Heriot-Watt Scottish Borders Campus

A working further- and higher-education campus where nineteenth-century mill fabric, post-war textile teaching and twenty-first-century design education meet.

Quick Facts

Why It Matters

The Scottish Borders Campus carries one of the central stories of Galashiels into the present. The town’s textile industry required more than mills and machinery: it depended on knowledge of fibres, dyes, weaving, finishing, design and production. The educational institution that began by teaching workers in 1883 survived the contraction of mass textile manufacturing by repeatedly changing its curriculum, status and buildings.

The campus is therefore significant less as a single architectural composition than as a place of continuity and adaptation. It includes a surviving nineteenth-century high mill, buildings created for the Scottish College of Textiles and a modern shared campus. Together they show the movement from factory production to technical training, design education, research and specialist manufacture.

Textile Education Begins

In 1883 the Galashiels Manufacturers Corporation established classes in weaving, dyeing and chemistry. Their purpose was practical: to improve the skills available to the Borders textile trade and help local manufacturers remain competitive. Heriot-Watt describes this as the oldest institution for textile education in Scotland.

The organisation became the Galashiels Combined Technical School in 1889 under the Burgh School Board. Its governance brought together education, engineering, building trades and textile manufacturers. Classes moved between public buildings as demand increased, including Roxburgh Street School and Burns Hall, before a purpose-built South of Scotland Central Technical College opened in Market Street in 1909.

From Technical College to “Woolly Tech”

In 1922 the Scottish Woollen Manufacturers Association took responsibility for the institution, which became the Scottish Woollen Technical College. The affectionate name “Woolly Tech” captured its close relationship with the industry. Mill owners served as governors, helping to keep courses aligned with the practical needs of manufacturing.

A particularly distinctive development was the Production Unit established at Netherdale in 1947. Housed in one of the mills, it contained machinery for training weavers, darners, menders and other skilled workers while undertaking finishing work for local businesses. University records state that profits from this activity helped support the college library. Education and production were not separate worlds: students learned within something close to an operating industrial environment.

The Move to Netherdale

The college moved to a purpose-built Netherdale campus in 1965. This occurred as the traditional tweed industry was contracting and the institution was broadening its outlook. New courses included printed and knitted textile design, garment construction, fashion design and management. The name Scottish College of Textiles, adopted in 1968, reflected that wider remit.

Student residence opened in 1968, acknowledging that the college increasingly attracted people from beyond the immediate district. Later extensions provided enlarged production and workshop areas, lecture rooms and a library. Over subsequent decades computerised design, garment manufacture and knitwear became increasingly important alongside traditional weaving and dyeing skills.

Netherdale High Mill

The most important historic building within the campus is Netherdale High Mill, a Category B-listed structure dated 1873. Built for Adam L. Cochrane and Brothers, it is a four-storey, nineteen-bay mill of whinstone and sandstone rubble with red sandstone dressings. A stair tower rises above the eaves, and much of the internal system of cast-iron columns, timber beams and boarded floors survives.

Historic Environment Scotland regards it as the best remaining example of a high mill in Galashiels. Its formal design reflects the status of Netherdale as one of the town’s premier textile complexes. Later use adds another layer: Bernat Klein’s textile enterprise occupied part of the Netherdale mills, and the building now accommodates the School of Textiles and Design. Students work within fabric created for the industry their courses continue to study and transform.

The Heriot-Watt Relationship

From 1989 Heriot-Watt University awarded the college’s degrees through a joint academic relationship. The University’s heritage service records a full merger in 1998, creating the Scottish Borders Campus. Another University page describes the merger as occurring in 1997; the difference probably reflects stages in the legal and organisational process and is noted below rather than silently resolved.

The merger connected a locally rooted specialist institution with a wider university while retaining textile education in Galashiels. The School of Textiles and Design subsequently developed teaching and research in fashion, clothing, colour science, smart materials and sustainable design, maintaining close links with the Borders industry.

Campaign, Co-Location and Renewal

In 2004 proposals to relocate textile courses to Edinburgh provoked a strong campaign by students, staff, manufacturers and the wider community. The reversal of that proposal was followed by an agreement to create a shared further- and higher-education campus with Borders College.

Funding was confirmed in 2006. A Scottish Borders Council account describes three main phases: refurbishment of High Mill for the School of Textiles and Design, development of the College technology department, and work on the remainder of the campus. The first two were complete by late 2007; the wider shared campus opened in 2009. Contemporary image records describe the programme as a £32 million modernisation project.

