Building record MAB21754 - STONEYWOOD PAPER MILLS

Paper mills depicted on historic OS maps, annotated Stoneywood Paper Works, with a mill lade running down the east side of the complex.

Paper mills depicted on historic OS maps, annotated Stoneywood Paper Works, with a mill lade running down the east side of the complex. By the time of the 2nd edition map gasometers had been added at the south end of the site. A paper mill was established in the Stoneywood estate in 1770 by James Moir who leased the land to J Boyle and R Hyde to produce fine writing papers. It was soon taken over by A Smith, and further developed by his grandson A Pirie, who produced the mill's first watermarked paper in 1802, and introduced machine-made paper to the northeast in 1820. He was also a pioneer of the white paper trade, making white paper from rags. Part of the mill was damaged by fire in 1914. The mill became part of Wiggins Teape in 1992. The lower are near the river is likely to be the site of the first (Alexander Smith) buildings but these areas were flooded in 1829 and the mill rebuilt on higher ground. Archaeological evaluation and building recording were carried out by Cameron Archaeology in February-March 2013 ahead of construction of a biomass boiler. four trenches were excavated in the area of the proposed buildings. Trench 1 was within the area of the late 19th century filter beds, and recorded one partition wall of these beds. In Trench 2 the remains of several buildings were recorded, identified as the remains of the pasting machine and humidifier building and the stock room. Most of the remains were of late 19th or early 20th century date, but earlier structures might include a duct or inspection pit for a machine which was originally built in stone with a brick floor. Trench 3, located over the site of the reel store and a lade intake, also recorded remains of mainly 19th - 20th century date. The intake structure is probably late 19th century in date but may have had an earlier structure on the interior; a cast-iron pipe in the base of the intake would have carried water to the individual mill buildings; Three standing buildings were also recorded: a stock room probably built in the mid 20th century, a building which formed part of the filters and chemical plant built 1947-9, and a store probably also of mid 20th century date.

CAMERON ARCHAEOLOGY, 2013, STONEYWOOD PAPER MILL, ABERDEEN: ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVALUATION AND STANDING BUILDING SURVEY, SBS/evaluation report (Bibliographic reference). SAB6959.

ARCHAEOLOGY SCOTLAND, 2014, DISCOVERY AND EXCAVATION IN SCOTLAND, NEW SERIES, VOLUME 14, 2013, p. 13 (Bibliographic reference). SAB5483.

Mar 16 2048 , CPE/SCOT/316/2077, CPE/SCOT/316/2077 (Air-vertical Photograph). SAB36443.

Record last edited

Feb 15 2023 1:11PM