The Muckle Spate and The 1945 Flood.
On 4th August, 1829 a catastrophe struck Knockando when one of the most severe British floods, known locally as the Muckle Spate, devastated a swathe of the north east of Scotland from Inverness to Montrose.
Surging rivers and burns wrecked homes and livelihoods. Water thundered down the Knockando burn, ripping apart the carding mill upstream from the Woolmill.
Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, a local laird and author, recorded the desolation: "The whole wood was gone; the carding mill had disappeared, the Miller's house was in ruins, and the banks below were strewed with pales, gates, bridges, rafts, engines, wool, yarn, and half-woven webs, all utterly destroyed." His book An account of the Great Floods in Morayshire in 1829 in the Province of Moray and adjoining Districts was published in 1830.
The Woolmill, however was sufficiently spared and even benefitted from the disaster by taking on the carding work that had formerly been the business of the lost carding mill.
"The like o' which, sin' Noah's flood, The warl' never saw"
When the Muckle Spate struck Strachan, a small settlement much like Knockando though many miles South East, David Grant was just a child. Later in life he described the impact of the flood in a poem.
Being some memorials o' the Muckle Spate in auchteen twenty-nine, as the same exhibited itself' I' the Howe o Feugh to the Ben and imagination o' an indwaller i' the Parish o' Stra'an.
An' then for fouran'twenty hoors,
There followed a doonfa'
The like o' which, sin' Noah's flood,
The warl' never saw
The thunner rum'lt roon the hills,
The howes were in a soom,
We thocht the warl', owergaen wi' age,
Drew near the crack o' doom
~~~
The Feugh cam' rairin' doon fae Birse,
An' swept the laughs o' Stra'an;
Horse, pigs, an' kye were droont I' Dye,
An' sheep by scores in A'an.
An' yarn reels, an' spinnin' wheels,
An' bowies, cogs, and caups,
An' tables, chairs, an' cutty steels,
On one anither's taps;
~~~
The dyster, like a drookit rat,
Escapit fae Dalsack,
Wi' naething save his harn sark
Upon his dreepin' back.
He saved his life, an' little mair
By perfect speed o' fit
But lost his shop an' a' his claith,
His bowies, pots, an' lit.
~~~
The Cairdin' Mill at Haugh o' Stra'an,
The eelie pigs an' woo',
Were ruint, smasht, or sweelt awa',
Alang wi' Cairdy's coo.
Fat wye the Cairder an' the wife,
Wi' little'ns twa or three.
Got aff wi' life, I dinna ken,
Ah, winna tell a lee;
THE 1945 FLOOD
Graeme Stewart, whose father,
Duncan Stewart ran the Mill for many years remembers the flood in 1945:
"There was continuous heavy rain the previous night. The bridge and weaving shed coped well until a tree trunk got stuck on the central pillar of the bridge and formed a big dam behind it.
The bridge resisted the pressure for some time but finally the bridge gave way and a huge wave hit the wall of the weaving shed and it followed the bridge very quickly. This would have been about 9am."
This was witnessed by Graeme Stewart and his sister watching from Willowbank on the opposite side of the burn from the Mill.
Duncan Stewart had walked around the road to attend to his cows so did not witness the destruction.
"The 1945 bridge was an excellent reinforced concrete construction BUT it had a central pillar. It had replaced an old rotten wooden bridge only a few years before.
One of the Dobcross looms ended up in the burn and had to be disassembled and the parts stored until the shed was repaired several months hence.
The other Dobcross was used for many months with an open gable and the weaver had an 'audience' every morning with people waiting for then number 9 bus to Elgin!
The bridge was eventually replaced by a 'not very good' wooden one but at least it did not have a central pillar and neither has our excellent existing one.
A concrete flood barrier was built and this has protected the Mill from the occasional flood ever since."
When visiting the Mill today it is clear to see where the shed was washed away as this section of the building has been built back with brick.
