Dundee, Thistle Street, Bowbridge Works
Jute Works (19th Century) - (20th Century)
Site Name Dundee, Thistle Street, Bowbridge Works
Classification Jute Works (19th Century) - (20th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Bowbridge Jute Works; 67 Mains Road; Isla Road; Dens Road; J And A Grimond; Bowbridge Industrial Estate
Canmore ID 33544
Site Number NO43SW 81
NGR NO 40110 31580
NGR Description Centred NO 40110 31580
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/33544
- Council Dundee, City Of
- Parish Dundee (Dundee, City Of)
- Former Region Tayside
- Former District City Of Dundee
- Former County Angus
NO43SW 81.00 centred 40110 31580
NO43SW 81.01 NO 40061 31504 Gates and gatepiers
(Location cited as NO 408 317). Bowbridge Jute Works, Dens Road, built 1857-8. A handsome 4-storey and attic, 3- by 32-bay rubble building with rusticated ashlar ground floor and a pediment over the four central bays.
J R Hume 1977.
Bowbridge Works was built by J and A Grimond. Begun 1857, it remained incomplete until 1885 (see photograph E38449). The fire proof, 5 storeys high, 32 bays long and twin central engine houses of the main mill building was a striking structire. The original mill (E part) was single row of columns on each floor and wrought-ironed tie roof . There were three preparation sheds with cast-iron roofs, a Batching House and two sheds (tall columns in 'Egyptian' style) with bale store below. In 1884, six Preparation/Spinning sheds added to the W end of the mill site with a further one added in 1907.
New mill (W) added 1885 and had two rows of columns on each floor and a cast-iron coupled roof. The Mill's floorspace was mostly taken up with the weaving sheds to the S of the site, with cast-ironed and timber roofed in turn. Robertson and Ochar of Wallace Foundry provided the structural ironwork. Flats one and two were for Preparing and three and four were Spinning. The fifth floor accommodated Winding and Reeling which was driven from the fourth floor. The Boiler house (1917) chimney, smithy and offices date from 1917. The factory began to supplement the Maxwelltown Carpet Factory works in James Street in the 1860s. The works expanded accordingly: 1872 - tall engine house added, six N lit sheds (dressing in two N bays and drawing in the third shed). In 1874, four sheds were built at a higher level to accommodate the calender moved from the Maxwelltown site. In 1884, a further six shed extension to the apex of the block was completed. In 1885, all the sheds were extended to Isla Street on the E.
The warehouses consisted of (in 1874) two, one storey warehouses near the mill. By 1882, there were six, tall, raw-jute warehouses (brick with stone rear elevations), with four more added later (no date for this). In around 1903-1920, the house (Mains Road) was replaced by three jute warehouses. In 1882, the stable and cart shed added in Thistle Street, followed by a two storey lodge and offices. By 1880, a mechanic's shop existed to the N of the factory site. The NE pond was constructed in 1857 and was some 20-inches in depth. The new ponds and coolers were added in 1882.
Main range (32 bays) was demolished in 1984. Factory buldings demolished 1987.
The site also produced rope at the N lit sheds at the S end of the works.
M Watson 1990.
Publication Account (2013)
Founded in 1856, this vertically-integrated jute factory is now missing its 5-storey neo-classical mill that fronted Dens Road and extensive weaving sheds. Brick and stone-built jute warehouses survive from 1883-5. A gate with a metal panel shows a camel, reminder of the carved camel that
once sat over the entrance arch until lorries got too big.
M Watson, 2013
