1
Postbox on Victoria Road (A929), Dundee
Postbox No. DD3 59.
Image: © JThomas
Taken: 20 Jul 2021
0.04 miles
2
King Street
After the interruption of Marketgait, the ring road, King Street continues to climb towards some mill buildings.
Image: © Richard Webb
Taken: 21 Aug 2009
0.05 miles
3
Former Eagle Mills, Dens Road
"At the close of 1867 there were in Scotland sixteen firms engaged in the manufacture of flax, hemp and jute, who employed 1000 persons or upwards, the aggregate number of operatives being 31,162, or on average of about 1948. (...) The works of eight of the firms are in Dundee, two in Glasgow, two in Greenock, and one each in Aberdeen, Johnstone, Markinch, and Arbroath." -- David Bremner, The Industries Of Scotland, 1869
Image: © kim traynor
Taken: 22 May 2011
0.08 miles
4
Dens Street
Dense Street might just be an appropriate name for this stone canyon between the Dens Street Mill and St Roque's Mill.
"Jute is the fibre of plants of the cochorus order, which are common in almost every part of India. In the end of last century [c.1800] the East India Company caused inquiry to be made throughout their vast territory with the view of discovering a substitute for hemp. (...) Subsequently, about the year 1824 a bale or two of jute was sent to Dundee, to Mr Anderson, a linen manufacturer. (...) The effect of the introduction of jute on the linen trade of Dundee is shown in the following passage from a paper read before the Social Science Association at Edinburgh in 1863, by Mr Robert Sturrock, Secretary of the Dundee Chamber of Commerce:- "By the introduction of jute into the linen trade great changes have been brought about. In place of sackcloth, bagging and other coarse fabrics being made from hemp, hemp codilla, flax codilla, and coarse tows, they are all now entirely made of jute, and some of these materials are not now known in the trade. (...) The jute trade has increased so rapidly, and the goods made from the fibre are now so highly appreciated over the whole world, that, looking to the future, one is entitled to say that in extent it will probably only be rivalled by the cotton manufacture. The packsheet, baggings, sackings, sacks, and woolpacks of Dundee, are used in almost every quarter of the globe. (...) The reporters appointed by the jury on jute goods at the International Exhibition last year, remarked, 'it is in Scotland exclusively where goods made from jute represent a large branch of industry. This very cheap raw material is employed there - either pure or mixed - to make ordinary brown cloth, but more especially sacking, packing-cloth, and carpets*."" -- David Bremner, The Industries Of Scotland, Their Rise, Progress And Present Condition, 1869
* he might have added door-mats
The Dundee work-force was mainly female, including many Irish, constituting cheap labour that allowed the mills to compete against their Indian competitors.
"It was a city described by the women's male contemporaries as filled with 'over-dressed, loud, bold-eyed girls', and 'tousled loud-voiced lassies with the light of battle in their defiant eyes discussing with animation and candour the grievances that had constrained them to leave their work'. At the beginning of the twentieth century, there were almost three women to every two men in the city between the ages of twenty and forty-five, and a third of all heads of household (as defined in the census) were women. In 1921, 24 per cent of Dundee married women were working, compared to 6 per cent of married women in Glasgow and 5.6 per cent in Edinburgh. It was a situation considered scandalous by people of many shades of opinion. Glasgow's ILP* 'Forward' newspaper regarded it as a wicked example of capitalism's propensity to destroy the home: 'The husbands stay at home dry nursing: the woman goes out to earn wages: what an inversion of civilization.' The middle-class Dundee Social Union prescribed not better housing or higher wages, but 'more occupation for men' as the 'crying need for Dundee'. For the women themselves it was just a fact of life; they elaborated their own culture of proletarian female independence, and the husband or son who could not get a job did indeed stay at home to do the housework: 'He used to hae the hoose spotless when she come in, she says, an ma' denner a' made.'"
-- T.C.Smout, A Century Of The Scottish People, 1830-1950, 1986
* Independent Labour Party
Image: © kim traynor
Taken: 22 May 2011
0.08 miles
5
Masonic Lodge, Dundee
Lodge Camperdown No.317, Dundee, Scotland.
Image: © Jim Campbell
Taken: 4 Apr 2010
0.08 miles
6
Lower Dens Mill
A now redundant mill has an interesting architecture.
Image: © Douglas Nelson
Taken: 18 Apr 2012
0.09 miles
7
Wishart Church
Former church. Named in memory of Protestant Martyr George Wishart. The church premises were situated on the upper floors. The ground floor at one time was a public house owned by the church. A plaque in the wall above the entrance indicates a founding date of 1841.
Image: © Douglas Nelson
Taken: 14 Sep 2011
0.09 miles
8
Dundee dereliction - the former Eagle Mills, Victoria Street
Oh dear me, the mill's gannin' fast
The puir wee shifters canna get a rest
Shiftin' bobbins coorse and fine
They fairly mak' ye work for your ten and nine
Oh dear me, I wish the day was done
Rinnin' up and doon the Pass it is nae fun
Shiftin', piecin', spinnin' warp weft and twine
Tae feed and clad my bairnie affen ten and nine
Oh dear me, the warld is ill divided
Them that works the hardest are the least provided
I maun bide contented, dark days or fine
For there's nae much pleasure livin' affen ten and nine
Jute Mill Song by ex-jute worker, Mary Brooksbank, 1964
Image: © kim traynor
Taken: 22 May 2011
0.10 miles
9
Lower Dens Mill, St. Roques Lane
The mill, which is easily identified by its distinctive cast-iron bellcote, was built in the 1850s, by which time the working of jute had become Dundee's main industry, supplanting earlier linen production. However, the Dens mill continued as a flax mill for its whole existence. Baxter Brothers & Co. built their first mill on the Dens Burn in 1822. Subsequent enlargement made it the largest factory in the city and the first to introduce power-looms in 1836.
"In 1846 the firm had in operation in Lower Dens Mills one engine of ninety horse power, driving 3028 spindles; and in the Upper Dens Mills two engines, equal together to 105 horse power, and driving 8,000 spindles. In the power-loom department they had two engines of thirty horse power each, and 256 looms, with accommodation for nearly double that number. They had also a calendering shop with a ten horse power engine." -- David Bremner, The Industries Of Scotland, 1869
Image: © kim traynor
Taken: 22 May 2011
0.10 miles
10
Wishart Memorial Church, Cowgate
Church named in honour of the Protestant martyr George Wishart who was accused of heresy and burned at the stake in St. Andrews in 1546. The reason for its location is revealed by a plaque on the East Port which stands close by.
Image
Image: © kim traynor
Taken: 22 May 2011
0.10 miles