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Gallery: Historic Stoneywood paper mill through the decades

by Emma Morrice
15/01/2019, 10:39 am Updated: 15/01/2019, 10:46 am
Stoneywood paper mill on the River Don. Date unknown
Stoneywood paper mill on the River Don. Date unknown

Stoneywood Mill is the last remaining paper mill in the city.

The mill, which is based beside the River Don, dates back to 1710, making it 319 years old.

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It was established by local laird James Moir, who owned the Stoneywood Estate, after French papermakers Nicolas de Champ and Nicolas Dupin brought the skills of the French industry to Scotland.

It was soon taken over by Alexander Smith, a wig maker, whose grandson Alexander Pirie took over in 1800.

Miss Mary Boyne, a laboratory assistant, using a microscope to examine minute flaws in the paper, and looks at the processed rags, the raw material used in making the paper
Mountains of huge paper rools stacked high at the Stoneywood paper mill 1988
Reader George Taylor sent in this picture of himself, pictured centre with glasses, with workmates at Stoneywood paper mill, just before he left to emigrate to South Africa in 1969
Drierman Ashley Watt and machine assistant Michael Gray keep an eye on the quality of the paper from the 'wet end' on the machine
Stoneywood paper mill on the River Don. Date unknown
Workers grafting hard at Stoneywood Mill, Aberdeen, in this picture from the mid-1930s
Looking across Stoneywood Paper Mill towards Dyce in the top left
Two Aberdeen paper mill workers who between them had 82 years' service with the same firm collected awards in February 1978. Machineman Charles Mitchell, of Bucksburn, and tying mistress Mary Anderson, of Great Northern Road, retired from the Stoneywood works of Wiggins Teape Ltd
The workforce of the engineering workshop at Wiggins Teape say farewell to engineering supervisor Dennis Daun, front left, who was retiring after 47 years with the paper mill. He became an apprentice at Stoneywood when he was just 14. He also served two years as a sapper with the Royal Engineers in East Africa before returning to the firm in 1950
A scene from Stoneywood Paper Mills in 1935
Gathered for a souvenir picture around 1980 are this group of Stoneywood Paper Mill workers with the No 2 machine in the background. Picture submitted by John Munro

It capitalised on the market where there was a newspaper and several busy printers, and extended its line to include brown papers under Alexander Smith.

When Alexander Pirie took over, he began the change from brown paper to fine papers and two years after he came into ownership, introduced the mill’s first watermarked paper.

In 1992, the company merged with Wiggins Teape and Co.

There was previously 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.

It resulted in a loss of 525 and around 250 jobs respectively.

The Culter Mill was opened in 1750, until around 1980, when it collapsed and was replaced with housing.