Specimen Interior. View from South-West.

Description Specimen Interior. View from South-West.

Date 22/4/1980

Catalogue Number AN 4357

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 787431

Scope and Content Interior, Dens Mill at Lower Dens Works, Princes Street, Dundee, from south-west Dens Mill, which dates to 1865, was designed by the engineer-manager of Baxter Brothers, Peter Carmichael (d.1891). This is one of the rooms within the mill which would have been used for spinning flax. The room is very long in order to accommodate much large machinery, and is very light due to the numerous large windows. Due to the use of cast iron in its construction the interior of Dens Mill was fireproof. Two rows of cast-iron columns support cast-iron beams. During the 19th century many areas in Scotland specialised in different aspects of textile production. Dundee specialised in the production of linen and jute, and the products were exported all over the world. As late as 1911 over 48% of Dundee's workforce worked in the textile business. The founder of the Baxters company, William Baxter (1766-1854), opened his first mill for spinning flax in 1822 in Lower Dens, Dundee. During the 19th century the company added other buildings to the complex, becoming the biggest manufacturers of linen in the world around 1840. They maintained this position for another 50 years. Due to the demise of the textile trade in Dundee many of the buildings were demolished in the 1980s. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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