The Old Shop and Office
The old shop is where farmers once brought their fleeces to be converted into cloth, blankets or knitting wool and where customers bought tweed and other products.
Graeme Stewart, whose father ran the Mill, recalls 'there was a long table to measure out lengths of tweed with a yard stick. Each yard was a yard plus a finger width to make sure the customer was not short measured !'
'Actually it was not called 'The Shop' back then but 'The Office'. When it was first built by the Smiths they did their office work there. When my old aunt took over the office work when her husband died in 1938 she kept all the books in the Mill house.'
The above images show the price list for manufacturing, and the amount of wool required, for products in 1931.
Blankets and tweeds were the main products of the Mill until the 1960's.
Exhibited in the shop we have a W.H.HARRAP whipping machine which hemmed the ends of the blankets with what is known as a 'blanket stitch'.
Below is a picture of Winnie Stewart, Graeme Stewart's mother, using this machine.
The Old Shop in 2002, pre restoration
The Old Shop today, post restoration
The sign was designed to be large enough to attract passers by from the road above.
