Stanley Mills

I tend not to do B&W, but this photo really cried out for that format and surprised me by how much better it was than the colour version. View in Large for the full effect.

This is Stanley Mills, an 18th Century cotton mill, built on the banks of the Tay. The story of how the power of the Tay was initially used to provide mechanical power to the machinery and then later used to drive turbines providing electrical power, was quite fascinating, as were the little snipets of quotes from former workers and old photos on the assorted information boards round the site.

For those wanting a bit more detail, the following has been cobbled together from the Historic Scotland site:

Stanley Mills is one the best-preserved relics of the 18th-century Industrial Revolution. It was established as a cotton mill by local merchants, with support from the English cotton baron Richard Arkwright. Textiles were produced here for 200 years.

The mills were built in 1786 at a hairpin bend in the River Tay, where tremendous water-power was available. Machinery was powered initially by water wheels, and latterly by electricity generated by water-powered turbines. As the market changed and new technologies developed, buildings were added, adapted, expanded, shut down, reopened and demolished.

By the late 18th century, Perthshire had a well established textile industry. Linen was produced from locally grown flax, using water-powered machinery.

Around this time, British merchants began importing cotton, which could be spun into warm and strong textiles. In northern England, water-driven machines were being installed in large factories to process the ?new? fibre.

By 1785, a group of Perth merchants were eager to establish a cotton industry on the Tay. They persuaded the English textile baron Richard Arkwright to invest his money and expertise.

Initially, the mills thrived. The East Mill was added to process flax, but it was gutted by fire in 1799. Because of this, and a slump caused by war in France, Stanley Mills closed down.

The mills were bought in 1801 by James Craig, with financial support from David Dale, the founder of New Lanark mills. However, the business failed again and the mills closed in 1813.

In 1823, the mills were bought and reopened by Buchanan & Co of Glasgow. They enlarged the East Mill and built the Mid Mill, the gas works and, in Stanley village, a church and new housing. The company flourished for 30 years. In 1848, the owner, George Buchanan, helped establish a rail link to Stanley. This greatly eased the transportation of raw cotton from Glasgow. Buchanan sold the mills in 1852.

The next owner was Samuel Howard, who closed the mills during the Cotton Famine of the 1860s, causing mass unemployment.

F.S. Sandeman took over in 1876. He was an astute businessman and a skilled technician. He replaced the water wheels with turbines and introduced cotton belting as a product. Belting was sold around the world to drive machinery.

During the First and Second World Wars, the mills saw good years producing webbing for the armed forces. Another important innovation came in 1916, when Stanley Mills began producing an ?endless? thin cotton belt used in the manufacture of cigarettes. This product helped the mills survive the Depression of the 1920s.

India became independent in 1947 and imposed import tariffs on cotton goods, damaging a major export market. The growing availability of electricity also shrank the market for belting.

By the late 1960s, Stanley was mainly producing artificial fibres. In 1979, a management buyout led to the formation of Stanley Mills (Scotland), but the market proved too competitive and the mills eventually closed in 1989.