Chapel Works, Eastern Road, Montrose

Chapel Works, Eastern Road, Montrose

A large and self-contained flax spinning mill complex built in the early to mid-19th century, grouped around inner and outer courtyards. The main works were designed by Umpherston & Kerr of Douglas Foundry, Dundee, with significant additions and alterations by Thomson Brothers of the same foundry between 1840 and 1865. The complex comprises numerous buildings of rubble construction with ashlar dressings, featuring both traditional timber and innovative fireproof cast-iron framed floors.

North Range to Paton's Lane

The East Mill (buildings 46, 48, 49) is the principal structure, a three-storey spinning mill with attic dated 1833 and measuring three by eight bays. It was extended westward by five bays in 1840 and heightened to match by Thomson Brothers in 1856. The fireproof construction employs cast-iron columns with curved brackets carrying cast-iron beams fitted with eyelets at the spinning floors (these features absent in the 1865 addition). Brick-arched floors are tied with wrought-iron. The roof is plastered collar-beam timber work, probably heightened around 1865, supported by cast-iron columns and wrought-iron ties, with a north gallery on two tiers of ornate cast-iron columns.

The yard elevation features an ornamental cast-iron stair curving up a ninth bay to a first-floor gabled entrance, installed in 1840 and originally intended to be paired symmetrically with an unbuilt companion stair. Twin arched windows light the ground floor. A wrought-iron trussed timber chute housing an Archimedes screw connects the attic with the mid hackling range. The dated 1833 stone and cornice are prominent features. The north elevation displays a four-stage square-section tower projecting at the north-east angle, with a band course, piended slate roof with long skylights, and sash-and-case windows with 12-pane glazing (original multi-pane astragals have been removed).

The Engine House (building 45), advanced from the east end of the mill in 1833, originally had a blocked arched door. It was brought forward to an L-plan configuration around 1880–90 with tall arched windows to the south. It retains a piended slate roof and rich timber-boarded ceiling, partly coved. A cylindrical brick-built chimney stack on a square rubble base adjoins the mill, reduced to the eaves height of the East Mill.

The Boiler House (building 44) stands to the south as a single-storey structure with steep pitched slate roof and louvered ridge ventilator. Inside, a wide span timber roof supports pulleys for boiler dampers. Between the boiler house and the East hackling shop stands a Double Beam Engine House comprising two tall rubble-built walls tied by six cast-iron beams of inverted T-section, with a lean-to roof below the beams of the west engine house. It apparently never housed beam engines and was never fully roofed.

The North-East Warehouse and Hackling Block (building 55), dated 1846, is a symmetrical two-storey structure with basement and low attic, measuring twelve by three bays. Windows are segmental-arched at the first floor, with round-arched doors at each end (the eastern door later modified by a modern loading bay). A tower projects from the centre of the north elevation, with a stair at the east adjoining the cooper's shop. The piended slate roof and sash-and-case windows with 12-pane glazing are original features. The interior features timber floors supported on lengthwise beams and two types of cast-iron columns, divided by a spine wall, with an attic of arched braced timber construction.

The Domestic Building, later the Cooper's Shop (building 56), stands to the east as a two-storey structure with later heightened attic linked to the hackling shop by an external stair. This three-bay building with central door retains its slate roof with skylight, though windows are now blocked and the interior has been gutted with floors removed.

Mid Range

The Flax Warehouse (building 33), oriented with gable to the main entrance, was originally built in 1828 as a blind single storey. It was raised to two storeys and given a fireproof floor around 1850–65. A single-storey section with blocked segmental-arched pend entrance, rebuilt around 1850 on the site of an old hackle shop, adjoins to the west.

The Counting House (building 32) adjoins the north elevation and dates from circa 1830. It was later raised from one to two storeys, with smaller openings at ground floor than at first floor. It features a piended slate roof, brick-built stack, and sash-and-case windows with 16-pane glazing at the first floor.

The major Three-Storey Hackling Block with Ground Floor Flax and Tow Warehouses and Mechanics' Shop (buildings 34–42) adjoins the old flax warehouse to the south. This 22-bay structure was built in two phases, around 1833 and 1845. The sixteen regular bays to the north feature small square windows at the first and second floors, with the ground floor largely blind. A pend at the ninth bay has a loading door over to the yard. A wrought-iron trussed timber chute housing an Archimedes screw links the hackling floor to the spinning floor at the East Mill. A stone cantilevered forestair to the yard, added in 1845, leads to a six-bay section with differing first and second-floor levels. The slate roofs are piended and gabled, with sash-and-case windows at ground floor and fixed or casement sashes above, featuring 2- and 12-pane glazing patterns. The interior retains evidence of hand hackling berths and features timber floors on lengthwise beams with timber posts and cast-iron columns, with collar-beam roofing.

The Two-Storey Fortress-like Warehouse and Hackling Block (building 43), adjoining to the east, rises to the same three-storey wallhead height as the hackling block to the west, despite its two-storey design, built over a deep ground-floor coal yard. The south elevation displays ground-floor segmental-arched doors and windows, with three first-floor loading doors (probably later additions) and a blind second floor with projecting iron brackets supporting a high coped parapet.

The yard elevation comprises a two-storey, five-bay narrow hackling block opposite the engine house, terminating with a broad ground-floor segmental arch carrying a twin Romanesque blind arcade. The elevation adjoining the boiler house features a remarkably wide segmental arcade of 15 feet 9 inches span, braced by cast iron on slim stone piers. An extraordinary single-pitched roof over the deep coal yard slopes steeply from south to north (originally with valley), while the narrow hackling block above carries a very steeply pitched roof. The interior features a fireproof ground floor with cast-iron columns, beams, and wrought-iron ties in the style of Umpherston & Kerr. The first floor is supported by timber posts.

The West Mill (buildings 50–53) was demolished in 1995.