# Curtis Fine Paper Mill, Guardbridge, Fife - May 2009



## BenCooper (May 11, 2009)

The mill at Guardbridge, near Leuchars, has been producing paper since 1873, when William Haig (of the Haig whisky) converted a distillery site to paper manufacture. The mill was originally a general paper producer, but lattery it specialised in security papers used for financial and official documents.

The worsening economic situation has hit all the Scottish paper manuafacturers hard - see my previous reports from the Inverkeithing and Carrongrove mills - and Curtis fared no better, going into administration in July 2008. The site is currently in the hands of KPMG, who are slowly selling off the equipment, but almost everything remains for the moment. It's a great chance to see a mix of modern and antique mill equipment.

First up, the boiler house:





Inside, three lovely Thompson boilers:





The control panel is very similar to Carrongrove's:





Higher up, a rather unnerving walkway gives an excellent view of the plant from above:





The walkway leads to the fueling hoist - coal would have been stored in the pit on the left, and hoisted up to be dropped nto hoppers under the steel plates on the right:





Out of the power plant, and onto the mill itself - first, some huge rollers in a storage shed, which look like they're going overseas:





Then ink mixing drums and pumps:





With a soundproofed control room:





An ink mixing thingy:





Arty ink pot shot:





And lots of cool pipework:





Then onto the paper machine halls:





The machines have just been turned off - everything is still live:





Confusingly, the machines I found were labelled 4, 5 and 6 - I didn't find 1, 2 and 3, and I can't even work out where they were:





An old picture on the wall next to machine no. 6:





Onto a series of connected storage sheds - now mostly empty of stock:





Though still with some beautiful massive clocks:





If you're a fan of antique fire doors (like me) this place is wonderful:





At the far end, there's a staircase - this is nearest the security post, and it's near here I played a fun game of "hide from the footsteps":





Heading back to the modern packaging department:





Wrapping turntables:





One carton of paper sits on the conveyor:





An antique barrow:





The fire control post is a mix of old:





And new:





There's some nice old lab gear:





And another view of the mill - just after this, I met the security guard, who showed me out 





Some panoramas:









As usual, there's lots more in my Flickr set...


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## lost (May 11, 2009)

Great work Ben, weirdly I was looking this place up about 30 minutes ago.
Looks incredible inside.


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## Lightbuoy (May 11, 2009)

Wonderful -both the buildings and the contents. Your Panoramas are top class!

Thanks for sharing


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## mr_bones (May 11, 2009)

Absolutely incredible place. Great shots, very comprehensive looking tour.


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## BenCooper (May 11, 2009)

Cheers - I think I covered most of it, apart from a couple of outlying sheds, and the admin building, which was locked tight - though I was shown out through that building, as security had set themselves up at the front desk


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## sheep21 (May 11, 2009)

what a mixture of old and new, fab site there! looks like you could lose hours there.


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## havoc (May 11, 2009)

The new Fletchers!!! Absoloutley superb work and pics.


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## foz101 (May 11, 2009)

Interesting stuff


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## wolfism (May 12, 2009)

What a discovery. 

It's worth delving a bit deeper into the history, as paper machine no.3 is quite historic - built by Bertrams of Sciennes in the 1890's, transferred from Dalmore, and still working when the mill shut.


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## BenCooper (May 12, 2009)

Really? Wow - I'm trying to work out where 1, 2 and 3 are from the aerial views - I probably walked right past them, the place is a bit of a maze...


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## spacepunk (May 12, 2009)

I've been there twice and it's a great place to explore. Nice daylight shots there BC.


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## wolfism (May 12, 2009)

Hi Ben, the machine houses run in parallel, with nos.4 and 5 back-to-back, then a gap, and no.3 sits on its own.







Saying that, it's maybe been dismantled by now, as last time I visited here was three months ago. They were well underway taking the calenders and pulpers apart. Just like happened at Caldwells ... what is it with pulpers?


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## BenCooper (May 12, 2009)

I think I remember seeing a room like that next to 4 and 5, but it was empty - was there a 1 and 2 as well, or were they earlier machines?


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## wolfism (May 12, 2009)

By the 1930's, there were six machines, but a couple shut down after the war, another was rebuilt, a further one was scrapped in the 1960's - then they moved the best one from Dalmore when it closed. There are bound to be a few gaps, I think the finishers and guillotines were put into a space which once housed one of the older machines.

Of course I only know this by reading the history of Guardbridge ... "A Century of Papermaking".


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## BenCooper (May 12, 2009)

Aha, another book for the reading list


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## Foxylady (May 14, 2009)

Excellent explore...so much to see there. Especially love the antique barrow and the door, being a door addict too! 
Superb pics as always, Ben


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## Krypton (May 14, 2009)

Wo this place is mint. That shot of the office looks like the staff were just on there lunch break!!!


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## BenCooper (May 14, 2009)

Cheers - because the place closed so recently, it's still pretty much as-left, which was good to see in comparison to more decayed paper mills.

The admin building looks like it would be fascinating, but they're still using that so it's locked up tight...


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## Anthillmob74 (Jun 29, 2009)

oh wow! i used to work for them in their london office when i was 16. stayed there for 5 years before moving on. went to the mill on business trips a fair few times, i absolutely adore fife.

i didnt know they had gone into admin. when i started working for them they were called GB Papers and then james river fine papers before becoming curtis fine papers.

what a great set of pics.

edit - anyone know what happened to their sister mill 'william somerville' in edinburgh?


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