Stoneywood Mill is the last remaining paper mill in Aberdeen, with three centuries of history behind it.
After this week’s news that the mill has been plunged into administration for a second time, storm clouds are gathering at a site which has been part of the fabric of Aberdeen since 1710.
The mill, based beside the River Don, was established by local laird James Moir, owner of the Stoneywood Estate, after French papermakers Nicolas de Champ and Nicolas Dupin brought the skills of the French industry to Scotland.
The pair are said to be responsible for the growth of papermaking in the country during the early 18th century.
It was soon taken over by Alexander Smith, a wigmaker, whose grandson Alexander Pirie took over in 1800.
The mill capitalised on an area where there was a newspaper—no less than The Aberdeen Press and Journal, founded 1747— and several busy printers.
The business extended its line to include brown papers under Alexander Smith.
Alexander began the change from brown paper to fine papers and introduced the mill’s first watermarked paper.
As Alexander Pirie and Sons, the company became the largest envelope maker in Scotland
In 1922, the company merged with Wiggins Teape and Co, to become Wiggins Teape and Alexander Pirie.
Other mills have gone
There were previously paper mills in Culter, Inverurie, Donside and Mugiemoss.
They have now all shut, with Davidson Mill in Mugiemoss closing down in June 2005, and the Donside Paper Mill in 2001 resulting in a loss of 525 and around 250 jobs respectively.
The Culter Mill was opened in 1750 by Bartholomew Smith, a papermaker from England.
A report in the Aberdeen Journal stated: “He has now erected and set going on the Burn of Culter, a Paper-Mill, where he can serve the country in paper, fine and coarse, brown paper, pasteboards”.
The mill ran until around 1980, when it collapsed with the loss of 300 jobs and was replaced with housing.
During the 1960s the industry employed 4,000 in the north-east but cheap foreign imports led to redundancies.
Mugiemoss was founded in 1769, is closure causing much grief in 2005.
People were the backbone
“The people of Mugiemoss have been the backbone to the company.
“Without their dedication, pride, work ethos and humour, the success of the mill would undoubtedly have foundered many decades ago.
“To have made it through the last 200 years is testament to the courage and hard work of all those involved, at whatever stage, safe in the knowledge that people have given their all, have made the company what it is and have raised many generations of people who have carried on the tradition with pride and expertise,” wrote local historian Ian Booth.
The same could no doubt be applied to Stoneywood, where staff at the last bastion of paper-making in the Granite City were in tears this week with the announcement that the site, operated by Arjowiggins Scotland Ltd, is now at risk of permanently closing its doors, after previously being put into administration just three years ago.
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