Object: Barone Road Mill

Date: 19th C

Description: This building on Barone Road, now the base for Bute Fabrics, was originally built as a cotton mill during the heyday of cotton production in Rothesay in the  late18th- early 19th century.  In 1882 the Marchioness of Bute, the wife of the 3rd Marquess, founded an orphanage in this building, known at that time as Bellevue House.  It was run by nuns from the Society of the Sacred Heart and originally had accommodation for sixteen girls. 
Through the years it was enlarged and by 1901 housed 79 girls and 44 boys, with most of the children being brought from the mainland to stay there.  The older girls, having finished their education, stayed on and were employed as knitters, mainly stockings but adverts were placed in the Buteman advertising services for plain needlework, knitted goods and hand weaving with the customers having the option of supplying their own wool and being charged at 3d per cut., but by 1911 there were no boys staying there.  In 1930 the Rothesay Orphanage was closed. (P10-0118, A11.120)