Dundee, Kemback Street, Wellfield Works, Maryfield, Dundee

Description

Wellfield Works, founded by Henry Boase and George Ireland was built in 1866. It is a medium scale, former jute mill with two engine houses (that to the east added in 1907) adjoining the main spinning mill building to the east (Craigie Street). It has a former gateway entrance dated 1866 and lodge office adjoining to the north (Kemback Street) with a neo-Georgian boardroom addition of 1911 by Andrew Granger Heiton.

In accordance with Section 1 (4A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 the following are excluded from the listing: factory and offices at Morgan Street and stone warehouses to north (heightened in brick).

The 3-storey, 13-bay, iron frame, former jute spinning mill is prominently sited with its west gable end at the corner of Kemback Street and Craigie Street. There are central hoist doors at the first and second floors, flanked by oval openings and a single roundel, or oculus, above. The east elevation also has an oculus (round window) and a carved ball finial at the apex of the gable. The long south elevation has a continuous band course at the upper storey, while the ground floor has 18-pane windows of the top hopper type. The roof is pitched and has grey slates. A single-storey former weaving and carding shed with a piended roof adjoins to the rear.

The tall, former engine house (1866) to the east projects slightly forward of the mill with an open pediment gable and a large 3-light window (glazing blocked) with classical pilasters and cast iron pediment lintel. There is a single window at the second floor with a roundel above. The later engine house (1907) to the east has three tall round-headed windows with keystones and a piended roof. The north (rear) elevation has a round-arched entrance and date shield with a large circular window flanked by narrow round-headed windows. The roof is slated.

The Kemback Street elevation has a segmental arch entrance inscribed "Wellfield Works" with a curved pediment, dated 1866, and topped with a ball finial. The offices to the north are stepped in height. The 1866 lodge section has a corniced parapet with a central wallhead chimney stack. The 1911 boardroom addition is of polished ashlar with a large canted oriel window set within a segmental arch with pilasters and a corniced parapet with carved scroll consoles to either side. The offices have timber sash and case windows.

The interiors were seen in 2016. The ground and first floors of the fireproof mill building have two rows of cast iron columns carrying cast iron beams with brick-arched ceilings and wrought iron ties. A third row of thicker columns with flanged capitals carry lengthwise cast iron beam and the north wall of the 3-storey building. The former preparing room to the north has two wide-span timber roofs on a fourth row of cast iron columns. The first floor ceiling is pierced by cast iron boxes through which the spinning machine belt drives passed to the attic. The upper floor has a timber collar beam roof with wrought-iron ties meeting at ogee-shaped cast iron centres. There is also a timber collar beam roof behind the 1866 arched entrance. The first floor office interiors to Kemback Street has cornices and a timber panelled boardroom. There are stairs with wrought-iron balusters to the south (1866) section and tiled entrance and a stair to north (1913) section.

Statement of Interest

The iron-framed spinning mills of the 19th century that are concentrated in the city of Dundee illustrate the social and economic history in a city that led the world in jute production. The Wellfield Works is an important surviving example of the boldly designed and architecturally distinguished industrial building which became fashionable during the 1860s. It has elevations of monumental scale and a full range of classical architectural features, including open pediments, an arched gateway, oval openings in the gables and the neo-classical treatment of the 1911 boardroom.

The interior of the former spinning mill retains the structural iron-frame that it had when built in the 1860s. It also has a rare surviving vertical marine engine house addition of 1907. Wellfield Works, Lilybank Foundry, Taybank Works, and associated mill workers tenements form a group of industrial buildings in the east of Dundee, relating to the important founding companies of Boase and Pearce.

Age and Rarity

The Wellfield Works, built in 1866, is an example of a medium scale textile mill complex built for jute spinning in Dundee. The mill complex is shown on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map (surveyed 1871).The works were founded by Henry Boase and George Ireland, as Henry Boase and Co, having relocated from Barrack Street Mill (demolished) to build the present site using investment profits from the American Civil War. 375 staff were employed at Wellfield by 1871 (Ordnance Survey Name Book, p.49). The first steam engine at Wellfield would have been of the traditional beam type. Weaving and dying at the works were short-lived secondary operations from 1875 to 1886. After the retirement of Henry Boase in 1886, the works continued under the son of Henry Boase with Alfred W. Cox (of the famous Lochee Cox family of industrialists) joining as partner after the death of George Ireland. The site was acquired by Low and Bonar in 1953, specialising in jute twists for that firm until the 1980s. While jute spinning has stopped, industrial operations continue at the site (2016) with the production of plastic packaging.

