Death at the cotton mill

A cotton mill once stood on Drumfrochar Road in Greenock.

In 1841 Ludovic Grant was the manager of the cotton mill powered by water from the Shaws Water Scheme.  He and his wife, Ann Colquhoun, lived at Prospect Hill on  Ann Street. 

A dreadful accident took place at the mill on 3 May 1841.  It was reported in several newspapers -

“A most distressing accident, attended with loss of life, has just occurred here, at the large cotton mill on the Shaws water.  As Mr Ludovic Grant, the excellent manager of the work, was showing the great wheel, and interior of the wheel-house, to Mr Muir, of the saw-mill, Glasgow, they observed two small pieces of stone falling from the upper part of the wall, and while stooping to lift them, the whole eastern side wall of the wheel-house gave way, and buried the party, together with about half a dozen of the workmen, in the ruins.  At first it was believed that the whole would have been killed, but Mr Muir escaped in a most miraculous manner, as did several of the workmen, leaving Mr Grant and two masons covered with the rubbish.  After the lapse of an hour or more, the lifeless corpses of Mr Grant, together with that of one of the workmen, were dug out dreadfully disfigured.  The third was taken out all but dead, and three of the others were severely injured, but not dangerously.  The event, which has not yet been properly accounted for, has thrown a deep gloom over the whole community, as all were interested in the welfare and prosperity of the work.  Mr Grant and his friends had not been five minutes in the wheel-house when the accident happened.” 

Ludovic Grant was buried in the Duncan Street Cemetery in Greenock.  His widow, Ann’s sister, Mary Ramage came to Greenock from Edinburgh to comfort her sister.  Ann moved to Edinburgh to be near her sister and in November 1842 she married Alexander James, solicitor in Edinburgh.

Shaw's Water Scheme was officially opened on 16 April 1827.  Devised by Robert Thom, it provided a badly needed supply of fresh water for industry and for the increasing population of Greenock.  Many mills started up, taking advantage of the new scheme.  One of these was the Cotton Mill which was at the south end of Ann Street on Drumfrochar Road.  In fact if you go to Google Earth and look at the area, you can still see the outline of a building in that exact area.