Out to bring back the good old days
A major campaign in the Borders is aiming to bring a disused mill back into use and return it to a thriving industrial site again
“I CAN’T find better words than just to say it was the best of the best in every sense of the word. The perfect example of a good textile manufacturing mill – that was March St Mill in Peebles.”
Gilbert Davidson started working in the textile mill in 1963 and stayed there for 18 years while textile manufacture was a booming industry and the largest employer in the Borders town.
The mill closed in 2015 and has since sat empty. Now, the Peebles Community Trust – with the support of the community and backing of the Scottish Government – wants to apply for the right to buy it and see the industrial site thriving again.
It is hoped it will provide fresh employment opportunities, much- needed assisted accommodation and allow the continued use of the historic “Dig for Britain” allotments in its grounds.
The Peebles Community Trust, chaired by Lawrie Hayworth, 62, has been actively opposing the sale of the site to any prospective developers whom it believes would be incentivised by profit instead of meeting the demands and needs of the locality.
“The community believes the proposal to build nearly 70 houses for sale on the open market benefits only the landowner and any prospective developer,” said Hayworth. “They are just seeking to maximise the monetary value of the site and any sales income to a developer would be applied to other areas in their business and not within this community.”
The site has provided economic and employment opportunities to the town for more than 100 years and in its prime employed hundreds, until its decline and final closure, which resulted in the loss of 85 jobs and a “deep sadness in the town”.
“In 1963, when I joined, in the March Street mill alone there were 583 employees,” recalled Davidson, the former managing director.
The first modern wool manufacturing mill opened in Peebles a year after the introduction of the railway in 1856. Spinning and weaving grew rapidly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and, in 1883, David Ballantyne and his sons, whose family had founded the textile mills in Walkerburn, established the March Street Mills.
“It was a joy to work in it,” said Davidson. “The Ballantyne family who owned the business were a pleasure to work for and the working conditions were magnificent. It was an outstanding complex of businesses at that time. It breaks my heart to see those fantastic premises are now a derelict industrial complex.
“There was a highly skilled labour force then, all with a lot of experience and new generations followed their forefathers into the textile industry.”
Davidson, 83, recalls that more than half of the workers were women who received equal pay for doing the same work as the men.
During the war years, March Street Mills focused almost exclusively on making barathea and cavalry twill fabrics for army, navy and air force kits. In response to rationing, the land behind the mill was turned over to allotments for employees and retired workers.
Ian Mewett, current chairman of a local allotments society, called the site “the hidden gem of Peebles”.
“The allotments were formed in 1941 as part of the ‘Dig for Britain’ campaign during the war”, he said. “And they’ve been in constant use since then so they are 77 years old. We’ve got at least one member who joined in 1962, so he’s been working the same plot for 56 years.”
If the mill site is developed the allotments may be forced to move. The appeal to “save the allotments” has, arguably, caused the most outrage in Peebles. Due to its history and the quality of the soil for growing vegetables, its users feel passionately about not giving it up.
The bid to buy the mill site for the community is also about providing employment opportunities and muchneeded supported housing units. The Peebles Community Trust believes the site represents a significant opportunity to deliver multiple benefits.
Lawrie Hayworth fears that if new houses are built they will be substantially more expensive than the average wage earner in the Borders can afford and so will not be designed with local inhabitants in mind.
Since the turn of the century there has been a 37% increase in houses and other built-up areas.
“We have seen a huge rise in housing units with no significant improvement in infrastructure or roads,” he said. “There has been no increase in our GP surgery capacity or in the capacity of the secondary school.”
The hope is the restored mill could create jobs rather than put additional strain on the town.
“Our community has an ageing demographic and there is a need for a workforce that is able to provide supported care, as well as meet the needs of visitors in the hotels etc,” said Hayworth.
“The Scottish Borders Council strategic housing investment plan clearly identifies the shortage of supported accommodation, because of the demographic, and predicts 40- 50 f urther additional supported housing units with trained staff on site 24/7 are needed.
“The extra supported need in itself could be a significant employer,” he added.
It is also hoped providing opportunities for young entrepreneurs and employees will boost growth in local employment.
“The Peebles Community Trust has had a Government funding viability study on repurposing the existing administration building, or having a building of similar size on the site, for a community co-working space of small flexible ‘start-up’ units for those seeking to build larger businesses
It breaks my heart to see those fantastic premises are now a derelict industrial complex