Tweed Manufacturing in Nithsdale
By this time tweed was already well known and the
traditional designs had become popular with rich and poor alike.
Scott's invested substantial capital in tweed production and
development was rapid. The firm built a second tweed factory,
Nithsdale Mills, in Dumfries, in 1857.
In 1866 the partnership erected an enormous plant, Troqueer
Mills, on the Maxwelltown side of the Nith. The firm of Walter
Scott & Sons now owned all three tweed mills in Dumfries and
employed 1,400 workers on 35,000 spindles and 400 looms, producing
10,000 yards of tweed each month. Most of the raw wool was imported
from Australia and New Zealand. At this period the firm was the
largest manufacturer of tweeds in Scotland.
Another big development took place in the mid 1880s when
Samuel Charteries, who had worked on the commercial side of the
tweed industry, and Robert Spence, a former designer, took over St
Michael's Mills, a smaller factory built around1868. In 1885 they
purchased the Rosefield estate, adjacent to Troqueer Mills in
Maxwelltown and built Rosefield Mills, one of the largest tweed
factories in Scotland. The mills housed 180 power looms, and by
1906 this huge plant employed over 700 people. By now the entire
Dumfries tweed industry had shifted to the west bank of the River
Nith and was concentrated in the two firms of Walter Scott &
Sons and Charteries, Spence & Co.
The wool used in these mills was largely imported from New
Zealand, and the finished product was sent to London, Glasgow and
Manchester, and from there onto Europe, America, India and
Australia. Some tweed was sent direct from Dumfries to France,
Russia and the United States.
These developments in Dumfries radically altered the
regional woollen industry. Many of the small, water-driven mills
disappeared, although a few survived into the twentieth century and
some were extensively altered and enlarged to assimilate the
technical changes which the introduction of steam power
demanded.
Dumfries experienced a period of economic prosperity in the
1870s and 1880s brought about by its tweed industry. Queen Victoria
and the Royal Family had made Scottish textiles internationally
fashionable. The town was now one of the largest tweed producers in
the world with four mills and a workforce of almost 2,000. The
wages paid to these workers raised the standard of living in the
town. As well as the new tweed weaving factories, a whole range of
impressive public buildings were built in the
town.
A direct result of the growth of the tweed factories was the
plan to build another bridge across the river. Much of the Town
Council's effort during the early 1870s was spent in raising funds,
and supervising the design and building of the bridge. It was a
very popular project as it allowed the mill workers to cross the
river to their work without having to walk along the length of the
riverside. They did not have to rise so early in the mornings and
could return home for lunch. The new Suspension Bridge was opened
on New Year's Eve, 1875 with much public
celebration.
The majority of the small tweed mills had either closed or
been converted into hosiery factories before 1914, and when the
First World War broke out the remaining mills were turned over to
the manufacture of khaki and French army blue cloth. Sadly they
were never to regain their markets, and tweed production had ceased
altogether by 1930.
The companies involved in the manufacture of tweed in
Dumfries were -
Robert Scott & Sons, Kingholm
Mills
Founded in 1846, it had 200 workers.
Robert & Walter Scott, Nithsdale
Mills
Founded in 1857 by Robert Scott's sons, the partnership
ended in 1866. It had 352 workers.
Walter Scott, Troqueer
Mills
Opened in 1866, it had 532 workers.
John Henderson, St Michael's
Mills
Opened in 1868, it was a small enterprise, employing about
50 workers.
Charteries, Spence & Co., Rosefield
Mills
Opened in 1885, this was the largest tweed mill in Dumfries
with over 700 workers.
