Family research

“I have been doing some family research following on from my discoveries about my Gandfather McLaren on my mother’s side who was killed at the battle of Ancre in November 1916,” emails Ken Kennedy. “My grandmother (McLaren) and her Nicoll family lived in and around 85 Liff Road, Lochee, and most of them worked as weavers in the local jute mills.

“As a youngster I wasn’t really concerned as to which mill they worked in but I knew it was a short distance from where they lived in Liff Road. I was told recently that they all worked in Quarry Mill but when I investigated the mills of Lochee there was no mill with this name. I assume it was a name used by workers and that it must have been beside a quarry but again, on investigation, I find that there were a number of quarries in the vicinity and the name could be applied to a number of mills.

“Looking at old maps I assume the mill in question must be either Gray Street Works (West Mill), Pitalpin Mill or perhaps even Caledonian Works. In a recent item – ‘Variations on a theme’ – I noted that the Lochee version of the poem supplied by Derek Slidders goes: ‘Haud it straight and haud it still, till we get past the Quarry Mill’.

“I must assume that the Quarry Mill mentioned in this piece is the same quarry mill that my family worked in. I would be interested to know if any reader can tell me which mill was called Quarry Mill by the workers of the time.”