Montrose, Bents Road, Works

A series of research investigations were carried out by Headland Archaeology on behalf of The Scottish Fisheries Museum Trust between 2009-2010. The aim of these was to help broaden the range of contextual information about some of the collections in the care of the Scottish Fisheries Museum. The following activities were carried out:

Field visit to the site of former small vernacular boat-yard near Portree, Skye;

Initial desk-based assessment and case study looking at Cardy Net Works, Lower Largo, Fife;

Initial desk-based assessment and site visit to the locations occupied by the MacDonald Brothers foundry, Portsoy (March 2010);

Desk-based assessment and Level 1 (English Heritage 2006) historic building survey of the buildings, structures and archaeological features at the Montrose Rope and Sail Works, Montrose (February 2010).

Sources consulted: Atkinson, DR D.E. and Prescott, DR R.G.W.,'New Technology and the 19th Century Scottish Sailing Fishing Fleet'.

NO75NW 421: Ropeworks, Bent’s Road, Montrose

Introduction

The ropeworks at Bent’s Road, Montrose was established in the area known as the Faulds. This lay between the ‘golf ground’ which was the area to the west of the current Eastern Road, the race course and golfing area, and to the east of Faulds Road now known as the Golf Links. (1) The Old Statistical Account (2) notes that ‘There is a good tannery and rope works belonging to different companies’. The New Statistical Account (3) states that ‘two rope manufacturies’ were in existence in 1835 (presumably in Bent’s Road and the one south of Paton’s Lane) and that 43 tons hemp (17 cwt) had been imported into Montrose imported by the year ending 5 January 1834. (4)

Ropeworks, with their distinctive long, low ropewalks (the long narrow area accommodating machinery, the rope being twisted and the personnel needed to ensure that the rope was twisted and tarred correctly), would have been important in a town like Montrose where there would have been a steady need for rope for rigging and general use. Such ropewalks are difficult to adaptively re-use, hence their low survival rate. This site was recorded due to its rareness, is now no longer in use and is possibly under threat of demolition.

Location

Wood’s 1822 map shows two rope works: the Bent’s Lane site operated by Kinnear and Faddie at NO71873 57973 – NO72032 57964 and ‘Mr Fraser’s Ropework’ in the area around NO71827 57685 – NO 72141 57664. The 1st edition of the Ordnance Survey 25-inch map (1862, Forfarshire, sheet XXXV.2) names and depicts three ropeworks including the Bent’s Lane site (formerly Melville Lane and next to Union Flax Mill), one off Christie’s Lane below Chapel Mill and one S of current Paton’s Lane (Mr Fraser’s Ropework of 1822). The 2nd edition of the Ordnance Survey 25-inch map (1903, Forfarshire, sheet XXXV.2) names and depicts two ropeworks with their associated ropewalks at Christie’s Lane and Bent’s Lane (Melville Lane). By 1924 (Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, Forfarshire, sheet XXXV.2) only the Bent’s Lane site is depicted and named as a ropeworks.

The Faulds area appears to have been an expansion beyond the old town providing an area for industrial concerns. The layout is on a W-E axis with plots either side of long lanes. The fact that three ropeworks opened there is due to the linear layout of the plots, necessary for the long, low, narrow ropewalk area.

Ropewalk

Background

The Bent’s Lane site ropewalk is a single storey building. The ropewalk originally had a rubble N wall and partial shelter at the W end. By the 2nd edition Ordnance Survey map, the ropewalk had had a second wall built creating another range with no N wall at its E end and opening onto an area that may have been used for rope tarring. The original N ropewalk range had been roofed over. The combined ropework buildings (at the W end) and N ropewalk measured 525 feet in length (160 metres), the ropewalk measuring 438 feet (73 fathoms or 133.6 metres). The more southerly ropewalk measures 519 feet (86 ½ fathoms or 158 metres). By 1924, (Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, Forfarshire, sheet XXXV.2) the additional range featured on the 1903 map had mostly gone and the extended open area had been split with later land boundaries. The site was originally entered from the Middle Links (now Eastern Road).

