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Inverurie, Broomend Mills
Paper Mill (19th Century)
Site Name Inverurie, Broomend Mills
Classification Paper Mill (19th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Inverurie Paper Mills; Tait's Paper Mill
Canmore ID 18641
Site Number NJ71NE 78
NGR NJ 78182 19331
NGR Description Centred on NJ 78182 19331
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/18641
- Council Aberdeenshire
- Parish Kintore
- Former Region Grampian
- Former District Gordon
- Former County Aberdeenshire
Tait's Paper Mill, from 1858. Very varied complex ranging from a vast, state-of-the-art mill, 1990, enclosed in a giant metal shed, to an early five-storey brick tower for the manufacture of acid: hand-propelled narrow-gauge railway still.
Taken from "Aberdeenshire: Donside and Strathbogie - An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Ian Shepherd, 2006. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk
NJ71NE 78.00 782 192.
For egg-end boiler, see NJ71NE 78.01.
For probable water-supply lade to the mills (former Aberdeen-Inverurie canal) see NJ71NE 103.00; for controlling sluices (at NJ 7781 2038 and 7782 2038), see NJ72SE 123.01. (Also variously known as Aberdeenshire Canal Navigation, Aberdeen Canal, Inverury Canal and Inverurie Canal).
For sand pit (NJ 7803 1867) within and around the area of the paper mills complex, see NJ71NE 193.
For sections of the Aberdeen-Inverurie canal, see also:
NJ71NE 103.00 7808 1999 to 7999 1560 Ladeside Gardens - Kirk Fold
NJ72SE 123.00 7764 2059 and 7769 2059 to 7808 2000 Elphinstone - Ladeside Gardens
NJ80NE 43 896 099 to 899 096 Bankhead - Bucksburn
NJ81NW 51 8000 1561 to 8499 1566 Kirk Fold - Woodland's Wood
NJ81NE 32 8500 1566 to 863 150 Woodland's Wood - Pitmedden Cottages
NJ81SE 45 863 149 to 896 100 Pitmedden Cottages - Bankhead
NJ90NW 285 900 096 to 948 061 Bucksburn - Aberdeen Harbour
Immediately below an elegant bridge over the Don, a portion of the waters of this river is carried away in a pretty deep channel in order to feed the navigable canal which is carried 18 miles, following a winding route to the harbour of Aberdeen (NJ90NE 7.00). The only portion of the canal open is:- about 60 chains or thereabout immediately where it joins the River Don, and from near the flour mill in Port Elphinstone (NJ72SE 124.00) to the Paper Mill - Inverury Mill (NJ71NE 78.00), chiefly for conveying water to the mill. The course may be traced at many places within the parish and some of the milestones are still standing on its partly levelled banks.
Ordnance Survey Name Book.
The Aberdeen canal was protected in the year 1793 but was not opened until 1807. The length of the canal from Aberdeen harbour (NJ90NE 7.00) to Port Elphinstone, Inverurie (NJ72SE 124.00) was 18-1/4 miles, its breadth was 24 feet and its depth mainly 4 feet. The highest level was at Stoneywood (NJ 89 11), where is reached 168 feet above low water mark. The principal works constructed upon it were 17 locks, 5 aqueduct bridges, 56 accommodation bridges and 20 culverts.
The canal was closed in the passing of the Act in 1854 authorising the Great North of Scotland Railway Company to proceed with their undertaking.
Several stretches of the canal are visible but its channel is now drained of water; the tow-path in these stretches is still well preserved.
Information from Ordnance survey (ESC) 25 October 1961.
P Morgan 1886.
Acts for the building of the canal were passed in 1746 and 1801, and it was constructed with John Rennie as consulting engineer and George Fletcher as resident engineer. It was originally intended to have a gauge of 27-1/3' at surface, 14' at bottom and 4' depth; when opened (in June 1805) it measured 3-1/3' deep and 20' wide at surface. Each of the 17th locks measured 57' in length and 9' in breadth; all of them were situated within 4 miles of Aberdeen. The canal was closed in January 1854 and the successor railway opened in September of the same year.
J Lindsay 1968.
The canal has been largely obliterated by re-use as the line of the Aberdeen-Inverurie railway (GNoSR) but there are visible remains at:
NJ 777 203 Port Elphinstone, site of terminal basin. Buildings only (NJ72SE 124.00).