The textile industry of Dundee during the mid-19th century is of international significance and an important part of Britain's industrial history. For much of the 19th century the spinning and weaving of jute, second only to cotton in the world's production of textiles, was almost entirely produced in Dundee and the small towns surrounding the city, with foreign competition increasing only after 1880. Dundee contains most of the world's jute mills from the early boom years of the industry's history (1820-1870).

Around 120 individual jute or flax mills were built and/or added to in Dundee and the wider Dundee area during the 19th century, contributing significantly to the industrial character of the city during the period. Of these, more than 50 have since been demolished. Of those that survive, many have been listed in recognition of their special architectural and historic interest, and in particular for their role in the growth and historic development of this industry in Scotland as well as their interest within Dundee. Around a third of the listed examples are listed at category A, for their national or international significance and include Verdant Mill (1833), Tay Works (1836-1872) and Seafield Works (1852). A large number of mill buildings in Dundee have been converted to new uses, many of which now contain housing developments, such as the two parts of Taybank Works (LB24931, category B) that are located on Arbroath Road to the immediate southwest of Wellfield Works.

All known surviving iron-framed jute mills in Dundee are listed. Cast iron beams and columns in buildings first appeared in the 1790s in Scotland in multi-storey textile mills. Iron-framed (fireproof) textile mills are particularly concentrated in the Dundee area. The surviving iron-framed spinning mills of the 19th century that are in the city of Dundee illustrate the social and economic history of a city that led the world in jute production. Good surviving examples in the Dundee area are considered of special value within the wider industrial mill building type across Scotland. At the same time, spinning mills of Dundee share common design features and plan-form arrangements that make them distinctive to Dundee.

The Wellfield Works was built from new in the 1860s during the long first phase of jute mill building in the city. While it is not among the earliest surviving mill complexes, it is an important surviving example of the boldly designed and architecturally distinguished industrial building which became fashionable during the 1860s and in the context of Dundee, at the peak of its jute milling industry.

Wellfield Works has a rare surviving vertical marine engine house addition of 1907. The twin engine houses are a good surviving example of a trend common in many late 19th century mills as power requirements increased. There are two smaller marine engine houses surviving in Dundee, at Edward Street Mill (1890) (listed at category A) and Caldrum Works (1907) (listed at category B). The mill building also includes a good surviving interior scheme with the architecturally distinguished boardroom office addition of 1911 by the architect, Andrew Granger Heiton.

Architectural or Historic Interest

Interior

The interior of the former spinning mill retains the structural iron frame that it had when built in the 1860s. By the 1860s iron supporting columns were larger to support heavier machinery, as seen at Wellfield Works and are therefore of interest in terms of the development of iron frame construction, as the style changed from the more delicate ornamental cast iron forms of the earlier 19th century.

The location of drives to machines can still be traced through the bearing pads that are cast into the iron columns and are noticeable in walls and floors. These features are particular to iron-framed spinning mills and the survival of this feature informs our understanding of the development of iron-framed industrial buildings.

The timber panelled office interior to Kemback Street, with cornices and a timber panelled boardroom, largely retain its early 20th century form and character. There are stairs with wrought iron bannisters and tiled entrance to the south (1866) lodge section and a stair with barley-twist iron bannisters to the north (1911) section, all of which add to the interior interest.

Plan form

The plan form of the parts of the building identified as having special interest in listing terms is still evident and still informs how jute was historically manufactured. The jute followed a production line from north to south starting at the warehouses (that are proposed for exclusion from the listing) then following a flow process into batching behind the offices, then down a level to the jute preparing and carding department that is partly single storey to the rear of the mill, and carries on through an iron colonnade that allows a much bigger floor plate at the ground floor of the former spinning mill. From there it went upstairs to be spun and wound.

The scale and plan form of the 1911 office addition to the north and the 1907 vertical marine engine house to Craigie Street are architecturally distinctive and are evidence of the continuing growth of the textile industry in the late 19th century as power requirements increased and do not lessen the plan form interest of the 1866 spinning mill components of the site.

