The Old Waulk Mill of Partick

Stuart Nisbet explores more of the old mills of the lower Kelvin

The final group of mills on the lower Kelvin were located on the Partick side of the river. As it is difficult to imagine their location today, it is easiest to start with the current buildings, Scotstoun Mills. These are the large collection of modern buildings downstream from Partick Bridge (Dumbarton Road) and Partick Pumping Station. The site is still occupied by Rank Hovis, with its main entrance in Dunaskin Street.

A variety of buildings make up the site, including a former horse-drawn tram depot. This survives as three brick arches fronting part of the site in Thurso Street.

The modern mills on this site go back to the 1830s, when the site was purchased by John White. Four generations of the White family worked the mills, and the son and grandson of the founder were both provosts of Partick. John White (second Provost of Partick) built part of the surviving structure, enlarging the mills in 1877. The Whites were latterly taken over by Spillers, who owned the mill in the 1960s and then became part of Rank Hovis.

The name ‘Scotstoun’ has moved a few miles west from its origins, and on this site dates back to 1711, when William Walkinshaw of Scotstoun acquired the mills and began the milling of grain. The mills used the same natural fall on the Kelvin as powered the surviving Old Mill of Partick on the opposite bank (see FORK News no. 45, Spring 2008).

The mills have long ceased to use water power. The earliest mills on the site and their water wheels were at the downstream end of the modern site, beside the fall. The original mill on this site was known as the Old ‘Waulk’ Mill of Partick, as opposed to the old ‘Grain’ Mill of Partick on the east bank. It was established in the early 1500s. Waulk mills used water power to drive large mallets which pounded woven cloth in vats to wash and soften it.

The story does not end with the old waulk mill: directly downstream was a smaller mill, known as the Wee Mill. This was driven by water collected in a lower ‘Wee Dam’ just below the falls. Although the site has changed immeasurably, the natural waterfall still remains as a clue to the location of Partick’s original mills.