Wilton Mills, Commercial Road, Hawick, Hawick, Scottish Borders

Description

Predominantly later 19th century, with mid-19th-century elements. Extensive mill complex comprising various milling and warehouse buildings with predominantly modillioned eaves courses, prominent clock tower and crenellated stair tower.

NE (RIGHT, 32 COMMERCIAL ROAD) BLOCK: 2-storey block of various dates, comprising plain, 3-bay section with some Classical detailing to left and advanced, 7-bay section with French Renaissance detailing to right, and multi-ridged roofed to rear.

Left section, mid-19th century. 3-bay principal elevation: 2-leaf, timber-boarded door with fanlight within plain, pilastered architrave to left at ground floor; central projecting, corbelled, tripartite, stone-mullioned 1st-floor window. Roughly squared yellow sandstone with raised, painted margins. 1st-floor band course, eaves course, eaves cornice and blocking course (see NOTES) all turning SW corner. INTERIOR: Open-plan, with ceiling supported by cast-iron columns; barley sugar twist cast-iron balustrade to stair; some cornices and ceiling plasterwork (see NOTES).

Right section, 1877. 7-bay principal elevation. Slightly advanced, corbelled, gabled bay to centre at 1st floor with louvred oculus in apex of gable; diagonally set, square, piend-roofed turrets to angled outer bays. Bull-faced yellow sandstone with raised, polished margins. Stepped 1st-floor string course; modillioned eaves course, both turning corners at left and right. Quoin strips. Bipartite, stone-mullioned windows to centre bay and turrets; single lights elsewhere. Predominantly 4-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows.

SE (CENTRAL) BLOCK: 3-storey, piend-roofed block with 9 bays to principal (Commercial Road) elevation, 3 bays to SW (side) elevation), 2 bays to NE (side) elevation, and 4-stage, square tower at N corner with ogee-roofed clock tower. Bull-faced yellow sandstone with polished ashlar dressings and raised cills. Modillioned eaves course; stepped, modillioned band course to single-storey block. Predominantly fixed glazing, with 10 lying panes to ground-and 2nd-floor windows and 9-pane pattern to 1st-floor windows.

Long, windowless, single-storey block extending right (NE) along Commercial Road from E corner; lower, piend-roofed block to right.

SW (LEFT) BLOCK: 3-storey, roughly L-plan, piend-roofed block with 9 bays to principal elevation, 15 bays to SW (side) elevation, and crenellated, 4-stage, square tower to N corner. Tooled yellow sandstone ashlar to principal and SW elevations; roughly squared yellow sandstone elsewhere; polished ashlar dressings throughout. Modillioned eaves course. Rusticated quoins. Projecting cills. Fixed lying-pane glazing, with 12 panes to ground-floor windows and 10 panes to 1st- and 2nd-floor windows.

Grey slate roofs with metal ridges throughout; fishscale tiles to corner turrets of 32 Commercial Road section. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

Statement of Interest

An extensive complex of 19th-century mill buildings with prominent clock tower and some fine detailing, which dominates the riverside streetscape of Commercial Road and demonstrates the development of the textiles industry that is central to the history of Hawick.

Conveniently situated for water-powered milling at the meeting of the River Teviot and the Slitrig Water, Hawick became one of the richest burghs per capita in Scotland as a result of the textile manufacturing industry. The Wilton Mills were powered by two waterwheels, one fed by a mill lade originating from the Victoria Works (situated to the south-east), and the other by a short inlet from the Teviot a little further upstream. These remained in use until at least 1916, but were supplemented by steam in the later years, for which purpose an engine house and chimney were built; at one point the town's skyline was dominated by such chimneys, but almost all, including that at Wilton Mills, have now been demolished.

Wilton Mills were built for the hosiery and tweed manufacturing firm of Dickson's & Laing's, established in 1811 (it should be noted that the plaque on the right section of the north-east block stating 'ESTABLISHED 1811' refers to the establishment of the firm, not the construction of that particular building). The first buildings on the site were constructed in 1815, but none of the structures visible on John Wood's Plan of the Town and Environs of Hawick (1824) remains today. A fire in 1867 destroyed the majority of the buildings on the site; the only survivor from prior to that time is the left-hand and rear part of the block at 32 Commercial Road, the blocking course of which bears lettering which reads 'WILTON MILLS' to the side and 'DICKSON'S LAING'S' to the front (a similar legend appears around the top of the left block of the central section). The remainder of the buildings surviving today were developed in the years following the fire.

The firm of Dickson's & Laing's collapsed in 1909. Thereafter the different parts of the complex were leased or rented to various different firms, Dickson's & Laing's already having relinquished their use of the turreted warehouse to the tweed merchants Innes Chambers & Co in 1898.

The buildings were only viewed from the exterior of the site during resurvey (2008). Information on the interiors is courtesy of Scottish Borders Council. List description revised as part of the Hawick Burgh Resurvey (2008).

External Links

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