A Thread Mill Thread - Weaving about Paisley

**cessna152towser** · 3rd January 08, 03:34 PM

When I went to Paisley today to return the Paisley kilt to Houstons for its alterations, I took the opportunity for a walk about and some photography around the sites of the old mills which sprung up around the banks of the River White Cart at the time of the industrial revolution.
In the 18th century, Paisley's main industry was hand loom weaving, while in the 19th century workers became employed in thread mills, such as the Anchor Mill, shown here to the left of the Hamills waterfall, the foot of which is the tidal limit of the River White Cart. This building was the Domestic Finishing Mill of Clark & Co, built in 1886, but is now converted to apartments.
More to follow shortly.

**cessna152towser** · 3rd January 08, 04:05 PM

After Clarks & Co merged with J & P Coats of Ferguslie Mills in 1896, the Mile End Mill was added in 1898, and here twisting processes were carried out.

Mile End Mill now houses a small textiles museum and the gates bear the famous Coats Thread Anchor logo which once appeared on the labels on the ends of bobbins. I still have many of those old bobbins of thread here - who else has some?

Another view of the Mile End Mill and the mill chimney, which has also been retained.

Another old Mill Building, seen in the background of Anchor Mill in the first photo, this is now a small business centre known as Blackhall House.

Opposite the Anchor Mills at the Hamills Waterfall there was formerly a seventeenth century flour mill, but this has been substantially reconstructed as the Watermill Hotel.
Lets climb up a drumlin for a better view!

**cessna152towser** · 3rd January 08, 04:18 PM

The higher ground glimpsed beyond the Anchor Mills in the first photo is one of Paisley's drumlins, outcrops of rock on which silt caught on the upstream sides when the Clyde was a wide glacier. As the ice age ended and the water levels receded these hills were characterised by their gentle slopes on the silty soil of the landward side and steep slopes on the rockier seaward slopes. This is the view from Saucel Hill.

This is an image of an old painting held by Paisley Museum by an artist named Siezer and entitled The Prospect of the Abbey & Town of Paisley, and is dated 1693. I was trying to replicate the same view from the same spot with a modern digital camera three hundred and fifteen years later.

Not quite the same view as Siezer manages to show the Abbey and the River in his view. The river is in front of the Anchor Mill building behind me but cannot be seen from this position. Artistic licence perhaps?

Nowadays we have the benefit of instant zoom.

We can even zoom in on the Abbey from here. Siezer's view shows that part of the abbey is missing - by the time of his painting, the Abbey had partially fallen down and it was only rebuilt in the 19th century.

**starbkjrus** · 3rd January 08, 04:41 PM

Lovely Alex.

Thank you for the pics.

**cessna152towser** · 3rd January 08, 04:40 PM

Upstream of the thread mills, on one side of the river is the modern Ciba Geigy drugs factory, while the other side, which was the site of lime and whin quarrying at the time of the industrial revolution and later a landfill site, has now become a country park, known as Jenny's Well Nature Reserve. I spotted a heron and a mallard, neither of which I was able to photograph.

Another view at the nature reserve.

An old mill lade on the River White Cart.

This ran into the Jenny's Well Laundry, which is now a ruin, though the chimney still stands.

Looking upriver towards the south side of Glasgow.

This aqueduct was built from 1806 to 1809 by Thomas Telford to carry the Paisley and Johnstone Canal over the River White Cart. The canal was converted to a railway in 1881 and now the aqueduct carries trains.

**pdcorlis** · 3rd January 08, 04:44 PM

Looks like I need a better pair of walking shoes to keep up with your threads Alex! Thanks for the photos!

**cessna152towser** · 3rd January 08, 04:53 PM

Walter Fitzalan, first high steward to King David I of Scotland was granted the lands of Kerkert and Strathgryfe about 1140 and later founded Paisley Abbey in 1163. He built his house here at Blackhall Manor. After 1738 the family moved to Ardgowan and Blackhall Manor fell into ruin. It was gifted to Paisley Town Council in 1936 and they were eventually able to aid the restoration of the property from 1982.

Blackhall Manor from a different angle.

With the setting sun on its other side, Blackhall Manor looks broody and spooky.

Blackhall Manor once stood in splendid isolation but at the end of World War II this was one of the sites where prefabs were located to provide temporary housing. Paisley once had thousands of these prefabs, and I lived in one for more than nine years of my childhood. They were demolished between 1960 and 1970, although a few were converted to permanent housing by receiving stone cladding. So I was surprised to find number 1 Weaver Terrace in substantially original condition, apart from new double glazed windows and doors in place of the original aluminium framed glazing, and apparently inhabited.

Next door to it was another prefab.

Finally an example of the typical terrace of tenement properties, built around 1890 to 1910, with six houses (two on each floor) served from each of the closes. This is Mavisbank Terrace, near the Anchor Mills, where some of the workers may have lived.

**Rex_Tremende** · 3rd January 08, 05:13 PM

I really love the fenestration on the Anchor Mill building. I'm sure my mother still has some wooden spools with the Anchor label in one of her sewing tins.

Great photos, as usual. Thanks for the tour.

Regards,
Rex.