A Campus of Different Eras

The site should not be read as one building of one date. High Mill represents nineteenth-century industrial Galashiels. The 1960s teaching buildings express the expansion and diversification of the Scottish College of Textiles. The 2000s shared-campus work created new circulation, teaching and social spaces for Heriot-Watt and Borders College.

This mixture can seem less visually unified than a conventional historic monument, but it is precisely what makes the campus valuable as a record of change. Reuse of industrial fabric sits beside purpose-built education, while new facilities allow specialist teaching to continue on the site.

Textile Knowledge and Collections

The School’s workshops retain the practical character of textile education. Current facilities include looms and knitting machines, print and dye equipment, industrial sewing and garment-construction workshops, digital textile printing and specialist design suites. Traditional making and computer-based processes are taught together.

The University’s textile collections preserve fabrics, pattern books, garments and business archives connected with the Borders industry, including material associated with Bernat Klein and the Galashiels Manufacturers Corporation. Access arrangements are presently changing as collections are prepared for transfer to improved storage and research facilities, so visitors should consult the University’s current information rather than rely on older access details.

Things to Notice

• The long stone elevations and projecting stair tower of the 1873 High Mill.
• The contrast between industrial mill windows and later purpose-built teaching spaces.
• The way the campus occupies the broad Netherdale floor beside former mill, railway and sporting landscapes.
• Visible evidence of phased development rather than a single architectural campaign.
• The continuing presence of textile production equipment within an educational setting.
• The relationship between Heriot-Watt facilities and the shared Borders College buildings.

Why It Matters Today

The campus prevents Galashiels’ textile identity from becoming solely a story about lost industry. It continues to train designers and makers, supports research and maintains relationships with specialist manufacturers. Its value lies in living knowledge as much as in surviving stonework.

It also demonstrates the social value of retaining specialist education in its historic setting. The successful campaign of the 2000s ensured that textile teaching remained connected to the town and region whose industrial culture created it.

Significance Scores

Scores follow the Heritage Directory’s published significance-scoring methodology. They are interpretive judgements, not statutory designations.

Timeline

• 1883: Textile classes established by the Galashiels Manufacturers Corporation.
• 1889: Galashiels Combined Technical School formed under the Burgh School Board.
• 1909: Purpose-built South of Scotland Central Technical College opens in Market Street.
• 1922: Institution becomes the Scottish Woollen Technical College.
• 1947: Production Unit established at Netherdale.
• 1965: College moves to the purpose-built Netherdale campus.
• 1968: Scottish College of Textiles name adopted; student residence opens.
• 1989: Heriot-Watt begins awarding the College’s degrees.
• 1997–98: Merger with Heriot-Watt completed.
• 2006: Shared-campus funding and co-location agreement confirmed.
• 2007: High Mill refurbishment and technology phase completed.
• 2009: Redeveloped shared Scottish Borders Campus opens.

Notes and Uncertainties

• The campus is a group of buildings and spaces, not a single structure of one date or designation.
• Heriot-Watt sources use both 1997 and 1998 for the merger. The University heritage service states that the full merger occurred in 1998; 1997 may mark an earlier administrative stage.
• The campus development has many phases. Individual architects have not been assigned here without verified project records.
• High Mill should not be confused with the separately listed Botany Mill High Mill on Roxburgh Street.
• Facilities, collection locations and public access can change and should be checked with Heriot-Watt or Borders College before a visit.

Image and Licence Notes

The page image was taken by Tim Heaton on 18 July 2017 and is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0. The image links to its Wikimedia Commons file page, where the attribution and full reuse terms can be checked.

Related Places

• Scottish Woollen Technical College
• Netherdale Mill
• Gala Fairydean Football Stand, Netherdale
• Galafoot Railway Viaduct over the Tweed

Sources

• Heriot-Watt University, School of Textiles and Design history.
• Heriot-Watt University Heritage, Scottish Borders Campus history.
• Historic Environment Scotland, LB31983: Netherdale Mill, Dale Street.
• Borders College, Scottish Borders Campus.
• Scottish Parliament, debate on the Netherdale co-location agreement, 30 November 2006.
• RCAHMS, Historic Galashiels: Archaeology and Development.
• Galashiels Heartland, Scottish College of Textiles / Heriot-Watt School of Textiles and Design.
• Wikimedia Commons file record for the page image.

Last reviewed: 15 July 2026