Technological excellence or innovation, material or design quality

Cast iron-framed buildings were fireproof and more costly to build than the more common timber framed mills. The work of Pearce Brothers' Lilybank Foundry in their four surviving mills in Dundee is distinct from the two other main engineering firms that built a larger number of mills in the city at that time. Only Wellfield Works extends from single to multi-storey and does this via flanged capitals, unlike the more Doric style often used at other foundries' mills.

The length of flax and jute spinning frames was particularly well accommodated within buildings of long proportions, and in the context of Dundee were often given a classical and symmetrical architectural treatment. The Wellfield Works is particularly well-composed and well-detailed with elevations of monumental scale and a full range of classical architectural features, including open pediments, an arched gateway, oval openings in the gables and the neo-classical treatment of the 1911 boardroom addition. These classical features are in keeping with a building of some pretention and aspired to imitate the important public buildings of this important industrial city, such as the gables of the (demolished) Dundee Town House and the large steam engine windows that evoke the classically proportioned windows of the Exchange Coffee House in Castle Street/Dock Street.

The style of the structural ironwork details at Wellfield, which are not known to be repeated anywhere else in the city, indicate that the Dundee mill engineers, Pearce Brothers and Company of the adjacent Lilybank Foundry on Kemback Street, may have provided the castings and millwrightwork for the Wellfield mill. Pearce Brothers would go on to construct numerous large textile mills in India and from the mid-1870s onward much of its business was in Calcutta. Apart from mills, Pearce Brothers also produced steam engines for other uses including ship engines. Marine engineering was an important diversification by the firm, leading eventually to its acquisition by what became the Caledon shipbuilding yard in Dundee. Other mill buildings by Pearce Brothers in Dundee include the nearby Taybank Works and the Baltic Works (both 1872-73 and listed at category B).

Andrew Granger Heiton was a talented Perthshire architect whose eclectic approach to design became increasingly more neo-Georgian after 1900. The English-Tudor detail of 'Love's Auction Rooms' of 1905 on Canal Street in Perth and the Perth Guildhall of 1908 (both listed at category B) exemplify his refined outlook on design in his later years. His 1911 office extension at Wellfield Works with its symmetrical and well-detailed frontage is a good example of his neo-Georgian classicism on a small scale.

Setting

Adjacent to Wellfield Works, on Kemback Street to the south, are the brick-built offices of the Pearce Brothers' Lilybank Foundry. Its simple neo-classical detail contributes to the mixed industrial and domestic setting of this area of east Dundee, as does the surviving fabric of the Taybank Works, also by the Pearce Brothers to the south. Both of these former industrial buildings now front and incorporate housing conversions, retaining their south and east frontages, and both are listed at category B.

Also nearby on Arbroath Road is Baxter Park (see Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland – GDL 00051) which was funded at first by the Baxter Brothers who, along with the Boase family, later formed part of the Low and Bonar Group who ran the Wellfield Works from 1953. The connection of Baxter Park with the surrounding textile industry that funded it and its association with the tenement housing (amongst the most intact in the city) that stands to the north of Wellfield Works, combine to evidence the history of Dundee's textile industry on the east side of the city during the 19th century.

Regional variations

Textile mill buildings for jute production are significant to Dundee and the region.

Close Historical Associations

There are no close historical associations with persons of national significance known at present (2016).

The Boase association is significant within the context of the Dundee textile industry. Members of the Boase family were partners in the Claverhouse Bleachworks, Dundee in 1838 before creating the Boase Spinning Company, later becoming Henry Boase and Company Ltd when Henry Boase joint founded the Wellfield Works in 1866. At the time of his retirement in 1889, it was noted that 'there was not an employer of labour in Dundee or anywhere else that paid more attention than Mr Boase to the interest and comfort of his employees' and that Mr Boase 'seemed to be a household word in the east of Dundee' (Dundee Courier, 13 May 1889). Notification of his death in 1911 describes Boase as a man of 'many excellent personal qualities', a 'pioneer of the Volunteer Movement in Dundee' and a member of various 'philanthropic institutions in the city' (Dundee Courier, 07 August 1911, p.5). The Pearce and Boase families intermarried, which may account for the position of the Wellfield Works immediately north of the Pearce Brothers' foundry at Lilybank (see separate listing).

Statutory address and listed building record revised in 2016. Previously listed as 'Kemback Street and Return Elevation to Craigie Street, Wellfield Works (buildings with elevations to Kemback and Craigie Streets only)'.

External Links

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