Building record MAB39647 - NURSERY BOBBIN WORKS

The remains of a bobbin works and saw mill stand circa 175m to the southwest of Old Bridge of Dye.

The remains of a bobbin works and saw mill stand circa 175m to the southwest of Old Bridge of Dye. It is depicted on the OS map of 1867 as Nursery Bobbin Works, and was described in the OS Name Book as a small wooden building fitted with machinery for wood turning, and was the property of Sir Thomas Gladstone Baronet. On the 2nd edition map it is unnamed, but annotated as a saw mill. It was an L-shaped building fed by a lade leading from a weir on the river in the west and which returns to the river northeast of the mill. The mill, which lies within woodland, is now ruined but the lade survives. Documentary research by J Gilliatt records that in 1861 the mill was operated by Robert Mitchell and James Collie plus six other wood turners. The bobbin works appears to have ceased operation by 1871 when there were no wood turners recorded as living in the parish and Mitchell and Collie were bobbin making elsewhere. It appears to have been set up by Sir Thomas Gladstone, bringing men from Banchory to run it but for some reason the enterprise as not very successful. The property was later used as a sawmill.

GILLIATT, J, 2018, BOBBIN MILLS IN THE NORTH OF SCOTLAND (Bibliographic reference). SAB4244.

Record last edited

Sep 7 2022 2:36PM