NJ 783 182-790 171 Fullerton to Tavelty, embankment and terracing (NJ71NE 103.00)
NJ 797 157-802 155 Rosebank to Brae of Kintore, earthen bank to carry towpath (NJ81NW 51)
NJ 807 151-812 151 Dalwearie or Dalweary, earthworks around flat area S of railway (NJ81NW 51)
NJ 844 152-857 152 Woodland's Wood, well-preserved earthworks (NJ81NW 51)
NJ 869 149-872 148 Pair of embankments (NJ81NW 51)
NJ 874 146-876 145 Cut scarped into slope (NJ81NW 51 and NJ81SE 45)
A Graham 1969.
Inverurie Paper Mills, NJ 782 192, founded 1858. A most interesting complex, dominated by a 5-storey brick tower. The other buildings are mainly 1- and 2-storey and rubble-built, although there are some modern additions. Part of the power is derived from 2 water turbines, and the site of 2 large waterwheels can also be seen.
In 1971, there were 2 Belliss & Morcom high-speed engines driving alternators, on standby: a triple-expansion 1000-1100 horsepower engine of 1928 and a compound 900 horsepower of 1937. There was also a 2-cylinder simple vertical Ashworth & Parker engine which formerly drove a paper mill of 1928 and a 2-cylinder simple horizontal engine which had driven a Masson, Scott & Bertram calendar of 1885.
In the repair shop were a lathe, shaper and planer by Crawhall & Campbell, Glasgow (1860-8) formerly driven by a still-surviving 6-spoke, all-iron high-breast bucket wheel about 4 ft (1.22m) wide by 10 ft (3.05m) diameter.
There is still a hand-propelled narrow-gauge railway system in the mills.
J R Hume 1977.
These mills were founded in 1858 and are notable for:
1. waterwheels and turbines,
2. stationary steam engines,
3. narrow gauge railway system,
4. early machine tools,
5. acid-producing tower.
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 29 April 1986.
Air photographs: AAS/97/06/G12/13-14.
NMRS, MS/712/29.
Part damaged by fire (which was quite extensive) on 27 August 1979.
NMRS, MS/712/67.
This site has only been partially upgraded for SCRAN. For full details, please consult the Architecture Catalogues for Gordon District.
February 1998
Aerial Photography (1972)
Oblique aerial photographs of Broomend Mills, Inverurie, taken by Mr John Dewar in 1972.
Publication Account (1986)
The paper mills of Thomas Tait & Sons Ltd., Inverurie, stand on the W bank of the River Don, and were first established in 1852.41 This tall rectangular tower dates from about 1890, and reflects an important early stage in the use of wood-pulp as a raw material in the paper-making process. The process was first exploited commercially in Sweden by C D Ekman, who may have supplied or influenced the design of the Inverurie tower. It was designed to produce calcium bisulphate, an acid liquor in which wood chips were boiled for pulping under pressure. From a tank at the top of the tower, water or milk of lime trickled down square lead-lined vertical shafts over a series of inverted V-shaped racks, which held lumps of limestone; at the base of the tower sulphur dioxide was blown in from pyrites burners which were specially constructed to keep down the combustion temperature, thus preventing the formation of sulphur trioxide and sulphuric acid.
The tower rises to a height of 92 ft (28.04m) and has a slightly tapering profile in the central section. The lowest 23 ft (7.01m) is constructed of coursed granite masonry, the remainder being of brick laid in English garden-wall bond. On plan at ground level it measures 27 ft 6 in (8.38m) by 19 ft (5.79m) overall. An original corbelled cornice encircling the top of the tower has been removed.
The interior was not accessible at the date of visit, but it is known that all original plant and fittings were removed before 1950 except, perhaps, the two horizontal egg-end cylinders standing near the base of the tower, which may have been part of the pulping plant. The top of the tower now houses two water-tanks for the mills.
Information from ‘Monuments of Industry: An Illustrated Historical Record’, (1986).
Archaeological Evaluation (10 January 2013)
An evaluation was undertaken on the site of a new reed bed and associated works related to a landfill site containing waste from the former paper mill, International Paper, Port Elphinstone, Inverurie, Aberdeenshire. No archaeological features or finds were observed.
Information from Oasis (mas1-145723) 26 March 2013