Exterior

The surviving ropewalk is of rubble and later brick construction with a slate roof, the ruinous section to the E having a corrugated roof in poor repair with no access point beyond the two storey building the W end. This corrugated roof appears as quite new on the 1954 aerial photograph of the site (540/RAF/1383, F21 Frame 0105, August 1954). The S wall is of brick, locally sourced, and is of five, four and three stretcher bond interspersed with header bond course. The fenestration is irregular on the N and S elevations and window blockings are evident (see DP 064309). The surviving wooden shutter windows appear to hinge from the top and would have provided ventilation and limited light.

Interior

The surviving ropewalk interior is now in disrepair. The flooring consists of re-used tar barrel staves in the W section. There is no obvious evidence of a tar pit for treating the ropes. The original (late 18th/early 19th century) whalebone rests let into N wall survive (see DC53052). These posts were spaced at intervals in order to maintain the rope as a ‘level lay’. The current length of the walk is 345 feet (105.2 metres or 57 ½ fathoms) and measures 13 feet (3.95 metres) in width, with an area which can no longer be accessed. In 1902, the ropewalk measured 436 feet 4 inches (133 metres or 73 fathoms). The ropewalk begins in the two-storey W wing adjacent to the retail/administrative block. This would have housed the machinery such as the foregear which would have provided the foretwist or compensation twist put into the strands during the laying process (placing strands together to make rope). There are whalebone posts set into the N wall (see DP064315-318; DC53052), one of which contains the remains of a wooden stake (see DP064318 and DC53052, H) which would have kept the ropes supported during laying. The tar barrel staves on the floor in the most easterly wing suggest that there was no integral tarring pit (see DP064312). Some of the rope making machinery survives (see DP 064327). It was dismantled by the current site owner’s father many years ago. Hooks survive in the rafters (DP064320) which guided the twisted rope to the winder wheel (DP064327, background). Wooden posts survive which would have supported ropewalk machinery (see, DP064314 and DC53052).

Buildings at W end of site

The two-storey buildings were rebuilt after a fire circa 1935. There is a two storey, three by two bay dry-dashed building at the W end which houses the administrative area and the retail premises. This is set into the back wall line shared by the ropewalk and the small range to the W which has older slate roofing than the administrative block with surviving timber-mullioned windows with four panes. The two storey range has a double leaf door in its S elevation. The section to the E which is a six-bay, two storey building with original ground floor timber mullion windows and a double leaf door. A later forestair connects to the W range which has been rebuilt and post –dates the forestair. Further to the E is the beginning of the ropewalk with a seven bay area with double door and linking to the rest of ropewalk, now in disrepair (see above).

Visited by RCAHMS (MMD), September 2009

(1) Plan of Montrose, made by John Wood, Edinburgh, 1822

(2) Old Statistical Account of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1793), Vol. V Forfarshire, Montrose parish, 37

(3) New Statistical Account (Edinburgh, 1845), Vol. XI Forfarshire, Montrose parish, 280

(4) New Statistical Account (Edinburgh, 1845), Vol. XI Forfarshire, Montrose parish, 281

WA Coastal and Marine were commissioned by the Scottish Fisheries Museum to undertake two archaeological assessments and desk-based research. The first site is that of the Whaling Store which is incorporated into the complex of buildings of the Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther, Fife. The second site is the Montrose Rope and Sail Works which has previously been investigated (Atkinson, Prescott and McCarthy 2010) and developed further in this current project.

Information from OASIS ID: waherita1-298424 (A Bicket) 2016

A medium sized ropewalk that used traveller wheeled carriages that twisted the rope as they moved along. There were three in this general location, aligned East-west. A distinguishing feature is the use of whale bones as guide rails for the rope walk. The last Montrose whaling ship sailed in 1839 so it is likely that these posts predate this and may once have been open air, only later to be roofed. No other complete ropewalk buildings exist in Scotland.

M Watson, 2013