Clayslaps Mill

Stuart Nisbet on the trail of another vanished Kelvin mill

One of the most elusive mills on the Kelvin was Clayslaps Mill. The mill was situated on the Kelvingrove side of the river, directly behind Kelvingrove Museum.

Clayslaps was the highest and last of the traditional Partick mills, situated at a natural sandstone weir. Originally known as the New Mill of Partick, by 1517 it was used as a waulk mill for softening cloth. This distinguished it from Partick old waulk mill further down on the opposite bank.

In the early 1500s the mill was rented by Donald Lyon. Forty years later, his son Archie converted it to a grain mill, but this was soon in trouble due to bigger business moving into the river. The Glasgow Incorporation of Bakers built a completely new dam on the river immediately downstream of Lyon’s mill, for their new Regent’s Mill (see FORK News no. 42).

The Regent’s dam reduced the fall of water at Lyon’s Mill, who sold out, not to the Bakers, but to Glasgow Town Council. Thereafter the mill was best known as Clayslaps Mill. The fortunes of the mill waxed and waned, being let out but also abandoned for a time, and in 1717 it was ruinous. In 1734 part was converted to a lint mill for ‘scutching’ or softening flax stems, although the site still included a waulk mill. On Roy’s military map of the 1750s it is denoted Newmills, and the adjacent hamlet, on the site of the Kelvin Hall, as Clayslaps. A malt grinding mill was added soon after for the Glasgow brewers, then a mill for grinding snuff. In the century before steam power, water power was at a premium for driving various new industries.

The ongoing additions needed more water power and Clayslaps dam was raised to a considerable height. This resulted in the Kelvin backing up all the way to Woodside Mill. It is hard to believe today that the Kelvin was entirely flat all the way from Clayslaps to Kelvinbridge. It was so high that the bottom of Woodside Mill’s water wheel was swamped by ‘dead water’ caused by Clayslaps dam. Colin Campbell of Woodside raised a legal action in 1741 and Clayslaps was ordered to lower its dam by 6 inches.

In 1771 the mills were purchased from Glasgow Town by the Glasgow Bakers and were soon converted entirely to the grinding of flour. From 1800 they were extended and greatly improved, to feed Glasgow’s growing population. The mills were driven by three undershot water wheels 5 metres in diameter, driving fifteen pairs of mill stones. To supplement the river in dry weather a steam engine was also added.

The Lost Mills of The Kelvin is taken from the Autumn 2007 edition of FORK News