Thirty-four bays of former woollen-mill floors now form housing while preserving an exceptional industrial frontage.
Quick facts
- Date
- Begun 1836; extended in phases; converted to housing in the late 1980s
- Architect / designer
- Designer not recorded; built for J and D Paton
- Type
- Long three-storey and loft rubble textile-mill range
- Designation
- Listed building, Category B (LB42058)
- OS grid reference
- NS 91455 96930
Architecture and continuing use
The mill is a long rubble range of three storeys and a loft, arranged across thirty-four bays. Changes in masonry and margins reveal three construction sections: the eastern six bays are probably earliest and the western fourteen latest. Regular square-headed openings, gabled loft loading points, rooflights and end stacks retain the disciplined rhythm of a production building despite residential conversion.
Its story
J and D Paton founded their enterprise in 1825 and began this mill in 1836. The firm’s shawls, tartans and tweeds won a gold medal at the Great Exhibition of 1851. By 1987 this was one of only four old mill buildings surviving beside the burn and the last still making knitwear. Conversion to housing followed in the late 1980s.
Why it is included
It combines unusually legible phased mill architecture with evidence for the products, international recognition and eventual reuse of Tillicoultry’s woollen industry.
What to notice
- Changes between the three building phases.
- The repeated former work-floor windows across the long range.
- Gabled loft openings and rooflights above the residential alterations.
Reading the surroundings
Weavers Way is residential. View from public routes, respect household privacy, keep parking and entrances unobstructed and do not enter shared or private areas without invitation.
Timeline
- 1825 J and D Paton founded the woollen-manufacturing concern.
- 1836 Construction of the surviving long mill range began.
- 1851 Paton textiles received a gold medal at the Great Exhibition.
- Late 1980s The former production floors were converted to residential use.
What we know — and what remains uncertain
The official description distinguishes probable phases but does not give construction dates for every section or document how much machinery survived conversion.
Sources & further reading
- Historic Environment Scotland: Former Paton’s Woollen Mill, LB42058 — Current designation status, statutory identity, official mapped point, date, fabric and significance.
- Clackmannanshire Council: Tillicoultry Conservation Area Character Appraisal — Local-authority evidence for Tillicoultry’s settlement development, mills, civic landmarks, street pattern and historic character.
- Trove: Former Paton’s Woollen Mill — National heritage inventory entry for designation identity, mapped location, related records and available archive material.
- Clackmannanshire Council: Tillicoultry Conservation Area — Current council context for the extent and management of Tillicoultry’s historic core.
Location
OS grid reference NS 91455 96930 · Location confidence: High for the current HES designation point; public text separately qualifies access, component identity and current use. · Select the marker to open its satellite view in Google Maps. On desktop, drag Pegman (the yellow figure) onto a blue road. On mobile, turn on the Street View layer and tap a blue road. Other photo markers may be user-contributed.
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