Blairgowrie, Oakbank Mill

NO14NE 104 17689 46204

(Location cited as NO 177 463). Oakbank Mill, rebuilt 1872. A 3-storey and basement 5-bay rubble building with a 2-bay extension. At basement level is a ruined wheel house with a breast wheel about 10 ft (3.05m) wide by 18 ft (5.49m) diameter, with rim gearing. The main drive shaft, which is vertical, runs up the face of the building. Now used as a store.

J R Hume 1977.

A three-storey and basement five-bay (with extension) linen/jute mill rebuilt in 1872 after a fire. At the time of survey in 2002, it was in an advanced state of disrepair. Although in a badly decayed state, the breast-shot water wheel (3.05m wide and 5.49m diameter) survived in situ, having been exposed as a result of the collapse of the water-wheel-house roof. Also surviving on the outside of the mill was a vertical cast-iron line shaft with gearing which took power from the water wheel to each mill flat.

Information from RCAHMS

(MKO) 2002

A 3-storey and basement 5-bay rubble mill building with a 2-bay extension. At basement level is a ruined wheel house with a breast wheel about 10 ft (3.05m) wide by 18 ft (5.49m) diameter, with rim gearing. The main drive shaft, which is vertical, runs up the face of the building. (J Hume)

At one time the Grimond family controlled 4 of the twelve mills (including Oakbank) in the Blairgowrie area, having originally owned a lint mill on the Lornty Burn (J Shaw). JAR MacDonald's History of Blairgowrie, 1899, suggests that James Grimond was the first spinner Watt "induced to make a trial of jute." On James Grimond's death David Grimond (his nephew) suceeded. Oakbank Mill was burned down in the spring of 1872, the fire arising from a gas jet igniting some of the tow.

The mill remains one of a group of flax and jute mills that run along each side of the River Ericht, a classic example of a large colony of mills sited expressly for the purpose of exploiting a good water supply, said to be the oldest of their type in Scotland.