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Summary

Description

Umpherston and Kerr 1833, 3-storey and attic 10-bay

fireproof mill with engine house at W, extended to W by a

2nd engine house, and 10 bays with basement, 3rd floor and

cast-iron attic in 1850 by Peter Carmichael with Randolph,

Elliot and Co. Rubble-built with ashlar margins. Slate

mansard roof.

S elevation 4-storey and attic 23-bay mill, with blocked

basement windows in W section. Slightly advanced twin

central engine houses rise through 3-storeys fronted by 2

pairs of tripartite engine house windows with Doric

pilasters and segmental arches. Cast-iron tie-plate at 1st

floor level, cornice at 2nd floor level, 3 windows at 3rd

floor. Main cornice.

E elevation 3-bay gable to mill, 2 windows on each floor,

central bay blank, housing wall boxes, 3 oculi above main

cornice. Mansard roof with cast-iron urns. Projecting

square-plan stair tower with door and windows to E,

roundheaded at 4th floor. Blind windows to N, blank E

elevation. Tower beyond areas level added 1850 with

roundels to 4 sides. Circular cast-iron bellcote on 6

Doric columns linked by wrought-iron railings. Conical

spire with fishscale slates and iron finial.

N elevation 24-bay with central engine houses entered

through 2 doors, E with cast-iron lintel, W with large fan

light. 4 windows above, now blocked and 3 windows at 3rd

floor. Engine house flanked by tall projecting soil chutes

rising from cast-iron brackets at 1st floor. Skewed 3-bay W

gable with blind windows. 3 oculi over main cornice,

mansard roof with cast-iron urn finials.

Windows originally 56-pane, now 12-pane, sash and case.

Interior: fireproof, with 2 rows of cast-iron columns

carrying brick arches on cast-iron beams tensioned by

wrought-iron ties. Columns now encased in plasterboard

but brick arches and ties form the ceilings of most rooms.

Original spiral stairs at ends of mill, new stair inserted

in engine house, which has a painted brick arched ceiling

on cast-iron beams with later steel supports. Tripartite

windows have fine moulded soffits. Gothic cast-iron mansard

roof, probably the first of its kind in Dundee, with small

section open to view near lift. Basement high arched

ceiling on brick piers.

Statement of Special Interest

The biggest of Baxter Brothers' mills, the focal point

of what was for a while the world's largest linen works

and the 1850s showpiece of Dundee's textile industry.

Umpherston and Kerr reused the formula first tried on a

large scale in the Coffin Mill. The layout suggests that

the 1850 extension had been planned in 1833 but there

are interesting variations in beam form and ceiling heights

within the mill despite a uniform exterior. The 1850

extension was designed with the help of Randolph Elliot and

Co of Glasgow, soon to become famous marine engineers, but

it is not clear what their contribution was. The most

significant feature is the cast-iron roof, imitated in the

other Baxter mills, Verdant and Camperdown Works. It may

be the first example of the kind in the city.

A statue of James Watt, now missing, originally adorned

the wallhead over the engine house.

Converted to housing 1984-6.

References

Bibliography

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