Larkhall, Avonbank Bleach and Dye Works View of beetling house

Description Larkhall, Avonbank Bleach and Dye Works View of beetling house

Date 13/6/1968

Collection Papers of Professor John R Hume, economic and industrial historian, Glasgow, Scotland

Catalogue Number SC 612785

Category On-line Digital Images

Scope and Content Beetling house, Avonbank Bleach Works, Larkhall, South Lanarkshire Avonbank Bleach Works was converted from a distillery into a bleach works in about 1836, and remained in use until the early 1980s. It specialised in making 'Scotch Holland' dust-repellent cloth for window blinds. This shows the old beetling house, probably built as part of the distillery. In 1967 the lower storey still housed beetling machines, used to close up the texture of window-blind cloth. The upper storey, originally used to dry the beetled cloth, was disused by 1967. Beetling was a process in which sized cloth, slightly dampened, was hammered by wooden bars raised mechanically, and allowed to fall onto the cloth, which was wound on rollers. The effect was to flatten the fibres in the cloth, making it suitable for window blinds. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

External Reference H68/477/1B

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/612785

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap