The mills opened in the 1790s and closed 1991. When it was 1st built it used water-power to drive its machinery. Large water wheels were turned by water taken from the river. The wheel powered machines in the factory. Later a steam engine was used and later still electric motors. The Grandholme Mill’s waterwheel was claimed to be the largest in the world when it was built in 1826 by Hewes & Wren of Manchester: at 25 feet in diameter, the wheel weighed 100 tons and generated 200hp. Once the steam engines were installed, the giant water wheel took on a life of its own. It was kept ‘in reserve’ at Grandholm until 1897, but rather than going for scrap, it was bought by Alex. Pirie & Sons, who owned Stoneywood Papermill. They earmarked it for their Woodside Works, where they carried out rag-breaking, so the wheel was taken apart and moved a few 100 yards upstream to Woodside, where it earned its keep until 1965.
By then, the 140-year-old wheel was the largest of its kind left in Europe – a remarkable survivor from the earliest days of the Industrial Revolution – and the Royal Scottish Museum was determined to save it. The wheel was painstakingly dismantled for a 2nd time, and loaded on lorries which took it south to Chambers Street in Edinburgh, where it is still on display.
Before Crombie’s time, Grandholm Works was the largest linen works in the country. It was set up as a flax spinning mill in 1792 by Leys, Still & Co. The firm was among the largest flax spinners in Scotland, but went bankrupt in 1848, and apart from a brief period in 1849-50 when it was operated by Alexander Hadden of Hadden & Curtis, the Mill lay empty. Despite its period of inactivity, Grandholm was one of the few textile factories to survive the economic crisis of the 1840s and 1850s when Aberdeen’s textile industry collapsed – in 1859, J & J Crombie took over Grandholm from its receiver, Major Paton, and made a success of it.
They were founded in 1805 and worked in the city for almost two centuries, until (having long since passed out of Scottish ownership) they were shut down by owners Illingworth Morris in 1991, and production moved elsewhere. The company prospered under the direction of Alexander Ross and his son John, who established an excellent reputation for community service. The firm's customer list included not just the British Army but the Russian and Confederate Armies as well. A progressive company, Crombie employed 1,200 and provided paid holidays and sick pay in the 1930s. In 1983 a Visitor Centre opened, but in later years the site was scaled down.
Information courtesy of the Doric Columns.
