Description

Robertson and Orchar 1872, opened 1873, lengthened to Main
Street 1887-90. Single-storey jute spinning, weaving and
finishing works with 2-storey St Salvador Street front.
Rubble-built with slate roofs. Elevation to St Salvador
Street: single-storey calender works with 3 piended
double-pitched roofs. Original loading door. 2-storey
3-bay office, bipartite sash and case, and office door
altered to window. Wallhead stacks. Piended slate roof.
4 large dentil corniced ashlar gatepiers with ornate
wrought-iron gates, 1887. 3 keyblocked ashlar segmental
arches carry 1912 1st floor boardroom with central triple
and flanking bipartite windows. Corniced parapet and
piended roof. 2-storey 2-by 15-bay former bag factory
to E, 1887-90, 3-bays beyond fire-barrier wall added 1915.
10-pane top-hopper windows. Piended slate roof. Elevation
to Glamis Street: 480' long blank rubble wall with higher
parapet forming side wall of 1872 factory, lower parapet
to calender and N extension of factory. Taller starch
house at NW corner largely replaced by polypropylene silos.
Parapet of Main Street elevation stepped down with slope
of hill. 3 loading doors. 12 E-lit piended roofs with 2
fire barrier walls dividing, E, batching bay from central,
5 spinning bays and, W, 6 weaving bays.
Behind St Salvador Street front: loading bay from W with
ornate wrought-iron roof fronted by wide central door way
and flanking arched entrances. 2-storey mechanics shop to
N, 3-bay side with blocked arched door was for a while a
subsidiary engine house. Paired entrances to Factory and
West Mill. Twin engine houses: stair with wrought-iron rail
passes large blocked window of 1872 engine house to reach
its replacement, a massive circa 1900 engine house. Central
ground floor segmental arched door to mill flanked by
window at E and door at W. 2 very large roundheaded windows
each with wooden mullion forming bipartite sash and case
with fanlight over transom. High band course to all 4 sides.
Blank E elevation. 2-storey 3-bay W elevation.
Interior of West Mill and Factory: 12 long bays each running
370' N-S with wooden roofs angled to E, some skylit on both
sides. Spans vary between 27' and 36', reflecting the
lengths of machines which they originally housed, on rows
of 34 cast-iron columns at 11' intervals, bracketted to
carry shafting. Each row is met at the S wall by a large
cast-iron wall box with projecting bracket for main driving
shaft and level gears (shafting removed). Original dividing
walls. Calender at SW corner has 3 double-pitched 36'
span wooden roofs on 2 rows of 9 iron columns. Original
cornices and stair in office, some new partitions. Former
Bag-Sewing Department: wooden 1st floor on single row
of cast-iron columns, timber roof.

Statement of Interest

Perhaps the first large-scale single-storey vertically

integrated textile mill in Britain.

After Camperdown Works, Caldrum was in 1925 the second

biggest jute mill in Britain in terms of spindles. Owned

by Harry Walker and Sons, later Jute Industries.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17802620

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)