Stirling, Kerse Road, Grain Store

NO89SW 38 NS80231 92799

This 3 storey and attic, 6 by 3 bay, red brick (English garden wall bond) detached pitched roof building with yellow brick dressings and slate roof is the former Kerse Mills Grain Store and dates from circa. 1904. It is situated in the modern Springkerse Industrial estate and is currently owned and used as a repair shop by an Arnold Clark car dealership. This building was used to store all the grain of Robert Walls and Sons of Kerse Mills on what was Polmaise Estate (NS89SW 39). Walls did a good trade in cattle and poultry feeding stuffs, horse feed and the grinding of oatmeal for human consumption. The store was built adjoining the railway and Springkerse with a siding to what was the Caledonian Railway. Electrically operated from the beginning, the store also housed machinery to prepare horse feed or 'chop' as it was known. Bruising, cleaning and mixing of the grains of which the feed was composed were carried out at the store. Photographs from 1974 taken by J R Hume show the wording 'Robt Walls & Sons Oatmeal & Provender Millers Agricultural Merchants Oatmeal Millers' painted onto the gable end wall (see RCAHMS SC 431547).

The plan is composed of two rectilinear areas divided by a central fire-wall that extends through the ground, first and second floors (the attic was not accessed on the date of visit due to pigeon infestation). This wall appears to protrude into the roof-line mirroring the gable walls which likewise protrude from the roof visually accentuating the symmetry of the building.

The building comprises one detached single-phase block with two projecting gable-headed hoists rising through third floor and attic with taking-in doors accessing second floor on both NW and SE elevations. The windows in the projecting hoists (a window at each floor) are now blocked. Original tie-plates on the projecting hoists are visible at the junction between the third floor and attic level. Each bay is divided from the next by pilaster strips with yellow brick dressings. There ia a 'blind bull's eye' detail in each od the NE and SW gable elevations. The NW elevation would have opened onto the railway siding and the SE elevation was where grain was taken in from cart deliveries. Remains of a wooden awning are visible on both elevations at third floor level with remains of wooden supports visible at first and second floor levels. This awning was still in place in 1974 (see RCAHMS SC 431547). Original window frames and some glazing survives but most of the windows are blocked. There is a segmental relieving arch with yellow-brick dressings over the second floor level.

Internally, the ground floor has a modern concrete floor and the ceiling is lined with plaster board. Modern plasterboard walls have also been inserted. The first floor and second floors are of timber and are supported on steel joists with iron columns on a 3.66m (12.0 imperial feet), by 2.44m (8.0 imperial feet) grid. The attic floor has a timber post structure. All the interior brickwork has been painted white.

In the N E corner of the W end of the first floor there are indications of plant having once been installed, presumably a fanner or winnower. The underside of the floor above appears to have been reinforced with wood. There are outlet chutes from the floor above, which indicates that grain was being moved by gravity. It is possible that the grain was bruised above and cleaned and bagged on the first floor. There is a galvanised hopper that intersects the attic and second floor. The mouth of the hopper at the second floor level is directly above the wooden stair giving access to the first floorbut it is unclear how this would have functioned. Two sack hoist trap doors are visible in the W and E ends of the first floor. There are intact metal blast doors by Mather and Platt Ltd of Manchester (to help counter effects of combustion of grain) in the dividing fire-wall on the first and second floors. The thresholds of the doors are of stone and the guides for the sliding doors are set into the wooden floors. Remains of the original electric light fitments also survive throughout.

The second floor and the attic were not accessed on the date of visit due to pigeon infestation. Any references to the second floor are taken from RCAHMS photographs of the 6th July 2008.

Stirling Saturday Observer (1908); Hume (1976); Gifford and Walker (2002)

Visited by RCAHMS (MMD) 4 June 2008.

3x6 bay former corn mill of 3 storeys with attic. The mill is built of red brick with contrasting yellow brick dressings, each bay articulated by pilaster strips that rise into segmental arches at second floor level. Blind bullseyes sit in the gableheads of the side elevations, whilst 2 projecting covered hoists remain on each of the long elevations and rise through the attic level. The interior features a timber floor at both first and second floor level, supported by steel joists and iron columns on a 12x8' grid.

The granary was originally served by a siding from the nearby railway line. The former mill is noted as being one of the few remaining industrial buildings in Stirling dating from the early 20th century.