Auchterarder In Steam
Eric Watt recorded the last steam powered factory in Scotland, Glenruthven Mills in Auchterarder, in 1983. It reopened for a while as the Great Scots Visitor Centre, the engine steamed by our member Jim Wood, curator of technology in the National Museums of Scotland. Where is it now?
Clackmannanshire
Then in 1993 SIHS visited Dangerfield Mill in Hawick. The Friends of Dangerfield Mill had formed to support the efforts of Borders Regional Council to conserve the machinery that on the three floors was entirely as installed by Platt Brothers in 1872-3. William Watson was the sales agent for that company as well as a wool spinner and weaver where tweed was coined, the result of the mis-reading of ‘tweel’. In the event the mill was purchased by a new hosiery business that operated on the ground floor until fires in 2003. This was the largest remaining group of in situ 19th century spinning machines.
Dangerfield Mill Hawick
In 1999 SIHS made a foray to the highlands and stopped at Knockando Mill in Speyside, where Hugh Jones was the sole proprietor and weaver. Amongst the older machinery was another Platt mule, of 1870. Since that visit a trust came together to take on the restoration of the mill and its machinery. It has considerably expanded production and won a Europa Nostra conservation Award in 2016.