World Heritage Day: Exploring Hayford Mill

The location of mills was dictated by local water courses, but small weavers’ cottages were situated in villages across the region as part of the Scottish handloom industry of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Weavers cottages are usually small one storey, two room buildings where weavers lived with their families. Wooden weaving sheds, where handlooms were kept, were attached to these cottages, most of which have long gone. You can still spot some 18^th century weaver’s cottages in the Torbrex Conservation Area. Other villages across Stirling, like Thornhill, had small weaving communities, and whilst many of the buildings are now gone, the memory of the weaving industry is captured in street names, such as Weaver Row in St Ninians.

The weaving industry grew and industrialised, and soon imposing mill complexes came to dominate the landscape of places like Bannockburn and Cambusbarron. People have been living in Cambusbarron since the Iron Age, and its strategic hilltop location became a staging post along the medieval military road that linked Dumbarton Castle and Stirling Castle. It developed into a weaving village in the 18th century. The village expanded significantly after the establishment of Hayford Mill in 1833, founded by John Campbell, William Watson and Alexander Donaldson. At its height, the mill employed around 1,200 workers.

Women working in the Hayford Mills at Camusbarron, circa 1930. Courtesy of The Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum

Print of a machine used for twisting yarn and produced by Robert Smith & Sons of Stirling in the 19th C. They were the owners of Hayford Mills in the 19th Century and the largest employer in the town. Images taken from a catalogue. Courtesy of The Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum

Photograph from the brae looking down on the Bannockburn Mills in the middle of Winter with workmen salting the snow-covered road. Photo taken by Thomas Mackenzie Smith in 1954. Courtesy of The Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum

Once redundant, large mill buildings often fell into disrepair, struggling to find a new use. Hayford Mills was no different. The extant polychrome brick buildings date from the 1860-1880 enlargement led by Robert Smith Jnr. The Hayford Mills complex is now A Listed, as according to Historic Environment Scotland, it ‘remains one of the largest and most complete examples of a vertically integrated woollen mill in Scotland’, and is ‘a rare surviving example.’ However, the mills ceased production in 1896 when Robert Smith Jnr withdrew his finance from the business to invest in Australian gold mines instead. He died in 1901, soon after finding out his investment in gold mines was a very poor one. Hayford Mills then entered Government ownership. On 19^th October 1896, the Stirling Observer reported on the closure of Hayford Mills:

There were between 500 and 600 people employed at the beginning of the present year, but now all are gone, and the gates are closed. The stoppage is a serious loss to Stirling and the villages of St, Ninians and Cambusbarron, but more especially to the latter, the bulk of whose adult population found employment in the establishment, and some of whom have worked within the walls of the mills ever since they were erected. Most of the younger employees have got work of one kind or another elsewhere, but many elderly people have been left “stranded”, without any source of earning their living meantime.

7th Argyll Camp at St. Thomas Well near Cambusbarron,  Hayford Mill in the background, 1880 by Sargeant W McKenzie. Courtesy of The Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum

The 8th Service Battalion of the Cameron Highlanders at Hayford Mills in 1917. Courtesy of The Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum

The 8th Service Battalion of the Cameron Highlanders at Hayford Mills in 1917. Courtesy of The Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum

The loss of industry to communities like Cambusbarron would have been devastating. After their closure, Hayford Mills became training barracks during both world wars, was briefly used as a carpet factory, and was also used for storage by the Scottish Office Home and Health Department. The large buildings fell into disrepair, in the photographs of the mills taken during WW1 you can see even spot smashed windows across the buildings. Hayford Mills was successfully converted into housing in the early 2000s, but many mill complexes across Stirling were ultimately demolished, including those in Bannockburn.

Other Mills, like Stanley Mills and Barry Mill, have been preserved and are now heritage attractions cared for by Historic Environment Scotland and the National Trust for Scotland respectively. Knockando Wool Mill in Aberlour has also been restored and is now run by a community trust. Conserving and protecting these heritage sites ensures that we don’t forget Scotland’s industrial past.