Description

Earlier 19th century. 5-storey, 6-bay, tall, narrow rectangular workshop, with slightly later 2-storey, 2-bay piended-roof block to NE. Small regular window openings to main (SE) elevation; high level hoist door to NE gable. Rubble whinstone quoins, fine rubble whin stonework; roughly hewn sandstone lintels; random rubble cills.

Mixture of timber 16-pane fixed casements, 4-pane casements and side-hung bipartite timber windows. Bricked up openings to ground floor of main building, some early 20th century openings with brick margins to 2-storey section. Boarded timber doors. Gabled and piended slate roofs.

INTERIOR: Not seen due to unknown ownership. Previous owner described the interior as plain boarded floors with steep timber ladder stairs between. Currently used as a store (2006).

Statement of Interest

This hand loom shop is the earliest and least altered of its type in Galashiels. It represents the great number of loomshops in which tweed was first developed that, though once prevalent in the backhands, have largely been lost. The imposing structure survives as a reminder of the earlier industry and social structure of the workforce of the town. The mills were arranged perpendicularly off the main roads in the densely occupied backlands. The simple vernacular construction techniques such as rough hewn lintels and rubble cills are indicative of earlier industrial buildings in Galashiels. Further hand loom shops are at Ladhope Vale and Gala Mill in Galashiels and Forest and Dunsdale Mills in Selkirk.

There is evidence to the NW elevation of the attached former weaving shop, now largely demolished, with only parts of side wall and gable remaining.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17834240

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

• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)