All Things Considered

Knockando Woolmill – 1979
Posted by Simon Lewin

Regular visitors to All Things Considered will know that we've been following (and helping where we can) the restoration project at Speyside's Knockando Woolmill.

Work commences on site in early March and we'll keep you up to date with progress here.

But a short piece of film from 1979 has been discovered which gives an insight into the condition of the Mill when Hugh Jones and friends took over the running from Duncan Stewart.

Here are a few words about the clip from Hugh Jones...

"In the summer of 1979 the mill featured in a TV documentary. We had recently got the carding and spinning running again for the first time since we took over in 1976 and were busy spinning natural yarn for a large order for Japan - not "hideous tartan"! The star of the show was, inevitably, the late Duncan Stewart who took to the silver screen like an old pro - I remember he had a great time that day. Peter Machell wasn't one of three of us who bought the mill in 1976, he was a talented hand weaver who worked with me for 2 years, trying his hand at machine weaving. To me, the best of this is seeing the spinning workshop running (which it will be again in 3 years time) and, of course, Duncan who got the last laugh!"

Find out more about Knockando Woolmill.

Posted by Simon Lewin on February 21st, 2010