Selkirk tartan mill stars in television show

Selkirk hit the small screen last week as Channel 5 show Secret Scotland paid a visit to attractions and business across the Borders.
Susan Calman with Nick Fiddes and Crena Bell at D C Dalgleish mill in Selkirk.Susan Calman with Nick Fiddes and Crena Bell at D C Dalgleish mill in Selkirk.
Susan Calman with Nick Fiddes and Crena Bell at D C Dalgleish mill in Selkirk.

The town featured alongside Heriot, Abbotsford, Bemersyde and Melrose in the fourth episode of the new travel series, aired last Friday evening.

Glasgow-born comedian and programme host Susan Calman turned tourist on her first visit to the region for the five-part series.

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The former Strictly Come Dancing star opened the show saying: “Like a lot of people, I have travelled through the Borders by train or by car, but I am really excited to stop and finally have a good look around.”

In Selkirk, she enjoys a tour of DC Dalgleish’s tartan mill with head weaver Crena Bell.

“People laugh at me because I love tartan,” Susan said. “I think it’s just beautiful.”

Explaining why the Dunsdale Road tartan mill is so special, Crena told Susan: “Because everything is hand-woven, everything is done by hand.

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“It’s nice because every fabric is unique. There’s nothing too exact about it.”

The firm, which boasts customers including the Duchess of Cornwall, is the only hand-crafted tartan mill left in the world.

Susan added: “The Borders has been the heart of Scotland’s tartan industry since the first mill was built here in 1800, and this is the only remaining mill using the hand-crafted traditional methods.

“It may be a thriving business today, but it’s also a bit like seeing living history.”

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She watched the process of hand-warping and remarked: “This is incredibly skilled manual labour work, but 200 years ago the technology seemed impossibly advanced.”

She also learned about the chain-powered loom before watching the three ladies in action making the finished product.

“And that’s how this mill makes the last hand-woven tartan in the world,” she added. “And long may it continue.”

Before she left, Susan met managing director Nick Fiddes to learn about her own clan tartan, the McMillan.

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“It’s good to know that the Calmans are a branch of a clan that is not shy of having a large wardrobe,” she joked before trying to strike a deal for two tartan sofas and a pair of curtains in exchange for a fiver.

The show also shines a spotlight on the River Tweed at Bemersyde, Melrose’s abbey and rugby club, Abbotsford House and Neth Hill Farm, near Heriot.