Sites and Monument Record: Upper Garvald Mill (SMR 492)
Description
c40 m upstream from the main mill complex is a simpler lade system and mill. It lies on the S bank of the river and consists of a short lade and a single building. The lade starts from a substantial stone weir and has a single arch over it at its start. The building stands to a maximum of 2 m tall now. Beside it is a terrace with a road leading to the second mill.
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Object detail
Shortly afterwards one of them became a paper mill. William Smail, paper maker in Denny, owned Garvald Mill in 1806 and by 1822 it had passed to Thomas Burns and John Muirhead, at which time it was damaged by fire. When Burns died in 1826 Muirhead was joined in the venture by Rev John Burns of Morningside. It was he who advertised the mill for sale in 1836. By the following year it was still being operated as a paper mill by Alexander Jack. By 1841 it had reverted back to a charcoal mill and the minister reported that "The uppermost are Garvald mills, there are two of them, and both are employed in grinding charcoal for moulders, & c. Each mill has a miller at £2 per week of wages and a man, horse, and cart, to bring charcoal to the mills, and to carry the ground produce to the moulders. The carters have each 12s per week." One of the mills was converted to a dyewood mill by a chemist called Michael Benny between 1855 and 1861. It had become a grain mill by 1881.
The 1st ed OS shows the Upper mill as a dyewood mill and the Lower one as Char Mill.
A mill was still being valued here for the minister's stipend in 1906.
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