Introduction to the Mills of Lochwinnoch

The power behind Lochwinnoch's industrial growth like so many towns during the industrial revolution was its river, in this case the Calder. The river is now a shadow of its former self primarily due to water being diverted to the Kaim reservoir. When I was growing up in the village the river supported fine sized trout and many other marine animals. A bit further back, well before industrialisation polluted so many of our rivers’ salmon could also be caught.

Lochwinnoch was industrialised during the time of the third William McDowall of Castle Semple (1776-1810). This is when the village “moved away” from the Auld Town (Kirktoun) to the New Town centred on the cross. The Linthills grew flax to make linen and the first thread mill in the parish was set up in 1722. Another thread mill was opened in 1740 at Factory Close (then Factory Street, presently St Winnoch Road) in the Auld Town.

Factory Close was so named because of this thread mill and subsequent weaving factory on its east side at the junction with Braefoot (the bottom section of the Johnshill at the junction with Mansfield Road). It produced linen and cambric textiles. McDowall owned one sixth of the company and the remaining shares were distributed among William Brodie, hosier in Mansfield Notts (brother to Hugh Brodie, feuer Calderhaugh); John Auchincloss & Co., merchants, Glasgow; Robert Holms, merchant, Calderhaugh; Robert Orr, merchant, Kirktown; Thomas Orr, merchant in Glasgow; and John Paisley, weaver in Paisley. This larger enterprise was built in either 1750 or 1751, although the feu charter was granted in 1754. A smaller factory had been established in 1740 and as part of that operation McDowall feud one and a half acres of land on the west side of the Calder at Calderhaugh for a bleaching works. It consumed all the buttermilk in the parish until Dr Home of Edinburgh discovered the use of sulphuric acid for this purpose around 1756.

Reference is made in 1781 to an Andrew Gibson as foreman of the silk manufacturing plant in Factory Close. Silk gauzes had become the fashion in London and Humphrey Fulton is credited with bringing their manufacture to Paisley around 1760. Over the next 20 years it became the dominant product throughout Renfrewshire. However, by 1784 fashion was changing again in favour of cotton muslins. He is later referred to as the manager of the Old Cotton mill at Kilndale. This presumably refers to a job move to the larger cotton mill built in 1788 on Calder Street and partly owned by McDowall and marks the demise of the Factory Close operation.

About 1788, a small cotton factory was commenced by a number of persons in the parish, in which the jennies were moved by hand but it did not succeed, and was soon given up.

The old mill was built in 1788 on what was the western edge of the new village. The mill itself was five stories high and operated around 8140 spindles and 2140 water twist babbins. It had 159 windows and 40 skylights. It had 176 workers and the wages amounted to £148 per fortnight.

The original partners were Houston, Burns & Co. which included McDowall. McDowall eventually became bankrupt and by virtue of an Act of Parliament, 46 of George 3rd Chapter 15 dated 23rd July 1806, his estate came under the management of a Trustee - Charles Selkrig Esq. He sold the mill at public auction in 1814 to the firm of William Wright and Co. for £4500 paid by installments. The final payment was not due till 1817, the resulting disposition of ownership was dated April 29th 1817. In April 1820 the Trustees of William Morrison provided a loan of £3000 to the business. There were a number of shareholders in this Copartnery of Glasgow merchants - William & John Ferguson Sharpe, Michael Miller & James Wright. They were eventually bought out making the Mill an entirely family-owned business. However on 28th January 1852 James and John Wright as Trustees for William Wright sold the business to John James Kerr another Glasgow merchant.

The Crawford Brothers bought the mill on 30th September 1864 for £3646 from Mr Kerr. This included the managers house, land adjoining the mill with garden and contiguous enclosure extending to 5 acres 29 falls, fore and back lades, dam (The Falls), and rights to water of Calder including Queenside Loch and Calder Dam.

Nothing remains of the buildings associated with this Mill. A major part of the infrastructure which supported it is still in existence, namely the Falls at the mouth of the Glen. The only image of the mill is the sketch below.

​In a photograph taken from the spire of the Parish Church around 1897 after the main building was destroyed by fire (1874) the roofs of some of the ancillary building can be seen. These are numbered 2,3, & 4. The remaining numbers are explained in a montage in the article specifically about the Calderpark Mill.

A second cotton mill, the ‘New’ or Calderhaugh Mill, was built a year after the Calderpark Mill. It was also five storeys high and had 360 windows and 60 skylights. Calderhaugh was built by Johnston, Pollock, Fultons, Buchanan & Co. who were an established group of Paisley textile merchants. By 1813 it had 10,000 spindles and it was later converted to spinning flax, then silk. It had twice the number of workers as the old mill. By 1802 it was owned by Fulton and Buchanan. In 1823 a new building was added housing a steam engine providing the mill with two forms of power. It now had 25224 spindles which worked 12,000 pounds of cotton every fortnight. A second extension was added in 1835. As a result of fire only the second extension survives to this day. The photographs below show the front of the building in 1947 and 2024 after conversion to residential flats.

​A third mill was built two years later by Messrs William Caldwell & Co. on the Cloak Burn at Boghead, on the site of an old grain and woollen mill. This mill was destroyed by fire and when it was eventually rebuilt it wove a textile which included horse hair. Boghead Mill was three stories high and powered by dams at Boghead and Kaim and employed around 80 workers. The Scots magazine Monday 1st July 1793 cites William Caldwell of Yardfoot cotton manufacturer in Lochwinnoch as bankrupt. How this might relate to Boghead is unclear if it does at all. Nothing remains of this mill and the site is now occupied by a bungalow. At one time some of the foundations were present in the grounds of this property.

Like most early rural cotton mills, with their timber floors and roofs, all were lost or damaged by fires. Boghead Mill was destroyed by fire in 1812. It was rebuilt by Mr Robert Clelland but again suffered fire damage in 1862. Calderpark Mill burned down in 1874, after lightning struck the roof. Four years later in 1878, part of the Calderhaugh Mill was completely destroyed by fire, but the remainder survives, converted to flats in the 1980s.

The erection of these mills gave a stimulus to every kind of business in the village, and had the effect of almost doubling its population between the years 1791 and 1831, when it reached the high figure of 4515. Towards the end of the 19th century textile manufacture was not so profitable and workers were laid off. Many local families moved elsewhere for employment, and the fire that destroyed the Old Mill in 1875, followed three years later by a similar disaster at the New Mill, proved the death-blow to that industry in the village. Deprived of its most important trade, it looked for some years as if the village would not readily recover from the severe blow it sustained. But from the embers a silk manufacturing operation arose that lasted till 1985.