- Bridge of Isla woollen mill
- Avochie quarry
- Milltown meal mill
- Hacklaw smiddy
- Riddoch's sawmills
Benjamin Fearnside (1779-1858) was the son of a woollen manufacturer (also called Benjamin Fearnside) at Ossett in the Calder Valley south of Dewsbury in Yorkshire. About 1801 he moved north and married Carolina Montgomery (1779-1858). She was born in America while her father, Henry Montgomery was an officer in the army.
*Key dates:-- 1776 American Declaration of Independence.
- 1785 Edmund Cartwright invented the power loom.
Bridge of Isla Woollen Mill
Benjamin Fearnside (1779-1858) established a woollen mill at Bridgeton of
Isla about 1808*.
The mill was waterpowered, with water taken from the River Isla at a weir and sluice a little west of the road bridge.
In 1841 Benjamin (62) described himself as a woolcarder. His household at that time include Carolina (62) and sons Thomas (20) and Benjamin (16), and also Charles Stuart (15) and Margaret Stuart (19).
Ten years later, in 1851, he was recorded as being a woolcarder/spinner, and the household consisted of himself and Carolina, daugher Grace (29), grand daughters Sarah Stuart (17) and Maria Stuart (15) who were employed as wool carders, grand daughter Georgina (7) and a domestic servant, Isabella Simpson (17).
By 1861 the business had expanded and was being run by his nephew James Fearnside (1801-1888) who described himself as a woolblend manufacturer. He was married to Ann Christie from Forres. His son Thomas (37) was employed as a wool spinner, and his daughters were Martha (25) and Grace (20). Grandaughters Ann (8) and Martha (6) and grandson James (4), and James Paterson (42), woolweaver, and Susan Knowles (13), servant, completed the household.
In 1882 the mill and the croft were purchased by Robert Laidlaw and family from Walkerburn on Tweedside. The Laidlaws continued manufacturing woollen blankets and tweeds at Bridge of Isla until they moved to the newly built Seafield Mills established at Keith in 1901.
Rothiemay had the first Fearnside mill in Scotland but other Fearnside family mills followed including Gollachy at Rathven near Buckie and Bogindreep near Strachan in Kincardineshire.
Little now remains of the Bridge of Isla mill - the weir and mill lade has disappeared but some of the stone walls remain in the garden of the croft house. A row of grave stones in the old cemetery commemorate the Fearnside family.
A rather idealised impression of Bridge of Isla mill from a Robert Laidlaw advertisement
An advertisement in the Huntly Express in 1889