR random rubble-built; regular 27-bay, slight gaps separating 3 end bays. Small saw-toothed addition to SW, of lesser interest. Square basement windows to NE, 1850, range.

Slate roofs with double tier of skylights. Skews and stacks define original 10-bay mill. Windows 4-pane top hopper.

INTERIOR: 1836 mill timber-floored on transverse timber beams and 3 rows of slim cast-iron columns connected on lower floors by saddles, brackets for line shafting down centre row. Double attic with collar-beam roof. 1850 mill and NE wing similar but with thicker columns socketed vertically and without brackets. Single attic with open collar-beam. Ground floor reinforced in steel circa 1950. SE wing, probably 1850, fireproof brick arches on cast-iron beams and single row of cast-iron columns.

B: WHEELHOUSE: perpendicular to, and almost adjoining, the centre of the rear elevation of the rear elevation of the mill, 1836, lengthened 1850, altered 1919. Single-storey 6-bay elevations with centre and gable skewputts. SE elevation rendered except ashlar details. Grilles protect water intake. NE gable reconstructed 1919 (probable date of installation of electric generators). Slate roof with very large skylights and louvred gablets.

C: CHIMNEY STALK: 1858-65. Circa 150 foot tall octagonal brick stalk on ashlar base, linked to boiler-house. Top oversailer missing.

D: BOILER AND ENGINE HOUSE: 1858-65, extended to NE 1895, original part largely reconstructed probably in 1919. Rubble-built with ashlar dressings. Central gabled engine house with 3 arched lights, skewputts oculus and ball finial. Lower 3 bays to right with round-headed lights. Large semi-circular window over long opening with steel lintel. Projecting bay to N with cast-iron roof tank inscribed "Melrose and Sons Engineers and Ironfounders Hawick". Boiler house to S rebuilt circa 1919 in harled brick retaining original ashlar round-headed window dressings. NW elevation timber boarded. Slate roofs with louvred ventilators. Fine arched braced timber roof trusses.

E: WEAVING MILL SW of stalk, by Thomas Aimers (Galashiels) 1874. 2-storey 11-by 4-bay rubble-built with ashlar dressings, string and blocking course. 2-storey square section stair and water tower with tall round-headed windows and pyramidal roof with bracketted eaves.

SW gable rendered brick, to allow for unbuilt extension. Slate M-roof with skylights. Sash and case windows, 8-pane glazing pattern. Interior, 1st floor central row of cast-iron columns, arched-braced king-post roofs.

F: DYEWORKS SW of mill 1850, altered and enlarged circa 1900. Single-storey, 4-bay, rubble-built with ashlar dressings. Originally U-plan with piended roofs. 2nd bay from right altered and advanced to a gable with large round-headed opening and small window over. Piend-roofed bay added at left, windows altered, and to rear. Slate roofs with skylights and circa 1900 ventilators.

G: SHEDS NE of main mill, circa 1880-90, excluding large modern extension. 2 blocks of N-lit sheds, later united by sheet-metal-clad shed. High parapet walls, with round-arched windows and doors to S-most 8 bay block (perhaps for wool scouring, given the louvred ventilator). N block (perhaps weaving shed?) blind 12-bay, 8 bays set back behind later lean-to additions. Small building in re-entrant perhaps an engine house. Slate roofs with NE-facing skylights.

H: BRIDGE: N of NE corner of main mill, 1850, small arched rubble-built bridge over tail-race from wheelhouse (now dry). Widened: parapet damaged.

Statement of Interest

The biggest mutli-storey spinning mill in the Borders. Built for mule-spinning by James and Henry Brown of Galashiels, honorary burgesses of Selkirk. Later carried on by the Scotch Tweed Manufacturing Society and from 1895 was the Ettrick Tweed and Blanket Mill of the Scottish Wholesale Cooperative Society, converted solely to spinning by Ettrick and Yarrow Spinners Ltd FROM 1962. Spinning ceased in the multi-storey mill in 1989, but continues in the modern shed (built 1968, not of special architectural interest). Some machinery is now displayed and worked at New Lanark.

External Links

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