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Summary

Description

Dated 1919. 2-storey and attic, 3-bay rectangular-plan former mill office building. Baronial details. Central crow-stepped gable with stepped corbel-table over tripartite entrance in slightly projecting gabled bay with corbelled sandstone canopy, reached by a flight of sandstone steps. Tripartite windows on ground floor, bipartite windows at 1st floor. Paired gables with porthole windows to rear (S) elevation. Roughly-squared whin and sandstone rubble with chamfered red sandstone ashlar quoins and surrounds. Located at the edge of a former industrial complex on low-lying ground. Base course, Moulded string course at first floor level, eaves course.

Plate glass timber sash and case windows throughout. Purple slate roof with ashlar skews and clay ridge tiles. Modern rooflights. Ashlar end stacks, clay cans.

INTERIOR: panelled scumbled timber entrance hall with blocked former hatches. Matching timber stair and balusters. Scumbled panelled doors. Large mullioned and transomed stair window.

Statement of Special Interest

Galamoor House survives as part of Netherdale Mill, the largest and most formal of the Galashiels mills and forms an important part of the complex, with a visual connection with the surviving high Mill. The building continued the unusual formality of Netherdale and was centred on the large area of single-storey sheds.

A number of openings have been altered or blocked up on the side and rear elevations. A lean-to extension to the rear had recently been removed at the time of the visit (2005).

Cochranes's walk, which led from Abbotshill, the house of the mill-owner Archibald Cochrane to the mill, descended immediately to the east of the building.

Netherdale Mill was established in 1857 and eventually closed in 1932.

At the time of the resurvey (2005), a 2-storey building was in construction immediately to the east of Galamoor House.

The importance of the textile manufacturing industry to Galashiels can not be overestimated, as this industry was the sole reason for its expansion and prosperity in the 19th century. Wool manufacture has largely subsided, but the remaining buildings are important monuments to the industry.

Although there were water-powered fulling mills in Galashiels by the 16th century, the modern Textile Industry began in the 18th century. At this time, however, Galashiels was a relatively minor player in the Borders textile industry, although the establishment of the manufacturers corporation in 1777 was to play an important role. Through the 19th century the industry expanded rapidly. The arrival of the railway in 1849 allowed for easy access to raw materials and coal, which facilitated the increased use of steam power by the 1860s. The late 1860s and early 1870s were the peak of prosperity for Galashiels, which benefited greatly from a number of foreign conflicts. By this time there were over 20 large-scale producers of cloth, as well as a number of allied industries. However, Galashiels had an over-reliance on foreign trade, which led to the slow decline of the industry through the late 19th and early 20th century.

References

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